As Father’s Day approaces, I want to write about an
extraordinary father who made a promise to his daughter. The Reading
Promise: My Father and The Books We Shared, by Alice Ozma, is a magical,
and beautifully written, biographical tribute by Alice to her father.
When she was nine years old, Alice’s father, a school librarian, promised her that he would read aloud to her for the next one hundred nights. When that goal was reached, they celebrated with a pancake breakfast, and Alice proposed that they extend the project for another one thousand nights. Thus began an odyssey that continued for a further 3218 nights, finishing on the day Alice started university, at the age of eighteen!
When she was nine years old, Alice’s father, a school librarian, promised her that he would read aloud to her for the next one hundred nights. When that goal was reached, they celebrated with a pancake breakfast, and Alice proposed that they extend the project for another one thousand nights. Thus began an odyssey that continued for a further 3218 nights, finishing on the day Alice started university, at the age of eighteen!
It certainly wasn’t always easy, and Alice doesn’t shy away from discussing the
difficulties. What they termed, the "Reading Streak", was kept
up during some extremely tough times; during the heart-wrenching weeks after
Alice’s parents separate and her mother moves out, during the sad days
following her grandfather’s death. There are nights when her father reads over
the phone when she is away at sleepovers or school trips, and one memorable occasion in the school parking lot as Alice leans
sullenly against the car door. There is also a very touching description of a father reading
to a daughter, all decked out in her Prom gown finery.
The main thread of the book is the nightly ritual between father and
daughter, and the books that they share. They keep a meticulous list of these
which appears on the ”List of Books from the Reading Streak” at the back of the
book. As various books and characters are discussed, analyzed, some mentioned in
depth, others in mere passing, they are woven throughout the real life fabric of
Alice and her father’s lives. Gradually, Alice’s father’s deeply eccentric,
quirky, lovable nature is revealed. She paints a picture with amazing
precociousness and sensitivity, of not just the words they shared but also the
spaces in between.
During times of anger and awkwardness, embarrassment and teenage angst,
still he reads and she listens: sweetly sleepy, sad, joyous, anxious, silly, pensive, thoughtful
moods in turn. Father and daughter giggle and whisper, laugh and cry together.
Sometimes after a day spent in angry silence, the only spoken words between
them are the sound of his voice reading to her… “We read like
we always did. My father and I, together, sharing words that weren’t our own
but were still a part of our secret language.”
Alice's father's boundless belief in her created a young woman with rare self-possession and confidence. This is a mature book about a father/daughter relationship. It is about faith and trust, passion and
compassion, about a deep, abiding love and belief in each other. And in Alice's
own words, 'But more than that, it was a promise to the world; a promise to
remember the power of the printed word, to take time to cherish it, to protect
it all costs. He promised to explain to anyone and everyone he meets, the
life-changing ability literature can have.'
