What We're Reading This Week

The Z-Man is really starting to talk. He still mimics a lot, but also has a lot to say on his own. One of my favorite things to hear him say is "I go libree! I go libree!" And whenever we pull into the parking lot of the library, he cheers, "Lay! Lay!" (His Y's sound like L's.)

For all of my parental weaknesses and issues, I feel good about the way that my kids are embracing books and reading. Our house is overflowing with books. I recently got a new bookshelf for my bedroom mainly because the kid books were taking over a corner of the room. On the shelves sit two boxes with all the board books, plus another big box of library books and other picture books. We sit on my bed or in the reading chair in my room and read a lot. My kids know that if they ask me to read a book with them, I will almost always agree. This compares with the other things they might ask me to do which I am more likely to turn them down. In my opinion, there's nothing better than snuggling up with a child to read a book. And I'm really excited about the way T's reading is taking off.

Taking a page from the NPR book page, this is what we're reading this week.

Z-Man: He still loves Sesame Street books with Elmo and Zoe. He has pretty much mastered his colors save for blue, but still loves to name them. He is starting to be interested in ABC and counting books. He has also taken quite a shine to Mercy Watson books (see below), or at least to the pictures in Mercy Watson book.

T--This week, we discovered the Tiny Titans graphic novels. I don't really like them, but after we read some together, T sat and read on his own with this one. MJ and some kids from the neighborhood set up a library in our garage, and T "checked out" Fantastic Mr Fox yesterday. He read on his own for quite a while today, proudly stating that he got to page 65 as he was going to bed. I could hear him laughing as he was reading. One of our favorites to read together is Mercy Watson about a pig with a single minded devotion to butter who is being raised like a child by Mr and Mrs Watson. T's favorite character is the cowboy thief and then later reformed criminal Leroy Ninker. We are all excited to go hear the author, Kate DeCamillo, speak and get her autograph next month.

MJ--MJ is in 3rd grade, attending school with 5th and 6th graders. Her school was overflowing, and so this year, they moved the 3rd and 4th grade to the intermediate school. The library there is full of materials that are suited for slightly older kids. She is a good reader, but it really bugs me when she comes home with book after crappy book of Sweet Valley Twins , including stories about first kisses, boyfriends, and getting your period. These are the younger sister of Sweet Valley High books, of which, I admit, I read a few. I am trying to get her to check out other books from her school library and am happy that that the public library doesn't have these books. In addition to Sweet Valley, she is working on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She also is reading Katie Kazoo and The Magician's Elephant (also to be autographed by Ms DeCamillo).

AJ is probably the least prolific reader in the family in terms of books read, but I am happy that he has plodded through a couple of books in the past couple of months. He is currently working on Michael Chabon's Manhood for Amateurs and earlier in the year read and loved Michael Pollen's Omnivore's Dilemma.

As for me. I have read a lot of mediocre books in the last little while, but things took a turn for the better with Strength in What Remains--the story of a Burundi refugee who leaves during the 1994 genocide and later ends up at Columbia and Dartmouth universities to study medicine--and The Guersey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I read this for book group. It was pretty good, a nice story, a little on the fluffy feel-good side. But the title is terrible. I can never say it properly. And I just started listening to Game Change, which looks to be a really interesting and fun look at the craziness of the 2008 election.