“Hooked on Phonics worked for me!”  These were the words that rang through my ears in elementary school when I was in the second grade. I scored in the 4th percentile in reading on a standardized test, and this was the first wake up call to my stressed literacy.         My reading struggles did not just appear one day but began at a time when I was young.  The first books I can remember reading were from a Sesame Street collection.  They were not books that I had chosen from a book store, but they were hand-me downs from my older sister.  Around the time of pre-school or kindergarten, after dinner my mother or father would sit in my family room and I would snuggle on either one of their laps with a Sesame Street book in my hand asking them to read it to me.  My father (who loved to joke around) read the fine prints before the title page even began.  Me being eager to read the story would get so anxious and upset when he would do this.  Time after time he continued; it was his signature way of reading aloud to me. <>         After a few months my parents had read the entire collection to me.  Therefore, I began reading the series over again, but this time I was reading to them.  After awhile, I would pretend that I did not know a word and falsely try and sound it out (fully knowing what the word was and what it meant).  In essence, I would read a lot slower than my ability, just so that I could spend more quality time with my parents (or even stay up later for that matter).  Thus, my early reading experiences were not magical and did not really get me interested in reading due to the fact that my home library was not exciting nor was the material diverse.  Furthermore, because I had read the same books over and over I was rarely ever challenged and my abilities became stagnate.  I did not know what I liked because I hadn’t been exposed to the diverse genres.           I even recall thinking library time during elementary school was boring—can you believe it?  I dreaded going and I couldn’t wait to leave.  I never took the time to honestly skim through the shelves to find a book of interest.  I chose any book at random to pacify my teacher without really looking at the selections.  However, the books that I did choose, I don’t remember reading.  At that time there wasn’t “accelerated reader” or any other formal individual reading assessments.  I don’t ever recall be “tested” or even being held responsible for the material I was “reading”.                <>Then the second grade came around.  I had been involved with sports and was very competitive.  My best friend was a GATE student and at times during class she would leave for GATE pull-outs.  During in-class reading my teacher would often direct the class to read a themed story to ourselves.  I would read the first page and then glance at my best friend and see her on the third or fourth page—I was that behind.  Me being the competitive person, I wanted to beat my friend and finish the story first, or at least at the same time as she, so I would skip pages, and not really understand what the story was about.  In addition, when I was in the classroom and would not know a word in a book that I was reading, I would ask for help from my teacher.  He would tell me to skip the word and go back to it later to see if I could figure it out.  Although contextual analysis may be a good technique for some children it did not work for me.  Instead it created a bad habit—when I would come across words that I did not know I would skip it and never return to it and thus never understand what the text was about.  Instead of helping me learn in an alternative fashion my teacher left me frustrated and confused because he verbally told me to use contextual analysis but he never taught me how to use it. <><>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <>            When my father saw that I was struggling in reading he met with my teacher and found that the only way to help me excel was for him to intervene, so he bought me the reading program, “Hooked on Phonics.” I was very embarrassed, and ashamed of the fact that I could not read and had problems comprehending. Everyday after completing my days work I would come home from school and sit in my father’s jewelry shop and listen to the “Hooked-on-Phonics” tape on vowel sounds, so that I could figure out words that were unfamiliar to me.  I did reading exercises everyday until I completed the program.  The following year I took another standardized test and scored in the 80th percentile in reading.  I now became confident in my skills, but I still lacked the interest and desire to read.             As the years progressed reading still wasn’t my favorite subject, and I thus continued to neglect reading at home, even though it was assigned for homework.  In junior high as part of my language arts grade we had to read books and do reports accordingly.  Therefore, I was forced to read (mainly because of the fact that I was now looking to get straight A’s on my report card).  Thinking back, most of the book reports that I completed were based on R.L. Stines’ scary story series.  Other favorites were sad stories, like “Where the Red Fern Grows” and “Bridge to Terabithia”.  When high school rolled around and I was assigned certain novels to read (assigned by the curriculum standards) I never got around to finishing the story in its entirety because I never had time (I was so involved with extra curricular activities).  The irony of this was that although I never finished the stories and always skipped around I somehow managed to always get good grades on test and thus good grades on my report card.  Hence, my reading interests were still negligible.         This all changed when I entered AP English my junior year.  My teacher saw that I and many of my classmates were lacking basic skills and were unprepared to take the AP tests that coming May. We had no idea of what figurative language and literary devices were, rhetorical devices that were imperative for the test. She gave us reading preparation assignments, practice exams and taught us how to analyze articles and then write about them.  Most importantly through her assignments we students had no choice but to read each story from the beginning to the end; the first time I had ever read a novel on my own.  In fact, some of my favorite books are the books that were part of my English 11th grade and 12th grade curriculum such as “The Scarlet Letter”, Shakespeare, and “The Odyssey”.                 Since I’ve graduated high school, I haven’t been able to read for pleasure due to my college workload and the abundant reading assignments given to me.  Even after I received my BA, graduate school work is just as intense, if not worse.  Sadly, the only reading material by choice that I occasionally get around to is the $1.99 Entertainment and OK magazines reporting celebrating news.  However, not only do I like to read the latest gossip and the juicy stories but looking at celebrity fashion and photos are interesting as well.             One thing that I am looking for to doing is going back to the children’s library and reading the amazing stories that are available, the stories that I missed out on when I was in elementary school.  I am happy that I have been given a second opportunity to tap into the children’s literate world, the world full of magic, innocence and excitement!