God Bless Mary Pope Osborne!

Nick was one of those odd kids who one day, with very little warning, just started to read. We thought he had just memorized his favorite books like most kids do, until he started reading bill boards, the back of his dad's shirts and road signs. But it isn't easy to keep a kid like that interested in reading. He was only 3, so his attention span couldn't take chapter books, but he was way beyond board books, and most picture books - adorable though they may be - are meant for grown-ups to read to kids. So we began with the "Easy Readers," which bored him. It got to the point where reading was a forced activity just to calm him down before bed.

I started searching - - after he turned 4 I thought I could get him interested in elemetary chapter books. He did like all the Roald Dahl books, and we read books that had movies also. We read Willy Wonka, then watched the movie (the Gene Wilder version - -Johnny Depp creeped me out - but I digress). We read James and the Giant Peach, then watched the movie. Peter Pan, Treasure Island, Robin Hood, Jungle Book... but I was running out of age appropriate materials (as you can tell by the Treasure Island judgement error).

Then The Magic Tree House began. I can't remember where we got the first two books - if you are the person who gave them to me, allow me to give you a cyber-kiss (smooooch) right now! We are on book #9 Dolphins at Daybreak with no end to the enthusiasm in sight.

Nick can talk your ear off about these books if you ask him too. Jack, Annie, Morgan leFay, Peanut the mouse... Ninjas, cro-magnons, mummies... what he has learned is amazing. AND - because the stories tie into one another, he can remember - and is constantly having reinforced - the ties between the books.

Last Saturday night we had people over... built a campfire, made s'mores and stayed up late. At 9pm (an hour past bedtime) I told him he had two choices: Stay up even later at the party, eating more candy and marshmallows, OR if we went to bed right then, we could read an extra chapter... he picked reading. That's right, Nick chose Magic Tree House over S'mores.... can't get a bigger 'thumbs up' than that from a 4 year old!!!!