Bedtime Stories

Bedtime Stories – By Sharnii Elliott

My bedtime story is an unconventional one, but the story has shaped my life in ways I couldn’t even dream of when I was young.

When I was little, I had trouble learning to read and write. Due to the circumstances of my traumatic upbringing, I was unable to attend school until I was about 6 years old and because I started school late, I was behind other students when it came to literacy. I hadn’t even had an introduction to normal child stories like Roald Dahl, Disney, Santa Claus, or the Tooth Fairy, so my imagination was severely lacking behind my classmates.

My teachers had trouble getting me up to speed with everyone else, until I was introduced to books, in particular, fantasy novels by a range of authors.

This introduction happened by chance one day when I was nine and home sick from school. I was bored out of my mind looking for things to do, when I decided to look at my dad’s bookshelf, seeing volumes of books from many genres as my dad is an avid reader of fiction and historical books. Looking at these huge tomes and feeling very intimidated, I grabbed the smallest book I could find on the shelf: The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien.

When I sat in front of the bookshelf to read the story, I was immediately overwhelmed with the many names of hobbits and places I had never heard of, becoming disheartened again that I wasn’t able to read the story properly. It wasn’t until my dad happened by and sat with me to see what I was reading that he explained to me that this was a very adult book! He was surprised that I had tried to read it, especially considering that Tolkien’s works are a challenge to read, even for adults.

Without even realising, my dad had reassured me that I wasn’t a failure and was in fact encouraged to help me read the stories on his bookshelf.

It began with The Hobbit, and The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy by Tolkien. Dad began reading these stories to me at bedtime, soon getting the films on DVD for us to watch together and in no time, I was reading at a level above my age group at school! Dad also made sure that I had a library card to the local libraries, and would take me every week to get more books, movies and even video games that had magical stories of their own that I could play a role in.

But this lifelong love affair with fantasy stories began with The Hobbit, a story of a young hobbit venturing into the great unknown to save the world from evil. An unlikely hero who overcame so much and triumphed over great evil. And his companions of elves, dwarves, men, and wizards who had their own challenges to face and overcome.

I didn’t grow up listening to children’s stories and watching cartoons on TV. I grew up listening to epic tales of love, war, and conflict in other worlds and dimensions. Of great battles between good and evil, where sometimes the good guys didn’t always win, or the odds seemed to be overwhelming, but they always fought for what they felt was right and just.

These stories among many others helped to shape my life, my values, and how I see the real world around me. And I will be forever grateful to my dad for taking that time with me to cultivate my love of storytelling with him.

It is a special bond we share to this very day, with my dad now studying to become an archaeologist, and me aspiring to be an author with my first book in the process of being published. When I was young, my dad and I shared these epic stories together, now we are creating our own.

A part of me will always be the little girl who didn’t quite fit in. The girl who would dress as an elf with a sheet for a cloak and a stick for a sword to fight the bad guys. The young woman who would rather be tucked into the corner of a library reading a fantasy novel, or at home with a cup of tea writing my own stories.

But I wouldn’t change a thing.

And I can’t wait to share these stories and my very own with my children someday.

The End