Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I'm curious when people started reading books without (many) pictures to their kids, and what books they started with. Not sure L'il Ty would go for this yet, but maybe it's worth a try.
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I started reading the Harry Potter books to my son when he was about four and a half.
He was able to pay attention to "chapter books" (for example the "Magic Treehouse" series -- at least I think that's what it's called) before he was four. It had to be a subject that he was interested in, however. (For him, it was dinosaurs -- which reminds me, every time I'm logged into lawtalkers from home and he sees your avatar, he asks me to go back so he can look at it some more.) He was interested in dinosaur books ("scientific" ones -- you know, with bones and scientific names and things) long before he turned four, but he wouldn't have been able to sit through Harry Potter.
He also liked the "Junie B. Jones" series when he was about four (and still likes it). Some parents don't like JBJ, because Junie uses a lot of incorrect grammar -- but I think the books are funny and really speak to kids his age. Besides, my son points out her grammatical errors (he is, after all, his mother's son!), so I'm not worried that he'll pick up bad habits from that.
I think the first "real" book he sat through in its entirety was Charlotte's Web, and that was two summers ago, which means he was almost four. That was followed by James and the Giant Peach -- another big hit with him.
