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The Reading Promise

My Father and the Books We Shared
Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Tulsa City-County Library.
Nov 30, 2018IndyPL_SteveB rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
When Kristen Alice Ozma Brozina was 9 years old, she and her father, a school librarian, decided that he would read aloud to her every night for 100 nights. After that, they were so pleased that they decided to go for 1,000. They called it “the Reading Streak”. Eventually, they made it to 3,218 consecutive nights, until her first day of college. If that was all of the story, this would be merely a pleasant trifle that would allow many of us to reminisce about our own read-aloud experiences with our parents and children. The real interest of the book, though, is as a true memoir of a young woman’s life with a fascinating but peculiar father. Jim Brozina was a man totally devoted to his two daughters and to the children of his school. But he also hated being touched, was somewhat obsessive about many things in life, and had a total inability to talk about “girl things” with his daughters. As Alice’s story goes on, the book deepens in tone, from the break-up of her parents to her father’s stand against “modern” school principals who think that reading to school children is old fashioned and should be forbidden. This thoughtful and warm memoir describes how the Streak got them through the turmoil of their lives and helped them develop a unique closeness. Humor and seriousness are intertwined in a fine exploration of the love of reading and the importance of fatherhood.