This year, now that he's in 8th grade, he has to read 40 books by May. He's on #18 and we've told him that he better read a book a week or else. It's torture for him and I wonder if he's just skimming the book to the end. It wouldn't surprise me. Bottom line, it's been a struggle. We've had some success this year finding graphic novels, like The.Walking.Dead (zombie stuff), that he's really enjoyed. But, someone gave him the book War.Horse for Christmas and he was truly disgusted. He read three pages and said, "Hell No." Well, he didn't say "Hell" but that was the gist of his attitude.
On the other hand, Bryce loves books more than air. He thrives on them. He will ask me to read book after book for hours and hours. It's so extreme that sometimes, when hubs and I are super exhausted, we think about places to hide the books...awful, I know.
This is how it goes down...
Bryce brings us a book and says, "EEEEEeeeee, EEEEeeeee." We think this means, "Read to me now stupid parents." So, we read the book and flip the pages with him intently watching.
Then, he gets up, goes to get another book, and sits back down in our lap saying, "Eeeeee...Eeeeeeee." And so it continues FOR HOURS.
If we say, "No Bryce, not right now." He'll scream, cry and yell at us both...It's torture to him.
Never did I think I would ever have a child that would love books as much as he does. I think it's truly wonderful, but a happy medium would be good too, ya know? We even have his older brother read to him from time to time, but we don't let him count those books as part of his 40 book goal. That would be too easy...
Cheers to building literacy skills for all - young and old(er)!
Here is a photo from my favorite moment the other night - we read this entire stack of books before bath time.
My girls love books too! Which is great...but I agree, a happy medium would be stellar. We get SO tired of reading books! I think having older brother read to Bryce is brilliant! Good thinking! Hopefully he can make it through his 40 books too!
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