Nursery Rhyme Time

My boy reads Mother Goose the way others do sudoku.

Neither activity makes much sense to me. But I knew

he'd love this collection of comics by by cartoonists

(including Jules Feiffer) illustrating nursery and nonsense

rhymes. He read/sang his way through the volume in about

half an hour last night, no prompting required. He skipped

some, I don't know why, reread others, ditto.

Your eleven year old may not share this fascination, but

this is a great collection for younger readers. Sweet, 

quirky, and funny it reminds me of a lot of kids I know-

especially my own.

-Spectrum Mom

Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists [Hardcover]

 Chris Duffy (Editor), Leonard S. Marcus (Introduction)

My Marvel

I brought home Unmasked by Dr Octopus from the library, 

but never had a chance to sit down and read it with my son, 

we've been so busy with his school work. 

But he surprised me by using this as part of his precarious 
footstool balancing act in his bedroom, 
which means he at least turned its pages. 
And when I asked if he was still reading it, he echoed 

"still reading it."

I have always believed in letting a kid read whatever appeals 

to the kid. And I think many comics are fine reading materials.

In fact,  I would love, love, love it if my boy really gets 

into Spider-Man comics. They have good stories,

 a sensitive hero, emotional dilemmas galore, 

and his peers would be willing to talk about them. 

Of course I'm getting way ahead of myself and him here. 

Still, if the bright pictures can at least grab 

his attention long enough for him to read a few pages, 

I'll be very happy.

Comics have always been a good choice for reluctant readers, 

especially boys, and they may well be custom made for some 

boys on the spectrum.  

But while I'm fine with his choice, I have no idea what he 
makes of it. Does he follow the words? The pictures?

We used to alternate reading aloud-he would do a page, then

one of us would read a page. Now he usually reads aloud to 

his dad, but at his and his teacher's request, I let him read

to himself. I try to quiz him after each page (not easy, since

I can't see the page-I usually preread). He is slow to respond,

hard to prompt, and I usually have to have him read aloud a

significant portion of the page after all.
When I asked him about Unmasked, he said "Peter Parker
went aaachoo." We discussed why Peter did that and
that Peter became Spiderman. So he did get something
from it on his own .  .  .


-Spider-Mom

His meta, my meta, the more meta the bettah

This must be one of the strangest
kids books ever and what may be
strangest of all, my son really 
likes it. Confusing type sizes and all.
Perhaps Stinky meets the nonsense
standard, and he thinks no one will
ever question him about the content. 
Perhaps he enjoys the familiarity,
since he read it in school and
has a copy at home. Perhaps
the high meta factor with
characters commenting on the
story and the creation of the book
explain its appeal. Maybe he just
likes the (to me) bizarre pictures.
In any case he often chooses to read
it in preference to newer, "better,
more useful, more appealing" 
(only in my opinion obviously) 
books.



Such as Toon Books' collection
of kids comics. See elsewhere in
the blog for why I and my son like
the titles in the Toon series. 
This massive tome collects 20th
century gems from the familiar
(Dennis the Menace, Little Archie,
Scrooge McDuck) to the almost unknown 
but utterly charming (Sugar and Spike,
the Three Mouseketeers) to the weird.
(curious? check out the book).
Strong picture support, nonsense, meta
references, there's something here for
every child-or so I thought. My four 
year old loved reading this with me. 
My child with autism-not so much. 
Which is why libraries are so great .  .  .
He really liked the originals in this 
series though -

Keep on guessing!
-Spectrum Mom