A Mother Knows Best
The Great Boxcar Debate
Being the person I am, I always love to be able to sit down and read a good clue-filled book for hours. My mom helped me discover the love I have for reading. She also helped me discover how to get out of my old comfort zone and push me in the right direction, especially to become a better reader. She got me my first book series “The Boxcar Children”, which was a game changer for me. So much so to the point of no return, 0r so I thought. To me, I never wanted to stop reading about the fours kids and a dog who decided to live in a boxcar as they hid from their grandfather (he turned out to be a good guy after all) which led to me love mystery books. That all changed pretty quickly and it was a bittersweet moment. But not at the time. My mom told me it was time to transition into reading something more challenging than what the Boxcar Children could offer me.
I was reading in my bedroom with my reading light blaring on the book. There were so many Boxcar Children books scattered everywhere; the floor, the bed, my desk, book case, even my chair was covered in these books. By then, I had reread all those books over and over again. Someone could have dropped a glass cup and I still would not have noticed. But this was different. Both my parents were home and you could hear them shuffling around downstairs. I kept reading the Boxcar book I had in my hands until I heard someone coming up the stairs and open my door. There stood my mom, with a big box in one hand and a bag of books in the other.
The curious thing was, was that I didn’t really register what was going on at that moment. My mom set the bag down first, and the box second, carefully so she wouldn’t squish any of the Boxcar books scattered around my floor. “Mom!” “What are you doing?” I exclaimed as I watched in horror as my mother started picking up Boxcar Children books and putting them into the box. She responded simply with “ its time to move you up a reading level”. I remember being so shocked and upset with her. But, I knew I had to give them a chance “ You can’t judge a book by its cover” as my mom always said. So I did. I gave them a chance.
Within minutes of having those Nancy Drew books on my bookshelf, I had the first one in my hands starting to pick at it seeing if I really would like it compared to my beloved Boxcar Children. Turns out, I really did end up liking Nancy Drew and her mysteries. I was able to connect to her unlike the Boxcar Children, as we were almost the same age, gender and both loved solving mysteries.
After she finished packing away every single Boxcar Children book, my bookshelf was empty. My mom told me to grab the bag of books that she had also carried into the room 20 minutes before. I look inside the bag. It’s filled with Nancy Drew Mystery books. I had never heard about Nancy Drew until then. But my mom knew I would like it. It was a step up from the Boxcar Children, with more complex mysteries, characters and plots to unravel.
This one moment in my life changed my whole point of view on reading. I was able to start to gain the confidence I needed with the help of my mom. This confidence has helped me throughout the years of middle school, high school, and now college. My mom was the one pushing me and moving me from one complex level to another complex level in reading but also in other points in my life also. Just like as she took away the Boxcar Children, she also finally took away Nancy Drew when I was 16. I saw that same box again and knew it was time for a change. This time, my mom handed me a single book that was the size of 8 books smooshed together. This was the next chapter of my literacy mystery novel career.
Sherlock Holmes has helped me mature even more now. I still enjoy reading Nancy Drew from time to time, but I found it is way more fun to try and understand old English with some British terms thrown in there for good measure as Sherlock Holmes and Watson solve mysteries throughout London. But even as I am reading Holmes, I still remember those days of reading Boxcar Children which gave me the love of reading, and the transitions I went through to get to the point of reading British mystery novels now.
The transition between books was the lesson that taught me about life. My mom was physically taking those books away from me, but she was also proving a point that I needed to have more self confidence in myself whether it was reading, or writing or even playing basketball. Getting out of my comfort zone and being able to do things like move up reading levels or even go left in basketball because I am a righty. All these things have helped me grow as a person. As my mom was putting the books away, she was also giving me that opportunity to open up my eyes and see the world as I have matured and become more a complex person like the characters in the many books I have read. My mom knew what she was doing. As a clinical psychologist with a PH.D, she was especially qualified to know and recognize when I had to move onto more challenging readings. In the end, I was so thankful for her to take away those books and to open up a new beginning for me.
