Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

My friend Britt has been clearing out books that her kids have outgrown or aren’t attached to; I’ve been taking boxes of those home with me to a) donate to our school’s next literacy night, b) read and then donate to our school’s next literacy night, or c) read and maybe keep for myself, depending on how I feel about them. James Patterson’s and Chris Grabenstein’s Laugh Out Loud is one of those, and now that I’ve read it myself, I’m going to have my son give it a try before donating it to that next literacy night. He may like it, he may not–his tastes are sometimes unexpected–but it’s not something I need to keep; on the other hand, it IS something that ought to be made available for middle graders to read if they choose.

Why, then, don’t I need to keep it? Saying it’s ‘not my thing’ isn’t really fair to me OR the authors, and yet I’m definitely not the intended audience. Patterson’s (completely admirable) goal for his non-adult books is to capture kids’ attention, entertain them, and make them want to read more; I’m GOING to read more no matter what, but I tend to want to emotionally connect with what I read, whether it’s with the story, the characters, or the setting. (Yes, I absolutely emotionally connect with New England.) I just plain care less about the purely entertaining factor, not to mention that what entertains me now is also not what entertained me in junior high, to some degree. (I still love reading, old movies, and cross-stitching, for example, but I no longer find the adrenaline rush of roller coasters terribly enjoyable.) Laugh Out Loud has some of the fun of an amusement park ride, which my kids love but I can now take or leave. I did get quite a kick out of its references to an impressive variety of children’s books; I’m just content to read it and pass it on. If you have a latter-elementary or middle grade child, however, you should definitely take a look.