Igloo Reading


Elizabeth Bluemle - February 1, 2011

Child reading in snow

Fourth-grader, cozy in igloo, reads Barbara O'Connor's HOW TO STEAL A DOG. Photo credit: Katarina Krek.


Here’s a new take on curling up with a favorite book on a snowy day: build an igloo. I love this picture beyond reckoning. It’s a fourth-grader happily nestled in a snow fort, reading Barbara O’Connor‘s delightful How to Steal a Dog, oblivious to the outside world. (The reader’s mom sent the photo to Ms. O’Connor after a school author visit.)
Isn’t that what a great book does? Absorb you so deeply you aren’t aware of anything around you but the world of the story? Susan Cooper captured that absorption perfectly in Dreams and Wishes: Essays on Writing for Children (p. 24, if you want to know):

Watch the child reading a book: really reading, totally caught up in the world into which the words on the page have transported him…. He is sprawled or curled or propped in some inelegant position, face concentrated and intent, motionless; he isn’t with you any more. He doesn’t hear you when you call; he doesn’t notice that the sun has set and that he should turn on the light. He’s away out there with the author, in wonderland.

Someone needs to contact the photographer to make this into a reading poster pronto. Really. It’s iconic.
Since we’re expecting a giant dumping of snow tonight and Wednesday, I invite you to send me your photos of snowy-day reading. I’ll post the best ones here.

11 thoughts on “Igloo Reading

  1. Karen Strickholm

    LOVE this picture!!! Where are the Facebook “Like” and Twitter “Tweet” buttons for this blog? I had to cut and paste to post on my Facebook page. Thanks for the post. I’m in Santa Fe and it is a lousy 9 degrees here right now. I’ve had it with winter, but this igloo picture makes me almost like it still!

    Reply
  2. Katarina Krek

    What a wonderful description of what was going on here! For those interested in trying it, she actually dug the nook out of a snowbank to create the igloo. So simple!
    She loved the book…..couldn’t put it down!

    Reply

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