Preschooler dazzles librarians by reading 1,000 books by age 4

(h ar, YouTube)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

GAINSVILLE, Ga. — Reading 1,000 books is no small feat, especially when you’re just in preschool.

Four-year-old Daliyah Marie Arana loves to read. She dove into the written word much earlier than most — from the time she was 18 months old, she began identifying words on her own, according to the Gainsville Times.

“I have two other small children too,” Daliyah’s mom, Haleema Arana, said. “So she’d heard us reading stories to them as well. We would literally read every day, about 15-20 minutes a day.”

Just before her third birthday, she read her first book solo.

“She wanted to take over and do the reading on her own,” Arana told the Washington Post. “It kind of took off from there. The more words she learned, the more she wanted to read.”

While she’s never been officially tested for skill level, Daliyah managed to decipher a college-level speech, the Post reports. A YouTube video of her reading “The Pleasure of Books,” by William Lyon Phelps, has garnered more than 55,000 views.

Daliyah’s love for books inspired her parents to sign their then-2-year-old up for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program, which encourages parents to keep track of how many books they’ve read to and with their children in the years leading up to kindergarten.

Arana told the Washington Post that it took just a year for her daughter to meet the goal, and that doesn’t even take into account the estimated 1,000 books they’d already read before entering the program.

The little girl — who’s already settled on a future career as a librarian — has her own library card at her local branch, according to the Gainsville Times.

While she’s become a bit of a celebrity in her home town, Daliyah recently grabbed the nation’s attention when she was invited to be the “Librarian for the Day” at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this week, Carla Hayden — the country’s first female and first African-American national librarian — tweeted photos of Daliyah exploring the largest library in the world.

“She just kept saying how the Library of Congress is her most favorite, favorite, favorite library in the whole wide world,” Arana told the Washington Post.

Daliyah even offered a few suggestions on how to make the nation’s library even better, asking Hayden to bring in whiteboards to line some of the hallways so kids could practice writing new words, according to the Post.

Daliyah’s visit may be over, but her dreams have just begun. She plans to read another 500 books before she starts kindergarten this fall, and hopes to be able to teach other kids to love reading as much as she does.

“I want to teach other kids to read at an early age, too,” she told the Gainsville Times.

So what's the secret to shaping your own tiny reader? Early exposure, according to her mother.

“Their little brains are absorbing so much," Arana said. "They’ll just soak it up.”

Daliyah will take a break from her books for a few hours this weekend — she’s been asked to recite the “I Have a Dream” speech in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. at an MLK Day celebration in her town, the Post reported.


![Jessica Ivins](//img.ksl.com/slc/2598/259869/25986908\.jpg)
About the Author: Jessica Ivins \-------------------------------

Jessica Ivins has three loves: her family, doughnuts and the news. She's been producing, writing and editing for KSL for more than 8 years and doesn't plan to stop until she's 90. Jessica spends her free time running, eating and hiking her way through Seattle, where she lives with her husband and three children.

Most recent Education stories

Related topics

EducationU.S.

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast