Last week, I had a very bittersweet moment. I walked into the library to pick up some books for the family and instead of turning right to go into the Children's Library, I turned left. I went into the main library - the library for every other reader besides a child. I went to the young adult section. Gabriel has outgrown picture books and early readers. While I delight in his love for reading, its a little sad that he has moved on so early.
Here are his favorite books!
It all started with Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow by Andy Griffiths. I saw a review for this book and requested it from the library (which meant that instead of turning left or right, I went straight ahead to the Holds shelf, I had no idea where among the Dewey Decimal system this book originated). Its a hard back book, over 100 pages. Very grown up looking. He ate this book.
Then he moved on to Ook and Gluk Kung Fu Cavemen From the Future by Dav Pilkey. The same fella wrote the popular Captain Underpants series. Gabriel liked this book but I have to say that I did not. Besides that the characters were mostly rude (I can handle being a little bit rude for a laugh, bc let's face it, people fart and sometimes its funny) the words weren't spelled properly. Ok, maybe the writer thought it would be easier for a younger audience if he wrote the words phonetically (I'm speculating) but I didn't like that because he is so young so he needs to learn the words the correct way before we go using K instead of a hard C and so on.
So I didn't like that book for Gabriel so we went back to the author of Big Fat Cow. He wrote another book along the same vein as Cow called The Cat on The Mat is Flat.
This was a hoot for Gabriel. This is the first book that left his night stand to accompany him to restaurants and boring shopping trips. (Can you tell that I am beaming while I write this? If only I could buy groceries and read a book at the same time!)
After this book, he went on to Stink. Stink is Judy Moody's little brother and he has his own series of books. Gabriel loved this one so much he finished all 160 pages in 2 days. This is the book where I realized he isn't a Children's Library kind of kid anymore. I found the review online and instead of requesting it from the library I thought I'd go and check the shelf because I knew I would be at the library that day anyway. What a shock when it wasn't in the early readers part of the library! A good shock. Maybe just a wee little sad shock. But mostly good. They can't stay little forever!
He came home from school with a request. He somehow heard of this book series, Hank the Cowdog. So I requested one and when I picked it up I thought, "Holy CowDog, I think he's getting in over his head." This book has few illustrations, long chapters and normal sized font. But he wanted it. And guess what? He read it and LOVED it! This summer we'll borrow some more from this series! Really, there are 57 books in this series. He can read them till he gets dizzy! This particular story was about a bad drought in Texas and some mysterious fires. It was very appropriate reading for our current drought situation.
For Gabriel's end of school year prize, I purchased the Diary of a Wimpy Kid box set (the first 4 books). He doesn't know and its a surprise so don't tell him! But I think he will really enjoy these books. They are right down his alley!
And for future reading, we saw Big Nate books on display at Walmart so he is likely to read these as well. They look like something he would like!
Is it a little sad that my sweet Baby Gabey is growing up and growing out of picture books? Yes. But it is also really cool to have real grown up conversations with him about books. He will tell me about what he is reading but I like to ask him why he likes certain things about a book and why he doesn't like them. He doesn't know this quite yet (because he is still finishing up 1st grade) but I'm prepping him for writing book reports (which is just a junior version of book reviews) (not that I'm encouraging him to go in any career direction) (he is only 6 years old after all, much too young to think seriously about preparing for his future).
And one more thing about Gabriel: He started a blog! Indeed. He loves taking his little digital point and shoot on adventures and he's been begging to start a blog of his own to share his pictures so I finally gave in. He's learning basic photo editing with Piknik and posting his pictures online! Maybe he will be a photographer like his dear old mom. Photography or writing or reviewing, he might do it all on a blog! (or 3 blogs, like his mom!)
As a mom of boys, I sometimes get sad that I didn't have a daughter to be my own mini me (this is my ego talking). My boys are nearly obsessed with being like daddy. And that's terrific because their daddy is terrific. But sometimes (here comes my ego again), I wish someone would want to be like me (but not as in putting on makeup or wearing heels, that would be weird for boys). They both like exercising, hiking, running, like me (and like daddy, well, not the running part). And now Gabriel has taken reading to the next level (like me and like daddy). But now he also likes photography.
Come to think of it, when I was his age, I wanted to do things my dad was interested in: camping, paddling, running, tennis, chess. As an adult, I've gotten into history and politics, like my dad. I guess gender doesn't play as big of a role in relating to your parents or even in being the son (or daughter) of your mom (and dad) as it seems on the surface.
What are your thoughts? How did you want to be like your parents when you were little?
2 comments:
I wanted to be a teacher like my mom, and look at me! I am a teacher. :) I was thinking about you with Emmy's last library picks, because she picked books that boys would like: Shark Vs. Train by Chris Barton, and another boyish book. But perhaps that one is good for Ethan now that Gabriel has moved on!
There is a picture home of me holding my dad's lunch box and wearing his hard hat from the Steel Plant. :)
I also liked to help in the yard when he was fixing the car. I applied to nursing school to be a RN like my mom but smartened up pretty quickly.
The boys here (older 2) love reading. They just pick up a book and start. It's so very different from my younger sibs learning to read.
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