Today is National Read Across America Day (Dr. Seuss Day). Having been in love with words all of my life, it is not surprising that I have a passion for reading and writing.

While there have not been many bright spots during the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, one of the unexpected joys has been the additional time to read.

I have been reading a book a week on average, and they have not only brought me knowledge, but they have been my companions.

The sad fact is that people do not read as much as they once did. In our fast-paced world, reading takes time, concentration and commitment. Although it pays rich rewards, many choose shortcuts.

With the proliferation of social media, it is much easier to deal in snippets of information. Anything longer than a paragraph becomes a chore. I can’t tell you how many of my students have told me over the years that they “hate to read.”

So where does the love and joy of reading come from?

In my case, it was fired up by my immigrant mother, who never missed an opportunity to tell me what reading and learning would mean to me.

My mother, with just an eighth-grade education, came with her mother and her three brothers to the United States from Italy in 1919 after World War I. My grandfather had been in the United States for five years and was finally able to send for his wife and children.

My mother, then 15, begged my father to send her to the public schools in Bethlehem, where my grandfather worked at Bethlehem Steel Corp. He refused, saying she would have to get a job to help support the family, take care of the house chores and help care for her three younger brothers and her then ailing mother.

She was crushed and went to work for 10 hours a day, six days a week. Despite this full-time job, considerable housework and child-care duties, she spent time trying to teach herself English. She read the newspaper, read simple books, but most important, she found a woman at the company where she worked who helped her learn how to read and to learn English.

Four years later, she married my father, who rented a grocery store about 40 miles away at 19 N. Market St., in Summit Hill.

When my father was 47 and my mother 35, I came along, the third of three boys. My mother read to me every night. She told me she read fairy tales when I was 2, 3 and 4. She said that I was able to read on my own when I was 4. I remember when I was 6, I read my first Hardy Boys mystery novel. Before I was 10, I had read all of the Franklin Dixon series.

I loved history - and geography. At one point, I knew not only all of the capitals of the United States but all of the capitals of the world. How many 9-year-old kids do you know who can ace the capital of Bechuanaland (today’s Botswana) as Mafikeng? Or that Timbuktu is a real place - in northwestern Africa?

Reading fired my imagination. I loved learning about those faraway places with the strange-sounding names. I imagined what it would be like walking the streets of Rabat, Morocco, or Vilnius, Lithuania. I longed for the day when I could visit Rome, Florence and Paris. (I eventually made it to all three.)

I kept scrapbooks of world events, such as the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. I avidly read the local newspapers, news magazines, The Reader’s Digest.

For my entire life, my mother’s prophetic words rang in my ears - “Reading will unlock the door to the world.”

A mother’s love is a priceless gift, but when it comes packaged with a commitment to reading and learning, it is truly precious.

My mother wanted to make sure my brothers and I had every educational opportunity possible - opportunities she wanted for herself but which circumstances would not permit.

My mother died nearly 24 years ago. Not one day goes by when I fail to appreciate how lucky I was. Her passion for reading and learning lit the fuse that allowed me to pursue my life’s passions in communications and education.

My hope is that my mother’s thirst for reading and learning will extend throughout our family’s generations, and that each, in turn, will pass it forward.

Here is how you can encourage your children to read:

• Get caught reading. Children imitate what they see adults around them do. Whether they see you read a newspaper, magazine or book, let them see that reading is the cool thing to do.

• Read to your children. No matter their age, reading aloud strengthens their vocabulary and language skills. It also opens up opportunities for discussion.

• Have your children read to you, too. You never know what you might learn.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.