Iver has been (to my dismay) a bit of a reluctant independent reader in his life so far.... until this past month or so!
Through his school English class, fourth graders have read and done "literature circles" for a few novels so far-- Morning Girl, Island of the Blue Dolphins (which I remembered from grade school and which I re-read at Iver's request!), and The One and Only Ivan. Iver was really motivated to complete the assignments and to get ahead in reading... but it's also translated into some independent reading at home which just warms my heart so much.
The One and Only Ivan is a sweet book told from the perspective of Ivan, a shopping-mall gorilla (based on a true account of a gorilla held for 27 years in a mall in Tacoma, WA) who is eventually released to a more humane wildlife habitat in Atlanta. It's been Iver's favorite book to date (it's actually very funny), and also a cute movie (originally released on Disney, now rentable on Amazon) that we watched together after he finished the book.
After reading Ivan, Iver requested several of the other spin-offs in the quartet by the same author, told from the perspectives of different animal characters, which we were able to borrow from the local library (Niall also likes them, requesting them to be read aloud to him).
(Bob is the free-roaming dog).
(Ruby is a baby elephant)
(Ivan and female gorilla Kinyani have twins)
He's read another book, Crenshaw, by the same author, and has requested a few more from the library. He's also started into the Judy Blume books he received for Christmas last year. I'm so happy that he's enjoying books on his own-- a new chapter for us (and him). I wonder what he'll read next!
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