EEP was slow to start reading. I was getting worried about her. (CREEP!) because I, in my never-ending quest for more stories, had started reading in Kindergarten without any encouragement at all, at the age of 5. I would sit in the circle where the teacher would be reading aloud, all of us following along, and I would be reading ahead.

Damn! Faster teacher! FASTER! More. Story. Now!

I digress.

I gave her the benefit of the doubt at age 5, because of her father- no matter what he claims to be the age he started reading, (5) the guy- besides being profoundly skilled in the art of exaggeration and flat out lying, Sal, as an adult, is NO reader of anything but the paper and an occasional chess book. Here is the bulk of the fiction I saw him read over ten years: Wickedand Holes. Two fine books to read, certainly, but c�mon, TWO. In ten years!

EEP wasn�t catching on to phonics in Grade 1. A big reason that I had her repeat Grade 1 was I was scared that if she was pushed forward too hard into reading before she was ready, that she would start to hate reading since it wasn�t coming naturally. The girl would ask for picture book after picture book to be read to her repeatedly, but had no patience for what I was DYING to read aloud to my children- chapter books.

A child of mine hating to read would kill me.

Already repeating 1st grade has been proven to be an excellent choice. EEP is outspoken in class, and is much more outgoing- and the fact that she was singled out for academic achievement this year doesn�t hurt either. Plus, we looooove Ms. Turner her teacher.

Best of all, yesterday all she wanted in the whole world was Charlotte�s Web. It was just read in the after-school program, and EEP couldn�t wait to read it to herself. Now there are many requests that I dawdle on. Many I disregard completely. .. But with a great cry of �CHAPTER BOOKS AWAY!� We made it to Half-Price Books in nothing flat and made it inside without even catching my cape in the door.

She got Charlotte�s Web of course. AND Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach (I was going with the whole �she sort of knows the story yet reading the story will be new� theme) and that�s when I spotted a big stack of Oz books. One of the Oz books has an adventure where Dorothy and several of her friends (some human, some magical in the manner of the Scarecrow, and some animal)- get trapped on an Island. When they try to leave the island the friends who are made of �meat� God I love Frank L. Baum! Find they have taken root there in the sand�LOVE THAT! So The Magic of Oz and Ozma of Oz(love the princess with the exchangable heads and tempraments in that one) got thrown on the pile with the Robert Dahl and I tried to convince her that she really should read Little House in the Big Woods once she was done with Charlotte�s Web, but EEP just wasn�t having it. I suppose that was fine being that Mommy has no restraint whatsoever.

Because my mind was reeling with what could come next for her- Betsy-Tacy, Ellen Tebbits, Harriet the Spy�.

By this morning, she was on page 35. That�s, My. Girl!