It’s been a busy a momentous week for us, with Girl Lacer starting school there has not been much chance for reading for me but it has marked the beginning of a whole new wonderful world for Girl Lacer, the written word. I am so excited for her as she starts the process of learning to read and all the magic she’ll be able to unleash, how much she’ll be able to discover.
She brought home her first reading books on Friday, as in books for her to read, not books for us to read to her like it was in nursery (although she did have a ‘sharing’ book in her bag to). I was a bit surprised at this as I didn’t think they’d started learning their phonics yet (the school’s method of choice) and I don’t think they have (they seem to have spent most of their time building things out of junk), so first lesson was from mummy. Her two little reading books emphasised the words ‘I’, ‘a’, ‘am’ and ‘little’, she’d already read her reading books cover to cover by Friday, multiple times, so this morning when I got jumped on, in bed, first thing, I was brought a selection of the kids’ picture books and Girl Lacer helped me read them. Girl Lacer read the ’I', ‘a’, ‘am’ and ‘little’ and Boy Lacer pretended to be the caterpillar in ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and they both turned into butterflies and flapped around the bed on the last page. This was followed by ‘Bella Gets Her Skates On’, an overly saccharine story about a bunny who um, skates, but it at least has a lot of ‘I’, ‘a’ and ‘little’. Then ‘Maisy’s Rainbow Dream’ which I’m much more a fan of and finally ‘Mess Monsters Tell the Time’ for Boy Lacer who likes moving the hands on the clock to the correct time. So, that was my reading today and it’s not often I’m so picky about a book than me saying that I wish they’d had more ‘am’s in them, they had too many ‘I’m's and it’s way too early to teach Girl Lacer about that.
The whole experience though is making me feel for children not growing up in book loving households, after all at least at first (before a child is old enough to exercise more of it’s own opinion), if a parent doesn’t like books, how’s a child going to appreciate them or learn. Having said that, like I say, kids can/do develop their own opinions on the matter, I sell independently a particular children’s publishers books and it breaks my heart to see a child interested in a display of my books and a parent anything but, ok, I know (specially in these times) the parent may not be able to afford them (although often or not they’ll be at the stall next door perusing jewellery) or they may just not like my books (although they are stunningly beautiful and lovely books, although ‘lacking’ in TV franchised characters) but sometimes I just get this vibe that they just don’t like books.
Changing the subject, I say I haven’t had much time to read but I suppose I have read something of my own today, a snatched chapter at one o’clock in the morning when as Girl Lacer put it, when I explained I was tired because I’d stayed up reading last night that “I should have gone to bed”. I’m still reading Treasure Island and loving it, I love how unlike the sterotyped classics it feels like this could have been written by a modern children’s author today, sort of in the vein of Charlie Higson’s Young Bonds. Expect a review when I’ve finished it.
