As the clock strikes 7:30 pm, my mother hollers at me to get ready for bed. As a seven-year-old this, apart from recess, was probably my favorite part of the day as it meant storytime. Leaping from stair to stair, I reach the second-floor and slather the toothpaste on the toothbrush leaving the imprint of my fist on the tube. As I put on my striped pajamas and jump into bed my mother asks me, “Are you ready to see where Riley is going to take us tonight?”
This was the first time I was going to experience, The Adventures of Riley, a 12-series picture book that took me across the world all the way from Antartica to the Amazon. As a young boy, every night, either my mother or father would read to me this book but I can clearly remember after I heard this for the first time, this book was something special. Every evening I would look forward to where the book would take me. Reading about a third of the book every evening, the adventures would last what it would seem like an eternity, expanding my creative thoughts. Hearing about the adventures of cutting oars in the green Amazon River, learning about lazy tree-dwelling animals known as sloths sleeping effortlessly in high Cecropia trees, or going to the Safari and seeing hippos bask in the muddy basins and the zebra’s race through the wide open planes with the sun setting in the background.
The first time having these books read to me, was a time in which my imagination took off in terms of my writing. While I was learning about all the adventures Riley was taking me on, I was also diagnosed with juvenile epilepsy.
Juvenile epilepsy is a form of seizures that was not very common for kids my age to get diagnosed with. As a child, I was not allowed to join my peers on the play structures during recess, or participate in activities that involved heights as I would risk injury if I were to have a seizure while elevated above the ground. This limited my fun at recess, as there was a part of me that was missing. I wasn’t able to play the games involving make-believe on the play structure, or play cops and robbers running up and down the slides which I feel is critical for a young child to have as it broadens there imagination and creativity.
Yet during this time, in order to explore and for my mind to wander, I used these books. When I was really little it was Bob the Builder who I idolized, but now Riley was my daydream. Wanting to go and do everything he did was a way to let the adventure side of me wonder. These books are what allowed me to not feel trapped and explore as well as having the desire to further my reading into more adventure books. By the time I was of age to read on my own I was reading the Alex Rider series, the Percy Jackson series, and any other novel that let me escape and put me into someone’s adventure shoes.
When looking back at this moment when I first read The Adventures of Riley, it was a point in my life that set me off on a path of the reader and writer I am today. Most books I tend to read are adventure thrillers that allow me to escape reality and put myself in someone else’s shoes doing something crazy, adventurous, and dangerous. It’s a way for me to explore and use my imagination without actually leaving the home, or stepping foot on a jungle gym. One can see this effect in my writing as well. I tend to write in a way for my audience to feel like I am having a conversation with them, and so they feel like they are really there with me while I indulge them on whatever topic I’m writing. I thank Riley, and my mother and father, as those books were my sponsor and have developed my writing and reading style.