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Finding Your Inner Nerd: How Books Can Help Kids on Their Journey to Nerd-vana by Alaina Sharp

Posted by on July 10, 2013 in Reading Lives | 12 Comments

I fight the urge to roll my eyes and sigh exasperatedly as my son jumps up and down and asks me, “You know how to beat the third boss level?”

 

He’s talking about Donkey Kong.  And when I say he’s talking about it, I mean HE TALKS ABOUT IT. ALL. THE. TIME.

 

My son is one of those delightful children who become intensely fixated on what he enjoys.  Like a dog with a bacon-flavored chew toy, he refuses to let it go.

 

And so, consequently, I have learned more than I have ever cared to know about Donkey Kong.  More than I ever thought I would know about Donkey Kong.

 

What I need to remember, is that this passion, this excitement is something that I need to encourage; something I should foster in my son.

 

After all, I feel that everyone should have something they should be absolutely 100% ape-crazy (no pun-intended) nerdy about.

 

I know that, for me, my nerdiness has only been fueled by the books I have read. For example, I never would have become a vegan unless I had read the compelling arguments presented by Kathy Freston in Veganist.  PIcking up that book radically changed my life. Within a day of finishing, not only was I convinced that I should no longer eat animal products, I was spreading the word to all of my family and friends as well.

 

Through reading, I also discovered my unlikely craving for historical fiction.  Specifically, I cannot get enough of the drama of near-soap-opera proportions of the War of the Roses, presented extensively by Philippa Gregory.  If you asked me what I knew about the houses of Lancaster and York in my high school world history class, I probably would have rolled my eyes and looked disgusted. (I’m not proud of the person I was in high school.)  But, thanks to books like The Other Boleyn Girl I know vastly more than I ever thought I would about these houses and their associated plot lines.  The excitement surrounding these books caused me to explore other avenues of historical fiction, too.  Because of the success I experienced with Philippa Gregory’s books, I branched out to read other historical fiction authors.  Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth and Jean M. Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear are books dear to my heart that bolstered my enthusiasm for learning about the past.

 

What are you nerdy about?  Odds are, if you read this blog regularly, you are a pretty dedicated “teacher-of-literacy” nerd.  And I’d bet money that reading books on the subject only cultivated that nerdiness more.  As you learned about the subject, your love grew.  As a result, you were armed with information that left your mind blown, but may have been only mildly received at cocktail parties and the like.  I’m not sure about that last part; I rarely attend cocktail parties.

 

Everyone should have something they can go on about for hours–something that makes your spouse cringe when you start talking about with others because they know they’ll have to pinch you to get you to stop.  I call it “nerd-vana.”  It’s what makes you uniquely you.  Life won’t be complete until you find it.

 

So, let’s unleash and embrace our inner nerds and let our kids do that too.  It’s never obvious what rabbit trails they may go down because of a certain book that falls in their hands.  Let’s let go of the pretensions we had regarding what it means to be a reader and, instead, just let them read; knowing that by doing so, we are opening up the avenues of nerdiness for them to explore.  We are leading them to “nerd-vana.”

 

PS–As most of you are probably well aware, there are books for every nerd out there, including this list of novels based on video games.  Sadly, I did not see Donkey Kong on this list.  Maybe one of you out there can take this on as your contribution to my son’s achievement of “nerd-vana”?

 

Alaina Sharp is a chemistry teacher in Parma, Michigan, who is nerdy about triathlons, veganism, chemistry, high school students, historical fiction, and her kids — and not necessarily in that order.  She blogs at colbyandalainasharp.blogspot.com and sharpchemlove.blogspot.com.