You Don't Read or You Can't Read?

We are a library family. Well, at least I am with my daughter. I can't for the life of me get my husband interested in books. Which is a shame because he is missing a ton of great stuff out there!

So when Sharon moved in with us I asked her what kinds of books she has read. She shook her head and said that she didn't read books. I said, "What do you mean you don't read books? Why not?" She said, "I don't know, I guess I just don't like them."

Humph. This is interesting. So I endeavored to find out what her reading level is. I asked her to read to our daughter in the car "since she was sitting next to her." Unfortunately that backfired because Sharon employed her tactic that she used with others in that she opened the page and was silent and my daughter came up with thoughts and questions about the pictures so that Sharon didn't have to read.

I suggested that Sharon start reading some of my daughter's chapter books (we read them to our daughter since she is only just starting kindergarten this fall) because they would be a great start. She ignored this advice.

Finally, I asked her if on the night we would attend storytime if she wanted to attend with us. She said she guessed she would try it. So she did. The book that changed it all was "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus." Sharon was laughing so hard that I swear she was about to pee her pants (sadly, not necessarily an exaggeration, but a story for another time). It was funny because of the way the librarian read the book, but also funny because my husband (Sharon's brother) drives bus for a living. Cool!

So then we went into the book stacks. I am the only one that had a card at the time and can only check out a couple of books at a time so I let my daughter check out two books and asked Sharon if she would like to look to see if there is something she might like.

We went over into the younger kid non-fiction section and I showed her books about the Denver Broncos (her favorite team) and bicycling, etc. She was bug-eyed and saying WHOA, I didn't know they had that!

So Sharon picked out a book.

And Sharon read the book all the way through the next day.

And now Sharon is hooked on non-fiction books. Yeah!

Next step, expanding her reading horizons.

Sharon has read tons of the youth non-fiction...now I am wondering if she would try some fiction. So I introduced her to Judy Blume. :)

Can I just say, this is when I feel REAL GOOD about what I do. Sharon is gobbling them up. Truly enjoying. And, she has moved into non-fiction in the adult section as well.

Here's the thing. This chick...who claimed she didn't like to read (though her mom was constantly getting paperback books to read for herself, but never Sharon - I truly don't understand that concept)...is a fairly fast reader. Seriously! And she is doing pretty good with comprehension too.

So why didn't my mother-in-law enable this wonderful thing of reading that she herself loved so much? Gosh, I will never know. But I celebrate her new joy for reading!