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Last week was Read In Week in school. For those of you not familiar, this is a week in which local "celebrities" come in to your school and read for an hour or so. Football players, news anchors, and the like. Monday morning I ask him if anyone "famous" is coming to read to him this week, and he tells me yes, a guy from a radio station. The questions "What's his name? What radio station is he from? and When is he coming?" got me the answers "I dunno, I dunno, and Tuesday."

Tuesday comes, and at the end of the day I ask him who was this radio DJ that read to the class. Jason Roberts he says, Mom do you know who that is? I have to admit that no, I don't. I can barely remember the names of the DJs on the stations that I do listen to.

This Jason fellow read something - Lucas can't remember what - but he really enjoyed it. This Jason fellow was really funny apparently. Only sort of memorable, but definitely funny.

Dude was very animated in this entire discussion. I could tell that he had made an extra effort to remember the name of the DJ-Reader so he could tell me at the end of the day. Because he knew I would ask, and because he knew it was special.

At the end of the day, we did the standard pre-bedtime routine and then I grabbed his "Home Reading" book from his bag for him to read in bed. A Magic Treehouse title I hadn't seen before. He started reading it out loud, and then got quieter and quieter and read the rest in his head. He read the entire book to himself, without asking me to help him or finish it for him because he was getting tired. That means it was a good book, an amazing book. He couldn't put it down. I know what's that like. I stayed up late that night too, finishing off the first book for my October list.

for the love of reading...

later loves

p.s. Please check out this lecture by Neil Gaiman on the importance of libraries and reading to our present and our future. It won't take you very long, and I have a feeling it will make you smile.