The Joy of Peanuts

When I was a boy, my sister and I had a collection of paperback Peanuts comic books. Of course, I loved A Charlie Brown Christmas and all the other Peanuts television specials. But back then, we didn’t have video on demand, dvds, or even video tapes. So, we could only watch each show once a year when they aired on network television.

The rest of the time, I got my Peanuts fix from reading the comics.

I really related to Charlie Brown. And the messages in the written form were perhaps even more poignant, and humorous, than the TV shows. I remember reading those comics over and over.

My son has been a huge fan of the Peanuts videos for many years now. I often wondered why he was so attracted to them from such a young age when they did not have as much of the outrageously silly humor that usually draws the attention of young kids.

Even now, on our weekly trips to the public library, Kai always picks out a Peanuts video to bring home, even though he has seen each one many times now.

A few years ago, my sister gave me a hardcover book that was a comprehensive collection of the best Peanuts strips. It brought back fond memories of reading those strips when I was a child.

A couple years ago, I tried reading him some of those comics to Kai. But he had only mild interest in it, and I decided to put it aside until a later date.

This week, he picked up the book on his own, and began reading it all by himself.

Every day, he sat at our kitchen table and read pages of the old comics. Sometimes he laughed, and I could tell he was enjoying them. Other times he read quietly, as I often did. We often had a hard time pulling him away from the book to do other things.

Kai often takes interest in things that are very different from the things I am interested in, and that is okay. But it is also nice to see him enjoying the things I enjoyed as a boy. Regardless, it is great to see him picking up something and reading on his own.

Thanks, Charlie Brown.

An Introduction to Harry Potter: Just the Start?

My son’s school apparently showed the first Harry Potter movie to his class last week. I say apparently as we are never quite sure of the things Kai tells us about school. He doesn’t explain things very well and still has trouble answering questions. Sometimes we are just not sure what to believe.

But, this one appears to be true. He told us that he wanted to watch it again for our weekly video night so we got it on our regular trip to the library this weekend. When we all watched it together on Saturday night, we could tell that he had seen it before.

This is a first in that, prior to this, he has only been interested in animated films or those that featured Muppets, or Scarecrows and Cowardly Lions, or other non-humans. While there are all sorts of fanciful creatures in the Harry Potter films, this is first movie that features mostly human characters that Kai has shown any interest in.

This is actually not the first interest Kai has shown in the Harry Potter series. About two years ago, he discovered my set of the Harry Potter books and took them all off the bookshelf and flipped through each one. I’m fairly certain that his interest was due to the number on the cover of each book that indicates its position in the series. As we watched the movie, he again went to the bookshelf to take another look at the books. He told us how many chapters each book had.

I am hoping that one day he will actually read them. While the movies are enjoyable, I want my son to experience the joy of being totally immersed into a different world that only a good book can do.

However, I’ve often wondered if his mind will ever allow him to enjoy a fictional tale with a plot as imaginative and complex as the Harry Potter ones are. I have heard that some kids with autism have trouble with stories that are so far from the literal and concrete world that is comfortable for them. While Kai’s reading skills are advanced for his age, his comprehension is not as comparable, and he does sometimes seem to prefer factual, straightforward books like the non-fiction books about the planets that we get from the library every week.

Even with the movie, I wonder how much he understood. He was entertained by the funnier scenes such as when Harry’s invitation to Hogwarts was delivered by owls to the Dursley’s house. But, when it came to the more serious parts of the story, he seemed less interested.

Still, when I was his age, I was just reading “Dick and Jane” books. So, I guess I can be patient and see where his reading will take him in three or four years. Like the young Harry, Kai is full of surprises. So, I’m not about to give up hope on his literacy skills.