~Reading Aloud~
Reading aloud to children as they grow older can present some challenges. I have to be
creative if I want my eleven year old son to WANT to be read aloud to. He isn’t willing to sit down and read unless he’s excited about the book. I’ve found that reading books that have been made into movies has been the answer in our home.
Many movies that are made today are based on children’s books. We’ll buy books to read aloud as soon as we start seeing trailers for new movies that our son wants to see.
My son absolutely loved the Narnia book series. We read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe before his 8th birthday. A week later we took him to the theater to watch the movie. It was very interesting to hear him whispering to his father during the movie, “But Dad, that’s not what they did in the book!” He was still comparing the differences in what he’d read and what he’d seen for almost an hour after we left the theater. He still doesn’t believe that the movie depicted what Turkish Delight looks like properly.
Since that first book/movie experience, most of the books we read aloud together are books that have been made into movies. I have to confess I enjoy it as much as he does. It’s not often that I’d pick up a copy of Harry Potter and read it myself. But I enjoy it immensely when reading it aloud with my son and then watching the movie together.
One great lesson my son has learned by reading the book and then watching the movie is that the book is usually better than the movie. He went with a group of friends to watch the Spiderwick Chronicles at the theater last year. All of his friends had read the first five books in the series and had talked for weeks about how great the movie was going to be. They were all sorely disappointed after watching the movie. My son came home and exclaimed, “Mom, they didn’t include any of Book 4 in the movie! That was the BEST book in the series! How could they not put that in the movie? It would have been so much better if they had!” I then reminded him that if he hadn’t taken the time to read the books before seeing the movie he’d have missed all of those great details from the books.
Reading books aloud and then watching the movie together can be a precious way to spend quality time with one another. I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to help my child improve his comprehension skills.
creative if I want my eleven year old son to WANT to be read aloud to. He isn’t willing to sit down and read unless he’s excited about the book. I’ve found that reading books that have been made into movies has been the answer in our home.
Many movies that are made today are based on children’s books. We’ll buy books to read aloud as soon as we start seeing trailers for new movies that our son wants to see.
My son absolutely loved the Narnia book series. We read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe before his 8th birthday. A week later we took him to the theater to watch the movie. It was very interesting to hear him whispering to his father during the movie, “But Dad, that’s not what they did in the book!” He was still comparing the differences in what he’d read and what he’d seen for almost an hour after we left the theater. He still doesn’t believe that the movie depicted what Turkish Delight looks like properly.
Since that first book/movie experience, most of the books we read aloud together are books that have been made into movies. I have to confess I enjoy it as much as he does. It’s not often that I’d pick up a copy of Harry Potter and read it myself. But I enjoy it immensely when reading it aloud with my son and then watching the movie together.
One great lesson my son has learned by reading the book and then watching the movie is that the book is usually better than the movie. He went with a group of friends to watch the Spiderwick Chronicles at the theater last year. All of his friends had read the first five books in the series and had talked for weeks about how great the movie was going to be. They were all sorely disappointed after watching the movie. My son came home and exclaimed, “Mom, they didn’t include any of Book 4 in the movie! That was the BEST book in the series! How could they not put that in the movie? It would have been so much better if they had!” I then reminded him that if he hadn’t taken the time to read the books before seeing the movie he’d have missed all of those great details from the books.
Reading books aloud and then watching the movie together can be a precious way to spend quality time with one another. I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to help my child improve his comprehension skills.
posted by ~Michelle Hertig-Sperl at
7:22 AM
4 Comments:
When I was younger, I was always "disappointed" in the translation from print to screen... but now, I am more amused in seeing how a director or screenwriter presents the story in film... Obviously, they have a smaller window of time to present the narrative, so they have to pick and choose which elements to include. Eventually, you learn to enjoy each media for what it is...
What are your best and worst book-to-film adaptations?
Best Book-to-Film adaptation- Green Mile
Worst Book-to-Film adaptation- Hannibal
Those change on a daily basis... I will be watching Nobody's Fool this weekend as soon as I finish the book... maybe it will unseat one of those.
Worst book to film: Cujo
Best: Hmmm, I'll get back to you.
I've always thought books are better than the movies about them but the comparison is interesting sometimes.
I think the best book to film was The Silence of the Lambs. The worst is a tough call because some have been bad. I didn't like what they did with The Color Purple.
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