Any reading is good reading.

I’ve been repeating this mantra as I tuck my son into bed with his books each night. Because really, there’s much to celebrate. He’s churning voraciously through the Galaxy Zack and Yuck and Melvin Beederman series. Best of all, he’s reading independently, so I no longer have to learn about planets made of candy and spies who get sucked into video games.

Any reading is good reading.

Here’s the problem. For three nights in a row, we read Charlotte’s Web together. On the third night, my son complained. On the fourth night, he refused to read it.

“It’s too boring,” he said.

April 23, 2014: the day my seven-year-old broke my heart. And if E.B. White is looking down from above… well, let’s hope he missed last night’s bedtime routine.