Reading out loud

I have two boys, 6 and 3--just enough age difference so that reading out loud to both of them at the same time often ends up with neither being quite happy. My older boy and I are currently reading The Battle for Castle Cockatrice (original English title The Talking Parcel; it was republished over here a few years ago) by Gerald Durrell (of My Family and Other Animals fame). It's a book I loved as a child when I read it to myself--brave children, including a strong girl character, saving a mythological world from domination by Cockatrices. Lots of humor, lots of action, and lots of description. I am finding myself editing the later, because I am afraid of loosing momentum, and I have mixed feelings about this. Not all books with lots of description seem to require this--The Trumpet of the Swan, for instance, I felt no urge to abridge. But with some books, I feel I'm loosing my reader when I read long descriptions...

Jennifer at http://jennifersnapshot.blogspot.com/ (I am still new at this and cannot get links to work neatly yet--sorry) has set up the Read to Me 2007 Challenge, urging us reading out loud (ROL) to our children types to set goals for our ROL in the coming few weeks. My general goals are at least three books a day for my little one/one or two chapters a day for my older one. But for the ROL challenge, we're asked to be more specific. So I'm going to up the ante for my three year old, and in the next two weeks I'll read him D'Aulaire's book of Greek Mythology. I loved it at that age, his brother loved it, so now it's his turn (most excellent illustrations). I will also read him his first chapter book--Moominland MidWinter, by Tove Janson (who could resist Moomintroll?). It is time for him to have more to chew on.

My goals for my older boy are trickier, because I want him to read out loud to me...He is resisting because the books he can read are not books he wants to read. He wants to study ancient history, geology, paleontology, etc. So, here are my goals for him: 50 books read by him to me, 20 non-fiction books read by me to him... we shall see.

In case anyone out there has never met the moomins--they are a family of very charming trolls who live in Finland. In Moominland Midwinter, the boy of the family, Moomintroll, wakes up in the middle of winter, while all his family are still hibernating. He finds himself in a world of dark and cold and strange lonely creatures...I like to start with this moomin book, even though it is not technically the first (which is Comet in Moominland), because it has fewer characters competing for the reader's attention, and you really get to know and love Moomintroll.