notebook of doom

So I did something similar to this with Vampire Kitten (Optimus Prime) and Lone Wolf (Bumblebee) on my other blog when we homeschooled. Little Legs, however, is autistic so he generally needs some prompting. We had to look at the book covers to help him pick out his favorites.

"Notebook of Doom" is a young (and I do mean YOUNG) chapter novel series that follows Alexander Bopp and his two best friends, Rip and Nikki, as they hunt the monsters in their town. They discover the Notebook of Doom that details different monsters as well as the abandoned headquarters of the SSMP - the Super Secret Monster Patrol. They make - and lose - allies in their quest to save their town from monsters that only they (and a few other individuals) can see. They were a fun, light read but Little Legs did struggle with it a little. My goal in switching from story books to chapter books was two-fold. One, he can read story books to himself so he really doesn't need me doing it but I didn't want to sacrifice our nightly reading time. And two, I wanted to expose him to the next level up of reading without putting the pressure on him to do that reading. However, like I said, he did struggle with the chapter books a little. It required a level of attention that I'm not quite sure he has. Some evenings he really struggled to pay attention and I'm not really sure if he actually retained more then a bare bones idea of the story line from night to night. However, "Notebook of Doom" isn't the only chapter book series we tried and unlike some that he clearly didn't care for (like "Owl Diaries") he was receptive to buying more "Notebook of Doom" novels and reading them with me. When we did our monthly book shopping he still preferred story books but he would occasionally want the next one or two "Notebook of Doom" books. I saw this as progress. We have sense moved on to a Scooby-Doo series I read with his brothers years ago, and this he seems to enjoy a lot more, but more on that in the future.

Now, like I said, he needed more prompting, so our conversation is as follows:

WF: What are your thoughts on notebook of doom?

LL: ...

WF: Was it fun? Was it silly? Was it scary?

LL: (writes letters in the air) I traced fun

WF: Which monster was your favorite?

LL: What kind of monsters is there?

WF: (lists monsters while showing book covers) So who was your favorite?

LL: Of the monsters?

WF: Do you want to know my favorite? The snombies - snowman zombies!

LL: It was this one (points to the meat eating vegetables)

WF: The vegetables that eat people? Good choice. Who was your favorite character? Was it Alexander? Was it Rip? Was it Nikki?

LL: (without any prompting) I like Rip.

WF: Me too. He's also my favorite.

Notebook of Doom

1. Rise of the Balloon Goons
2. Day of the Night Crawlers
3. Attack of the Shadow Smashers
4. Chomp of the Meat-Eating Vegetables
5. Whack of the P-Rex
6. Pop of the Bumpy Mummy
7. Flurry of the Snombies
8. Charge of the Lightning Bugs
9. Rumble of the Coaster Ghost
10. Snap of the Super Goop
11. Sneeze of the Octo-Schnozz
12. Rise of the Vanderpants
13. Battle of the Boss Monster