Dan Gutman visits Naperville

This past Thursday my daughter and I had the pleasure of listening to Dan Gutman speak at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville. The place was packed and he had the kids completely engaged and interacting with him. My fifth grade son is a huge fan of Gutman's books and was more than happy to add Gutman's newest release "Roberto and Me" to his collection. Now my first grader is excited to read Gutman's "My Weird School Daze" series. Dan Gutman will be back at Anderson's in May - so mark it on your calendar. You won't want to miss it!

Thanks Anderson's for hosting such wonderful events. What a great night!

Books for Boys

Over the winter break my children were reading maniacs. Especially my ten-year-old son, who for the longest time, really had a hard time finding books that he loved. I am beyond thrilled to report that this has completely changed. Hooray!

The author that has changed all of that is Dan Gutman. His baseball series books "Babe and Me", etc. have had my son reading a book every 24-48 hours. This is so amazing. My Danny has now finished 11 of Gutman's books. Thank you Dan Gutman. You are a genius! Last night my son was reading the bio for one of these books and we both found it so interesting that as a child, Dan Gutman said he hated to read. Gutman says that's one of the reasons why he makes an extra special effort not to write books that are boring.

A few other books that my fifth grader has also enjoyed are: Jerry Spinelli's "Crash" and "Loser" and all of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books by Jeff Kinney. Hooray! Definitely give these books a try.

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." ~ Anna Quindlen