Not that we’re reading that series of books.
We have moved somewhat past the picture book stage. I always thought I liked picture books, but I’ve realized not as much as I thought. I like some of the earlier Beginner Books (those hardcovers with the Cat In the Hat on the upper spine), but other than that, I feel a bit like the children in Og who spent years having to read boring picture books about good little children who always help mummy in the kitchen.
But now, as my monthly reading lists have attested, we have moved onto Chapter Books. Huzzah!
I have a fifteen year gap in knowledge of children’s chapter books. Harry Potter came out during those years, and I read them, but I don’t have the rabid love of them that so many people seem to possess. I’m sure at some point I’ll read them to/with Tesfa, but I remember thinking how rushed the last two books were and how I would have edited them way down. And the earlier books were fine. Not great, definitely not horrible, just fine. Beach reads sort of.
At the library, I grabbed a Lemony Snicket All The Wrong Questions book. Lemony Snicket is another author that arrived while I was not in the stage of looking at children’s chapter books. I do recall going to the World’s Biggest Bookstore (RIP) in Toronto in maybe 2000 or 2001 and seeing one of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books, but I kind of just ignored it, figuring it’d be Harry Potter-lite. Maybe it is. I still don’t know.
What I do know is the two Lemony Snicket All The Wrong Questions books I’ve read are fun, as in adult fun, not I see the enjoyment in my child and that brings me joy fun. When we eventually read Harry Potter together, I know my fun will be of the second sort. But these Lemony Snicket books, they are clever and well-edited and sharp and pointy and funny all together. And it’s not just me. Tesfa, a little sick last week, fell asleep before dinner, only to wake up around nine at night crying “Lemony Snicket! You didn’t read me any Lemony Snicket today!”
Now if I could only get Tesfa interested in The Luminaries, which I was really drawn into at first and then my interest sort of petered out, we could read that together and I could finally finish it before it’s due back at the library.