Branching Out

If you know McKay very well, you know he's a pretty curious kid. Likes learning about how stuff works, why things are the way they are, etc. You also might know he's a little sensitive to certain things -- doesn't like anything scary or suspenseful. So it's been no surprise to me in the past few years that he tends to pick up non-fiction books. History, science, biographies. There was a time when I had to practically beg him to read fiction.

(Once, he was assigned to read a mystery for school. We picked a Hardy Boys book because we thought that would be fairly tame. He got near the end where the story got pretty suspensful and he practically refused to pick it up again. I had to coax pretty hard for him to finish the book and do his assignment. And once he got through it and knew it had a happy ending, he said he liked it okay. I've learned that if he knows a little about the ending -- whether it's a book or a movie -- he can get through the suspense better.)

This year, I think he's finally discovering the world of fiction. Not that he never read fiction before -- but it was a very slim minority of what he read. But now, I can't even remember the last non-fiction book I've seen him reading. It's great to see him branch out and overcome some of his insecurities a bit. (Now I've just got to keep getting some of that non-fiction in him too!)

His latest "obsession" is a series called the Underland Chronicles (by Suzanne Collins). The first book is Gregor the Overlander. He checked it out from the school library because he said he saw it on the shelf and remembered a friend last year had read it. There are 5 books in the series and he's devoured the first two. I checked out the 3rd for him today and when he got home from school, he hurried through his homework (a first!) so he could start reading. I made him put it down for bedtime but he was already over halfway done. He made some comment like, "I thought it was going to be scary, but it's not!" I'd better hurry and request the next two -- he'll be asking for them soon!

It's funny because it seems like every time he reads a book, he tells me it was the "best book ever" and is his new favorite. He's done that with several Andrew Clements books. It makes me happy to see him get so excited about books and reading.

And I have to admit, McKay's not the only one who has branched out recently. I myself have rediscovered reading "for fun" the last several months. It's been a long, long time since I have allowed myself time for reading. And now that I've started, I can't seem to stop. My list of books to read "next" keeps growing! I'm still struggling a bit with that elusive balance of making the time for reading while not ignoring things in my life (like dishes or laundry or even dinner...). Maybe someday I'll figure it out. I think I just need to keep the books out of my kitchen, because if it's sitting on the counter, I'm bound to pick it up and start reading there in the middle of the kitchen and before I know it my day is half gone. I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much of my reading is done standing (yes, standing!) at the kitchen counter.

So here's to books and stories and imaginations and libraries and kids who read!