Thank you for making me a reader

Dear Grandma Bailey,

Thank you for encouraging me to read. Thank you for letting me read aloud to you. Thank you for reading aloud to me. Thank you for buying me books for almost every birthday and holiday. Thank you for all the bookmarks. Thank you for letting me tell you all the stories. Thank you for staying up late with me to read in the summer. Thank you for your part in making me a reader.

Dear Mom,

Thank you for encouraging me to read. Thank you for never telling me a book was off limits. Thank you for always having money for me for the scholastic book fair. Thank you for taking me on book buying trips to various places in Columbus. Thank you for putting up with all my massive stacks of books in my room. Thank you for encouraging me to write. Thank you for all your support. Thank you for being proud of me. Thank you for your part in making me a reader.

Dear Krystie,

Thank you for encouraging me to read. Thank you for telling me that I was much too young to understand Shakespeare. Thank you for leaving your school texts around so that I could read Grendl, Macbeth and Hamlet when you weren’t paying attention. Thank you for inadvertently challenging me to read more and more difficult texts. Thank you for your part in making me a reader.

Dear Mrs. Colvin,

Thank you for encouraging me to read. Thank you for never saying a word when I checked out the same giant book of mythology again and again. Thank you for helping find all the books we had in our tiny Elementary School library about cryptids and hauntings. Thank you for laughing at my antics and appreciating my already strange sense of humor. Thank you for your part in making me a reader.

Dear Mrs. Atchison,

Thank you for encouraging me to read. Thank you for introducing me to The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston LeRoux. Thank you for not blinking an eye when I came dressed as Scarlet O’Hara because I was reading Gone with the Wind in fifth grade. Thank you for getting my first poem published. Thank you for your part in making me a reader and a writer.

Dear Mrs. Kupper,

Thank you for encouraging me to read. Thank you for teaching me how to properly read Dickens. Thank you for failing me because I undoubtedly deserved it. Thank you for your part in making me a reader.

Much Love,

Betsy (Bailey) White

A voracious reader and bibliophile thanks to you all.