Will She Ever Move On??

[Gabrielsyme]

My seven year old daughter has never been the kind of gifted kid who likes to binge on one topic at a time. Her younger brother will rip through a Beast Academy guide in a couple hours or spend months talking our ear off about The Boxcar Children but she has always had broader and more age-typical interests. Until now. She is obsessed with Percy Jackson and anything to do with Greek Mythology. At first I was pleased because despite a high school reading level and excellent comprehension she has never been much of a reader. I'm not really overly concerned now but I'm curious to see if this is a jumping off point for more reading or a fling that will die when her interest wanes. Have any of you had kids who read the same book five or six times in a row and refused to read anything else?  Did they move on or was their interest in reading tied specifically to that subject? I ordered her D'Aulairs' Book of Greek Myths so we'll see if that can be a bridge.

[wapiti]

My ds will only read the Michael Vey series and devours the books as they are published.  He isn't tempted by anything similar.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Edited March 14, 2017 by wapiti

[CadenceSophia]

Probably not.. :) All the kids in my neighborhood area obsessed with everything Rick Riorden. They have all read the books over and over. D'Aulaires' does get a lot of love because of it. Several of them have started learning Greek because of the books. My son will join his friends learning Greek in a week or so when our books arrive. There are a lot of kids pretty passionate about these books.

[JoJosMom]

Yes.  My DD got hooked on the first one in 2nd grade.  She's now in 9th grade and won't read anything by Rick Riordan:  "He just keeps recycling the same plot, Mom.  Can't he do anything original?" *insert snooty snort here*  :laugh:

[shawthorne44]

By the time I was 9 I had read every Mythology book I could get my hands on.   We lived in a city of 250K, I had a mother indulgent about borrowing/buying books and I could walk to a major university.   So, that was a lot of books.  When I reached the end, I moved onto other things.  Somewhere in high school I discovered Ancient Greek plays.  In college I'd really wanted Ancient Greek to be my language but enrollment was full.   So, it sort of lasted.  I stopped when I read a certain PhD thesis on Greek Myths.  I'd recommend your DD stop before that because it wasn't age appropriate.   You might notice that many myths follow the theme of

Hero needs to accomplish some impossible task.
Hero goes to a certain god to get a magical do-dad.   

Some translations will mention that the god owed hero a favor.  

Hero uses do-dad to accomplish the task.   

Which begs the question, what did the hero do to earn a favor?    PhD thesis explained that it was the adult male initiation rites.   An older man would 'capture' a pubescent male and take him into the wilderness for a few days and teach him male stuff.  Actively.   After that the young man was owed favors from the old man.   

 

[HomeAgain]

My 7yo is going through a Greek myth phase right now, too.  We started in November doing a unit study.  December...January..February..It's now March and only showing signs of waning because he realized Roman gods/stories are another side to the Greek.  I have a feeling this will be another few months. At least. 

[Pegs]

DS7's interest in the Olympians and their friends shifted a little in the last few months with the introduction of the Daulaires' Norse Myths. We have Neil Gaiman's new book on audio, and he's enjoyed that too.

 

He's mentioned a few times that he'd like to learn more about Celtic mythology also. The pronunciation learning curve is intimidating me a little, though! Perhaps we'll start with audio books.

[EndOfOrdinary]

We skipped the Daulaire's and went directly to Bulfinch's Mythology. Nathaniel Hawthorne's Wonder Book and the Tangelwood Tales were also favorites. Around 7, my humanities kid became obsessed with Ancient mythology, culture, and languages. He has never moved on (12 now). He writes papers entited "Feminism in the Epic of Gilgamesh: Strong Females in a Patriarchical Society" or "Ancient History Repeats Itself: Climate Crisis and the Fall of the Assyrian Empire" or "Oligarchy As the Downfall of Egypts' New Kingdom." It all started with Percy. Let her obsess and just strew quality materials everywhere. You can only obsess for so long before you branch to keep the obsession going.

[IsabelC]

I have a kid who tends to get in a rut with reading. When I feel that she has been stuck for too long, I just start handing her different books to read. 

[CherryBlossomMJ]

My daughter started with the Egyptian Kane series, but has now stopped on percy Jackson. But I've gotten her D'Aulaires and we got a eBook library book in the Kate O'Hearn Pegasus series and she is loving those too. She also keeps going back to Magic Tree House and Ramona. While I let her, I keep telling her "this old one is fine, but you need to spend some time on new book X before reading Y again".

 

I label my books per school year. So I can say go read a purple to your brother (toddler), orange or pink to your sister (CVC reading Kinder), or read a yellow or green on your own. Here she's will have a big choice, but she can choose. (Red is 2nd, yellow 3rd, green 4th). Now I need to start finding a color for 5th...

Edited March 23, 2017 by CherryBlossomMJ

[katilac]

Well, my 16-yr-old requested two Rick Riordan books for Christmas, so I can't promise it will stop anytime soon, lol. 

 

On the plus side, she got an A on her DE university composition that discussed diversity in the Percy Jackson series as a reflection of changing American culture . . . 

[pinewarbler]

Re-reading is awesome! Here's some good reasons to do it... scroll down to "Making sense for the desire to re-read".

 

Each of my kids reads hundreds of books a year. They also re-read Arthur Ransome books, Harry Potter series, Rick Riordans, the Penderwicks and a host of others. Personally I have benefited from re-reading fiction.... I read Hatchet by Gary Paulsen aloud to my son a year ago, and loved it. But I couldn't figure out exactly why, so immediately re-read it. Back-to-back readings allowed me to concentrate on the style, not the content of the book.