My Reading Monsters

"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” - Victor Hugo


I love to read. I think Mike may secretly despise times when I get a good book. I simply can't put it down until I'm finished. My last big read was truly big - almost 700 pages. I loved it ("The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins) but it also meant that a lot of things got put aside until I finished it (cleaning, dishes, dusting...). I'm sure Mike would prefer I stick to 100 page books. Much more manageable and as a bonus - a visitor would still be able to see our floors if they stopped by.
Recently Jake has really taken off in reading. He's in kindergarten and has discovered chapter books within the last week. Correction: he's discovered that he can read them and understand them. He's QUITE excited about this and talks about it a lot during the day. He informed me that he was going to read ALL the Treehouse Mystery books, ALL the Junie B. Jones books, ALL the Cam Jansen books, and also the Hardy Boys and some Nancy Drew. Keep in mind his reference for chapter books is only limited to what he's known Maddie to read. Tonight I told each of them they could read if they were ready for bed in 5 minutes...great incentive! Jake, who normally moves slower than a snail moves like lightning if he's given the chance to read in bed. Tonight this was the scene I found when I went to kiss him goodnight. He wasn't actually reading out loud to all his friends, but I guess they really wanted to see the pictures too.

Maddie's recent reading adventure takes on what many young girls still love from years ago...Nancy Drew! (Trivia side note: did you know that the author of the Nancy Drew books - Carolyn Keene - was not a real person? The books were actually written by a group of women working for a publishing company that needed to have some articles/books for young women!) I don't remember loving to read as much when I was her age as I do now, but I do remember LOVING the Nancy Drew books my mom had from when she was young. She's reading them in order and is on #13 - each seems to get better and better! And she reads them so fast - a couple days at the most for each book! I have to say though - Maddie has me beat by a mile in terms of being a fan. In fact, the other night as I was tucking her into bed and she was raving about the latest plot twists and turns she said, "Mom...I LOVE Nancy Drew. Like, if she was here, in person...I would be like...oh! oh! oh! oh! I....I would be speechless!!"

I loved "Trixie Belden" books too...more mysteries and hopefully I'll be able to introduce those to Maddie when she runs out of Nancy Drew books. There are about 60 in the series; that should take her a couple weeks.