Reading Aloud

I recently attended a webinar by Andrew Pudewa, founder of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, also known as "the funny man with the wonderful words." Mr. Pudewa is indeed a funny man who presents an engaging approach to teaching language arts at home and in the classroom. We are about to start our second year of IEW, but I'm not here to talk about homeschooling exactly.

The webinar was about how to develop a broad vocabulary in children, and one of the best ways to do this is to read aloud. Now, as a busy mom, I had kind of gotten to the point where reading aloud was losing priority because our oldest can read- he finished the Harry Potter series in a matter of days. Surely that is improving his vocabulary, right? Well, it turns out, just reading is not as magical as I would have thought. So, after about an hour with Mr. Pudewa (or just Pudewa as he is known around our house), I realized I needed to be reading aloud to all my children. And not just Go, Dog, Go for the zillionth time.

Next I was faced with the task of picking the best titles to read to three children, ranging from 3 to 8 years old, with a variety of interests. The oldest loves magical adventure stories, while the middle is easily frightened. The younger two don't flinch at death, while the oldest is compassionate. I wanted to include strong female characters, too. So from the bookshelf, I selected our first (even though we've done this before) Read Aloud:

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis

Before I started reading, I explained to my daughter that this is one of my favorite childhood books. I told her that sometimes she reminds me of Lucy. I left out the part about pretending to be Lucy when I was a child, but it's true.

The story is not overly complicated. Four children stumble upon a magical kingdom where the White Witch has cast a spell that makes it always winter and never Christmas. The children meet talking animals and magical creatures on an adventure that lasts a lifetime or only a few seconds.

Girl-child is the only one who sat through the entire reading, but something I caught Oldest-boy standing in the hall listening in. Everyone followed the story well enough, even the 3-year-old. There were plenty of new words to absorb; I was occasionally stopped to define one. But overall, it was understood enough to make a story. There are, of course, subtleties in the writing (Spare Oom, for example) that the children will not appreciate until they read this one on their own. But we had fun reading it together- summarizing, making predictions, and imagining how we might find our way to Narnia.

As I mentioned before, this is one of my favorite childhood books, so it earns a permanent place on the bookshelf with (surprise) five Marias. But in addition to the rating, I want to encourage parents and teachers to read aloud, even to children who can read. It has made a subtle, positive impact on our days and is now one of the things I look forward to the most.

Chapter 16: A Book That Made You Cry

11/22/63, Stephen King

So much to say about this book. First, I don't think I've ever read anything by Mr. King. I remember a classmate in high school who read him almost constantly. He would carry one enormous volume after another on top of his textbooks and read them in stolen moments between classes. The sheer number of pages made me seriously question how he did anything else. Maybe that's why he was so thin. Anyway, John S. never convinced me to pick up a King novel, but my best friend and voracious reader, Elizabeth, did. She's never let me down in the entertainment category, so I checked this one out expected to cross A Book Your Best Friend Recommends off my list. As is becoming a theme here, it wasn't what I expected, and I had to shift from my original plan.

To be totally honest, I didn't actually shed a tear. But a few pricked up in my eyes, and that's about as close as it is going to get for me. I expected I would have to find a truly hilarious book that would make me laugh 'til I cried to accomplish this one. Instead, the man who brought me Carrie (one of my favorite movies of all time), nearly brought me to tears. He deserves credit for that.

Now, in order to get to the tears, we have to go back to what I thought the book was about. Even after reading the cover, I thought it was going to be about saving JFK from assassination. I thought it was going to be about an obsessed time-traveler. I thought it was going to be like one of many conversations I had in middle school with my friend, Stacey, who was so fascinated by the entire modern Camelot legend that she did an incredible re-enactment of Jackie's reaction in the convertible. I can't think of Jack and Jackie without also thinking of her. I was expecting Dealey Plaza to be the center of focus and action. I couldn't imagine why it would take eight hundred forty-some pages to tell the tale. And in walks the legendary Mr. Stephen King.

Having never read his works, I was unaware of his ability to drift on about mundane, daily life and still have it be meaningful. The impetus for Jake-turned-George's travel through the bubble of time may have been to save Kennedy, but his specific method requires him to always start on a fall day in 1958, in Maine. He has years to plot and tweak before he must end Lee Harvey Oswald. Most of the novel is about the man George becomes during this time. He's an English teacher, not a history buff, so he doesn't act as a pre-vigilante, saving the world from numerous disasters. No, after a couple of local "corrections," he lives a quiet life in a small town and falls in love with Sadie.

Sadie is the new librarian. George is a new teacher. They have troubles like any couple. They dance. They help students in life-changing ways, as teachers are apt to do (is someone chopping onions?). They share their biggest secrets and suffer tragedy (must be dusty in here). They love fully and boundlessly, and that is what made me almost weepy. Who knew the Master of Horror could pen a compelling, utterly romantic story?

There are a couple of graphic and gory scenes, but nothing like what I expected. This book took me by surprise in so many ways. I don't have a copy now, but I might keep an eye out for it at used book stores. I imagine I would enjoy it again and maybe pick up on strings I missed the first time. Even though it set me farther back on my schedule, it was worth every word. 11/22/63 earns 4 1/2 Marias.