The Boy (and his books) I Have Loved

As I sat, this morning, groggily trying to wake up, I started thinking back to Zack's early interactions with books. When he was a tiny little boy, each night, I would rock him in our rocking chair and read two stories: Pat The Bunny and Good Night Moon. I loved singing the words to him, guiding his hand to touch the pages of Pat The Bunny.

Good Night Moon was less tactile, but even more fun to sing-song to him.

That poor copy of Pat The Bunny practically disintegrated at the end. I think I still have the copy of Goodnight Moon for my classroom collection- those board books are pretty hearty!

We enjoyed many, many books together over the years but, really, he was never interested in sitting down and reading with me. Before he went to kindergarten, he learned his alphabet and we started working on that sound-letter correlation thing but he didn't seem to fully grasp it. Red flags should have been going up, but he was my first and I had no idea what he "should" be able to do, etc.

So, when we tried this fun series from the library..

I found myself confused about why he didn't seem to be catching on. The guilty Mom in me can still hear him repeating the words half a beat behind me because he knew he couldn't decipher it and I wanted him to SO badly. The sound of him saying "beeper" will stay with me forever. He was such a "people pleaser"- even at 4.

In his first few years of school, he really didn't care one way or the other about reading. He had an easygoing personality and made friends with all of the kids in his room. His teachers loved him- who wouldn't? He was always cooperative, although easily distracted and slow on writing assignments. But, he was not retained because he was "just immature" and would "grow out of it."

As he grew, we saw inconsistency in his abilities to read and write. Instead of asking what the problem was, we blamed him for not trying. Fortunately, there have been moments of comic relief here and there, like in Kindergarten when he made this book for me:

Cute, right? But, wait.... this is my favorite page....

Ahem. In case you can't decipher it: "My Mother looks prettiest when she plays spin the bottle." That's me on the left (you can tell because of my flippy hair do) and I have no idea who is on the right. In the middle there is, clearly, a bottle. It is inscribed with the word "ber." Yes, folks, I look prettiest when I'm using a beer bottle to play spin the bottle. <pause for laughter here>.....

........

Finished? Oh, not yet? One more minute then....

.....

How would you like to be making THAT phone call to the teacher??? "Hello, Mrs. X, this is Mrs. L... Zack's Mom. I was so happy to receive the book that Zack made in your class, for Mother's Day! Yes, he did do a lovely job.... However, I did want to reassure you that spin the bottle is not a game that I play..... What? Where did he get that idea? I'm sure I have no idea- maybe he heard it on the bus!" I. Wanted. To. Die. 

It did get better though.... or maybe the teachers got smarter. First, they decided that typing things up was a much better idea than having him hand write. A few years later, I got THIS poem:

Please note that I have graduated from playing spin the bottle and am now into Star Wars and making awesome cakes. Oddly enough, this note isn't dated, but I would guess 2nd or 3rd grade.

In school, he rarely read for pleasure and preferred nonfictional books (lots of pictures) to fiction (too much text.) In fact, the first series of books that caught his interest were in Scholastic's Dear America series

and then Gary Paulsen. Paulsen's books are written FOR the teenage boy, like Hatchet, Woodsrunner, etc. 

Last year was the first time he was sucked in by a series- he could not put it down. Enter, The Hunger Games. He devoured them like nothing I'd ever seen before. It brought tears to my eyes- literally- to see him so engrossed in a book.  

 

Last year, while at Gow, Zack made some major improvements in the reading/writing departments. After only one month at Gow, he sent me this card:

It isn't very legible. However, he thanks me for helping him go to Gow, for being his Mom, and being there when he needs help. I love the use of "Overall" in the last sentence. Such an academic child! The boy's handwriting is atrocious- so much so that his fundraising "thank yous" will be typed up on the computer. I wanted to save the recipients the pain of trying to decipher his work.

Finally, here is a piece that he wrote for "The Youngovian" which is published by one of the English teachers at Gow.

It might not seem like a big deal to you, the reader, but the work reflects his confidence- something that was never there before. He writes with voice (even if it is teenage boy voice) and confidence.

I look forward to watching his continued evolution. With a little more help from our friends, he will be back at Gow next year, improving by leaps and bounds once again! (Although, I suspect that the handwriting thing is a lost cause.)

As of today, our indiegogo account is up to $1210. Our goal is $5,000 and we have 60-some days to get there. We CAN do it with your help. If you aren't able to donate money, please just help spread the word- share our links with your friends!

Indiegogo:  http://www.indiegogo.com/ZackGow?a=740312
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With your continued help, spreading the word, we can do it!!