Monday, July 09, 2007

Boys, books and balls

What is it about raising boys and getting them away from balls and into a book? My first son, I think, I gave him a book before I gave him solid food. The same with my second son. Both of them turned out as pretty good readers. My last son, what did I do wrong? It is a battle to get him to finish a book. Today, case in point, what do you think I did to get him to go from these joyful moments -





TO THIS SULKING FACE?

I took him to a book talk. Harlan Coban lives in the neighborhood and he is always doing something with the library. Today, to encourage middle school aged children to continue to read for the summer, he along with a few dozen boxes of pizza, gave an informal talk about writing, reading and whatever else the kids wanted to talk about.


Little did I know, tonight was the Homerun Derby. It was as if I spoke heresy to the child when I told him that HE WAS GOING TO THE LIBRARY EVEN IF I HAD TO BEAT HIM WITH A BASEBALL BAT.




There, do you see my child down at the end of the table SUFFERING?

Well, I had the best time. It was delightful even. I wanted to kiss Harlan right on top of his bald head for being such a sweetheart to do this. Instead I had to barrel out of the hall and get home before Sammy Sosa or somebody hit a home run. Fortunately, as we drove home, the child did say that it wasn't so bad, just too many girls. I told him him to give it a few years and home run and girls will have a whole different meaning.

10 comments:

WandaWoman said...

You're right in a few years, he'll be excited about girls. I've read one of Harlan Coben's books. I always keep meaning to read more of them. That's so neat that he gives talk at the library. Very cool.

Virtuous said...

LOL @ "SUFFERING"! Hahaha!

And you are certainly right - home runs and girls will be a whole different meaning to him in a matter of a couple of year!

Anonymous said...

that's a nice and fun story. you're absolutely right. i have a 13yo boy that looks 17 and i'm beating girls off with a stick.

he feels the same way about reading.

Mary Anne said...

Boys and reading - they don't often go well together. Same for my nephews and great-nephews. I think it's wonderful that authors such as Harlen Coben promote reading to the young ones.

C+SK said...

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!

Janice said...

:-) Your post made me smile. Boys are so funny. Won't be long and a roomful of girls will be VERY appealing!!

tonya5015 said...

boy you are dead right about boys and books. or should i say boys and reading the books!. my daughter is 6 and drives me crazy with "lets read a book, now lets read another book." who cares that i might be driving, in the tub, or just plain sleeping. she has to read her books and this can only be done with me for some strange reason. now with my son age 11, i have to practically sit on him and pin his eye lids open to get him to read a book. yes he love book and owns quite a few, even ask to go to the library to check out books from time to time. but after i glimpsed through a few of them i noticed that they are books with great pics. i can't get him to read the darn thing he just likes the pictures.

i rather deal with the book readining issue than with the girl issues. not something i'm looking forward too.

Anonymous said...

Poor kid, LOL. He sounds just like my middle one, despite my very best efforts to make that child read. Oh well, maybe he'll actually put his animal skills to use & make himself some money. I can only hope.

Lynn said...

ROTFL!!! OMG that was too funny!!!! You are SUCH a mean mother!!!! ;-)

Anonymous said...

You're gonna hit me but...I would have been right there with your son, getting out of there so we could watch the HomeRun Derby, which I did (with my son) since I'm as obsessed with baseball as he is. We plan our day around the Angels' games. And I'm a writer, so you'd think writing and reading would be most important, but no, not always. (And Sammy Sosa wasn't a part of it this year...)