Emily and Eduardo

By Cornelia Seigneur

He knows all about the cute little blond girl with pigtails. And bangs. Her favorite kind of books are pop up books. She likes butterflies. Warren hasn’t been able to find butterfly books to read to the little blond girl with pigtails.

You’d probably recognize the little blonde girl at Tualatin Elementary School. Her name is Emily. She’s the one who sometimes has three or four pigtails down her back and sometimes just a single pigtail. 

And, she’s the one that reads every week for an hour with Warren in the Start Making A Reader Today reading room. 

“I asked her what she’d like to read about and she said butterflies. The closest thing I have found is pop up books that have flowers and bees. And she likes Maisy Mouse stories,” Warren says.

He began reading with Emily at Tualatin Elementary this year so he could do community service with his wife, Barbara, who had been a reading volunteer there last year while Warren was a lunch buddy at a neighboring school.

This year, Barb reads with a boy named Eduardo.  “My little boy is kind of shy, he is kind of short, and he is just as cute as he can be. I ask him if he would like a certain book and he just nods his head. He likes the kind of books where they have to find things on the page, like the I Spy books. I am encouraging him to say the word not just point to the book,” she says.
Barb loved reading as a child. Warren did not, though his mom read to him. He did not begin to enjoy reading for fun until he joined the Navy.

“I was on a Firewatch reading Mickey Spillane’s books,” he says.

What does it mean to read weekly to Emily and Eduardo? 

“I remember how much teachers at school meant to me when I was growing up and I just realize the impact you can have on children to make their lives better,” says Barb. 

Warren beams, “When I arrive, Emily comes running to me. And after reading, I walk her out to her bus each week.

“Last time when we were going out to the bus someone said, ’Is that your dad?’ and Emily said, ‘No, he’s my reading teacher.’”

SMART website: www.getsmartoregon.org

Cornelia Seigneur’s website: www.writermom.net