Expat Life: Reading in English

I had the thought yesterday, "I bet Crosby has read more books at 11 than I've read in my entire life." While he's away at Autostadt (today with a one dad per three kid ratio for a total of 11 other people), I did a little sleuthing on his Libby library app which is conveniently connected to both the PDX and Berlin public libraries. (Expat tip: There might be ways to get memberships to other US-based libraries without physically going into the library. We just have PDX because we pay taxes there - and honestly we might get our money's worth through the library alone.)

I'd say the majority of Crosby's reading selections before 2024, so the first 800ish, were comic books and graphic novels. This month he's on track to read 20 chapter books. Most of the books are on Libby with a couple physical chapter books from the library. I also sometimes fill in the gaps with my favorite used book retailer, medimops, to spare Crosby the agony of the long library wait. 

We've tried to use Kindle unlimited to get some books that weren't available at the library but the licensing here leaves much to be desired. We also don't love the Kindle user experience. Why is it so hard to buy a book and then get it on the Kindle? Crosby mostly reads on his iPad, but we do load books on his Kindle for when he's reading in public. It's partly because a Kindle makes a kid appear "more available" to other kids for playing and partly to avoid public shaming (appearance of kids on screens). 

His bilingual public elementary school separates kids into "mother tongue" German and Spanish. The kids learn to read in their "mother tongue" in first grade. I jumped the gun, much to his first German teacher's chagrin, and started teaching him to read in English while he was in his last year of Kita using the book Teach Your Child Read in 100 Easy Lessons. 

Why did I teach Crosby to read instead of waiting until he started learning English in school in the fifth grade? He expressed interest in reading. Additionally, I'm not really a "playtime mom". I'm more of a "teach-you-life-skills mom". Reading together definitely scratched that itch and it was generally positive one-on-one time together. But let's be honest, the person who really taught Crosby to read was the author Dav Pilkey. Crosby and I got half-way through the reading book and then Dogman genius took him the rest of the way.

Since that time, I text my bestie periodically for the next good read. Here are our best hits in general reading order (mostly from Laurel but sometimes from other kids):

More Dav Pilkey: Cat Kid Comic Club, Super Diaper Baby

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (fun for adults too)

Tom Gates Series by Liz Pichon

Captain Underpants (Still Dav Pilkey but there's a big jump from Dogman to Captain Underpants)

Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey (This is a rare exception where the movies are better than the books. But the books still entertain.)

Geronimo Stilton by Elisabetta Dami (This is originally in Italian but can be found in all the languages.)

Anything Chris Colfer: Start with the Land of Stories and then move on to the other 14 books he's written in the last 10 years. The man is a legend. 

Anything by Stuart Gibbs: Start with Spy School and go from there.

We generally try to read books in English if that is the original language of publication. However, Crosby's teacher suggested more reading in German to improve his vocabulary. He is considered native German as his German is stronger than his Spanish although of course he doesn't get much German at casa Biggs. He was into the Duftapoteka series although the author's other books were less of a hit. 

Hugo sometimes feels a bit left out as reading chapter books is still out of reach. He asks us to ban reading so that Crosby will play with him. Sometimes something will pull Crosby out of a book, for example, building a new Lego set. 

New Mom win - renting Legos with rent-a-project. They get played with for two weeks and then they are out of our house.

Hugo and I are still chugging along in his reading book. It takes twice as long as we need to divide the lessons in two because Hugo inherited my attention span.

Pairs well with Kaffee and Kuchen

We told Hugo the old adage, "If you can't beat them, join 'em." So he's turning to audio books. Here he is power listening to Harry Potter while waiting for me to reschedule his allergy appointment because he caught his first school cold of the year.

The dude can listen for hours. It's making the upcoming many sick days seem (a little) less daunting.

The littles also have weekly reading times with some of our favorite people across the pond through the App Caribu. The set-up is annoying as it is intentionally confusing so grandparents think they need a paid membership when really they can just use ours (not cool Mattel). However, Caribu has some really great books and some lame ones that only grandparents are kind enough to endure.  

Hugo can get all the Biology lessons from his science teacher grandmother. Then Crosby has her read to him on FaceTime while Paul and I snuggle the two littles to bed. It's kind of like having three parents at bedtime...kind of.

Our new-ish discovery is the "Read-along" options on Libby (not really available at Berlin's VOBB). Sometimes the books can be a bit glitchy but Carmen generally gets her fill of unicorn books read to her when another reader isn't available. Here's a little screenshot of what could get you an hour of guilt free quiet in your house. 

You'll also want to select the correct languages. Otherwise, Carmen ends up listening to a lot of Mandarin language books.

We generally caught a real parenting break in the reading department. Crosby has forbidden me from reading any more books with him on puberty or books that have the potential to inspire. Sigh. (Pro tip: You've got to work in the puberty/sex books in before age 10.) His favorite reading partner is his dad. Paul happily dives into all of the fantasy stuff that isn't my jam. 

I have a grand plan to do some creative writing with Crosby this year but our weekly Tuesday afternoon date is mostly filled with studying. If you can believe it, we're mostly studying English. The dude inherited my spelling abilities, so we're learning together. As you can see from a recent study date, it's not all work around here.

Also pairs well with Kuchen.