“Thanks to the library for helping my son...make it through another school assignment.”

By Judi G., November 2007

One day after school, my 6th grade son told me his assignment for independent reading for the month was a biography. He informed me that there were no interesting people and he would die if he had to read a biography. We stopped at the library on the way home and I tried, unsuccessfully, to have him select a person from history. Nothing would interest him.

I went ahead and pulled a number of books from the juvenile biography section that were of people I knew to have fascinating lives or invent things that my son thinks are interesting. He told me that it was no use; he would never read any of those books. I found the Famous Dead People series and selected Henry VIII and Al Capone as well as books about JK Rowling and some famous scientists, inventors and others.

I made one more stop on the way home and, lo and behold, by the time we got home my son had discovered the book about Al Capone and was already through the first chapter. Surprisingly, he did not die from reading it — he actually read it within the week and admitted to “not hating it,” which is high praise considering how we started that assignment.

Thanks to the library for helping my son discover a new genre and to make it through another school assignment. I can always count on the library for help on projects such as these. We often stop on our way home from school when a new assignment comes in; there are always books that interest my family!