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Summary
Summary
When Alice Ozma was in fourth grade, she and her father decided to see if he could read aloud to her for a hundred consecutive nights. On the hundredth night, they shared pancakes to celebrate, but it soon became evident that neither wanted to let go of their storytelling ritual. So they decided to continue what they called The Streak. Alice's father read aloud to her every night without fail until the day she left for college.
Alice approaches her book as a series of vignettes about her relationship with her father and the life lessons learned from the books he read to her. Books included in the ritual were: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and Shakespeare's plays.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Named for two literary characters ("Alice" from Lewis Carroll and "Ozma" from L. Frank Baum), the author is the daughter of a Philadelphia-area elementary school librarian. Father and daughter embarked on a streak of reading-out-loud sessions every night before bed as Ozma was growing up. At first they decided on 100 nights straight of reading before bed-a minimum 10 minutes, before midnight, every night, no exceptions-then it stretched to 1,000, and soon enough the author was headed to college and they had spent eight years straight reading before bedtime, from Oz stories to Shakespeare. Reading with her father offered a comforting continuity in the midst of her mother's disquieting move away from the family, her older sister's absence as a foreign exchange student, and the parsimoniousness of her single father. Ozma's account percolates chronologically through her adolescence, as father and daughter persevered in their streak of nightly reading despite occasional inconveniences such as coming home late, sleepovers (they read over the phone), and a rare case of the father's laryngitis. Ozma's work is humorous, generous, and warmly felt, and with a terrific reading list included, there is no better argument for the benefits of reading to a child than this rich, imaginative work. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
From the time the author was nine until she went away to college, she and her father read together every night. "The Streak," as it is termed in the book, brought father and daughter an unusual closeness, confirmed in Alice a joy in reading, and afforded her lots of material to produce this gimmicky memoir. If you open this book expecting to read about a father and daughter immersing themselves in good books and that you yourself will gain insight into said books, adjust your expectations. Ozma is disappointingly nonrevelatory about the books she and her father read together. Here, for instance, is her critique of Lois Lowry's The Giver: "The story of a young boy being held responsible for the entire history of his people was intriguing, and the futuristic world they lived in was unbelievably believable." Most chapters are only tangentially about the books; the focus is on the author's nontraditional family, the father-daughter relationship, and the mechanics and challenges of keeping The Streak alive. (This last can be interesting, as when her father had laryngitis, or when he had to pull her out of play rehearsal in order to get in their shared reading before midnight.) Appended with a list of books from the reading streak and a schmaltzy but heartfelt call for readers to make their own commitment to reading. martha v. parravano (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Reading really was fundamental for a father and daughter team who made it their nightly ritual for eight straight years.The author's namean amalgam of characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and L. Frank Baum's Oz seriesillustrates her profound passion for reading bookshelves of literature from childhood to well into adolescence. In 1997, plucky, headstrong Ozma and her father, an elementary-school librarian, began reading aloud to each other for 1,000 consecutive nights. Dubbed "The Streak," it began when the author was in third grade and lasted 3,218 nights. Ozma's father, a firm believer in the limitless power of books, was overjoyed (and pleasantly surprised) when they'd achieved their initial goal of 100 nights. But then Ozma determinedly upped the ante to 1,000 as their readings graduated from James and the Giant Peach to Shakespeare and Harry Potter. There were stringent "rules" to follow: They had to read for at least 10 minutes, before midnight, preferably in person, and books onlythough "anything from magazines to baseball programs would do" in a pinch. Those days, Ozma fondly recalls, incorporated a playful and deeply unifying pastime shared with a man who became not only an interactive parent and friend, but a shoulder to lean on when inconvenience and calamity impeded their endeavors. But nothing could stop themnot the funeral in honor of her pet fish, nor her Dad's laryngitis, nor the painful, physical separation of her mother, who moved out, nor her older sister's absence as a foreign-exchange student. While all were painful memories that Ozma evokes with a hushed despondence, "The Streak" continued unabated until the author moved away to college, majoring in English, almost nine years later. A warm memoir and a gentle nudge to parents about the importance of books, quality time and reading to children.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* It started out as an ambitious, but achievable, task. A father would read to his nine-year-old daughter 100 nights in a row. Celebrating their victory over breakfast at their favorite greasy spoon, however, the daughter proposed a new challenge, one with a Scheherazadean twist. Why not read for 1,000 nights? But Jim Brozina and his daughter Alice didn't stop at 1,000, just like they didn't stop when Alice's mother ended the marriage, or when her older sister went abroad for a year, or when Jim caught the flu, or when Alice went to the prom. Only one thing could terminate their routine. When Jim moved Alice into her dorm room, some 3,218 nights later, The Streak, as they called it, came to an end. Not long out of college, Ozma has written a memoir as rich and revealing, witty and warm, confident and compassionate as works by people who may have been around a few more blocks, but who probably haven't read as many books. Persuasive and influential, poignant and inspirational, Ozma's exuberant paean to the joys and rewards of reading and being read to is a must-read treasure for parents, especially, and bibliophiles, certainly.--Haggas, Caro. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Ozma depicts these special times between daughter and father, the books that they enjoyed together, and the deep, lasting bond that developed as a result of this daily -commitment. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
