Caitlyn’s school issues monthly “20/20 Reading Challenges”, encouraging the kids to find someone to read to them for 20 minutes for 20 days out of every month. After the post-school snack, Caitlyn and I sit down and she reads one book to me and I read two or three to her. The other day, she read I am Invited to a Party! by Mo Willems to me and I read Three Little Kittens, One Smart Cookie (which I think is cute but she thinks is boring), and The Adventure to her.

Later, while I was attempting to find a quiet moment on the couch with my own book (City of Bones at the moment), Caitlyn perched on the other end of the couch with a book she’s been “reading” for a couple of years now. I don’t know why she chose it, but a year or more ago she picked up Joshua from the shelves in the living room. She will sit with it and turn the pages, then put a bookmark in it and put it back on the shelf; later, she’ll come back and “read” some more from where she “left off”. It’s a novel, with no pictures, and I’m impressed that she’s stuck with it.

Late last week, she finished Joshua and started in on the sequel, Joshua and the Children. So there we were, on opposite ends of the couch, both of us with our books. She turns the pages slowly, and she has started whisper-sounding out a few words on the page before she turns it. Then she looks up and says, “Mama, look how much I’ve read. I’ve read from Chapter Three to Chapter Six. Did you know this book has 36 chapters? Isn’t that a lot? Do you want to see how much I’ve read?”

I have a bookworm in training. Mama is so proud.