Mystery Reader

Oldest Boy's kindergarten class has a program that's called the "Mystery Reader". Every Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 someone comes into the class and reads 2-3 books of their choosing. Usually it's a parent of one of the kids. He has been begging me to do this since oh, I dunno, October? I couldn't quite figure out how to make it work into our schedule. I had to find someone to stay with the kids, I said, and that was harder than you think. Then? One of his classmates (the 4th of 6 children) had her mommy come in to read...and she brought her other kids. This was the deal breaker for Oldest Boy. Now my excuse was shot to hell and I had to do it.

I decided that our Princess wasn't likely to sit through Kindergarten-age-appropriate books (since she can't do it during story time at our house), so I roped my aunt into watching her (again!) but I decided to take Youngest Boy along. He asks me at least once a week when he'll be old enough to go to school. And if you mention the word "Fall" - even out of context for the season - he'll say, "That's when I start SCHOOL!!" I figured this would be a grand time for him. Uh, not so much.

I had been asking Oldest Boy - who mentioned every Wednesday that he really wanted me to be Mystery Reader - what books he would like me to read. He wanted "something really funny". So we went with our two favorites that always have our boys rolling in the aisles - The Napping House by Audrey Wood and Don Wood and The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin (my personal favorite). I also took along a Curious George book because those two were pretty short and I wasn't exactly sure how long I was supposed to take (remember - serious communication issues at this school:).

Oldest Boy was shocked when Youngest Boy and I showed up at Mystery Reader time! I could tell he was thrilled, though! His teacher set up a chair for his little brother and we got down to business. I opened with the Curious George because I like to save the best for last. When we were ready to read The Monster at the end of this Book, Youngest Boy piped up and said, "This is a great book! It's about Grover and he doesn't know it, but..." And I shushed him and tapped his lips with my fingers so he would keep quiet and not tell them the ending. The result? Complete. Meltdown. He sobbed at the top of his lungs, "I WANNA GO HOME NOW!!!" Repeatedly. Finally, the teacher gave him a ginormous cookie left over from their Star of the Week snack and that kept him quiet for the remaining two (blessedly) short books.

When we got outside (Oldest Boy got to leave with us instead of waiting for dismissal), Youngest Boy turned to me and said, "Mommy, you embarrassed me in front of brother's friends." {SIGH} I had been hoping to not hear those words until they were at least teenagers. And every day he tells me that he does NOT want to be Mystery Reader ever again.