[RKDinOKC]

When I was in first grade they thought I had a reading problem. When the teacher had me read aloud in the class, I would start with the first sentence just fine, then would start making up my own story (which I thought was much better). Remember having a special meeting with My mom and the teacher and after that i got a weekly magazine called weekly reader I had to read articles aloud to my parents from, then tell the teacher what the articles were about.

After a few months they decided I just read to get information and didn't like reading stories. She took me to the grade school's library and had me check out and read "Where the red fern grows." It's a 5th grade level book. For some reason she thought I would like it. It was terrible for a 1st grader. Like old yeller by Quentin Tarantino to a 1st grader.

The boy in the book saves his money to get two coon dog puppies. He raises and trains them to be champion dogs. Then on a coon hunt both dogs get very graphically gutted by a mountain lion. Can even now still remember the vivid picture in my mind of the gutted whimpering coon dogs the story gets you very attached to. They bury the dogs. The boy grieves for a bit missing the dogs, saves his money, and as he brings home two new puppies they pass where the first two are buried and a red fern is growing in the spot.

Really turned me off recreational reading which I really didn't care for in the first place!

Several months later my Dad found a guy where he works had older boys that had out grown a huge collection of Hardy Boys mysteries and they gave me two boxes full of Hardy Boys. Liked em and couldn't get enough. Still couldn't get me to check out a book from the school library though.