Reading is awesome

So I've mentioned a time or two on here that I'm a BookPALS volunteer.  It's a pretty special thing to be able to read to my two classes every week.  Usually I read the same book in each class but last week we did something different.  It was the return from spring break and we needed to start a new book.  I had a couple of options because my classes are really well-read and it was very possible that they would have already read something I picked out to read together.  James and the Giant Peach was my first choice to read but I also had The BFG and Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing in my bag, just in case.  Went to my first class and asked how many students had already read James and the Giant Peach.  Pretty much all of them had.  No problem, I had back up.  And while I was listing the other choices, one little girl says, "I want to read Charlotte's Web."  And then the whole class got excited about wanting to read Charlotte's Web.  It was in their teacher's library and they hadn't read it yet.  So then I got excited about reading Charlotte's Web.  So we made a change of plans and started to read it.  I love how there are certain books that just enthrall children.  They sit and listen, wide-eyed and swept into another world.  This book had that immediate effect.  I went into the next class, prepared with the same choices but this time I had Charlotte's Web as an additional choice.  But when I asked if anyone had read James and the Giant Peach, only one girl had read it.  And she has read everything (a little like me as a kid).  So I gave the other option of Charlotte's Web but this teacher had plans to read it to them soon so we decided on James and the Giant Peach!  Some of the students had seen the movie so they are having fun discovering the differences between the movie and the original story.  It is really fun discovering two different stories together with my 3rd graders and I'm excited to continue today!

**Update:  So I got to my first class yesterday and they were all like, "We saw the movie on Friday!  Charlotte dies in the end!"  And I was gobsmacked!  So was the teacher.  She didn't know that it was shown to them.  So I wasn't sure what to do...cause I left all of my other books at home.  Luckily, most of them (there were some dissenters) wanted to still hear the story.  I explained that the movies of the books always are different and there is more detail in the book and, sure enough, by the time we got going, all of them were caught up in the story...even the ones that dissented.  In my second class, several of the kids had checked out James and the Giant Peach from the library and brought their books to read along.  Love that!