Too Many Books, Two Little Tweens

You know by now that I love books! (Thank you captain obvious!) And I've always tried to past my love of books & of reading down to my kids. You can read about my journey of trying to get my oldest son to not only read, but like it here. Let's just say, he's kinda the one that got away! My other son Zach is an avid reader! He reads to learn & reads just for entertainment! I got it right somewhere along the way with that one!

Then I had twins. Girls. They are 12 years old now. I made sure to buy them each their own copy of Little Women before they were old enough to read or even know what a book is! Is that going over board? Little Women is my favorite book of all time! And I'm not gonna share my copy of the book! My girls are 4 minuets apart. In some ways they are very much alike & in some ways they are very different! Erica loves to read. She reads a lot. Every new kid movie preview that comes out, she says "I loved that book!" That's my girl! She can't wait for the movie about the warrior owls! That's one of her favorite book series. And she's on the 7th Harry Potter book right now.

Lexi, on the other hand, has struggled with reading. She loves books & has started to read many of them, just to give up, or loose interest in them. She was not reaching her A.R. (Accelerated Reading) goal in school. Since she never finished a book, she never took the A.R. test on it. She would pick out a book & be all excited about reading it, then never finish it. It was so frustrating.

The girls went to see The Percy Jackson movie. Erica had read those books in school too & couldn't wait for that movie. Well, Lexi really liked the movie, so we got the first book & guess what? She read the whole thing! Loved it. And got 100% on the A.R. test. She read the 2nd book of that series. And again got 100% on the A.R. test! I'll never forget the day she left me a note that said: "Mom, I'm on page (#) of my book. I'll probably finish it today. Can you go to Sams Club & get me the next one?" Guess what I did? I went to Sams Club. They only had the 4th book, so I bought that one, and ran to Walmart & picked up the 3rd one! She's read the 3rd book & once again aced the reading test. And is currently reading the 4th book. She continually announces what page or chapter she's on. Score!

Both my girls love the Twilight movies. They have been begging me to let them read the books. If you've read them you know they are not really appropriate for young girls. So, I've been putting them off. (They will be in Jr. High next year! Oh, help me!) The same with the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book series. The girls loved those movies, but again the books leave a little less to the imagination, if you know what I mean, than the movies do! So, again, I'm holding off. Maybe this summer I will let them start one or the other of these series. As I tell them, "We'll talk about it when your a little older!" Then they always want to know exactly just how old they have to be?! :)

I'm thrilled that my girls are learning to love books and reading them. They were telling me the other day about a summer reading program that Barnes & Noble will be running. (We've done the ones at our local library every summer) But, they loved the idea that with the Barnes & Noble program, you list the places you've visited through the books you've read, instead of just the book title. (Sidebar: I haven't researched this program yet, I'm just letting you know what my girls said about it.) I'm loving that to them, (like me) reading is an adventure! You never know where you might go in a book, or who you might meet while there!