Cleaning out a bookshelf this past weekend, I stumbled on my well-worn first grade primer, "Our New Friends," the sequel to "Fun with Dick and Jane."

Flipping through the pages, I was amazed by the hauntingly familiar characters and the accompanying pictures drawn in bright primary colors. There were Dick and Jane, portrayed with just enough curiosity and childlikeness to make them appealing to their 1950s elementary school audience — and with a good dose of obedience and respect for their elders to meet the approval of our parents.

Also part of the series was baby Sally, the family dog Spot, and Dick and Jane's parents, a father dressed in a three-piece suit, even when he was building a birdhouse with his son.

The mother was always pictured in a modest print dress, whether fixing dinner or painting a rocking chair for her daughter. With their neat, prim looks, the parents could easily have served as prototypes for the parents in the late-1950s TV series "Leave It to Beaver."

I loved the books in the Catholic Basic Series, as they first introduced me to the printed word and reminded me how learning to read opened unimaginable avenues of pleasure and countless hours of escape. Even today, despite my busy schedule — a demanding job, three almost-grown kids who still love home-cooked meals, and a husband whose idea of helping with the laundry is carrying his clean clothes upstairs — I continue to read.

And regardless of the impact of electronic wizardry — like video games, TiVo and iPods — has had on children's time, reading continues to remain fashionable. (The seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," is still six months away from being released, and it already has set all kinds of sales records.)

Reading continues to be reinforced in schools today, as children participate in silent sustained reading, a time set aside during the school day to encourage good reading habits and to reinforce the idea that reading is part of what it means to be an educated individual.

And many teachers in the younger grades spend time reading to their students each day. There is nothing more entertaining than a well-told story blended with the human voice to capture a child's imagination.

I witnessed this recently while visiting a doctor's office, where I watched a mother read "Curious George and the Rocket Ship" to her preschool-age daughter. Several other children in the waiting room had been preoccupied watching "Rugrats" from a TV suspended from the ceiling. The daughter, however, snuggled close to her mother, as the mother told the tale of the mischievous monkey who was about to be launched into space.

Before long, the other children's attention shifted from the TV to the mother's voice and the monkey's adventures. At first discreet in their interests, the children eventually listened without regard for their eavesdropping.

Reading and listening to someone else read engages the imagination; watching television requires little more than absorbing what someone else has created.

Linda K. Schmitmeyer is a freelance writer living in Middlesex Township. Her e-mail address is lks260@zoominternet.net.