bibliophiles

Anyone who has been to our house, or has seen us during leisure time knows that Justin and I both love to read. Back in New Haven, we had three very full bookshelves in the living room, another in Juma's room, and three more in our bedroom. And eight or nine more boxes of books in the basement storage unit.

Needless to say, we've encouraged Juma to love books, too. We've been reading him books since before he could comprehend what a book was, and he's had his own library card since before he could write his name on the back. Now, we have "reading practice" every day so he can improve his own reading skills. He's up to Cat in the Hat and Arthur books.

We've recently discovered he has the attention span for us to read him big kid books, the kind with no pictures and hundreds of pages and dozens of chapters. After Justin read The Golden Compass on my recommendation, he started reading it aloud to Juma. Juma was quite interested, but the subtleties of the plot were beyond him. That was okay, because he still liked the armored bears and the daemons shape-changing and other fun fantasy elements of the book.

Two days ago, we decided to try reading Harry Potter to him instead. Start a bit simpler. We'd been planning on reading the books to him for years, just waiting for him to be old enough. I read him the fist chapter, and he was jumping on the couch in excitement, asking questions about everything. He couldn't wait until I finished sentences and paragraphs to find out "Who is that? Why did he say, 'What the...?' What do the ghosts look like?"

When I finished the first chapter, he immediately demanded the second. He wants more and more, and it's delightful to watch his eyes light up. We're now on chapter 9, and pushing through quickly.

Woohoo! My son loves Harry Potter!