Monday, 1/10/05: Last Wednesday, in less bluster than the earlier mentioned contest, I instituted our second reading contest. The children were fighting over a Spiderman anthology at the time, and Xay was in the habit of only checking out Captain Underpants books from the library. I knew it was time to give them a shot of classic literature.

We had agreed to meet Annette at the Washington Square library, a small, cozy, if not well stocked branch of the Kalamazoo Public Library. It opens at 1 on Wednesdays, and the babies had a play date with Simeon Glas in the 2 o’clock hour, so we had to make this quick. I had half a mind to make it the downtown library when Annette called and canceled around 12.

I decided to go ahead to Washington Square after all, because it has free parking. The snow was coming down pretty quick and thick, when we arrived around 1 P.M. Xay did his usual–parked himself in front of the computer, while I parked Esteban in front of a crate full of baby toys. Mani and Joy played with puzzles and sorting toys, and Mani found this huge oversized book called Zoo-ology, which she insisted we check out. Yani haunted her favorite shelf–the one which held whole collections of Goosebumps, Babysitters Club, and American Girls books.

I scanned the children’s fiction section for some likely classics. I found a few old Hardy Boys books, which I thought might work, I ran into Frances Hodges Burnett and picked up a book that looked like the Prince and the Pauper. Then I found Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, and Black Beauty.

I picked up a more twaddle-looking book about football as a possible book for Xay. Then I went in the adult room (there are only two rooms in Washington Square), and looked for something appropriate for either Yani or myself. I found 1984. I decided to take the plunge. Then I returned to give the children a choice. Xay could choose between Old Yeller, and that football looking book. He chose the former.

Yani could choose between Tom Sawyer and Black Beauty, which I had started reading to them both as a bedtime story a few years ago. She chose Tom Sawyer.

I knew I was in trouble when Yani had read half her book by bedtime the first day. She finished reading Tom Sawyer on Saturday. Xay just finished his book today. (Monday). That means they each read a substantial piece of classic fiction in under a week! They had three weeks to finish, which is when the books are due. I, on the other hand, am drowning somewhere around page 33 in this thick satirical allegory, which I can scarcely read without falling asleep.

Now I’ve got to think of prizes for this contest!

I have a different reading agenda with Mani and Joy. I got this idea from Sherese. She takes the due date slips from the library and tapes them in a book, and then writes down comments from the children about every book on the slip. She said that way she knows she took the trouble to read them. I don’t keep up with those slips very well, but I take the trouble to sit down with the children every other day or so and write about the books we have read. We don’t limit it to library books, but we do make a point of reading all the library books, so we can write about them. Since September, we’ve read and written about 39 library books. Not bad. . .