St Pauli Girl, Austin, Master of none -
THANK YOU! this is exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping for. All very valid approaches, and all helpful for my mulling-over and incorporating into my bag-of-tricks for "in the moment" responses!
I do try to be careful in my explanations of those that are less challenging because he (as it seems are some of your kiddies) is also interested in the younger books (which he listens to intently when we read to little man - and often picks up just cuz...). They're not "challenging", but they still seem to hold some interest for him and I don't want to make anything seem out of bounds! (as you mentioned, master of none... it's important that he NOT be bound by someone else's list!!!)... but i admit I do try to encourage him towards the challenging at the library (and let him pick whatever he wants at home)...
But, perhaps i should be more sensitive to that too....
st pauli girl... I have to go find the list at some point, but the two we picked this week were James and the Giant Peach and Encyclopedia Brown. I had never heard of the latter, but my husband saw it and flipped! He said those were among his favorite books when he was a kid. That one has been a GREAT success, they're fun! (and husband called his dad as he thinks his old EB books are still hanging around the house somewhere... big man thought that would be REALLY cool!).
Again - thanks to ALL of you for your thoughts!
sfb
