Go Dog Go, A Family Tradition
Sims, Brad (2009-04-28)

>>BRAD:  My name is Brad Sims and my literacy story is about when i first learned how to read or, rather pretended to learn how to read. I have two older sisters, Robin and Michelle, and I remember very early when I was probably two or three years old, probably around three because I was old enough to talk reasonably well, we had the book, "Go, Dog! Go", by P.D. Eastman. And I loved that book. I'd get my parents to read it or my sisters to read it all the time. 

And it got to where, of course, I would have it memorized and my sisters were just amazed because they were only, one was 7 and one was 10 at the time, and they were just amazed that I could read at such a young age. But of course, as I said, I just memorized it all and knew what was on each page.

But in addition to amazing them and getting a rise out of them by being able to recite what was on each page by memory, for some reason I remember that I affected this really kind of over the top voice to do all the reading in, elongating syllables and being absolutely far more silly than the story required. And I'd just have them cackling with laughter, which at two or three years old is the best thing ever.

And the funny part about that is now I have three sons and my youngest is three years old and low and behold about two months ago maybe, we're sitting on his bed reading "Go, Dog! Go" and he started doing the exact same things just out of the blue. The same kind of jokes, the same memorization of the same parts. He knew the same parts and he would almost say them in the same way that I did, having never heard this story at all. It's weird that a specific silliness was sort of passed down genetically.

But it was really great to see the whole cycle go through from me reading that book when I was a kid and learning to read on that book, learning to sound out words and find words mostly through memorization and then looking for them on the page. And then having my youngest son, Ike, do the same thing now. So, good feeling.