Garrison Hines

Ms. Hamby
ENGL 1101
03 September 2014
Joseph Hines and the ridiculous rhymes of Dr. Suess

On the faraway Island of Sala-Ma-Sond, Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond read
the first lines of my favorite book, Yertle the turtle. Some of the ideology, throughout the Dr.
Suess work fits with the concept of reading and writing. In the text, Yertle believed that the more
land he could see meant the more land that he could control, the more power he had throughout
the land. Reading has a similar effect in regard to the more contact the more powerful you are.
Throughout my life, I have enjoyed reading and because of my passion to read, I found joy in
writing as well.
From the moment you are born, you are in contact with the english language. Although
you can not process of understand, the newborns slowly absorbs words and begins to recognize
the meaning belonging to every word. So, my first contact with reading is probably a time that I
cannot remember. The first time I can remember reading, I was about 4 years old. Being the third
child of seven, I was easily influenced by my two older brothers. At the time, my oldest brother,
Greg, was eight and he started to believe that he was too old and sophisticated to hangout with
his younger brothers, but my older brother, Andre, was still fascinated with impressing my
younger brother, Jamil, and I. Throughout Andres time in the first grade, he was given a book to
read every week, to help improve his reading skills. He decided that he would help his little
brothers learn how to read, and he read to us as his first grade teacher read to him. The first book
I can remember him reading was Fox in Sox, by Dr. Suess. Excited with the possibility of
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making my older brother proud, I eagerly sat as he read the book to Jamil and I. Though he
struggled over many of the words in the book, I realized that reading gave my brother power
over me. Every since that day, I craved for the chance to have that same power over others.
Though I had a great experience first experience with reading, my first experience with
writing was very much different. A couple years after my initial experience with reading, I was
first introduced to writing. In the kindergarten, my teacher began to teach us how to write the
letters of the alphabet and shortly after how to write our names. I felt a step above my peers
because I could distinguish and say each letter of the alphabet better than many, but my success
was hampered by writing the letters. Because I was naturally left-handed I often wrote my letters
backwards, and I was often challenged by my teacher, Ms. Hood, to both write the letters
correctly and with my right hand. Writing with my right hand was very hard because it would
hurt, and it would often cramp because the undeveloped muscles were not use to the amount of
activity it takes to write. Therefore, I initially hated writing because I associated it with pain,
criticism, and a feeling of incompetence whenever I wanted to complete the task.
In that same Kindergarten class, I excelled as a reader. Though my school did not
officially start teaching kids how to read until the 1st grade, Ms. Hood would often finding me in
the book section during any free time we were awarded (e.g. recess, nap time etc.). Instead of
pushing me to go play with other students, or nap like the other students, She would pull me
aside and started to teach me how to read. It was not until April, 2001 when I would successfully
read my first book. With Ms. Hood closely reading over my shoulder, I read aloud my favorite
book Yertle the Turtle. As I sat and sounded out the oddly spelled rhyming words of Dr. Suess, I
again fell in love with reading. Throughout the book, Yertle wanted to sit higher and higher
because he believed that the more he could see the more land he controlled. I felt the same way

about reading. I felt that the more I could read the more control I would have over my peers, and
teachers. While I was reading, I realized that I had the sole attention of Ms. Hood as I sat and
read the first couple pages of the book. I realized that through reading, one could capture the
attention of the ones who seemingly had more control and power over a certain situation.
It was almost four years later before I found this same truth with writing. As I eventually
built the writing muscles in my right hand, I also began to write my letters the correct way.
While I kept getting better with writing my name, and words alike, I began to form sentences,
paragraphs and stories. In the 4th grade, I was chosen to be in the advanced writing track at my
school. In this advanced writing course, I found myself creating multiple stories throughout the
year. One of the stories I remember writing was the story of King Jamero. This was arguably my
best work of the year, and the advanced writing teacher validated my assumption by hanging the
piece on the wall for everyone to see. While many of the lower elementary school students
walked past the advanced writing wall, they often stopped to read the works that hung proudly
on the cork pushpin board. When I saw people stopping to read my text, I had the same epiphany
that I had about reading years before. I now understood that I could capture the minds of many
by creating a world that they could place themselves into. I began to realize that writing had a
greater effect on people than reading. My new found love would not take the place of reading,
but work in conjunction to help me capture the most minds, thus giving me the most power.