Danny and the Dinosaur Guess, Mellanie A. SPEAKER: Hi. MELLANIE: Hi. SPEAKER: Could you tell our audience your name and what you do? MELLANIE: Mellanie Guess, umm, I'm an administrative assistant for the Columbus Urban League Housing Department. SPEAKER: Oh excellent. Well we are here to talk about literacy, do you have any early memories of how you learned to read or when you first learned to read? MELLANIE: Yes I do, actually. I can't remember exactly when I first started to learn to read but I do recall the first book that I've ever read which was "Danny and the Dinosaur" I remember being at home with my babysitter and being excited about my new book that I got from my school library and being stumbled on the word "the" and she broke the word "the" down for me and from then on I was able to join words together, understand how they make sounds to finish the book. I also gave that book to my nieces on their first birthday because it was the first book that I recall reading as well. SPEAKER: Now how old were you when you- MELLANIE: I was six years old. SPEAKER: Six years old. Ok and do you remember what the story was about? MELLANIE: No. SPEAKER: That's ok, that's ok. MELLANIE: I just remember it was about a dinosaur and a little boy and his relationship with the dinosaur. SPEAKER: Oh ok. Do you feel that you like to read? MELLANIE: I love to read and as I said before I gave my nieces their first book from me was "Danny and the Dinosaur" because I always told them I would give them the gift of literacy and prayer. I love animated stories, I love children's books and that is one thing I give them books every year on their birthdays, every year for Christmas. I'm a reader, my whole family reads a lot as well as we love to write. SPEAKER: Oh, you write? MELLANIE: Yes, I love to write poetry. Right now I'm in school for technical writing, learning how to write grants, contracts, legal documents. SPEAKER: Were your parents instrumental in helping you to learn how to read? MELLANIE: Yes, my mother, she read to us I recall at an early age like three not every day, not often but periodically she would read to us. SPEAKER: Does your mother write? MELLANIE: Yes, my mother actually has a couple of stories she posted in "Reader's Digest" years ago, probably in the early 70's and she said she would write little stories and they would accept them, send her a little check and that would help her pay bills or whatever it is that she needed. SPEAKER: Ok, so interesting. Did you ever get to read any of her stories? MELLANIE: No but I said was going to look some of them up to see what she did write. She never did save any of them. SPEAKER: Oh ok. Is there a favorite author? MELLANIE: That I have? SPEAKER: Mhh hmm. MELLANIE: Favorite author... Can't think of one off hand. SPEAKER: Is there a special type of genre that you like? Like science fiction, romance, or... MELLANIE: I love romance, I love drama, those would be my favorite books. I love inspirational books, mostly if I read any books it will probably be inspirational. I am in the process of reading a book now - actually several books - but one in particular book, it's a spiritual warfare book and the book is called "A Divine Revelation of Spiritual Warfare" so that's the book that I'm currently reading. SPEAKER: Ok, well is there anything else that you would like to add? MELLANIE: To me reading is knowledge. Learning how to read, I love how words are put together on paper. To me words are like a blank canvas to an artist, they are like an orchestra to a - what's the person that does the... SPEAKER: The conductor? MELLANIE: The conductor. So I love to read, being able to put words together down on paper so other people can understand how you feel, what your thoughts are, it's power. As I said, again, I'm in the process of learning how to write legal documents. To me that's a way that you can fight and stay in legal realms, not hurt someone physically but to use your words to do that. All of that is inspiring to me to be able to read, to be able to write, to watch others learn how to read. I have a niece, the one that I said I gave her the book "Danny and the Dinosaur" and she is in the second grade and she reads already on a sixth grade level. Her mother reads to her every night since she was probably about two or three months old and she is in the gifted and talented class right now and she just amazes me on how well she reads and I expect her to go very far in life. SPEAKER Ok, well thank you so much, Mellanie. Thank you very much. MELLANIE: You're welcome.