Mr W routinely judges books by their covers. I'm not trying to be symbolic or metaphorical, he'll select books from the library based on what they look like from the outside. I've always encouraged him to read, and hold it as the thing that he does (usually) to earn time playing on the computer. I also pick out the majority of books that he reads from the library.
Part of this has been because he'll read the same Calvin and Hobbes books over and over again, and I want him to branch out. I also don't mind steering him towards books I think he'll like that I think are pretty cool.
A few months ago, a friend's husband had a Kickstart project where he was raising money to publish a kid-lit novel. I kicked in and got a signed copy of the book when it was published. The book sat ignored on Mr W's shelf. Yesterday, after reluctantly getting off the computer, he moped around saying there was nothing to read. He wandered into his room and came out with the book.
And proceeded to be captured and engrossed by this book, laughing out loud, saying, "Mom, listen to this", and generally enjoying himself. It was really cool to see. He also really liked that the author signed the book for me.
That is so cool! I love Kickstart! This could be just wat Mr. W needs to start a new relationship with books.
ReplyDeleteThis is just the thing . . . to find books that young readers are interested in! What a wonderful, big, exciting world they can be turned on to. (I'm sure I can dangle a few more participles if I really try.)
ReplyDeleteI fantasize about spending a whole week (a month?) sometime doing nothing but reading, reading, reading until I don't want to read anymore. When I think of all the time I wasted during my junior high/high school years when I could have been reading. Sigh.
Yes, it was exciting to see his excitement :-)
ReplyDeleteMama Pea, you can dangle your participles as much as you want around here. I'm sure I do it all the time...