The faint smell of dust, yellowish pages with small font and an unexciting paper cover, reminds me of when I was ten years old and reading The Prince and the Pauper. Laying on my fuzzy blue polka dotted comforter, propped up by pillows, I can thoroughly remember the setting of the London streets and the palace where the two boys in the story lived, in their two very different life styles. I can recall trying to stay awake every night, which used to be hard at eight o’clock for a ten year old, and listening to my dad read the confusing text so easily and clear. Although the storyline was hard to follow at times I still enjoyed the story and the process of reading it aloud with my dad. This book has been very memorable for me over the years of growing up because of the connections I made with the story, the challenging text in contained and most of all, the time I spent reading it with my dad.

One of the events in the book that I clearly remember, probably one of the most important circumstances, is when the Prince and the Pauper switch their clothes and trade lives. As a ten year old I thought this was one of the coolest things you could do and, of course, thought of how cool it would be to switch places with someone that looked alike to me. At the time, I had a really good friend that I looked somewhat similar to; I remember making up scenarios in my head of what it would be like if we switched places. This also reminded me of different movies I had seen, like Freaky Friday and The Parent Trap; what would it be like to be someone else for awhile I always wondered. Making these connections with the story helped me understand the story better and enjoy it more.

Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia and Shel Silverstein poem books are some other books I remember reading with my dad. I think The Prince and the Pauper particularly stands out because of the long amount of time it took us to finish it. I really enjoyed spending that quality time with my dad after a prolonged day of school and his long day of work. We not only read but talked about our day and took pauses to discuss different points of the story. He made it easy to understand and fun to read the challenging book. Having the scent of whatever we had for dinner still in the air, and the nice cozy feeling of being wrapped in a blanket, I remember our reading environment always feeling homely and comfortable.


Reading good literature was something my dad always said I lacked. As a young girl I was more prone to reading books about animals or vampires. When he told me I had the choice between Huck Finn and The Prince and the Pauper to read out loud, I choose the one about the prince and the pauper. The words seemed very confusing at times and didn’t make sense, almost as if it was written in another language, but my dad always read them with simplicity and clarity. This book was a good learning tool for me as a fourth grader because it made me think, and helped prepare me in a way, for the more challenging books I would read in high school.

Reading aloud with a child is very important in my opinion; it’s a fundamental learning tool and it gives quality time for parents to spend with their kids. Research even shows that, “reading to young children promotes language acquisition and literacy development and, later on, achievement in reading comprehension and overall success in school.” Reading every night with my dad is a memorable experience that really sticks out to me because of all the times we read and the books we enjoyed together. The Prince and the Pauper was a really good story and something I will always relate to my dad. It’s challenging context, the different connections I could make with it and the one on one time I got to spend with my dad had a positive impact on me that I will always remember.