When Alice was nine years old, she and her father – a beloved school librarian – made a promise to read aloud together for 100 consecutive nights. Upon reaching their goal, they celebrated over pancakes, but it was clear that neither wanted to let go of what had become their reading ritual. They decided to continue what became known as ‘The Streak’ for as long as they possibly could.
Hardback edition
From L. Frank Baum to Dickens to J.K. Rowling to Shakespeare, Alice’s father read to her every night without fail until the day she entered college, a remarkable eight years later. In this deeply affecting memoir, Alice tells the story of her relationship with the extraordinary man who raised her – from his steadying hand on the back of her wobbly bike to his one-man crusade to keep reading in schools – the words they shared and the spaces inbetween.
Read an extract in You magazine, here
and A Lot of Books at Bedtime in the Guardian Family.
ALICE OZMA, a recent Rowan University graduate, lives surrounded by world-class libraries and bookstores in historical Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is passionate about literature, education, and working with children. She’s planning to be a teacher. Visit her website or Facebook page or Alice’s blog site.
Watch Alice’s video trailer below.
_
Booklist (starred review)Persuasive and influential, poignant and inspirational, Ozma’s exuberant paean to the joys and rewards of reading – and being read to – is a must-read treasure for parents, especially, and bibliophiles, certainly.
_
Melbourne Age _A poignant, reflective, often frank record…
Library Journal _Sweet, engaging, and obviously inspiring (it even ends with a “Reading Promise”), this is the perfect book to hand any curmudgeon who needs reminding that reading makes a difference or thinks that today’s youth are all blase. Highly recommended.
Washington Post Part love letter to a devoted parent, part memoir of a sensitive intelligent girl, part passionate plea for readers to preserve traditions of reading aloud and using libraries, this is a book to curl up with and sink into. Who Weekly _Ozma has written a thoroughly entertaining book with skill, intelligence and a delightful sense of humor. The book is about reading… but its greatest strength lies in the author’s affection for the father who kept his promise.
Marie ClaireAlice’s book serves as a rallying cry, advocating the importance of books and challenging the reader to make a reading promise of their own. There’s even a pre-constructed promise at the end of the book. The last sentence? “I promise to be there for books, because I know they will always be there for me.
Read more: Book Review of the Reading Promise – Alice Ozma’s New Book the Reading Promise – Marie Claire
_
Links:
I love this book. I think it’s amazing. It brought back all the memories of my Dad reading to me when i was a child. Sometimes the stories came from books and sometimes he just made them up as he went along. I have gone out and bought and are now reading The Wizard of Oz.