Toothwhale

Project 365: Week 44

 

We traveled a path in the woods. I carried a camera. He carried a stick. My pace was steadier than his. I walked unless I stopped to wait. He ran ahead. He fell behind. He took my hand to be helped along.

It was All Saints' Day, and he had nowhere to be but with me. His Catholic school was closed for the day. He's Catholic, my son. My husband and daughter, too. Not me.

When we chose his school, when it chose us, I was nervous. Unsure how it would be to be a Catholic school family, as a non-Catholic. I held my breath. Took a deep breath in and waited.

A week went by. A month. Two. And I realize now that I've been breathing again, without noticing I was. It's all right. It's really all right.

See more of my photos on Flickr.

Context failure

On the way to school in the morning and on the way from school to the grocery store in the afternoon yesterday, Henry flipped through the pages of his Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary. He read some words, asked for one definition, and decided he liked the Jedi name Kit Fisto. When I parked our car in the grocery store lot and he and Harper and I walked toward the store, Star Wars still was at the front of my mind.

Henry: Mom, would you like a Toyota?

Me: Yeah, I like Yoda. I'd like a toy Yoda.

Henry: Do you mean a toy Yoda or a Toyota, like the car?

Me, laughing: What do you mean?

Henry: The car.

Me, laughing: Yes.

We had a Camry before our Accord. Henry remembers that car and its Toyota symbol. When we came out of the grocery store, I saw that I had parked next to a Camry.

Just three still

We keep Magna Doodles in the car. Henry's gets tucked into the driver's side back seat pocket, and Harper's gets tucked into the passenger's side back seat pocket. Henry can reach his from his booster, but Harper can't reach hers from her carseat. If she wants to doodle, I reach around and hand it to her.

We were on the way home from school yesterday and Henry had just gotten started doodling when I overheard this conversation between them:

Harper: I want my Magna Doodle.

Henry: Harper, I think you're old enough to reach your Magna Doodle.

Harper: No, I'm not. I have short arms. I'm just three still.

Henry: Oh, brother.

We're reading: Goosebumps

When Henry really likes something, I hear about it all the time. His first passion was animals. Then there was Toy Story, Spider-Man, Bakugan, and Ben 10. Now, it's Goosebumps, the book series by R.L. Stine. He's too young for Goosebumps. He's not even six and he's the newest of new readers. But don't try to tell him that. He'll say he likes mummies and werewolves and spooky things. He'll say it doesn't matter that he can't read the books, because I can.

I was in high school when Stine created the series and I didn't read the books. When Henry started pulling Goosebumps off library shelves and pointing them out at Target, I said no to them. "When you're old enough to read them yourself, you can check out as many as you want," I'd say. From their covers and their vocabulary levels, I could see they weren't meant for five-year-olds.

Then, a couple Saturdays ago, Jake took the kids to the library and I stayed home. Henry saw an opportunity. He came home with Goosebumps: Deep Trouble. On the cover, a giant hammerhead shark circles a young swimmer.

I read a few chapters aloud each night last week. Henry listened and waited for the really scary part, and I waited for the really objectionable part. Neither ever came. There was violence in one chapter, but it wasn't gruesome. I actually enjoyed the story about a mermaid's capture and a boy who wants to do the right thing.

I don't know what lies ahead for us in the Goosebumps series -- we've moved on to reading Return of the Mummy -- but I give Deep Trouble a good grade for grade schoolers looking for literary thrills.

Goosebumps isn't what I would have picked (we're also reading the Nate the Great series, which the kids both like), but I want Henry to be able to follow his passions -- even if that means sharks, mummies, and monster blood. On his great site Guys Read, Jon Scieszka says, "Motivate guys to want to read by letting them choose texts they will enjoy." In this case, I've done that.

Have you or your children read Goosebumps books? Have you steered them away from books you thought they weren't ready to read?