{"id":6786,"date":"2012-01-13T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T11:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=6786"},"modified":"2012-01-13T06:00:58","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T11:00:58","slug":"a-determined-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=6786","title":{"rendered":"A Determined Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"

The customer strode in and asked where Huckleberry Finn<\/em> was. He was almost chortling as I handed him the book. “This will \"\"<\/a>get them reading.” Curious, I asked what he was talking about. Gleefully, he explained what he was planning.
\nIt turns out he has twin 11-year boys who are too smart for their own good. They were given Kindle Fires for Christmas (it was from the grandparents who live 1,500 miles away, don’t get me started) and they’ve discovered they can fake read. These boys, Dustin and Tom, set up their device with a book and show their Dad what they’re reading. Then their father goes back to what he’s doing and the kids Google the book and look up key plot points to discuss at breakfast.
\nThe Dad had had it. He was determined that all three of them were going read Huck Finn<\/em> if it kills\"\"<\/a> him. I cannot write what he actually said, except to say he needed to contribute fifty cents to the swear jar. While I loved his enthusiasm for getting his boys to read, I was dubious about his methods. Nothing sucks the joy out of a reading venture than being told, “We’re going to read this and we’re going to like it.” I lobbied that perhaps this venture could start out just as the father wanting to share a book with the boys, not force it. Elizabeth overheard \"\"<\/a>this strategy and came over with a Flying Pig favorite, A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears<\/em> by Jules Feiffer. He loved the idea of a funny book to start things off. Next we gave him My Side of the Mountain<\/em> to have as the second book, then come right in with Huck Finn.
\nThe father has vowed to keep us posted about how his reading plan progresses, and when I hear more, I’ll repost. I can’t wait to see how the first week goes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The customer strode in and asked where Huckleberry Finn was. He was almost chortling as I handed him the book. “This will get them reading.” Curious, I asked what he was talking about. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}