My Top Ten Books of 2014

MY TOP TEN BOOKS

Being a lover of books – as a reader and, of course, as a writer – and with ‘Top Ten’ popping up almost everywhere you look this time of the year, I feel compelled, as I did last year, to share the top ten books I read in 2014. Since this list is of the books I read in 2014, be aware that not all the books were published in 2014. In some cases, the book may be thirty years old. Additionally, some books that are beloved by many may not rate as highly on my list as others may like and that may be due to many factors. Sadly, I may have already been ‘brainwashed’ by more recent books of a similar vein or I read the book around the same time the movie version came out and, having seen some previews for the film, I may have been unintentionally influenced. So, without further ado, here is my list of top ten books I read in 2014 with the one I enjoyed the most at number one.

1.     Waylaid by Ed Lin (Kaya Production, 2002; first published in 2001)

2.     The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2012)

3.     Under The Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury (Wendy Lamb Books, 2008; first published in 1994)

4.     Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith (Penguin Young Readers, 2014)

5.     The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances by Matthew Inman (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2014)

6.     Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige (Harper Collins, 2014)

7.     The Living by Matt de la Peña (Delacorte Press, 2013)

8.     The Fault In Our Stars by John Green (Penguin Young Readers, 2012)

9.     Amulet, volume 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (GRAPHIX, 2008)

10. Monkey King, volume 7: The Expulsion of Sun Wu Kong by Wei Dong Chen and Chao Peng (Illustrations) (JR Comics, 2012)

Honourable Mentions:

The Giver by Lois Lowry (Laurel-Leaf Books, 1994; first published in 1993) and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Tor Books, 2010; first published in 1985).

Literacy, Literacy Everywhere - Characters

Literacy, Literacy Everywhere - Characters

Left to right: Me, Elisa Pupko, Peter Mercurio (school principal),
  Honi Wasserman (school media specialist)

For years, since I was a child really, I've written. Since the early 1990s, in fact, when I was getting paid for articles I'd written as a freelance journalist, I've called myself a 'writer.' Since the mid-1990s, when I started writing screenplays, going into the 2000s, when I started earnestly writing fiction, and today, with one indie-published book under my belt and on the verge of finishing my second novel, I've been working on becoming a full-time writer. In addition to, hopefully, being able to support my family that way, I've also tried to establish, within myself and those with whom I interact - inside and outside of the writing community - a writing identity. By that, I mean for people to see me, first and foremost (outside of being a husband, father and martial artist), as a writer. I often describe myself as a "writer trapped inside a teacher's body." I'm a teacher by trade, as the saying goes, but in the land of Hard Work And Perseverance and it's close neighbor, Where Dreams Come True, one day, what I do and who I am will become one.

Well, my writing identity took a major boost last month when I spoke at my son's school. My son is in kindergarten and I was asked by one of the class moms, who's a writer herself, to be one of three speakers at the school's launch event for its annual Academic Fair. The theme this year was 'Literacy, Literacy Everywhere - Characters.' The other two speakers were Elisa Pupko, a New York-based actor and founder of Treasure Trunk Theatre in Brooklyn, and the school's media specialist, Honi Wasserman.

Each of us presented for about fifteen minutes during which we shared our own take on the theme. Honi read from Dr. Seuss and Gary Paulsen, extolling the virtue of books. Elisa shared pictures from several of her acting experiences and discussed how she uses elements like a play's setting (location, era), costumes, her characters' age, their physical appearances, limitations and their social statuses to inform her interpretation of a role she's playing.

Me, I discussed how literacy is a skill but more than that, to borrow from the rock group Queen, how literacy is a kind of magic. And, I truly, mean that. I didn't simply use such a 'ruse' to get the K-2 and 3-5 audiences to buy into what I was saying. Literacy - reading and writing - is magic. Words take you places, let you be other people, do superhuman things. And that's when you read a book. When you write something and create worlds and people and put them together in interesting, educating and entertaining ways, you become the magician. 

Discussing creativity and imagination
with an excerpt from my favourite book,
The Little Prince

I explained to them that my creativity came from many places and how I expressed that creativity with poorly written short stories and unfulfilled story ideas when I was as young as nine or ten. I recalled to my listeners that my brother and I grew up playing with action figures. (I'm a guy so I have to say 'action figures' but, really, they were dolls.) We had eight inch dolls of superheroes and movie characters from The Planet of the Apes (the original) and the original Star Trek series. They were made by Mego. I also had a GI Joe and my brother had dolls of Steve Austin and Jamie Summers. For those of who too young, that would be the main characters from The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. 

Anyway, at first, my brother and I played with them as they were. Captain Kirk was Captain Kirk, Supergirl was Supergirl and so on. Eventually, however, we started creating different characters for them and we would rearrange our bedroom so it would become another world. One time, we folded our mattresses and turned them into mountain ranges. One of our Klingon figures was the town's mayor. We wrote newspapers for the dolls to hold and 'read' and we even cut out tiny monetary notes. What I didn't realize at the time was that I, with my brother, was being creativity. I was even more clueless that my creativity would get me to writing screenplays and novels and speaking in front of impressionable young people. So, basically, I told them that anything and anyone can spark their creativity and imagination. 

I also emphasized that they must do everything they can to prevent from losing their imagination; to remain a child when reading and writing. To illustrate this, I read from my all-time favourite book, The Little Prince. I read from the opening section. To prevent a spoiler - and if you haven't read this wonderful book or you haven't read it in ages, make sure you do so now - I'll just say I read the part about the boa constrictor and the hat. 

Finally, I offered a bit of writing advice with a more practical bend. Since the theme was characters, I told them that character is action. I told them it's better to show their character being good - or bad - instead of merely writing or saying so.

Funnily, as things work out, as I was sharing my pearls of wisdom, I found myself feeling that I was talking more to myself than to my son and his schoolmates. Grown ups, you see, like myself can be such fuddy-duddies. We say "Stop!" and "No!" too often and we want things to be just so and exactly what and how they were intended to be. And, ironically, I think we become more fuddy-duddyish when we become parents, albeit without realizing it or intending to be. So, whether you're five, like my son, or forty-five, like me, remember these things - literacy is magic, don't lose your imagination, character is action, don't be a stick in the mud - and live by them. As writers, remembering these things is invaluable to our process and what we do. As readers, they make the book's enjoyment that much more meaningful. And, if you can enjoy reading and writing with a refreshed childlike innocence, you'll participate fully and enjoy another crazy thing: life. 

Happy creating everyone!

Reading When You're Writing - Good or Bad?

As a writer, naturally, I read. In fact, I'm one of those people who read several books at a time; reading twenty to thirty minutes a day from each book. Currently, I'm reading Dumpling Days by Grace Lin, Chosen by Denise Grover Swank, The Collective by Don Lee, and Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. I'd read more - books and minutes per day - but the realities of life don't prevent that from happening. Recently, though, I listened to an interview in which the author being questioned said that she doesn't read much when she's writing. She didn't say it exactly but she intimated that she's too involved in her writing that she just doesn't think about reading and she doesn't want to be influenced by what she might be reading.

I've often felt that way, too, but I don't think I could stop reading when I'm writing. And, in which stage of writing would I not be reading? The two - reading and writing - just belong together. Every writer is unique in how he or she approaches the books he or she is writing. Some of us outline while others don't. Of those of us who do, the way we do it differs greatly.

My work-in-progress is a YA, Asian-American fantasy series. As I worked on the first draft of the first book, I read Catching Fire and Insurgent, among other books. I'd read The Hunger Games and Divergent and I already wanted to find out what happens in each series so I was going to read Catching Fire and Insurgent, anyway, but I figured reading them as I was writing the first draft of Sage Of Heaven would help put me into a YA mindset. But, did they just put me into a YA mindset or was I influenced by them? I already had an idea of where the second and following books were going in Sage but I made a drastic decision as I came closer to finishing my draft. The change - switching the series' protagonist from one of the male characters to one of the female characters - makes the story more complex and interesting (for reasons other than the gender change) but, how much, subconsciously, was I influenced to do that because the protags in Catching Fire and Insurgent are girls?

In the last two years of writing Back Kicks And Broken Promises (which took almost ten years to write), I'd met, was taking workshops led by and read books by Matt de le Peña. Taking a pass at some of the passages in my debut novel, and at the risk of sound self-congratulatory, I think there are some parts that have a similar flow and tone as some of Matt's books. If you read Back Kicks and Matt's books - Ball Don't Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here - the subject matter is similarly themed. I was drawn to Matt's books for two reasons: he was the instructor of the first fiction class I took so I wanted to see if I'd like his work AND his books, with a male protagonist who's trying to sort out his place in this world, validated my own. Matt's stories come to us through a Mexican-American/Latino eye while mine are through an Asian-American lens.

I suspect the author who was interviewed in the podcast avoids reading other novels while writing either during the first draft/creation stage of her novels or until she submits a completed manuscript to her editor, agent or publisher. At that point, the work is out of her hands (although is a book, even after being published, ever out of a writer's head?) so she may have the time and intellectual and emotional freedom to sink into someone else's piece of fiction.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm reading Inheritance, the concluding volume in Christopher Paolini's series that started with Eragon. I bought it in 2011, when it came out, but at 800-plus pages, for me, it's an exercise in perseverance to finish it. I want to know how the series concludes so I will finish it but I'm extra motivated to finish it now because it's a fantasy story with dragons and wizards and Sage Of Heaven is also a fantasy story. The vehicles through which their stories are told are very different but they're in the same genre so Inheritance, while hopefully being entertaining, may offer me some insight into fantasy writing.

So, what is best? Or, is this another one of those things that's really different for every writer; one way working for some, another way working for others, and neither working for the rest? Should we, writers, read while we're creating and, if so, should we read in the genre of what we're writing in or a different one?

Are pages in an ebook really pages?

I recently had lunch with two fellow Filipino writers - memoirist Carissa Villacorta and boxing journalist Ryan Songalia. Ryan wrote a feature about my book, Back Kicks And Broken Promises, that came out in several Filipino and Filipino-American print and online publications and he is a former student of mine. Carissa is the author of Surreality, her memoir of her first years in New York City. We met in Chinatown, at my usual spot on Mott Street, and caught up on what’s gone in our lives since I taught Ryan in the late 1990s. As we enjoyed our dim sum, we also talked about writing, my book’s publication and the promotional work I’m doing for it, other Filipino-American authors and the decline of print publications and their quality - surely you’ve noticed how newspapers are thinner, with less pages, and how some newspapers are made on thinner paper with poorer quality ink.

Also at our lunch were my wife and son and our friend, Ani, who is a fellow martial artist and who has been a wonderful supporter of my book. She had a paperback copy with her, which Carissa got to peruse for the first time. About a month or so ago, I’d sent Carissa a copy of my book to her in The Philippines but it hadn’t arrived by the time she and Ryan had come back to New York for holiday. Taking a stab at the Philippine Postal Service, which over the years has been notorious for slow delivery (I once got a birthday card from my father, that arrived on my birthday, but a year late), Ryan joked that there’s someone in a post office somewhere in Makati who’s reading my book. To that, I commented that I hope he or she is, at least, enjoying it.

Anyway, when Carissa flipped through the pages of Ani’s copy of my book, she made a comment that struck me as very odd but was also horribly revelatory. She said that holding my book - again, a print version - was the first time in months she had held an actual book and turned its pages. With the growth of ereaders, all her recent reading has been done electronically. Like I said, I was stunned. Ryan and I both expressed how we prefer the print version of books for a variety of reasons. My wife enjoys the print but she is very much into reading on her iPad. Ani likes print too but she enjoys the convenience of ereading.

As part of the discussion, I offered this: should the pages of an ebook be called ‘pages?’ I suggested, partly in jest, that they be called ‘flicks’ or ‘swipes’ because that’s what we do with our fingers across the screen (yes, I own a Nook and read books on it that only come out in ebook format) when we move forward in our ebooks. Also, in print books, pages are turned and the reader moves on to the next one. 112 is followed by 113, 113 precedes 114 and so on. On my Nook, I am currently reading a novel by a fellow indie author, The Forever Girl, by Rebecca Hamilton, that is only available in ebook format. However, with Rebecca’s book, it’s two flicks for every page. Perhaps this is a technical glitch but hers isn’t the only ebook that does that on my Nook. The Kindle app on my iPhone refers to pages as ‘location’ and with every tap or flick a page jumps 5 (sometimes more) locations. (Rebecca’s book is quite good and if you enjoy paranormal-romance-drama with a little action you’ll enjoy The Forever Girl.)

There are benefits to ereaders. They help environmentally. Less paper books means less trees being cut down. They also allow us carry more books without the weight bearing down on us, which, believe it or not, can cause joint and back problems. This, though, is probably more a concern with students who carry book bags with countless hardcover textbooks to and from school everyday. With the emergence of etextbooks, this will be alleviated somewhat and ereaders do allow notes to be taken and sections to be highlighted. So, on some level, I am starting to favour ebooks. In a previous post, I also cited how they’re very useful in reading newspapers and magazines. I also read several books at a time so when I travel, which isn’t that often anyway, I am able to bring all the books with me if I have all of them on my Nook.

However, without turning actual pages, smelling the paper and the ink and the glue, hearing the crack of the spine the first time you open it, perusing the shelves of a bookstore, dog-earing the corner of the page with your favourite passage on it that you’ve underlined or highlighted with a pen you had to scramble for, ereaders don’t offer a personal connection with a book. Books make us laugh and cry because of the images the words make us conjure up in our own heads and the things we feel in our hearts. All of the tactile contact with a book adds to that relationship and the resulting emotions we feel. There’s something impersonal about the electronic versions. I mean, in the 1977 movie Demon Seed, the electronic supercomputer Proteus became obsessed with humanity that it wanted to have a child with its creator’s wife. If that isn’t an indication of how impersonal electronic advancement is and how desirable personal connection is, I don’t know what is.

I’m not a Luddite. In fact, I’m quite technologically savvy and I like my gadgets and I do like the convenience ebooks offer but when it comes to experiencing a book, in my opinion, the book has to be a print version. Back at my lunch with Carissa and Ryan, I didn’t but I almost posed this as well: Based on what I described above, should ebooks be called ‘books?’ I offer that they be called ‘ereads.’ We can’t smell their ink and they don’t have a spine to crack but we do read them.

I tried to write this post with a little tongue in cheek. You decide if I’ve succeeded in doing so. I don’t consider myself to be a naturally funny or humourous person, after all, so if you think I’m bashing ereaders, let me reassure you that I’m not. They have their place in our world and that place is here to stay. I was simply stunned by what Carissa said about how my book was the first print book she’d held in months. I was also hit with the reality that ereads (let’s see if I can start a trend here) are more than a reality. They’re changing - they’ve changed - how we enjoy our books. They’re part of our everyday lives and, before long, they’ll be something we’re going to take for granted like we do with our mobile phones.

Whatever way you like to read and be moved, entertained and educated, just keep doing it. Turn your pages and swipe your flicks. You’ll be better off for it.

Reading is not cool

In my non-writing life, I am, among other things, a Health teacher. This week, our fourth and final marking period of the school year began. I teach seventh and sixth grade Health and, in the first class of each marking period, I review (for the seventh grade) and introduce (for the sixth grade) the Wellness Triangle. In a nutshell, the triangle represents each one of us and the goal to achieve good health - aka 'wellness' - is to attain an equilateral triangle by balancing your physical health, your mental/emotional health and your social health.

In the lesson, I talk about how you can nurture each area independently but, really, it's better and more fun to develop and maintain all three at the same time. I explain how, through things like dance or being part of a sports team, you can do that. I also talk about how doing something like reading books can do that. When I get to the books part of the discussion, I usually begin it by asking the following question: "How many of you like to read?"

In past classes, the students either raise their hands or they don't. Seeing students shoot their hands up, speaking as a reader and writer myself, is very pleasing and encouraging. In a recent New York Times Book Review podcast, it was reported that more kids are reading print books and e-books. This rise has to do, in part, to the lowering cost of Nooks and Kindles that allow tweens and teens to carry and read more books at one time. In my own school, I see students reading all the time. In the weeks leading up to the release of The Hunger Games movie, the eighth grade lunch period I proctor had clusters of students eating together who were also reading The Hunger Games (some were on to Catching Fire or Mockingjay). Other clusters had students, the YA dystopian sitting on the table, discussing the book and/or planning when they were going to see the movie. When Breaking Dawn, the movie, was about to come out, the same thing was happening with the Twilight books.  Again, as a reader, writer and advocate for the power of books, this is very pleasing.

My excitement, however, took a blow the other day. In my opening Health class, when I asked my stundents how many of them like to read, at first only one student, raised her hand. Well, she raised it only as far as her eyes and she did so coyly; hesitantly, apologetically even, like she was owning up to having done something wrong. It wasn't until two of her classmates' hands went up that hers stretched fully towards the ceiling.

Naturally, I'm very happy when I see kids read and I'm happy to meet them. With the abundance of good YA books out there - and there are more coming, like Marie Lu's Legend 2 - I honestly felt that the era of kids who read being viewed as 'nerds' or 'not cool' and having to find safe haven among other nerds just like them had long passed. My student's honest and brave answer to my question, however, told me that it hasn't. If she had just be hesitant, I would've felt that maybe she thought she was the only reader in class and didn't want to stand out and/or appear like she was saying she's better than the others. However, when the look in her eyes and her body language apologised for being a reader, it made me feel that children - and I'm sure some adults - still make fun of those who read and that being able to read, understand and appreciate a good book isn't as admired as being able to score a goal, belt out a song, dance, dunk a basketball or run a record setting race.

What you're about to read is probably lost on your eyes because I'm likely preaching to the choir. Nonetheless, it has to be said, read and written.

Reading IS cool.

Reading develops language and creativity. It helps us experience emotions and teaches us how to deal with some of those feelings. It brings people together and gives birth to new friendships when the readers find a common bond like with the group reading and sharing of The Hunger Games as the movie was about to be released.

So, don't be shy. Don't be afraid. Be proud to be a reader and announce it to the world. And, pay it forward by sharing something you've read. Abbott Press, the publisher of my debut novel Back Kicks And Broken Promises, put up a post on Twitter today. It said something like, "If you can read, thank a teacher. If you read a book again, thank a writer." That may be true and, as a writer, if anyone reads my book - and future books - more than once I'll be very grateful. However, the last word in that tweet can also be "reader."

Read on and be proud.

First Reading

So, I did my first reading the other day.

It was for Read Across America and I was asked to read for a class of eighth graders. I didn't read from my own book, however. I was asked to read when our librarian found out my novel, Back Kicks And Broken Promises, had just come out. At first, I was supposed to read from it but I decided against it for the following reasons: 1. It's not a YA book, dealing with adult issues and themes and containing adult language, that I felt it was difficult to find an appropriate passage for the students to listen to and 2. As a teacher in the building, I didn't want to get accused to soliciting on school grounds; especially since my book is intended for an older audience. 

I decided to read from Marie Lu's Legend. I really loved this book and I love seeing students reading in class when their work is completed and there's only a minute or left before dismissal and during my lunch duty when some of them are sitting with their friends reading and/or talking about what they're reading.  (I wrote a review of Legend in a previous blog post. You can find it here if you're interested.) Anyway, I chose Ms. Lu's book because it's exciting and has a male and female protagonist and I know many of my students have read The Hunger Games books and Legend would be right up their alleys. Without giving anything away, I read from an early section that sees June, the female protagonist, make a vow of vengeance. I'd asked Ms. Lu if she had any suggestions on what I should read and she was spot on with that passage. 

The class of about thirty - and the teacher and an aide - listened attentively and asked some really good questions after I was done. They asked about writing, my own book, how a book gets made into a movie and where they could get Legend. One of the students, a self-proclaimed non-reader even said that he liked it, that it sounds really good and that he might try reading it. Another student, yesterday on the way out of our cafeteria, showed me a copy he'd obtained from the local library. He said that he's really enjoying it and this particular student is an ELL (English Language Learner) student. 

It's really exciting to have seen the class's response to the reading. Legend is a fantastic novel, so it's not a surprise that they were into it, but for them to think about taking the next step and to get it and start reading was extra reward. I've been exposed to books all my life and been a reader for almost as long so to witness how a book has directly transformed someone was truly special. 

In addition to hopefully promoting reading and books and to have, maybe, converted a couple of our students from non-readers to readers, I had a lot of fun. The reading also gave me practise for if or when I get to have a reading for my own work. (I'm trying to sort out a couple of possibilities locally and I'd love to do a blog tour but nothing's materialised yet.) I'd rehearsed the passage while my wife and son were still asleep that morning so I made sure I knew exactly how I was going to read each paragraph and how to read the dialogue in the way Ms. Lu tagged how her characters say the words. I also prepped, on the drive to school, how I might answer some questions that might get asked. 

So, if I can offer a bit of advice to other newly published authors like me, it's this: read in front of an audience and any audience so you can. And, read from your work or someone else's. It's all good fun and good practise for when the reading is all about you and your book. If I ever get to have that experience, I'll let you know how it goes.

Teaching Kids To Love Books

As a writer and reader, I value books. I value them for entertainment, education and emotional support. I also value they’re part in teaching young people language, helping them develop brainpower and processing skills and for how they nurture one’s imagination. So, naturally, when I became a father I was adamant that my son is read to every night. Even as a newborn, the parenting magazines all say for parents to read to their babies. Since his infant days, my wife and I read to him most nights. Some nights, mostly on the weekend, our son falls asleep downstairs and I carry him up to his bed. On those nights, he misses the reading.

Now, with my son almost four, he’s aware of what books are. Even though he can’t read the words yet, he’ll grab one and flip its pages. If it’s a picture book with a story that we’ve read to him before, he’ll turn the pages and tell us the story without our reading the words. My wife and I spend a lot of time reading, too, and our son sees that. We bring him to the bookstore, whether it’s our local indie or a big Barnes and Noble, and take him to the kids’ section and he’s starting to look at books himself. Since he can’t read the words he’ll be attracted by the pictures - especially if it’s of something he’s into, like superheroes or Cars 2 characters - and ask if we can get it. Then, after we get home, he asks us to read his new book to him. So, I have to say, I’m very happy. I love books and everything they can do and, so far, my son seems to be grasping that they’re valuable to his father and so they must be valuable all around.

My son’s development into someone who likes books and words took a serendipitous boost last weekend. I was downstairs, while my son and wife were still asleep, catching up on football developments on Fox Soccer Channel’s early morning news program. A little while later, Jude came trudging down the stairs. He ran over, we played hide-and-seek (which consists of him closing and covering his eyes, me asking where’d he go, him removing his hands and yelling “boo!” and the two of us laughing and hugging) and then I made his customary chocolate chip Eggo waffle.

As he was eating, he said that he wanted to watch the “gold king.” I had no idea what that was so I questioned him. Eventually, he said that I could find it in “the white,” referring to our Wii. Immediately, I knew it was something from Netflix, which can be streamed through the Wii. So, we turned it on and started looking. Nothing. I continued to question him for more details but, all of a sudden, he stopped me and told me to scroll back up the menu; not just one row but three. Following that, he hopped off the couch, walked to the television and touched a picture of a boy in a green suit and green mask. Next to him, in big green letters, was SUPER WHY! Honestly, I think he thought it was a “Green Lantern” show of some kind.

When we turned it on, however, it turned out to be a kids’ program that promotes reading and books to kids. The green-masked character is Super Why. His alter ego is Wyatt, Jack’s (from “Jack and the Beanstalk”) younger brother. Wyatt enters a bookshelf and comes out on the other end in a secret fantasy world that’s very much like our world. The only difference is that everyone is a character from a fairy tale, including talking animals. As the show progressed, Wyatt’s baby sister wouldn’t stop crying so it fell upon him and his friends - Red Riding Hood, Princess Pea and a pig (fro, I think, “The Three Little Pigs” who had their homes huffed and puffed by the Big Bad Wolf) - to find a solution. In doing so, they go a secret lair situated in a library and become their superhero selves - Super Why, Little Red, Purple Princess and Alpha Pig.

After an incantation from Purple Princess, a book flies out and from that book their solution is found. They enter the book’s story, find Super Letters along the way that, at the end, form the word that lets them know how to solve the problem in their real world. In this particular episode, they went up the beanstalk - meeting the book’s Jack and not Super Why’s actual brother who was outside the book - helped put the giant to bed and returned home to put Wyatt’s sister to sleep. Music was the solution of the day.

As they discovered the solution, the four superheroes (I tell you, in any form, my son loves his superheroes) used steps made by letters thanks to Alpha Pig and his ‘power of letters.’ Little Red has the power of words, Purple Princess has the power of spelling and Super Why has the power of reading. Also, as they put the giant to bed, they changed a sentence in the story by removing a word and putting in a new one from some clues their super computer gives them. Naturally, the words are all accompanied by pictures that help the young viewer learn them. The characters also talk to the young viewer, engaging them so they stay with it and do indeed learn.

I wasn’t sure if my son was going to like it but, after the episode one was over, he asked for more. Gladly, I obliged. I’m very liberal with what my son watches on television. I grew up watching all sorts of things and I turned out all right. Plus, seeing how he responds to some scenes in some shows, I see that he’s learning things empathy and creative. His response to different kinds of music, for instance, floors me. To a dance beat, he’ll start swaying his hips and such. When it’s something softer, he’ll start moving slower and pull out moves like he’s doing lyrical or interpretive dance. With “Super Why!” however, I am even more permissive. He’s learning letters, being reinforced in the value of books and reading and it’s also just a simply fun and wholesome show.

I looked the show up on IMDB. Sadly, the PBS show only aired in 2007 and 2008. That’s a shame. It’s such a good show. However, thanks to the internet and Netflix and streaming, it can still be watched. So, if you’re a lover of books and want your son or daughter to love them too, or if you just want another option for your young ones to develop their minds and language skills, you’ve got “Super Why!” on you side. Many of you may already know about this show. I didn’t until last Sunday. For some of you, though, this is the first time you’re hearing about it. Check it out. I don’t think you’ll be sorry you.

As for the “gold king,” I still don’t know what my son was talking about.