Sneaky: How we get our girls to read books we recommend

My husband and I went to the library last weekend (or was it the weekend before that?)  It was a beautiful day – crisp, cool air, a lovely breeze, and I dragged him by the hand to go for a walk.  We went to Starbucks for some green tea, a park to sit on a bench and enjoy the cool air, and then to the library.

We’ve both been a little sad lately, because as the girls have gotten older, their reading has dropped off a bit.  School is more challenging, extra-curriculars are more consuming.  They both often have a book in-hand, but they’re either re-reading things, or reading well below their reading level.  Or, in Mouse’s case, they pick up a book, read a little bit, and then just wander away … for good.  [I do not get that.  I suffer through even the worst book rather than walk away before finishing.]

Lemon has been driving me particularly crazy lately, as she has been re-reading the ENTIRE Harry Potter series.  I don’t know why it bothers me as much as it does (oh, yes I do, because I fear she’s being immature).

But while we were at the library, WD and I went to the book sale.  While WD often is looking for books for the girls as his first priority, I tend to be more selfish, looking for ME ME ME.  But this time,  I was scanning, mostly for the girls (since I prefer to read on my iPad since I got it, and the library – as far as I can tell – can’t help me there).  I found a couple of books that I thought Lemon may enjoy, and we bought them ($.50/pop – why not?)

When we got back to our house, the girls weren’t home.  I was about to take the books and put them on Lemon’s bed for her to find when she got home.

“No, you can’t do it like that.”  WD said, stopping me.

“Huh??”

“You have to put them on her shelf when she’s not looking.  Then when she goes staring at her shelf for something to read, she finds it and thinks, ‘hey – what’s this?’ Without commentary from us to rebel against, she reads them.”

I trusted him, because she does rebel against ANY recommendation I give her.  Any and all.  (She’s missing out on a lot of great books this way … for now.)

I left the books in WD’s charge, and kind of forgot about them.

The other day, I went into her room and saw he’d put one of them on her shelf.  I also saw she was (FINALLY!!!) almost through the last Harry Potter book.

This morning I was slow getting to work, and she was languishing in bed (it’s Rosh Hashanah – schools in our town are closed), reading one of the books!   I said nothing, but remarked she should be getting in the shower.

Ten minutes later – still reading.  Completely engrossed.  I had to (again) shove her toward the shower.

After her shower – she’s sitting on the edge of the bed, drops of water still on her, wrapped in a towel — reading the book!! She could NOT put it down.

And so, WD’s plan gets gold stars.  I am excited that I can anonymously recommend books to my kid.

Curious, though, what HER view is of that bookshelf.  I mean, she’s not stupid.  She knows they’re coming from somewhere.  She has our larger family bookshelves completely memorized.  She notices if we move a single book out of the order it was in the day before.

Maybe she just accepts it as her own private Narnia of Books.

We’ll have to figure something out for Mouse, too.  But she’s still too busy reading the script for her play, over and over and over.

 

Harry Potter – With Spoilers – Why I Still Hate Snape

I started this post on Friday.  But work got busy – I didn’t even leave there until 7:30 p.m.  Then I came home to no power (and yes, it was still 100 degrees).  Saturday was … busy?  I don’t remember what I did on Saturday.  But I think I was busy.  Yesterday was beach day no. 2, this time with family.  Lemon spent most of her time on the beach, listening to A Very Potter Musical on her iPhone, and reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  Every now and then she’d pipe up to share with me little tidbits that stood out at her: “Mom!  Snape just took one point from Gryffindor!  One point!”  (WD, who hasn’t read the books, didn’t understand why that was remarkable.  Lemon and I thought everyone knew that, duh, it’s always like 100 or 150 points being taken away by the end.)  So, Harry Potter lives in our house (as the chalkboard in the kitchen says:  JULY 31:  POTTERMORE!!!).  And is still something we share.  So excuse my obsessiveness here, and please know, I could be worse.  I could be like my daughter.

Last Friday, I stayed home from work.  Things have started to pick up, and I was very busy on Wednesday and Thursday, but was still able to be at home on Friday.  Which was good, because I had to take Lemon to the doctor to check things out in light of an extreme dizzy spell she suffered from on Wednesday.

The night before, Lemon went to see Harry Potter.  Not the midnight show – that was sold out.  Instead, she went to the 12:09 a.m. showing.  She went with 3 friends and one mom.

It never occurred to me – or the other mom (who was, incidentally, also Wednesday’s beach buddy) – that I would want to go, too.  I’ve never gone to a midnight showing (she has).  I read the books, but only saw the movies because my kids did and I was in the room (sometimes).  I’m not 100% certain that I have seen all of the movies.

But on Thursday evening, with all the buzz on twitter, facebook & blogs, I wished I was going.

On Friday morning, I found myself with a sleeping 15 yo, a 13 yo at camp, and some time on my hands.  So I read 1,000 reviews of the movie, including this amazing review/retrospective in my local paper.  I sobbed through the reading of it.

I must admit, I was caught off guard by the emotions of it.  Miss Zoot’s peeks backward also had me choked up.

So I went into my weekend in the Berkshires with Potter on the brain.  Lemon spent most of the day on Friday giving me some of the rundown, and her parental escort was with us on the trip, so she also had some feedback to give (all positive).

And we chatted a bit about the books/movies/story line.

And we debated.

Because 2 of my friends said they “love Snape.”  Whaaa?  Severus Snape?  (snape, snape, severus snape)

“The whole story happens because of Snape!”

“Snape was the bravest, most loyal of them all!”

“Snape was the most  complicated and developed character in the whole saga!”

To which I said — bullllllshit.

But while calling bullshit, I had a wee bit of a hard time recalling the intricacies of how things ended with Snape.  So I thought it was highly likely that I’d end up back pedaling in the end.

But then I re-read the chapter that gives his back story.  Then I saw the movie.

And I still call bullshit.

Maybe not on the idea that “the story could have never happened without him” (but I think I’m almost there …) but I can definitely say that he was not the bravest, he was not the most developed character, and he is not someone I would have ever, ever named a baby after.

I really don’t care that he loved Lily Potter back when she was still friendly with her sister Petunia.  His love for her didn’t make him a better person.  It didn’t keep him from becoming an evil follower of Voldemort.  And the only reason he went begging to Dumbledore  (and therefore became a ‘double agent’) was because of a selfish plea to save a single person that HE (Snape) was attached to.  Not because he saw that it was wrong to kill innocent people.  Not because he decided Voldemort was vile.

So, yeah, his murdering of Dumbledore wasn’t as horrid as it potentially could have been.  He was saving Draco Malfoy from the scarring experience of murdering someone he respected.  He was fulfilling Dumbledore’s own wishes.  Dumbledore was going to die with the year, anyway.  But none of that means that Snape was good.

Snape was never good.  He was nasty, bitter, jealous, and two-faced. Even after he started helping to “protect” Harry.  Look at what he did to Hogwarts when he was headmaster?  There is nothing good about that.

And I do think the story could have happened without him.

 

(All of that said – Alan Rickman is No. 1.)

Overdue

Yesterday, I went to my public library’s website, and after punching in my library card # and pin #, I quickly covered my eyes while my daughter peeked at the screen to tell me whether it was safe to look.

I’m telling you – this is why I buy books.

I suck as a library user.  I really do.  I check out so many books, and I read maybe 1 of them, and lose the rest.

Yeah, my library has an on-line system, where I can log in and check what books are in my possession, and when they are due to be returned.

And yeah, it also has a “renew” button on the website.

Yep.  I am also signed up for email alerts when a book is getting near due.

Guess what else?

I have a husband who writes, and also reads like a fiend, and spends a million hours at the library (never wracking up fees, either).  he’s more than willing to take my books in with him when he goes.  If I give them to him.

______________________

Before we checked my account, we checked Lemon’s.  She was afraid of her overdue fines, too.  But she owed $2.50.  Easy to pony up with that chump change.

Once, a couple of years ago, I lost a book, and had a bunch of other books – one of which was a “Speed Read” (due in a week and not renewable  … even though I’ve never read a book within that required week; or even started it within that required week), and probably had some DVDs in there, too, and they accumulate $2/day or something obscene like that.  I went in, eventually, to settle up, and was informed that I owed $120.  No, I did not mean to put any decimal points in there.  I wrote the library a check for One Hundred and Twenty Dollars.

And yesterday, I feared it was worse.  I’ve been harboring this fear for at least a year.  I am not exaggerating.  I have avoided the library (a mere 3 blocks from my home) for that long.

When Lemon saw the result, she gasped.  I was scared.

$35.

Ha!  Pennies!  Absolute pennies!

I then came clean to her about the last time I owed money.  She was horrified that we share genetic material.

I paid on line, and then we all went to the library.  I checked out 3 books.  Exercised restraint.  Sort of.  Because I’m not really sure why I checked out three books when I’m still in the very beginning (p. 285) of a 1,000 page monster by Stephen King (because I am devouring it, and will be finished soon, that’s why!).

I’m sure I’ll read them before they’re due ….