Evan and reading

I think that in talking about Evan’s homework, I mentioned a reading requirement he now has. He has to sign into a site online where he can take quizzes on books he’s supposed to read for 20 minutes, four times a week. This of course means that he has to choose books on that list. So I’ve been reserving things at the library for him right and left, as he tears through books. He reads a whole chapter book at one sitting.

I’m not 100% thrilled with having to do the red tape related to this–finding books that are on the list, signing off that he’s done his 20 minutes, reminding him to take the quizzes–but there are some benefits to it.

For one thing, he was reading the book “Summer Reading is Killing Me” by Jon Scieszka and was so delighted to recognize characters from other books (by other authors) who wander into the story that he raced downstairs to tell me about it, and could barely get the words out fast enough because he was so excited. That’s a pretty awesome moment for a parent.

Then last night, at his den meeting, they were talking about tall tales and folklore for the achievement they were working on, and he told them about the book “Tales From Cornwall” that he’d read. Pretty cool!

And today, we went to the library thinking we would just pick up one reserved book, but it turned out two more had come in since they’d called us. The librarian seemed pretty darn gratified when he said, “Oh cool!” with real enthusiasm when she handed him “American Tall Tales” (the version by Mary Pope Osborne, author of the “Magic Treehouse” series.) The other two were a book about man-eating tigers (he started reading that right there at the counter!) and a native legend about how the stars were named. Plus we brought home a stack of books he just wants to read, that aren’t on the list.

It’s a pleasure to see how much he enjoys books!