Reading Brian Selznick

I think we were the last people to see Hugo in the theater and we were really glad we did. It is was fantastic story with even better animation. It also set off an interest in automata and Brian Selznick, the author of the story.

The next adventure of Mr. Selznick's we embarked on was Wonderstruck. It is an illustrated novel, which is a very neat concept. There is an illustrated story and a written story that comprise the book. His use of them together is phenomenal. I won't spoil any of it for you, but there are a list of locations in New York City planned from the reading of this book as lots of it takes place in there. It also peaked their interested regarding sign language and wolves.

Gavin read The Houdini Box and then I read The Boy with a Thousand Faces and Robot King to them. The Robot King alluded to The Secret Garden, now they'd like to hear that too.

I love how one thing leads to another, if you let it. There is never a lack of new books to read, topics to research, , places to visit and things to just talk about. No need for pricey, comlicated curriculum over here. Just a big 'ole stack of library books will do.

We can have 100 books out of the library at a time. Dennis once told me that there was no way we used *all* the books. I sorted them into piles to find that we read 75% of them cover-to-cover, looked through many and didn't touch just a few.

The worth of a book is to be measured by

what you can carry away from it. ~James Bryce