Honestly, when I chose my series books I kind of just went and picked something I was familiar with. I have finished the first book in the series “A Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, and let’s just say so far I’m not really impressed. I can see why children like it, the type of humor, cartoon like drawings, the relatable character, etc. But it did not really draw my attention. I see the potential that the book has but I do not like how it is written, or how the characters perceive as what is okay and not okay. The main character Greg seems to be a nice kid, middle school age dealing with the typical middle school events and challenges. But as the story goes on he says certain lines that I think are rude to who he claims to be his “best friend” Rowley. For example, Greg stated “I’ve been trying to be a lot more careful about my image ever since I got into middle school. But having Rowley around is definitely not helping.” I think when a character says something like that about a friend it kind of shows the reader that it is okay to talk like that and I do not think that is a good influence on children. There are also other instances where he will say something like “Well if he appreciated what I did for him he hasn’t shown it yet.” Which kind of shows to children that even if you do something out of the goodness of your heart you should still expect something in return, when in all reality you really shouldn’t expect anything.
Overall it is an odd series that I believe to be geared to middle school boys—now that doesn’t mean only middle school boys read it. But that is usually the demographic that I see reading this book.
And on to Donalyn…
Oh Donalyn, you just get me. I really enjoy reading about all these ideas she has about reading (haha, reading about reading) because there is just so much that I have never thought about and there are other ideas that I have thought about but she goes more in depth with them. Book Buzz, can you say GENIUS?! Just for the pure fact that children get excited just winning something. It’s just like how she says’ “Even students who are unmotivated to read enter drawings because of the status that comes with winning first reading rights.” I’m an unmotivated reader, and I know I was when I was a child, so I know if my teacher had a drawing I might have been a little more motivated to read that specific book.
Also abandoning books… I grew up thinking/being told in school I HAD to finish a book. I was never ever given the option to abandon a book. But I do believe that is another important thing to allow children to do. Like she says if a child is abandoning too many books they just might not be picking the right type of book. I really enjoy how she looks at her students and their reading; she never seems to push students to read something they don’t enjoy when it comes to reading for fun. She also seems to be so helpful to her students in guiding them with their reading. Especially when she talks about how she can guide and help them in the beginning of the year, but if in April they are still asking for help, that’s when they really do need the help.
Last but not least I do also think keeping track of your reading is very important, especially at a young age. Knowing what you read, how long it took you, if you liked it and if you ended up abandoning it is really important. Because then you can go back and look at your reading list and you can figure out which genres you really enjoyed, what you really did not like and you can also know how long they take you to read overall.
I could seriously go on about Donalyn and everything she talked about in this chapter, but I think that is all I will say for now. Hopefully everyone loves her so far as much as I do.
