We’ve all seen those “My Baby can read” infomercials. And personally, I’ve even seen a couple of celebrities use the program with their own children. Whether the program does what it claims it does or not, there is one way to ensure that your child grows up to be literate from a young age: read to them.
That’s what the parents of 4-year-old Daliyah Marie Arana did and despite being just a pre-schooler, she has read already read 1,000 books.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">It was fun to have 4-year-old Daliyah Marie Arana of Gainesville, GA as "Librarian For The Day." She's already read more than a 1,000 books. <a href="https://t.co/MQfwlUrakO">pic.twitter.com/MQfwlUrakO</a></p>
— Carla Hayden (@LibnOfCongress) <a href="https://twitter.com/LibnOfCongress/status/819187408814149632">January 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a recent story for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/01/12/meet-daliyah-the-4-year-old-girl-who-has-read-more-than-1000-books/?utm_term=.7785e141fb59"><em>The Washington Post</em></a>, her mother, Haleema Arana, explained how it happened. It started before Daliyah was even born. Halsema would read books to her other young children every day. So she was hearing the words in utero. And as an infant she’d hear her older brother reading chapters of books aloud in the family’s Gainesville, Georgia home. At 18 months, she was recognizing words in the books her mother read to her.
Halsema said, “She wanted to take over and do the reading on her own. It kind of took off from there. The more words she learned, the more she wanted to read.”
At two-years and eleven months, <a href="https://youtu.be/h31myiZaIGk">Daliyah read her first book on her own.</a> I know that’s hard for some of us to believe. So for the doubters, here’s the video. She hasn’t simply memorized the words on the page, she actively sounds out each word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h31myiZaIGk&feature=youtu.be
Now, a little over a year later, at 4, Daliyah, with the help of her parents, has read more than 1,000 books. And has even read college-level texts.
Carla Hayden, the 14th Librarian of Congress— this first African-American to hold this position—, was so taken with Daliyah’s story that she invited her to come shadow her as “librarian for the day.” Daliyah showed up in an adorable pink, peplum top, pink glasses and a pink bow.
Daliyah walked the halls of the world’s largest library and sat at executive roundtable meetings.
Naturally, Daliyah enjoyed her visit. “She just kept saying how the Library of Congress is her most favorite, favorite, favorite library in the whole wide world,” her mother said.
Back in Georgia, Daliyah is a frequent patron of her local library, with her own library card.
She told the Gainesville Times, “I like to check out books every day. And I want to teach other kids to read at an early age too.”
Haleema got the idea to shoot for Daliyah to read 1,000 books from the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program. She started counting the books her daughter read. Now, that she’s completed 1,000 books, she hopes to reach 1,500 by the time she enters kindergarten when Daliyah hopes to “help the teacher teach the other kids how to read.”
While her parents haven’t tested her reading level, they know that Daliyah has read books her 10 and 12 year-old siblings bring home from school on her own, only asking for help when she gets stuck on a big word.
Daliyah’s favorite author is Mo Willems one who writes for Daliyah’s age group, called Pigeon and Elephant and the Piggie series and has a special interest in dinosaurs.
As a challenge, her mother gave her a speech called “The Pleasure of Books,” which uses words like “punctiliousness.” Check her out in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqheMjWsxbI&feature=youtu.be
<span class="im"><i>Veronica Wells is the culture editor at MadameNoire.com. She is also the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bettah-Days-Veronica-R-Wells/dp/1535549866" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.amazon.com/Bettah-Days-Veronica-R-Wells/dp/1535549866&source=gmail&ust=1484317846330000&usg=AFQjCNF1fQq4mQS0LoOajOK_eWfvOLd0uA">“Bettah Days.”</a> You can follow her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/veronicarwells" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.facebook.com/veronicarwells&source=gmail&ust=1484317846330000&usg=AFQjCNE_jb_WVHL7s8vTmR27Pdu9A8S_Iw">Facebook</a> and Twitter<a href="https://twitter.com/VDubShrug" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://twitter.com/VDubShrug&source=gmail&ust=1484317846330000&usg=AFQjCNGuTEeGtuHcd_qr0K4K096q3QY03w"> @VDubShrug.</a></i> </span>
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