Optimus Prime

[thistles]

After all that moaning about wanting Aislin to pick a work of fine literature for her book report, I was in the classroom yesterday. Two kids presented their book reports. One was about a book called "I am Optimus Prime" which I am guessing did not win any Caldecott Medals this year.

Comments

[tupelo]

Suley would have been all over that Optimus Prime book.

I used to be all smug about providing my group home kids with Hemingway and Brautigan and Twain, and then found out they were under the covers with flashlights, devouring "urban fiction" brought in by the weekend staff.

"You gotta reach 'em where they at, Soff," the staff told me. And they were right. My new philosophy is that anything that gets a kid excited about picking up a book is A-OK.

[tanyalita]

Yes!

[evilegg]

I see it like this: Reading is a skill and skills take practice and the only way they'll practice is if they enjoy it. Then they can apply the skill to stuff they may not like so much but still need to read, like the directions on the fire extinguisher.

[caravanserai]

We have to do book reports on Newbery Medal Winners. Honestly, I'd rather pick Transformers. The medal-winning books are almost always pretentious or depressing or both.

I'm all about SpongeBob and Fashion Kitty graphic novels if it makes them actually want to read!

[anamomda]

I agree w/ tupelo and evileg: Anna went through a brief Star Wars or Any Other Book With Movie Characters On The Cover phase in her first two years of learning to read, but now loves a wide range of material.