While my first born, my son, was growing nice and chunky inside of me, I read to him. I sang him songs, I talked with him but mostly I read. I dreamed of the day I would introduce him to Harry Potter. I fantasied about sharing my greatest treasures-books-with him.
Spoiler Alert: Life doesn't always go according to plan.
My son loves to be read to, he really does. Reading by himself, well that is another story. I grew up devouring books on a daily basis. I still remember one devastating summer day when the librarian told me I could only check out 10 books at a time and I had to decide which 10 books to keep and which 10 books to put back from my pile (I was in sixth grade). When I needed consequences for my actions, my parents took away reading. I used to get in trouble in school for reading while the teacher was talking. These are not exaggerations, it was just my life. I always assumed my son (and later daughters) would be just like me, especially if I read to them before they were able to do so themselves. After all, don't the experts say the best way to raise a reader is to read to them? (Or some crap like that)
Unfortunately, my son is not an enthusiastic reader. Granted, he is only in second grade but reading already seems tedious to him. The problem is school. I completely understand elementary schools/teachers pushing reading, wanting students (especially the young ones) to read daily. The problem is making it homework, making it an obligation. Forcing students to read does not make them like reading, if anything it has the opposite affect. Forcing students to read a certain amount and/or a certain amount of time makes reading seem like a task, a chore. My son was not enjoying these nightly reading sessions, no one was, so when he finally found a book series that he liked, I was thrilled. He was so excited when I put it on hold at the library and it came in. Yay! I was about to start winning the battle! Then...I read the book.
If you haven't heard of Captain Underpants then you probably do not know a child in elementary school. It is a comic book style story that revolves around two young boys, Harold and George, who write a comic book called Captain Underpants. One day, Harold and George accidentally turn their no nonsense, no fun principal into their comic book hero and hilarity ensues. The whole premise does not sound that bad, right? The issue I have with this book, with every Captain Underpants book (there are 12 of them) is the language used. No, there isn't swearing but rather inappropriate grammar. Yes, these books use words like "ain't" and sentences such as "I seen him". What is the point of having my son read these books if it is only going to worsen his grammar and spelling? Dav Pilkey, the auther of these stories, also has series that include: Dog Man, Super Diaper Babies, Dumb Bunnies and Ricky Ricotta and his Mighty Robot. The only series out of those that uses proper grammar and sentence structure is the last one (which, actually, I highly recommend for ages 5-8). It actually makes me cringe and throw up in my mouth a little bit every time my son wants to read a Captain Underpants or Dog Man book. I cannot stand them. Not even a little bit. My son, though, my son ADORES them. He loves them. He cannot get enough of them. He ignores the rest of the world when he enters Pilkey's universe. How can I deny him the only books he actually enjoys?
The thing is, I can't. I cannot in good faith discourage him from reading Pilkey. The content is age appropriate and he loves them. What I need to do is slowly switch him from "bad" Pilkey to "good" Pilkey (aka Ricky Ricotta) then gradually introduce him to other books. It will be a process but one that I am hoping will pay off.
Maybe one day we will read Harry Potter together. In the meantime, here's to toilets that throw up? Ugh.
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