Raising Boys

Fantasy books and gaming cards January 3, 2006

Two things fascinate my 7-year-old son Dylan at present–books and Yu-Ge-Oh cards. I’m hoping he’d outgrow the latter but not the former. Our present to him during the school Christmas party last month was L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” book, and he has read it at least three times since then.

The first thing he said to me after he finished reading the book was that the wizard was just a “humbug”. He says the word as if he understands it and I could not be sure if he does because he and I have not found the time to discuss the book in detail. I let him read short stories on his own but I usually read books with him. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the first book he has read on his own.

We’ve read some books in the Harry Potter series together. I’d read chapters to him and then he’d ask me to explain things he could not understand from the reading and then he’d read these on his own again.

I’ve also bought him Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” but he did not take to it like he did to the wizard of Oz. Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole probably scared him, he said it was way “too long.”

I’m hoping that after he gets over his fascination with Dorothy’s adventures with the tinman, scarecrow, and the lion, he’d pay some much-deserved attention on Alice. I’d probably buy him Alice Through the Looking Glass, too. He’d probably like it better.

After Alice, I have the whole set of C.S Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia for him to read at his leisure. He has started reading portions of Lewis’s books, though, and is drawn to The Silver Chair and The Last Battle.