Pagebound has really got me thinking about my reading journey, especially my childhood. This has really made me explore the people who turned me into a lifelong reader. I had a childhood filled with chaos and, for long stretches of time, poverty. Books were really not a part of my life until third grade. Then I had a teacher who, for reasons only she knew, took me under her wing. Not just encouraging me to read more but actively helping me to do it.

Every month, when she handed out the Scholastic Book orders to the class to take home so their parents could buy them, she would see me tear through them and circle things, but I never ordered anything. We simply did not have the money. Then, during the December break, she took me to the school library and helped me check out a bunch of books. She told me that if I read them, came back, and told her what they were about, she would let me pick a book from the book order.

I did not pass up that opportunity. I read them all, and true to her word, she let me pick a book. I can't tell you how much joy owning my very own book that I had chosen brought me. This became our ritual for the rest of the year. She would pick some books. I would read them, and then she would buy me a book. She also started buying Dynamite Magazine for me because she saw I circled it every month, but I never picked it up because I didn't want to waste a book pick.

It taught me how to use the library. It helped to form me as a reader. It fueled my addiction to reading and owning books. Every job I had in my childhood, from delivering newspapers to mowing lawns, was money to buy books. She changed my life.

I would love to hear if you had any childhood mentors who helped to fuel your lifelong passion for reading.