Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Ever heard of it? Ever had a kid who didn't really see the thrill of reading? Well, if your reluctant reader is anywhere close to seven, eight, or even nine years old, then you'd better run to the bookstore and grab the red one, the blue one, the green one, and the yellow one! Once it grabs your young reader's attention, at least two things will happen: 1. your child will read for longer periods of time than you ever imagined would happen without the threat of flying monkeys, and 2. you are going to be grinning bigger than the goofiest person you've ever seen.
No kidding.
James was immersed in the Wimpy Kid books when he read them last year. That's not that much of a surprise, since he likes to read and he's a boy who can easily identify with the Wimpy Kid. Ah, but Kate, Kate does not like to read very much. Almost every "book" she has freely chosen at a bookstore has been a journal with blank pages for drawing or a book used as packaging background for the necklace or pen or other trinket accompanying it. To be fair, her ability to read aloud has grown with leaps and bounds since this summer, but until this week she hadn't experienced being "glued to an interesting book." Diary of a Wimpy Kid reeled her in hard. . .she started reading the other night, read to page 38, and got up yesterday morning with the intention of finishing that book by the end of Turkey Day. That book has 217 pages, so this was a lofty goal. She made it to page 197 by last night, though, and she finished it today! Hooray for Kate! Hooray for reading (because the better you read, the better you write, and you know how that goes on from there)! Hooray for Wimpy Kid books!