I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March.  You should do it too!  Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

I love overhearing conversations in the car, when somehow the kids don’t seem to remember that I can hear them while I’m driving. When my 8 year old who loves to read (E) and my 11 year old who hates to read (H) talk about books, it’s even better.

E: Are you doing the March Madness books in your class?
H: Oh yea.
E: Which ones have you read already?
H: So many. I’ve read Ghost, Restart, Love that Dog. . .  
E looks confused so… I interject: E is talking about the picture books, H also read the novels.
E: Which grades read the picture book ones?
Me: Well, the whole school can do the picture books, but some of the older kids are also reading the chapter books.
E: Oh. Well, which picture books have you read? We have done It’s not Jack in the Beanstalk, and that one won over Each Kindness. I hate that book because the ending! It just ends! 
H: Well, it’s a good book. It has a great message…it just has a weird ending.
E: She just goes away!
H: It just doesn’t really have a climax or a resolution. I mean it has a conflict, but it’s not really a problem-solution kind of shaped plot. It’s like problem-problem-problem!

Sometimes, your 11 year old who hates to read accidentally lets it slip that one, he’s been reading, and two, he’s been learning a lot about reading. When that happens,  just keep driving: Eyes ahead, no comment… pretend you didn’t hear. It’s for the best. Instead just take a deep breath and silently thank his teacher and the creators of March Madness. He might never be a book lover. . but he’s growing!