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My husband was buying some books for a birthday present today (the Wayside stories, you know you want to know) and a certain picture book was prominently featured on the counter. After the purchases were concluded, he discovered our son had picked it up and was reading it. He asked what he thought, to which our son said, "I don't understand what kind of person would tell someone to go to sleep that way."

My husband explained that sometimes when kids won't go to sleep, parents get very frustrated and feel at the edge of their ropes, and told a few choice stories from the past.

To which our son replied, "Well now I feel guilty!"

So to everyone who worried about actual kids reading this book... it's a good thing!

Belinda has just left the first nastygram for Gem and my son asked, "Shouldn't she have left a nicer note?"

I was so pleased to have him recognize that, and how fascinating to see him trying to navigate the world of interactions... I didn't think of that at all when I chose this book, but it's really quite emotionally complex. What better place to learn about people than children's books? It's where I learned.

I've been thinking that I haven't been making the best choices for read-alouds; the books I loved to read to myself don't always translate. So tonight I put my mind to finding a book that would sound wonderful and came up with Little Plum by Rumer Godden. I remember how fond I was of the unique way Godden wrote sentences, blending narrative and dialog.

It's going great; my son is responding so well to the cadence and the language. At one point he said he could just tell he was going to like this book. Since he had me read for a solid hour, I'd say so.

Tonight I started reading Magic in the Alley to my son. Right after Cleery wished to find something enchanted in every alley, he burst out, "this is going to be a GOOD book!"

I started reading The Witch Family to my son today. I thought he would enjoy the part in which the little witches do everything backwards, including math: 1+1=0, 2+1=1, and so on. He did. So much, that he started calculating how it would work with negative numbers and fractions.

I was adding my comments on Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything In It to my bibliography of books featuring multiracial families and came across my review of In My Heart by Molly Bang. I donated my review copy of it to my son's preschool and I don't know if he actually remembers the book, but he still often tells us, "I carry you in my heart."

Our family Read-Aloud adventures have successfully transitioned from Edward Eager to E. Nesbit! I don't really know why I'm so surprised; when you think about it, the childhoods of Eager's world probably doesn't seem that much further away from the current one than Nesbit's does. It's all strange and of the past. The language is more complex, but my son enjoys complex language. Also, his father does the best English accents, what more could you ask for?

I love listening to the questions he asks as he hears the story. So many things are new to him. Turns of phrase, concepts. He talked about the magic stories generally having four children - my boy identified his first literary trope! I'm so proud.

In other news, I'm reading Marcelo on the Real World, which is very interesting. But I'm not quite getting why Marcelo is hesitant to call his condition Asperger's Syndrome. He certainly seems autistic to me.

My son tends to find his own books, and very selectively too, so it was a little thrill to see him reading something I'd put on his shelves, Making Friends with Frankenstein. Tonight his dad was out of town, so rather than the usual installment of Harry Potter with voices, I picked up MFwF and read him some of it. What a fascinating experience it is to read comic poetry with a highly intelligent autistic child. He wanted me to explain many of the jokes, especially the puns, but then he found them just hilarious.

He's reading to himself now and I can hear almost constant laughter.

It doesn't seem to be in print at the moment, but used copies abound. My original review:



Making Friends With Frankenstein written and illustrated by Colin McNaughton. Candlewick, 1994 (1-56402-308-7) $19.95; 2001 (0-7636-1552-8) $4.99 pb

The gross, grisly, subversive and wickedly amusing atmosphere of children's playground verses is perfectly captured in this original collection of "monstrous poems and pictures." By turns gruesome, malevolent and cynical--but always gleeful--Making Friends With Frankenstein is delightfully shocking and hysterically funny. The cartoony pictures are an excellent match for the verses: neither are for the weak of stomach. American readers may be baffled by occasional references to English expressions and culture, but that's no big deal--they'll still devour this book and scream for more.

© 2009 Wendy E. Betts

My son is sprawled on my office floor, reading a book of tips on raising an autistic child.

No wonder he's always a few steps ahead of us.

I'm a little unnerved if finding books on my shelves turns out to be a trend. I hate the thought of taking a book away from him, but seven does seem a tad young for bodice-rippers.

My little guy was jealous of my being in a book challenge, so we encouraged him to join in and pick a book from the chapter books I've been saving for him. So Mr. Nonfiction is currently reading The Best Halloween Ever.