do you really want me to read 12 pages?

SJ usually doesn't have much homework.  His teacher allots plenty of time during the day for the students to complete it.  Occasionally, he brings home his reading book.  He is to read the story out loud to us.  SJ hates reading.  He has a lot of trouble with comprehension.  He misses many of the details of the story (an unfortunate problem for many children with PDD).  Last year, we let him take turns with us reading pages.  We decided this year that he can read all of the pages himself.  When I went through his backpack, he neglected to bring home his reading book.  It wouldn't have been such a big deal, but he needed to complete one page from his grammar workbook.  You needed the story to answer the questions.  If he was a typical student, he may have remembered the details from the story and would have been able to answer them without the book.  SJ is not a typical student, so I started to panic.  I tried to find the book on our school's website, but it wasn't there.  I tried to find it directly on the publisher's site.  There were some books, but not the series that our school uses.  I decided to drive back to school in the hopes that someone was still there.  Fortunately for me, there was tutoring after school.  I was able to borrow the book from another 4th grade teacher.  SJ was on the trampoline when I pulled into our driveway.  I showed him the book and he started to flip out.  He got off the trampoline and began to demand that I take the book back.  I told him I wasn't taking it back and we needed to complete his work.  He was crying so hard when he came in the house.  I sat down in the dining room with him to begin his reading.  He kept yelling that he could not read 12 pages "all by himself".  "I need to read it with a parent," he yelled.  I told him that I was there and he could read it to me.  After 20 minutes, we had only gotten through 2 pages.  My husband came and sat with us.  He joked with SJ telling him that he wasn't going to die from reading a few pages.  "It is not a few.  It is 12," yelled SJ.  My husband showed him a book that he had recently read.  He showed him how many pages it had (about 400) and he didn't cry when he read it.  He told SJ that they would focus on one word at a time.  He told SJ not to worry about how many pages there were in the story.  He kept telling him that he wanted to hear what interesting things were going to happen.  After 45 more minutes, SJ finally finished the story and the questions.  My husband said, "See you read 12 pages on your own and you are fine."  I know we are going to have many more days like this one, but hopefully the crying periods will get much shorter.  I would be fine with that.