Part 1: If my mother never read stories to me before bed and never taught me to read I feel like my mind would be one big empty ball of boring. When I was little everynight before bed my mom or dad would read me a story. By doing so I learned to read at a very young age. I was 4 when I read my first book (according to my parents). When I read or was read to my mind would wander off into thought. I remember reading the box car children book series in first grade. I loved those books. They never had the same story line, in every story the same characters would solve a completley different mystery every time. One thing I loved about the book was that they did keep the same characters, because in every story you learned something knew about each character and there was always a different mystery in which they needed to solve. Overall when reading I loved letting my mind wonder and letting it try to picture the story on its own in my head.

Part 2: I feel that a child gets more of an adventure out of the story, because younger childrens minds are more creative. I feel like adults and teenagers when they read they get more meaning out of the story. Like in english class we are told to find meaning, depth and importance in the story. I know from personal expirence that even when reading for my own enjoyment I tend to question on what the meaning of the story really is. Like what the author is attempting to portary in the story. Embarrassingly enough though I still am like a child in some sense when reading. My mind wanders like no other, for example the harry potter books are full of dramatic, intense excitment. While still being a teenager I can't stop myself from pretending like I was Hermoine fighting to protect and help her friend.

Part 3: Like childrens or everyday novels, stories help define who we are as a person and or country. By reading someone elses story sometimes it helps you find out more things about yourself that were unknown to you. One of the most thought provoking and real stories i've ever heard was how America got its independence. Every year in history class we were always told how we came to be the nation that we are today. And just listening to it I got shivers. Cause who knew that so many people that didn't even know hardly any one outside a town or city. Would fight for independce for over a million people. A nation needs stories like that to keep them strong and whole.

Part 4: Stories that I specifically remember loving as a child were the Box car children and babysitter club books. I loved mystery books they just made my mind wonder off into deep thought. My mom would also tell me stories about her child hood and what she did when she was that age. There was this one that always made me laugh, she still tells it. My mom grew up with four kids in her family, everyone didn't really get along with my unckle keith. My aunt susie and my mom would always play tricks on Keith and he would tend to retalliate back. The one time he couldn't retalliate was when they turned off the power to the tv. Then told him to go get the mail and locked him out.

Part 5: Characteristics that a story should have should be Meaning, depth, adventure, importance, humor, sadness, a happy ending (hopefully). A good character should be someone who's brave, nice, forgiving, heroic, Happy.