Happy Hollisters

I am grateful for a Mom who read to us. I remember one of our favorite series was the Happy Hollisters. We would gather around almost every night to listen as Mom read to us. The series was about a middle class family solving mysteries from their new home on Pine Lake in Rhode Island. There were five children ranging in ages from four to twelve.  The father owned a general store called the Trading Post. The mom was always ready with handy tips and helped in finding clues.
  There were about thirty books in the series and I think Mom read every one of them to us.  There was a slight problem though. Even though the books were very exciting and full of suspense Mom would often drift off to sleep, sometimes right in the middle of a word. Every chapter in the book ended with a cliff-hanger.  Mom was usually so tired from everything that she had to do throughout the day that when she finally got a minute to sit down she ended up reading herself to sleep.  I remember all of us wanting to hear more and nudging her until she started up again.
  Because Mom read to us and made sure we did our reading on our own too we were all good readers.
Later on when I had kids of my own I would also read to them every night and they also are very good readers and have a love for reading.  I also managed to carry on the tradition of falling asleep while reading to them sometimes even  in the middle if a word.

-Joann