Danger: Reader Gone Wild

In a family of readers, eight year old Denver has long been the hold out: "I don't want to read anything.  It's too boring!"  

Today at the library, Denver asked me how to spell survival.  He then walked to the computer and searched for books on survival.  He found Wilderness Survival for Dummies.  I helped him locate it in the adult section.

"I like the title," he said.  "It makes me think that I might evolve not to be a dummy about this stuff."  I stifled a smile at his word choice, and suggested he take a look.

Denver sat near the window and began to read.  This is a boy who at age seven would cry if I asked him to read more than two sentences.  Last year's test scores indicated he was off the charts in everything except reading.  He received no score in reading because he simply couldn't do it.

Every five or ten minutes this morning, he jumped up grinning to tell me about something he learned-- how to hold a piece of metal toward the sun to signal for help; how to cook over an open fire; the importance of self-control when you realize you might be lost and your heart is racing.

Delighted with his newfound powers, Denver enlisted his brother to build an outdoor survival camp in our woodsy backyard as soon as we got home from the library.  Denver just made a slingshot, and Spencer is shooting his bow. They are outside building a campfire right now.

If you should hear news of a forest fire east of Atlanta . . . you'll know things got a little out of hand.