The Magic of Jennifer A. Nielsen

Truth be told I usually only read the first book in a series.  It isn’t that I don’t want to it is that I have enough trouble just getting through my TBR stack. This changed over the weekend.  Over the past few months there has been a lot of press and chatter about The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen. 

My friend Carol blogged about it and encouraged me to read it.  She told me about the time Ms. Nielsen visited her school, and how delightful she was with the kids.  I, so much, loved reading The False Prince last week that when I was at The Bookies last Friday I bought The Runaway King, and devoured it over the weekend.  Only difference between the boys and me in the class is that I didn’t beg my mom to get it.

Flash back to the middle of December.  The boys in Guys Read had picked The False Prince as their next book. The boys started the book and within two days a couple of boys stopped by my room to tell me they loved the book, had already finished, and got their mom to take them to Tattered Cover to buy The Runaway King (the next one in the series). 

Throughout the next week the discussion of The False Prince spread through my room.  It started with what happens in chapter 3.  The boys I think were in shock that a scene like that would be in a story they were reading.  I would watch boys walking over to other kids and say, “Here, listen to this part.”

The girls in the class were also talking about the book even though none had read it yet.  Given some of the girls in my class I’m sure many read it over break.

Every morning I could hear boys asking each other:

·       “What chapter are you on?”

·       “How far did you read last night?” 

·       “Wasn’t it cool when….”

I’m sure when we meet next week the boys will have nothing to talk about in book club because it is all they have talked about in class.

Daily I watch kids read books.  The share books, borrow books, and discard books very quickly.  It is that special writer like Ms. Nielsen that gets kids out of their chairs to share the her words.  Over the years I have watched boys read the books for book club.  Sometimes they are totally engaged, and sometimes they aren’t that interested in the book. The only other book with this much magic was The Lightening Thief. 

Thank you Ms. Nielsen for taking the joy of reading to an even higher level.