Pull Up a Chair …

by Judy Newman

As many of you likely do, I spend a considerable amount of time each holiday season thinking about presents (including just the right books) for the people on my gift list. Some years, I come up completely dry and have to rely on gift cards, which I am sure my giftees appreciate, but which also feel like a cop-out to me. This season, maybe because I was looking for an antidote to such a tumultuous year—ending with my Dad, a book lover, voracious reader, and excellent gift giver, passing away at the age of 92—I felt particularly motivated. I went to my wonderful local bookstore, Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, NJ, and found so many good reads for my family. I also surprised myself by coming up with interesting experience gifts (guided fishing trips for my son and my nephew; a facial for my daughter; gorgeous set of gardening tools for my sister-in-law and my son’s girlfriend; a gym membership for my son-in-law; and a snowblower for my husband). But best of all, for Sophie Rae, now age 2 ½ (and expecting a sibling in July), I was excited to find the perfect reading chair.

My dad always had reading chairs wherever he read, which was wherever he was. In his study at home, he read in his Harvard College armchair; when we vacationed in Squam Lake, NH every August, he read outdoors on an Adirondack chair; he had a special lounge chair in the den and an armchair with a red cushion on it on the patio in our backyard in Newton, MA. In each of his spots, he had his own reading chair and we never dared sit in them. Now that I think about it, his reading chairs were a big part of his life as a reader—they were reading thrones that signified something important was happening in that seat. I like thinking about Sophie Rae, and her great-grandfather—two readers on either end of four generations of our family—each in their own reading chair.

As we begin a new calendar year at Scholastic Book Clubs of trying to help teachers and families inspire all children to see themselves as readers, I also like to think of every child in their own special reading chair. 

We talk about curling up with a good book; sitting in front of a metaphorical (or real) fireplace lost in a story, but I wonder how many kids really claim their own reading throne—a chair that’s a comfortable, special place: a seat to read in that they call their own. Many teachers try to create cozy reading nooks in their classrooms—special places for kids to read. I think we should all try to do that in our homes.

From now on, I am going to put reading chairs on my gift lists for the special readers in my life. If you have photos of special seats of reading in your life, please share them with me. I’d love to see them (judy.newman@scholastic.com).

xx
Judy

Judy Newman is President and Reader-in-Chief of Scholastic Book Clubs. For more information, visit judynewmanatscholastic.com.