Back to school

My biggest school struggle as a child was finding things to read.  They turned you loose in the library with no guidance or direction, my choices were random at best.  At home, the main goal was not to alert the maternal unit that you even existed, let alone expect guidance or encouragement in the literary realm.  In junior high they assigned books for you to read but never gave you any background on why that particular book was worth reading so to my immature mind they were just lousy stories we had to read for class.  Now I could suggest a whole slew of great books for the age 12+ reader, but what do I do for my 6 year old?  I want him to learn to love reading and stories, not kill that budding love by inane books or too much pressure, but to do that, he needs to discover books he can fall in love with.  That is one advantage of technology: there's a whole world of great stories out there, now closer than ever.  Encouraging the young readers in your life is one of the most important things you will ever do, as the rate of readers in America continues to plummet into a seemingly bottomless abyss!

A tale of two critters

I loved the Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer when I was a kid and it's been fun introducing them to our son.  We bought several of the multivolume sets when he was fairly little and have been enjoying them again and again, well most of them.  I love the wit, whimsy, love, humor, and grace with which these books portray everyday life with small kids, at least in the older books.  Some of the newer ones are a downright bore.  Yep, just another book about eating right and exercising and being nice to people, not that there is anything wrong with that sort of book, it is just rather disappointing after reading the previous generation of books, which addressed similar topics but in a far more attractive manner.  The wit and whimsy have been replaced by the tedious mantras we hear from public service announcements and motivational speakers and internet gurus.  The wit and whimsy can reach the heart and mind of an over-teched and informationally saturated generation but the mantras will just bounce off like rain off an umbrella, so much have they been inundated since their first breath.  But that is the beauty of a book: a good one lives forever, especially in the hearts and minds of its lovers.  And happily there are enough god books in the series to keep the kids of this generation and the previous ones busy for a lifetime!

Killing the dream?

I'm dreading the start of the school year.  They spent all last year teaching my little guy to read and now I'm afraid (after speaking with other parents of older kids) they'll push him to read so much they kill his love for it.  I remember my English classes never inspired a love of literature with their choices of 'educational' material, things like 'Brave New World' and 'Animal Farm' for which my adolescent brain was not ready.  I just wanted a good story with enduring characters and a great plot, I wasn't looking for political metaphor guising itself as a novel.  It didn't enlighten my benighted brain but only managed to confuse me and turn me off to what should be good books.  Now it is even worse, how much and far they push them, demanding so many pages or minutes or words rather than letting a love of reading bud naturally, we throw these developing and delicate sprouts into an artificial hot house and demand they grow, NOW!  They are making it work and not fun, it should be a lifelong enjoyable habit, not just another assignment to check off the list.  The statistics on adult readers in the US are atrocious and this just might be a root cause (technology and other distractions is certainly another).  Let's fight against the machine and read because we want to, not because we have to, and let's teach our kids to do the same!

Summer reading list!

Here's an interesting summer reading list, hopefully your library has a few copies, mine doesn't!  Enjoy!