I may have mentioned a time or two (or a hundred or so) that my son is an oh-so-reluctant reader. At age 11, he’s funny, bright, curious, adventurous, barrels of fun… and just will not pick up a book on his own.

He loves stories. In fact, despite being in middle school now and therefore exponentially cooler than he was a mere six months ago, he’s not too cool for a bedtime story with dear old mom. We’re no longer reading picture books, of course. Last year, our read-alouds centered around the entire Harry Potter series. This year, we’ve read The Hobbit, the Narnia books, and Carl Hiaasen, plus a bit of sci-fi for fun.

But still, he will not read. As he’s pointed out to me numerous times, “Mom, I can read. I just don’t want to.” For a very brief while, I had some success in getting him to read on my IPad, since anything with a shiny screen is kind of like crack to my kid. But even that charm wore off, and it’s been months since I’ve been able to get him interested. And an actual book, made of paper and containing pages filled with words? Forget it.

He’s doing just fine in school — surprisingly well, actually, for a kid who insists his favorite class at school is PE — and this year has been forced to step up his study habits quite a bit. He’s on top of the reading assignments in his language arts textbook, but this month, for the first time, the teacher gave the class some firm orders about outside reading. Up to now, they’ve had silent reading time in the classroom. This month, they each had to pick a book at the library, minimum 200 pages, read it on their own time, and write a brief summary for each chapter.

My kiddo procrastinated, as usual. The assignment was due today. As of Monday, he’d read about 100 pages out of 280. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, he managed to finish reading the book and writing up the chapter summaries.

Miracle of miracles, he said that the book was “pretty good” — which from his mouth is a total rave. With poking and prodding, he admitted that it was fun, that he enjoyed it, and that he’d even be willing to read more books like that.

(For the record, the book he just read is Lenny Cyrus, School Virus by Joe Schreiber.)

So where does bribery figure into all of this?

Well, after last night’s marathon reading session, I had a brainstorm:

The kid CAN read. And he even ENJOYS reading while he’s doing it. So what’s missing? MOTIVATION.

I can’t believe I’m even thinking this way, but here goes:

I’m willing to bribe my kid, if necessary, because I firmly believe that the more he reads, he more he’ll love reading. Ultimately, if he spends more time with books, does it matter how he got there? Here’s the scheme I devised: For every book over 200 pages that he finishes, he’ll get $10. For a book that’s under 200 pages, he’ll get $5 — so if he wants to read a bunch of shorter books, that’s okay; there will still be a reward at the end. To qualify for his reading reward, he’ll have to be able to demonstrate comprehension. No written assignments — talk about a buzz kill! — but he’ll at least have to explain to me, to my satisfaction, what the book was about and what he thought about it.

If you’d asked me, oh, ten years or so ago, if I’d ever considering paying a kid to read, I would have been horrified at the mere suggestion! Probably some really obnoxious eye-rolling or sneering tones of voice would have ensued. I was, after all, blessed with an older child who is as big a reading fanatic as I am. Why should money be involved? Reading is its own reward! … I would have said, from way atop my high horse.

But faced with the cold, hard reality of a kid who WILL NOT READ, I’m willing to come back down to earth and face facts, and the facts are these: If I don’t find some way to get the kiddo to WANT to read, he won’t read. And that, to me, is a much worse outcome than having a kid who expects some sort of financial reward for finishing a book.

So… thoughts? Am I a horrible human being? A terrible mother? Or a woman with a brilliant plan? An evil genius?

We shall see how it all works out. I’ll report back on books read and money paid…

Meanwhile, I’d love to know: Have you ever used a reward system to get a kid to read? And is my resorting to bribery a sign of the coming apocalypse? Inquiring minds want to know.