This is how you get your kids to read.

You pick up a book at bedtime (oh, say, Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware, by M.T. Anderson) and chuckle over the State Song of Delaware at the back (written by...M.T. Anderson). Then your 9-year-old asks you what you're laughing at. Then you make the mistake of flipping through to the map, and your child sees it. Then he asks what the book is about, so you read the jacket flap to him. Then you open the actual book to read it and tell your son he needs to go to bed now. Then he takes the book away.

Voila! You have just pulled off another successful hand sell.

(Although actually, I DO want him to go to bed, because after thinking I was recovering, I suddenly plunged into feeling terrible all over again for most of today. Things are improving a bit right now, but I don't know how long that will last. It would be nice if I were well tomorrow. The kids have their annual primary program in church.)