Several weeks ago (was it months?) A Fuse #8 posted - over time - the top 100 children's books, based on her insight as well as those of her readers. I decided to use that list for my very special, two-member, book club. At our first club meeting, I was talking about the books on the list with my adorable granddaughter and mentioned that the #1 book of all time appeared to be something she had already read, Charlotte's Web, to which she replied that she had never actually read the book, she'd only watched the movie! AUGH!!! As I discussed other titles with her, the same theme was repeated. It seems that my adorable book club member is reluctant to leave her comfort zone of Junie B and other wonderful little books like it, to read the books more suitable to her age. I completely understand that problem.
Three years ago I was hired to teach language arts at a lovely private school. One of my students was the granddaughter of the foundation owner who had started the school. She was in the 7th grade and read books all the time. I wasn't a bit worried about her... until I started reading her journal entries... The Boxcar Children (#1-35), Mandie this and that... I remember our reader conference quite well. I told 'A' that she couldn't use those series for her journals anymore, that I wanted her to read books that were more suitable to her age and abilities. She was devastated! She loved those books and told me that she just couldn't give them up, that they made her feel so warm and comfortable. I told her that she could read them all she wanted but that she had to have other titles for her journals. Then I made a bee-line for her mother's office and explained what had happened. 'A' was in tears over my decision and I didn't need problems with the founder's granddaughter. I gave transition suggestions to mom, including some appropriate read-aloud titles that she could enjoy with her parents. Her mother laughed and thanked me for the warning. Then she called 'A's dad who brilliantly started with the Chronicles of Narnia series, then The Hobbit, and on to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. By the time 'A' got through volume 1 of the Chronicles, she was a believer and embraced the other titles with complete energy and commitment. Plus she and her father developed an even closer bond, thanks to the renewal of an old bedtime ritual. I sat by him at a volleyball game one day and he thanked me profusely.
For this reason, I am not worried about my adorable book club member. She and 'A' are a lot alike. Both are/were stuck in a comfort place. I don't know why 'A' got stuck but I know that Kayla is reading the same titles that she read almost four years ago when she moved from her little, old house to the new, much bigger one on five acres in the country. She went from a busy neighborhood, teaming with children, to an isolated place with no friends... for a while. Eventually she met another little girl around the corner but it was a very different kind of home and for a long while, she mourned her old neighborhood. In fact, for two years her parents could not go back to the area without Kayla dissolving into tears. Kayla's books are her only remaining friends from her old neighborhood. So, like I did with 'A', I told Kayla to keep reading her old friends but that I would be giving her other books to read and when she completed a book, we would go out to lunch again to talk about it. She looked at me and quite matter-of-factly told me she would be ready next week. Nothing quite like lunch with grandma (followed by shopping with grandma) to induce a little girl to explore the unknown!
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