Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Give a girl a challenge...

About two weeks ago my girl received a challenge.  

We were at the library and she was checking out a huge number of books.  Well, probably 10, maybe 15.  Not so huge. The man in line behind her looked at her stack and asked:

Are you really going to read all those books in 3 weeks?

She smiled nicely and said yes.  She turned to me and rolled her eyes.  The librarian gave her a wink. 

In the car, she grumbled a little.  It was hard to read the man's voice (given that we didn't know him); was there a slightly sarcastic or condescending edge to it, or was he just being friendly?   We opted for friendly.  We try never to assume malice when clumsiness will do as an explanation for behavior.

Of course she read them all.  It wasn't even that hard.  She's on the upper edge of the juvenile section so she can chew through those books pretty handily.  We face the "young adult" section with trepidation.  YA authors are vying to be seen as the most cutting-edge and we are not cutting-edge people.   Anne of Green Gables is about our speed right now.   We're skipping the teen paranormal romance.  

We returned them within about two weeks.  She's unlikely to ever encounter that man again, and it wouldn't matter if she did.  But she won't forget him for a while, that man who doubted her.


Do you remember lovely summers spent buried in books?  I do.  

5 comments:

G said...

My ninth grade English teacher asked us how many books we had read over the summer. I said it had to be in the hundreds, and he accused me of lying. I never forgot that, obviously ;)

I think we'll skip the teen paranormal romance section when we get there too.

Anonymous said...

My teen daughters have read the Twilight Series and weren't as impressed as their peers.

My high schooler plowed through Agatha Christie last summer and is reading Aragon and books of similar genre this summer.

The college student decided to catch up on all the tv she didn't watch her first year of higher education!

Anonymous said...

My daughter is the same way. She can just consume books. It seems to be mostly girls who are like this in my experience. I woudl assume ignorance on the man's part and not be to harsh.

DADvocate said...

Good for her.

During the 4th - 7th grade years, I read a ton of mystery books. Read everyone they had in the children's library in Knoxville. I still enjoy a good mystery.

Reading is the most critical skill a person has in education.

Leslie said...

I didn't read really good books until college. My education classes introduced me to all the fabulous literature I missed as a kid. I did read voraciously...but what I read I don't even know. It is a shame, really.

That man is probably not used to seeing kids who are into books. These days they are mostly plugged into a device of some sort. The majority of kids that I see at the library are there to use the internet or check out videos.