Daliyah Marie Arana, from Gainesville, Georgia, became hooked on reading after she started recognising words at just 18 months old.
She now enjoys books written for university students and only needs help if she gets stuck on a ‘big’ word, her parents said.
Her mother Haleema told the Times of Gainesville newspaper that she and her husband Miguel started reading to Daliyah ‘right when she was born’.
Their daughter would also hear them reading stories to their two other children, she said.
‘We would literally read every day, about 15 to 20 minutes a day,’ Mrs Arana said. ‘By the time she was 18, 19 months, we realized she could recognize a lot of the words. And we kind of took it from there.’
By the time she turned three, Daliyah was reading books on her own.
The little girl signed up to the Georgia 1,000 Books B4 Kindergarten Program – but ticked all the books off her list before preschool. She hopes to have read 1,500 by the time she starts kindergarten this autumn.
Mr and Mrs Haleema wrote to Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden about their daughter’s achievement and Ms Hayden was so impressed she invited Daliyah for a tour last week and to serve as ‘Librarian for the Day’.
Photographs show the preschooler walking through the halls of the impressive building and sitting at one of the large desks. Daliyah hopes to become a librarian herself one day and wants to encourage other children to read.
