Lost in a story
Lifelong reader shares power of words with new generation of children
Once upon a time, which really is the proper way to start a good story, there was a little girl who loved to read.
Her name was L’Tanya Brabham. And though she appeared to be just an ordinary kid who lived with her ordinary family in ordinary Milwaukee, L’Tanya knew that reading was a kind of superpower.
Because she could read, and because she had an active imagination, there was no place in the world that she couldn’t go. There was no time, past or present, that she couldn’t visit.
She was a black girl during a time when peach-colored crayons were labeled “flesh,” in a place where black families and white families lived in different neighborhoods.
Books were her liberty.
Her mom ordered books through the mail. L’Tanya loved it when packages arrived. Encyclopedias. Nancy Drew. Her favorite series was “The Happy Hollisters.”
L’Tanya joined the Hollister family on all of their extraordinary adventures.
When L’Tanya grew up, she had two sons. One of her favorite things about being a mother was reading to her sons. She saved the books she read to them and looked forward to the day when she could read them all over again to her grandchildren.
L’Tanya thought she might become a teacher, but instead, she became a deputy clerk of courts. She liked her job. She loved the law, which depended on precise words. And she loved being in the courtroom, which felt like a stage on which lawyers stood and told story after story.
L’Tanya retired a couple of years ago. She didn’t enjoy sitting around the house all day. And with no grandchildren, not yet, she had no one to read to.
So she volunteered at the Next Door Foundation. Next Door is all about getting books into the hands of young children. It distributes more than 5,500 books a month. L’Tayna’s job is to read to kids who are in its Head Start program.
Recently, L’Tanya was reading to preschoolers at the Next Door building on the city’s north side.
It was the day before Dr. Seuss’ birthday and L’Tanya was wearing a red and white striped “Cat in the Hat” hat.
She was in the library, seated on a bright green cushion beneath a mobile made of large orange, green and purple leaves. There were five or so other volunteers dressed in Seussian garb seated in spots around the room.
Arrayed on a big yellow worm shaped table were several dozen Dr. Seuss books. Kids in the program spend a half an hour having someone read to them. Then they go over to the big worm and pick out a book to keep and take home with them.
L’Tanya’s first customer of the day was a shy 4-year-old girl, a cuddler and a whisperer who wanted L’Tayna to read to her the rather un Seussian “Good Morning, Superman.”
It’s a fictional account of a boy who wakes up and goes through his morning routine imagining that he is the Man of Steel.
L’Tanya, who is soft-spoken herself, read the story with great flourish. Both the reader and the read-to appeared to be utterly lost in their story.
The end.