The Blade Itself by
Joe Abercrombie
My rating:
5 of 5 stars
I think I may have inadvertently sold a bunch of Joe Abercrombie books and pissed off some elementary school parents and teachers.
Let me explain.
My son, Leif, hates reading. Everyone in our household loves to read, except him. My daughters are avid readers, I read multiple books every week, and my wife loves to read non-fiction, but my son hates reading.
Leif was in a special reading class throughout most of elementary school. His reading deficit grew out of his dislike for reading, and I suspect as his peers passed him by, being the stubborn boy he is, his apparent ‘inability’ was only reinforced.
His mother and I tried everything. I bought him special reading books as a supplement to the work his resource teachers were doing with him. Felicia and I worked with him on his reading and writing and read to him nightly. Leif loves comic books and video games, especially RPGs and games that let him build things—Skyrim and Minecraft were his favorite games forever, only recently being replace by Fallout 4. Above all he loves Mario. So I bought him comic books, video game tie-graphic novels, and encouraged him to play RPGs that required reading. All of this helped. His reading improved slowly, but not enough to get him out of the special reading class. Additionally, since he loves fantasy and sci-fi shows I bought him books in those genres.
First I tried the Hobbit, hoping the anticipation of the forthcoming movies would generate interest. I’d read a chapter to him, then he’d read a chapter. Nope. He wasn’t interested; it was too boring. Then I tried Harry Potter. His sisters loved the Harry Potter series—hell, I loved the Harry Potter series. I think our daughter, Maia, read the series several times. It took him months to read the first book, but he finished it. It was our first success and he was now reading above grade level. He was no longer in special reading classes. I knew he had it in him the whole time, if he could just be interested. Still he thought the first book was boring and had no interest in reading the rest of the series. Besides he’d already seen the movies and no matter how much we assured him the books were better he just had no interest. Same with the Maze Runner, the Hunger Games etc.; not interested.
Part of the problem here is video games. They allow him to immersive himself if ways that reading cannot, as any video gamer can attest. His favorite games let him build, create and see what he imagines. Even in games that don’t allow the sort of freedom of expression he desires he can still make things. When he plays Skyrim, or Fallout, he spends most of his time redesigning his characters appearance. In Super Smash Bros he builds levels. And when Mario Maker came out…oh boy. Now don’t get me wrong we don’t let him spend weeks at a time playing video games. In fact, he is only allowed to play them on the weekends and has to earn the time playing them through chores, homework (which includes reading), and going to his martial arts classes.
Because he loves the immersion and creativity so much I started playing D&D with him. His first character he was roughly based off of Mario and his second was based on Batman. Who doesn’t want to be Batman? At the same time I gave him the first book of Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser. He loved it, but didn’t feel like reading anymore of them. Which is understandable. Fritz Leiber is amazing, but it’s a little dense for an 11 year old whose reading experience amounts to little more than half a shelf. However, his vocabulary and reading comprehension soared.
During this time I began writing again, and he decided he wanted to write too. He began writing and drawing his own comic book. Story construction isn’t new to him, he’s been making stop-motion films on his NintendoDS with Legos for years. They usually involve Batman and Mario beating the shit out of all comers. His comic book is similar, but it’s about his D&D barbarian. Ah, I remember the days…
Then one day Leif, now 12, overheard me talking about how awesome
The Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence is and he asked if he could read it. I didn’t think he was quite old enough for that book, but I didn’t want to discourage him from reading so I suggested The Blade Itself, which is probably darker fare than most people would give their 12 year old. And truthfully I had some reservations even though I find it to be not very dark or grim.
So he started reading
The Blade Itself and he loves it! He brings it to school to read during the silent reading time and I’ve caught him reading the book on his own without being asked. I could kiss Joe Abercrombie. Well not really, I mean he is cute, but no-homo.
This is where it gets humorous. A couple of days ago his teacher was teaching the class about writing hooks. She had each student read the first two lines of their silent reading book and the class as a whole would then rate the book on a scale of 1 to 3 with 1 being boring and 3 being amazing. I have no idea where she got this scale from. Everyone read their openings and the books scored 1 to 2 with no book achieving a 3. Then it was my son’s turn.
Leif was terrified. Not only because he’s an intensely shy child and insecure about his reading abilities, but also because the first page contains the word ‘shit’. To understand his anxiety you need to know that at his school children are not allowed to read ‘The Hunger Games’ without express written permission of their parents because it contains material that is too dark and violent. He was worried that they would find something wrong with the book (like I don’t know—one of the main characters being a torturer), or worse find it incredibly interesting and make him read more, discover the violence and cursing, then ban him from reading it. His experience went like this:
Mrs. Namewitheld: “Leif, please tells us what the book is called.”
Leif: “The Blade Itself”
Mrs. Namewitheld: “No. Tell us the title.”
Leif: “The Blade Itself.”
Mrs. Namewitheld: “No. The Title!”
Leif, exasperated, nervously holds up the book so she can see the title and all the blood on the cover. His hands are shaking. “The title is The Blade Itself.”
Mrs. Namewitheld: “Please read the first two sentences.”
Leif still shaking, his heart pounding: “ Logen plunged through the trees, bare feet slipping and sliding on the wet earth, the slush, the wet pine needles, breath rasping in his chest, blood thumping in his head. He stumbled and sprawled onto his side, nearly cut his chest open with his own axe, lay there panting, peering through the shadowy forest.”
He says the teacher’s eyes went wide as did all the other kids’. It was unanimously voted a 3. The only one for the class. Leif is suddenly cool and kinda edgy. He asked me to take him to the book store and buy him the second book.
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