Until Harry Potter.
Suddenly, the same boy who would only read under duress, was reading at almost every available moment. I can remember having to go upstairs and check on him several times at night, knowing that he had stashed a flashlight under his bed so he could sneak in a few more chapters before falling asleep.
I became curious, and admittedly a little concerned, about what these books contained. I decided I better read them myself to ascertain what had so wholeheartedly captured my stepson. I opened the first page, expecting a light story about a boy named Harry- but it didn't take long to understand why my oldest was sleeping with a flashlight.
I enjoyed all of the Harry Potter books as much, or possibly even more so, then my stepson. I will forever be in debt to J. K. Rowling for helping my nonbeliever discover the joy of reading.
The 10-year-old is much like his older brother, in that reading is something that he sees as having to do instead of wanting to do. He reads his book for 20 minutes a day, as prescribed by his teacher, but usually nothing more than that. So when he jumped off the bus, came running home and said, " Mom! I finished my Land of Stories book today! Can we go to Target and get the one and only Ivan?"
"Who's Ivan?" I ask.
"A gorilla."
"You want to go to Target to get a gorilla?"
As it turns out, Ivan is a gorilla in the book The One and Only Ivan. Whew. I mean, I know Target has just about everything but...
So of course we went to Target and got the book, because it's not very often that my 10-year-old asks to go there for anything other than video games or toys. Sure enough, he went out onto the patio as soon as we got home, and read on his own until supper. Looks like I'm going to have to hide the flashlights...
Today's picture celebrates the joy of getting lost in the written word, and a child's discovery that reading truly can be more than homework.
No comments:
Post a Comment