I am not going to talk about how we had 3 inches of heavy, wet snow and a 2 hour school delay yesterday. No, I'm not.
I am going to tell you about the awesome book we've been reading. We have always read a lot in this house, by ourselves, together, quietly and aloud. Even Dorian is almost doing it by himself. Soon. But lately both kids have really been willing and able to enjoy longer chapter books read aloud. We all loved Matilda, everyone but me liked Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator*, and it was time to move on from Mr. Dahl.
Now we are reading a book Jeremy scored from a co-worker. It is Dominic by William Steig and it is totally awesome. I practically beg to read it to them and they never turn me down. The only problem is Jeremy needs to listen too, so we have to wait for him to come home. Anyway, it is about a dog named Dominic who decides to make his way in the world. He meets an alligator-witch, has run-ins with the Doomsday Gang and inherits a bunch of treasure... And we're only halfway through the book!
The only trouble I have with it is that it is full of what, in my family, we call "book words." You know, the sort of words that you read on a page, and you understand what they mean, but saying them aloud gets your tongue all twisted. My big one used to be "bougainvillea" and Jamie had a pronunciation of "archipelago" that still makes me giggle. So far in Dominic I have stumbled over both "adroit" and "reconnoiter" both of which have that French "oi" which I don't want to say all Trebekesque and ridiculously, but neither do I want to mispronounce. Looking it up in the dictionary didn't really help either.
*There was some seriously racist stuff that was really difficult for me to speak aloud. And that book was all over the place. Not his most cohesive work.
3 comments:
Hurray for the Doomsday gang! That book was a big hit at home. Would also like to brag that a third grade teacher came in earlier this year, said, We are doing a unit on Journeys, what's a good read-aloud?
Not a second wasted, I handed her Dominic. One of my few homeruns of my library career, thus far.
Your choice of the 13 Clocks as a read asloud to the 1st/2nd graders is also hopefully a homerun as that book is one of the coolest children's books I've ever come across.
yeah, the language is so lyrical. Even kids who don't really understand it as deeply, or closely, as others do understand that they are hearing something amazing. As you know, some passages are mesmerizing. I love glancing at the faces of kids who probably read mostly crappy movie tie-ins listening to this book. Totally rapt.
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