Two weeks ago, Liam’s teacher, Ms. Clapham, sent her students a letter. She was, she wrote, hiking in Oregon and visiting family and friends. Yes, Liam and I agreed with our mother-son team buds Sarah and Isaiah, that was how we imagined Ms. Clapham spending her vacations. Hearty old bird that she was, we all thought she would be hiking, frame backpack on her back, though the mountains. Perhaps she would take a day to paddle a canoe upriver; Ms. Clapham was probably enjoying every moment of her Summer. And she should.
Before stiking forth on her holiday, Ms. Clapham sent the kids home with a Reading Bingo grid. In each square of the grid, she wrote down a type of book,; Mystery, Non-Fiction, Fiction, Poetry, etc. Student should make it there goal, s he said, to rack up five in a row on their grids. I like this because it insists that kids try reading new things rather than limit themselves to Parts VI-X of sagas they’ve already started.
This Summer, at least two friends facebook-sent me a list of one hundered books that The Powers That Be at the BBC have decreeded to be important but of which “most people” had read only six. The list is, as you’d expect, heavy with the VIPs of Brit Lit (Shakespere, Austin, Dickens and others), features some Americans, but not many. I don’t think that the list included Faulkner, whose work I love or Hemmingway, with whom I’d been briefly tortured. Twain, was also abscent; where was that mysterious stranger? “The Mysterious Stranger,” who has read Twain’s short story? You’ll be surprised.
Try it, you may like it. Ms. Clapham is way past cooler than the BBC. I can remember little (if any) poetry on their list. Biography, autobiography, non-fiction, Ms. Clapham offers these to her young readers, but the BBC cares only little if anyone has read them. If they were included, more readers might challange themselves and sample genres they had been avoiding.
While I’m not about to hand my copy of “The Autobiography of Malcom X.” to a ten-year-old, I’d be thrilled if he did cloose to read it when he when he’s older. There are book that people may know exist, but never read. By giving different kinds of books a try while he’s young, he may not back away from books that give readers a little push.
Ms. Clapham included comic books on her board of genres from which the kids can pick. Thank you Ms. C., this week, while Liam reads a biography of Alexander the Great, I’ll be taking on “Watchmen.” Started it once, time for another try.
