The Love of Books

Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez
Have you ever saved a book for your children to read at the right age? I've done that with books like the Harry Potter, Percy Jackson series thinking they would enjoy these books as much as I did. When my daughter fell in love with the Twilight books, I feared for my sanity. I'm not a fan of the books but I thank the author for helping my daughter discover her love of reading. Soon after reading those, she went on a reading binge and thankfully chose better books. While she didn't get into the Harry Potter series like I'd hoped, she fell in love with the Elizabeth Chandler books instead. She would spend hours talking to me about the characters and even wrote several book reports on them. Seeing her excited about a book was fantastic! She even started writing stories featuring angels, vampires and demons with her friends.

After reading Alex Sanchez's Rainbow Boys in 2009, I knew I would be saving this trilogy for my youngest son. Living in "the barrio" as I call our neighborhood and being gay is not exactly easy. I knew this book would help him and hoped he would actually want to read this book. I'd tossed several books his way for his reading logs and aside from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and Pokemon books, I didn't see him reading much.

He and I had a heart-to-heart a few days ago while laying in bed staring at the ceiling after a week of receiving nothing but bad news in our family. He started talking about how hard it is to be out at school even with the no tolerance policies in place. Kids are just cruel and teens even more so. I went to my bookshelf, dusted off the jacket of the book I'd saved for him and handed it to him. That night he started reading and while he's a slow reader, he's enjoyed it so much we are now in a race to finish it. I'm re-reading it on my iPad while he reads the print version. He talks to everyone about the book and when I told him today that it's actually a trilogy, he practically fell out of his chair.

How do you share your passion for reading with your kids? Are there books that after reading them you just know your kids have to read? Share them in the comments.

Comments

  1. MaureenMarch 27, 2011 at 1:15 PM

    I don't have kids, but when I was working in the bookstore and parents would come to me in despair that their kids didn't read... I'd steer them toward books where they'd made decent movies. Say get the kid to watch the movie, then hand them the book. Having a face to match a character to can often help kids focus on the book...

    And by all means, let them read what they want to read! You have to develop the skill of reading before diving into 'literature!'

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  2. JessicaMarch 28, 2011 at 12:40 PM

    Saritza, thanks for sharing something so personal on your blog. I was touched by the recounting of your conversation with your son and bonding over the book you've been holding onto for just the right time for him.

    My daughter is 20 months, and I've got a little boy due in about 2 months. I like to resell books when I can but there are some that I'll never sell because I hope my kids will love them as much as I did. I've kept all my HP books, all my Tolkein, most of the Agatha Christie's I've read, and even all my Laurell K. Hamilton (for when my daughter is ready for sex-infused horror, by the age of 30 or so). So far, she's interested in books about shapes and animals, but I'm sure we'll work our way up to vampires eventually:)
    --Jessica Day

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rebecca LeighMarch 29, 2011 at 1:56 AM

    I have always used books to teach about life in a very similar way as what you have described. Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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