Vampires, Sex and Tweens, Oh My!

As a rule, I try to read anything that Hollywood makes into a movie or The CW turns into a TV show.  I consider it research for my job, and it gives me street cred with my fifth graders.  To that end, I've read Twilight, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.  This summer, I delved into Pretty, Little Liars by Sara Sheppard and The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that YA books are a guilty pleasure.  There are even some great ones that haven’t been made into movies yet.  Check out Jennifer Donnelly’s Revolution or The Tea Rose and the Matched series by Ally Condie.  I have no trouble recommending YA books to adults.  Often they are excellent reads, and very entertaining.  However, I always get stuck when it comes to recommending them to kids.  Parents ask me about the violence in The Hunger Games (about the same as Harry Potter 4-7) and the romance in Twilight (there’s no pre-marital sex), but what about the less famous books our kids are reading?  The elementary school where I work has Pre-K through 6^th grade.  Our 5^th and 6^th graders want to read these books, but YA stands for Young Adult.  Is an 11 year old a young adult?  Is a 12 year old? 

Amy, a very bright 5^th grader recommended Pretty, Little Liars to me, so I was shocked to discover the plot centers around a group of 16 year old girls who experiment with drugs, sex and alcohol.   I saw a little girl at the pool today, she couldn’t have been older than 10, reading book 7 in the series.  She was sitting right next to her mother, who probably doesn’t let her see PG-13 movies and has parental guides on her TV.  I understand.  When we were little, my sister and I loved dance movies like Grease and Dirty Dancing.  My mom would let us watch them but fast forward through risqué scenes.  It was years before I knew that Rizzo and Kenickie went all the way, and I was in college when I figured out why Baby’s father couldn’t trust her anymore.  Despite my mother’s vigilance, I vividly recall sitting on the monkey bars in 4^th grade with my best friend Liz, reading Sweet Valley High: Playing with Fire.  That’s the one where Jessica gets felt up in the pool.  That’s pretty tame in comparison to today’s YA books. 

Generally, I subscribe to the philosophy that it doesn’t matter what kids read, as long as they are reading.  That said, I'd hesitate to recommend any of the books I've mentioned a child younger than 12, even though the TV shows and movies motivate kids to read.  So what should parents do, if they aren’t sure about a book?  I recommend a two-fold attack.  Since you can’t fast forward through the questionable scenes and stapling the pages together, will just encourage the reading of those scenes, I suggest reading the books with your child and engaging in book talks about them.  This will almost certainly embarrass an eleven year old out of Pretty, Little Liars. 

My other suggestion is to guide them gently towards more appropriate books in the same genre; fantasy and science fiction are hot right now, so look to Suzanne Collins.  Before The Hunger Games, she wrote Gregor the Overlander.  Gregor and his two year old sister fall through the vent in the laundry room of their New York apartment and land in Underland, which is populated with giant spiders, cockroaches and rats.  Gregor and the humans who live in Underland must go on a quest to save the world.  I couldn’t put it down.  I also recommend Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce.  It’s about a very tall boy, who pretends to be his friend’s dad.  They enter a father–daughter contest, and end up on a space ship, orbiting Earth.  There are tons of great fantasy series, as well, like Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan; Percy seems like a normal kid, but it turns out he’s the son of Poseidon and actually a demi-god.  Of course there are always the classics like, the Chronicles of Narnia and anything by Roald Dahl.  Revolting Rhymes is my gateway Dahl.  Like all of Dahl’s books this one is gross and weird and naughty, everything kids love in a book.  They are retellings of fairy tales in poetry form, but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs use the magic mirror to win at the horse races, and Red Riding Hood ends up with a new wolfskin coat.  From there it's a short jump to The Witches and The BFG.  And, if it increases the appeal, most of these books have already been made into movies.   

Great Fantasy and Science Fiction for Upper Elementary Kids

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

The Twits by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl

The Witches by Roald Dahl

The BFG by Roald Dahl

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

The Merlin Series by T. A. Barron
The Roar by Emma Clayton
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Read to Them

July 23, 2012

For my inaugural blog I’m going to talk about baby books, because this has been the summer of baby showers.  I’ve been to three in the last three months, and I’m hosting one for my best friend in two weeks.  This is a little trying, as my husband and I are going through our second round of IVF, but nothing makes me happier than buying books for kids.  As a reading teacher, naturally all of my friends get a couple of books with their gift.  My “goto” board books are Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr, Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr and Eric Carle, and B is for Bear by Roger Priddy.  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a rhyming and rhythmic alphabet book.  Kids love it, because it’s colorful and sounds like a song.  Brown Bear is a pattern book about colors and animals, with great picture support.  It will be one of the first books a kid can memorize and “read.”  (And believing they can read is half the battle.)  B is for Bear is a touch and feel ABC book that also rhymes.  My niece would rub the fuzzy duck for several minutes before we could turn the page.  I also recently found a series of counting books by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver based on classic literature.  I bought Pride and Prejudice: A Babylit Board Book for a Jane Austen fan.  “10 is for 10,000 pounds.”  It’s brilliant.  You can get Jane Eyre, Alice in Wonderland and Romeo and Juliet too. 

When I'm not attending baby showers, I'm visiting friends who have just given birth.  Last week, I met my good friend's four week old and of course I brought books.  She said, “You know we haven’t read to him yet.  I don’t think he can follow a book.”  I showed her the high contrast book I bought.  There is some research that suggests that infants like books with simple black and white pictures.  Look for the authors Peter Linenthal, Smriti Prasadam and Tana Hoban.  I bought Hello, World by Smriti Prasadam for the friend I mentioned.  I particularly liked this book, because the text is a narrative; it doesn’t just label the pictures.  Kids are never too young for stories.  When it comes down to it though, it doesn’t matter what you read a newborn.  They just like to hear the cadence of your voice.  Their brain is learning the sound of oral language when you read to them.  They can’t squirm away, and they haven’t developed any favorites yet, so you can read anything you want to an infant.  You can read them Fifty Shades of Grey if you want.  If things have been a little slow since the baby was born, have your husband listen too.  Kids with strong oral language are better readers, and babies learn oral language from their parents.  We need to start reading to them the minute they are born.  I read my niece her first book at a week old.  (I may have gently scolded my sister for waiting a whole week.)  She’s two now, and last night she picked up Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and “read” it to me over Facetime.  She bounced five fingers to the rhythm of the words and even did a deep voice for the doctor.  I’m taking full credit for her literacy. 

Kristin’s Good Books for Babies

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin and Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

B is for Bear by Roger Priddy

Pride and Prejudice: A Babylit Board Book by Jennifer Adams & Alison Oliver

Hello, World by Smriti Prasadam

Look, Look by Peter Linenthal

White on Black by Tana Hoban

Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton

Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

Toes, Ears and Nose! by Marion Dane Bauer

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow

Goodnight, Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Baby’s First Animals by Hinkler Books