Welcome to another episode of Keelan Hates to Read! This time, I torture him with a cute book by Ginny Jordan called What’s Making Walter C. Laugh?, available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions. OK, I’m kidding about the torture part, but really that’s how he acts whenever I try to sit down and encourage him to read anything that isn’t his counting book with the picture of 50 cars.
I get a lot of book review offers, and I only take the ones that look like my son might give them an iota of a chance. I thought the pictures in this book looked fun and colorful and would grab his attention. The silly drawings looked like they could give us lots of fun stuff to talk about. I approach each reading attempt with great enthusiasm and optimism, hoping each new book will be “the one” that really speaks to him.
He got excited when he saw I had a package in my hands, but immediately freaked out when I pulled out a book. This was followed by grabbing it, throwing it, then chasing after it to put it in the trash. It was very similar to our Sergeant Stubby experience. The poor book would make its way back into to trash two more times before he got the message that was not where the book was to go again if he valued his life (haha.)
Then one day he grabbed the book and actually brought it over to me! He pointed to the picture of the little boy inside and said “that’s my friend.”
Things were looking up! He wasn’t putting it in the trash! So I asked him to tell me about his friend, and then cautiously asked if he wanted me to read the book.
The answer was No! So I tried to show him a few pages and grab his attention.
And then this happened:
So unfortunately not even Walter C. could get Keelan K. to laugh at anything. But this isn’t the end! We’ve added the book to our bookshelf to bring out another time. I find it might take 10 tries or more to get my son to sit down and actually finish a whole book, but the trick is to just keep trying! One day he’ll thank me. Right? I hope I’m right… 🙂
If anyone has an encouraging story about their kid hating books and then later learning to love it, I’d love to hear it!
Categories: Children's Books
Geek Mamas 
My oldest doesn’t have the attention span for books. She cannot sit still long enough to get through the first page and we have been reading since she was born; however, she does like books that make her laugh. I am going to look up this book, see if its something she might be interested in. Thanks for sharing it!
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I really felt like the silly pictures would catch his attention. We are still working on it 😁
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I am really embarrassed to say this, but there is one book my daughter does let me read to her and it keeps her attention: “Walter the Farting Dog,” by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray. I do not even know where we got this book from, probably from Nana. Anyways, its a super cute story about a dog whose farts made him a hero. It might catch his attention, if you don’t mind farts. 🙂
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Maybe farts are the answer! LOL I’ll have to look that up. Thanks!
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