angry book

  Ya want your kid to read.
  Ya want your kid to enjoy reading as you do.
  Is that another impossible dream?

The Book

  i found a delightful library book, Math Fables Too, by Greg Tang & Taia Morley.  Cool animals, cool words, grouping of numbers. The four birds are fishing; 3 do this while 1 does this; then 2 and 2 do different things, then 3  & 1 again, then all 4 all in rhyme.
  Adorable. Educational. Charming. MyGuy & i couldn't stop smiling while we read it.
  Maybe Max isn't old enough for it yet.

Trying to Read

  i asked him if i could annoy him by reading to him awhile, & he agreed.
  Then he started saying no.
  i said just a few pages.  i kept abbreviating the ;material as we went while he objected ever more strenuously.
  We stopped at the 4 page.
  i asked if i could read it with him later.
  He said no.
  i asked if he would read if on his own later.
  Max said yes.
 i said ok then went back to cooking dinner.  He screamed "No read" at me.
  Now you've got to understand i was very

Frustrated 

at this point.
   i said, "Fine, don't read .  But i feel sorry for you. People who don't read miss so much."
  Now

What Happened Next 

really surprised me.
  Max looked about to cry, and put himself in the corner!
  Now WHY would he do that?
  Not that we've never put him in a corner (though not since half his life ago), but never for anything in relation to reading.  That has always supposed to have been a pleasant situation.
  Did someone at school, frustrated, say that when putting him in time out?
  i told Max he didn't need to be in the corner.
  He was still angry, but signs of tears were gone and he came out of the corner.

And Later

  Boom found the library pocket page ripped from the book, in one of our trash cans.
  Sigh.  Tomorrow i must explain to Max about what results when we destroy library books.  It won't be pretty.

Like i miss all the good sniffs. . . .

  Sheesh, people who don't enjoy reading are punished enough just by what they're missing out on.
  Such folks are no doubt as clueless as i am, accompanying my dog on her sniffy walk, but, just as her sniffs add tremendous value to the dog's life, so reading adds a valuable dimension, unknown by those who cannot or do not read.

  If i must accept that this is beyond Max, i will, but this is as sad to me as the lost vacations.