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You can find them in books

When these voracious readers disappear, they're usually in the library, the latest adventure story open before them.

By MICHELE MILLER
Published October 11, 2006

	[Times photo: Lance Aram Rothstein]
	Pine View Middle School student Lucy Perkins-Waget, 11, holds some of her favorite books. "I could read small-chapter books when I was in preschool. I love the fact that you can sit and you're alone with the charaters of the book, and you're feeling their pain and their loss."

NEW PORT RICHEY - They cut their teeth on Clifford the Big Red Dog or perhaps The Berenstain Bears. Maybe they moved on to R.L Stine's Goosebumps or The Babysitter's Club series by Ann M. Martin. For a lot of them, next came J.K. Rowling's five books about Harry Potter - immensely popular books despite the banning efforts that landed them on the American Library Association's lists of Most Challenged Books. Now they can't wait for the next one.

For these avid readers the list goes on ... and on.

They don't need to be told to read every day. It's a given. So is reading all 15 of the Sunshine State Reader books so they can compete against others on their school's Book Battle Team.

Big, thick books don't scare them off. They intrigue them. A series, where the story goes on and on, is even better. As for the popular graphic novels, such as the Japanese manga comics or the old Nancy Drew books being readapted - well, those can be fun, for sure. Put a dragon on the cover, as with Eragon, the first of a trilogy written by Christopher Paolini when he was just 15 years old, and it's sure to be a winner.

These kids are well known around the media center at Gulf Middle School. Leila Claassen, 13, who's into fantasy and horror-type books, volunteers as a media helper and was on last year's Book Battle Team. "I really love the library. It's quiet. It relaxes me."

Then there's 11-year-old Scott Seaman who last week was checking out the Star Wars Trilogy - books four, five and six. "I come here a lot because I finish books faster than most kids do. I have a lot of free time on my hands."

They read so many books that some of these young readers are reluctant to name their number one pick.

"You can't choose a favorite book," said Alec Cranford, who is re-reading the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. "It's too difficult."

Still, Alyssa Thorne, 12, has no problem listing the Harry Potter series as her favorites. "I'm waiting for the sixth book," said Alyssa, who is currently reading Flush by Carl Hiaasen and leans to romance and adventure reads. "I'm going to re-read all the Harry Potter books then read that one."

So what makes a good read?

Tons of adventure, most agree.

"Any kind of adventure book - anything about water," said Raymond Poil, 11, who's now into reading books about pirates.

"A book that has a lot of action and actually a point," Scott said.

It has to move along, said Alyssa. "I don't like long, drawn-out books."

Zachary Coker, 11, who's deep into a Sunshine State Reader book called Gregory the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, said he likes a book "that keeps you guessing what's going to happen next."

"I like a book that doesn't give away the ending right away - it takes a long time to unfold."

[Last modified October 11, 2006, 07:48:12]