‘The Reading Promise’ bonds father, daughter

For Alice Ozma, having her dad, a single father who was also an elementary school librarian, read to her at night was one constant routine she treasured, especially after her parents divorced.

When she was in the fourth grade, Alice and her dad decided to try and see if they could read for 100 nights straight without missing a night, and they did. But when they reached their goal, neither one really wanted to stop, so they continued what they dubbed “The Streak,” a tradition that would eventually reach 3,218 consecutive nights that ended only when Alice went away to college.

In her book "The Reading Promise: My Father and The Books We Shared" Ozma reveals how the tradition shaped her life and how it the life of her father in ways they never anticipated. Through a series of short stories, Ozma tells how books and time spent with her dad influenced her life, providing comfort, laughter and, most importantly, love — gifts that she continues to carry with her into adulthood.

Poignantly written, “The Reading Promise” is a beautiful love letter from a child to her parent as Ozma shares how the simple act of reading would become such an endearing bond for her and her father. The book is also a tale of how important reading should be in every child’s life and how endangered the pastime is becoming.

After Alice went off to college, her father Jim Brozina’s job as school librarian in Millville, N.J., came under fire after it was decided by administrators in his district that Brozina was reading aloud “too often” to his students and that he should limit the reading time to 5-10 minutes a class period, devoting the rest to the computer.

Brozina fought long and hard to convince officials that reading aloud was important for the kids at the at-risk school where he had taught for decades. But after being told that the decision to limit reading time would stand, he retired. The next week, all of the books were removed from both of the libraries he oversaw and were replaced with computers.

Ozma includes this particular story as a rallying cry to bring attention to the problems facing libraries in schools today as well as an encouragement for parents to make sure their children benefit from the joys of reading and being read to. For parents who want to start their own Reading Streaks, she includes a “reading promise” guide plus a list of all the books she and her father enjoyed.

As a child whose father read to her every night, “The Reading Promise” was a joy to savor as it brought back many great memories of being read to by my parents and by teachers who shared their love of books. Books can open the world, and Alice Ozma reminds her readers of that very promise in this delightful memoir.