This past week we had family visiting from Indiana. We love their visits because it gets us out on Lake Champlain, fishing and just having fun. But it also gets us reading – well, most of us.
Calyn, who will be a high school senior this year, has a tradition of getting lots and lots of books at the store. This year, to help her celebrate her 18th birthday next week, she left with a box of books, which her dad had to carry out to the car it was so heavy. In nine days she had read six of the books! She was anxious for sequels of Wither and Immortal Beloved.
We were reading on the dock one day and she was getting quieter and quieter. She was so focused, almost red-faced when she turned the page and said, “Oh, now I am really angry!” The book was placed on the arm of the chair and she walked away. I noticed she was reading The Fault in Our Stars, which I have read and loved, so we talked about it. Calyn is an excellent person to talk about books with because she’s a really insightful reader who is passionate about books.
My nephew Will maintained his tradition of reading comic book series at the end of the school year. Last year it was Calvin and Hobbs, this year it’s the Foxtrot series. Jake, my younger nephew, confessed at dinner the other night to “staying up until 11:30 to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” He’s only nine, so 11:30 might as well be four in the morning. What I loved was he was how gleeful he was in admitting why he was so tired at dinner. “I was reading.” It was the first time he stayed up late to read.
I loved it, because in that instance I felt my nephew had just become a life-long reader.