11/9/09

What We're Reading



My son August was quick to pick up reading. I think once he figured out that letters form words and that words form ideas and that ideas can bring him new worlds...he was hooked. He read through the Harry Potter series book by book. If you asked him about a particular HP book he could tell you each character's story line today. He read the series in 3rd grade. His memory is good.
He's the first born. He's good at reading. He eats books. And best of all? He's excited about reading the books and shares them with me. He will often finish a book and hand it to me saying, "Mommy? You're gonna love this book...do you have time to read it right now?" I love this about him. I love that he wants to talk about the books he's read.
Recently he handed me The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. I bought the book for him a little while ago but he had a huge stack of 39 Clues and the Percy Jackson series to keep him busy so it took him a while to get to it. He read it in less than a week.

Last week I subbed for the Librarian at the kids school. As it happened, both the kids' classes came to the library that day which was a very nice surprise. August's class came through and were instructed by the teacher that they needed to check a book out for their free reading time. I fielded many questions about what book they should take out. I loved every minute of it. We walked around the library and looked at book after book depending on their interest. It was lovely.
August was one of the last students to grab me for a suggestion. We looked around the library and noticed that he had read most of the current novels so we went to the 'A' section. Avi. Have you read any of his books? He's been around for quite a while. After looking at the school selection we narrowed it down to Crispin. I read the summery on the cover and he gave out a short laugh and grabbed it from my hand, "Oh, yeah! That's the one I want to read!!"
He read it that weekend and brought home another Avi book, this time a graphic novel called City of Light, City of Dark. I'm not kidding, he just walked into the living room and handed it to me saying, "This book is in chapters. I know you're reading a book right now but you should really read the first chapter of this book...you'll love it."

He reminds me of another first born son I know...my big brother Scott. I know that one day August's uncle will be passing books on to him. Books that he's eaten in a weekend, just like August.

7 comments:

CalandStacia said...

That is incredible! I've always had such a passion for reading, and it's one of my deepest hopes that Cleo has that trait as well. I have boxes of my favorite books from childhood stored just in case.

Any tips?

rachel said...

that was beautiful to read, jen ;)
lovely storytelling...

tania said...

I love this about him too, Jen :) We are going to have to pick his brain about some good reads for Noah and Ezra. Right now, we are reading aloud the first Harry Potter book at night- The boys can't wait to finish so we can watch the movie :)

Missy said...

What a great post, Jen! Avi's written lots of good stuff- if August liked Crispin I'd definitely recommend Captain Grey- one of my very favorites of his!

And can I say that I absolutely love this blog? It makes me feel like we're not such far-away cousins; makes we wish I knew you better. :)

bandwidow said...

I loved this post Jen, I love that August loves reading.

Jennifer said...

Awww, Missy! I know we're far away but I really do feel close to you through your mom. I know we'd be good friends if we lived close to each other...I've always thought that.
Please come back and visit more often.

Stacia- read to her now! Give her the love of books from the very beginning...get that box out. It'll come sooner than you realize!

tania said...

By the way- Noah was home sick from school yesterday and he started reading the Hugo Cabret book you gave him last year. He loves it! He was so excited to re-discover the inscription you had added too :) He was planning to call and tell August about it- but then it got to late.