Books Books Books

So today I shot out of work at 11:10 to get over to the kids' school so I could take them to the half-price book fair.  Please don't even get me started on the fact that this book fair runs from 9:30 - 3:00 Tuesday through Thursday and closes for lunch from 11:30 - 12:30.  In order for me to take my kids to their school book fair, I have to come there and  TAKE THEM OUT OF CLASS.  Now I do acknowledge that librarians need to eat too, however, perhaps they could stagger their lunches so that it would be open during the kids' lunch time.  Just a thought.  Because I am not the kind of parent that would give my kid $10 and send them to the book fair to pick out their own books. 

Here's why:

Jacob got, I think, 5 books:  a book of addresses for writing celebrities, politicians, sports figures, etc, and four other books pertaining to dragons, fantasy or some like topic.  All is fine there, other than even at half-price, far exceeds the $10 I would give him.  And I don't mind paying for books for him because I know he will actually read them.

Sara, on the other hand, got 2 books: a book called "Diary of ......" which is actually a graphic novel (not "Diary of a Wimpy Kid") and a Choose Your Own Adventure book that I talked her into.  I vetoed the book of poetry because - come on.  Who really reads poetry?  I know there are people that do, but I also know they are not 9-year-olds on summer vacation.  And I don't really consider graphic novels reading, since I know my kid, and I know she's really only looking at the pictures and that's cheating.  It's not all that different than watching TV really.  Just without the pesky commercials.  So this child would have taken her $10, bought one $5 book for half-price and spent the rest of my money on Smencils or nachos or some such crap they sell at school that infuriates me to no end.

I have one child who literally almost missed his ride to school this morning because he was reading his Enrichment book for pleasure and another child who would rather remove her eyeballs with a spoon than read a book.  It's baffling really. 

Would it have been too much to have a kid that fell somewhere in the middle?  Maybe that's what my third kid would have been like, if I'd had one.