Book Review: The Reading Promise

I finished book #7 (of 52 for the year) this morning. The book was The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma. This was a book I just picked off the shelf because it looked interesting, and I loved it! I laughed and got teary eyed many times!

This story is about a reading streak that Alice and her father made that lasted about 9 year. The original goal was to read at least 10 minutes per night no matter what. The goal started with 100 days, then was stretched to 1000 days, and then continued until she went away to college - 9 years later.

Alice and her dad, a single dad who was a school librarian, read many books and I loved hearing of their adventures. Sometimes they work up early in the morning to read before a busy day. And, some days, they worked to squeeze in those minutes before midnight.

The story takes us through many events in Alice's life - some funny some sad. Her mom leaves about a year into the reading streak. She shares about her fear that the dead body of JFK is on her bottom bunk. She talks about her sister going away for a year as an exchange student and later leaving for college. She talks about her mother's attempted suicide and putting an Elvis ornment on the top of the Christmas tree. And, through it all, she shares about the love of books between her dad and herself and how books help them to connect to each other.

Near the end, her dad's school takes the books out of the library and forbids him to read to his students! He is horrified, but comes up with a plan....you'll have to read the book to find out more!