THE FAIRY GODMOTHER OF READING

by Rhonda Dragomir

Forty-two ceiling tiles, the same number I counted five minutes ago. How did Kim get her braids so even? I checked the clock through my new cat-eye glasses. Fifteen minutes until recess, and I’d already read today’s book. Twice.

“Rhonda, you’re supposed to be reading.” My fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Miller, leaned over my desk. Fingerprints covered the lenses of her glasses and stray wisps of gray hair had escaped her severe bun.

In modern schools, I’d have been placed in an accelerated reading class. Those didn’t exist in rural Indiana in 1967, but “Killer” Miller knew what I needed. She slipped a well-worn copy of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett into my bored, eager hands. “Here,” she said. “Read this, and report to me next week how many chapters you read.”

I squinted at her like a possum perusing a brilliant sunrise.

And then, the impossible happened. She smiled.

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If my parents had checked the room of their normally obedient daughter after bedtime, they’d have seen her defying their rules by reading under the covers with a flashlight. I gasped at the horror of cholera and wondered if I’d ever catch it. What lurked behind the locked gate of the walled garden? I rooted for Colin as Mary refused to treat him like an invalid.

Mrs. Miller doubted my report of finishing the book in only one week. But her stern interrogation convinced her I had. Next, she handed me The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, followed quickly by the entire Narnia series. She certainly knew she’d unleashed a ravenous reading beast who still devours books sometimes at the rate of three per week.

As a teen, I sailed through every book written by Grace Livingston Hill. I’d discovered my favorite genre—romance, and learned the nuances of theme and plot. I delved into the St. Simons trilogy by Eugenia Price and discovered my favorite sub-genre—historical romance. When her spunky heroines clashed with villains and heroes, I learned what made me care about characters.

Advanced Freshman English 110 at Asbury College introduced me to my first writing mentor, Dr. Lyle Smith, who assigned us to read Hemingway and James Joyce. I trembled at the unexpected summons to his office, expecting chastisement, only to hear him say, “You should always write.” Those four simple words sparked a tiny fire that recently has become a roaring blaze.

My bookshelf is lined with tomes on the craft of writing, but my real book treasures are cached on Kindle. I feed my reading obsession using public libraries and a subscription to Kindle Unlimited to avoid bankruptcy and a need for eighteen bookcases. My favorite novels are by writers such as Laura Frantz (The Lacemaker), Julie Klassen (the Tales from Ivy Hill series), and Jody Hedlund, especially her Fairest Maidens series.

Scottish medieval romance taught me “love owercomes the reasons o’ mind,” but it’s hard to find clean reads in novels featuring braw highlanders and fiery lassies. I have recently discovered author Tamara Leigh, and I’m looking forward to beginning her Feud series with book one, The Baron of Godsmere.

Sometimes I think about North Madison Elementary School in Camby, Indiana. When I learned I’d be in Killer Miller’s class, the teacher all nine-year-olds feared, I felt doomed. Little did I know that behind the dowdy dresses, chalk-dusted features, and sensible shoes lurked the Fairy Godmother of Reading.

My mind still glitters with pixie dust.

Rhonda Dragomir is a multimedia creative who treasures her fairy tale life in Central Kentucky, insisting her home is her castle, even if her prince refuses to dig a moat. She has published works in several anthologies and periodicals, and her debut novel, When the Flames Ravaged, is published by Barbour Books with a release date of February 29, 2024.

Rhonda has garnered numerous writing awards for both fiction and nonfiction, including her selection as 2019 Writer of the Year by Serious Writer, Inc. In 2020 and 2022, she was also a finalist in ACFW’s Genesis Contest in the historical romance category.

In all her writing, Rhonda answers the question most of us ask at one time or another: “Does God really love me?” Circumstances of life sometimes lie about God and cause us to doubt His love or His power. When her characters are forced into the crucible of decision, Rhonda allows them to wrestle with questions everyone asks in a crisis. Her ultimate goal—and joy—is to help readers strengthen their faith that God will never leave or forsake them.