Book Love

This past weekend we went to our library. We had about 10 books to return, I needed a book club book (and to pay off my fines!), and the Friends of the Library was having a book giveaway/book sale.

So, we get there and as usual, Kieran makes a beeline for the computer to go play games. I let him do that for about 5 minutes before I cajole him downstairs to look at the books. We can each take two free books as well as purchase any additional books for 50 cents each. Kieran quickly finds four books he wants. Mia looks at all the books, talks to all the people there and then picks up a book that has a purple cover. I try to convince her to find another book, but no.

So, given that it is free, I let her take the (Shadowrun, Book #3) tome with her. All weekend long she refuses to let it out of her grip and on Sunday begins to 'read' it to us. It's a book about pirates, Ariel, dogs or whatever strikes her fancy. She sits with it open, looking at the words on the page and says "Mom, I need to show you this." and points to a page. "It's a dark cave." or "Look at the pirate."

The book is falling apart - and I don't care. It's convinced me that once this book is beyond repair we'll probably have to take her down to our used book store and let her pick out a book that's a few dollars and do it all over again. I want to instill her love of reading.

Kieran reads very well, but he only wants to read a few things - and games win out over reading. I have about six books on order from the library for him, and I would be that he'll run through them very quickly because once he starts a book, it's very fast for him to finish. It's getting him to start that's at issue.

Anyway, just some kid stories to share.