When my brother was little, he had to do a book report on a biography. He came home with a book on Lady Bird Johnson. My mom was beaming. She was so proud that her first grader was interested in reading about a First Lady. Something’s off, isn’t it?
My lazy little brother picked out the shortest biography he found without taking into any consideration the person he was to report on. His attitude toward his book report was to get it over with– with absolutely as little work as possible.
My point isn’t that my brother is lazy. (Which he still is by the way!) My point is that his book report didn’t have to be such a source of resentment for him. He loves baseball and probably would have liked reading about one his many baseball heroes– Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Lou Gehrig. As great of a woman as Lady Bird was, my 7-year-old brother couldn’t have cared less about her Texas beautification.
Long books can be intimidating, but sometimes they are the best ones. If the story and the premise interests you, then give it a try. You may surprise yourself by flying through it. And worse comes to worse, 100 pages in, and you don’t like it, then stop,
Hannah Lapin 