Selecting Books for an Advanced Child Reader
As the past week was National Children's Book Week, I'm focusing on children's books today. I'll focus on a personal concern, which is choosing books for an advanced child reader. My daughter, to be exact.
She has just turned seven and is in second grade, but since last year has been reading books at a fourth grade level, or books labeled for 8-12 years. This causes some problems in choosing reading material for her.
The first concern is that she still prefers, quite naturally, books with illustrations, which most fourth-grade level books don't have, though for books she finds really fascinating, this matters less. In particular, she has read Judy Blume's Fudge-a-Mania and Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great and Wilma Tenderfoot: the Case of the Frozen Hearts,which have no pictures whatsoever. But she will only do this if the subject is of especial interest for her. She likes the first because it is about a naughty little boy near her brother's age, the second because she relates so much to the fussy, fearful main character, and the third because she loves mysteries.
Print size is another important concern for me. Although she could have already read the Tutubi Patrol books last year, I held back from buying them for her because of the small print size. With myopia running in both sides of the family, I am determined to spare her eyes as much as possible. Hence also my hesitation to give her any of Nick Joaquín's Pop Stories for Groovy Kids, which I read at nine. The Tutubi Patrol books only passed this year because the stories were short enough, and because of her current craze for making up animal stories.
I cannot get her interested in reading Charlotte's Web, though. Maybe because she watched the movie and knows what happened to Charlotte. Which brings me to the next difficulty: Choosing books that have appropriate themes. She is very sensitive and cannot bear unhappy endings. She does not like most stories with pitiful characters like orphans. She only likes books with bumbling main characters if those characters are boys. She is such a perfectionist that I think she identifies so strongly with the struggles of girl characters her own age that reading about these makes her anxious. That's my theory, anyway, because she has never explained to me why she doesn't want to read the Ramona books. With Sheila the Great, I think despite the main character being a girl she is at ease because of the character's tough, spunky tone in the face of her fears. After all, my daughter doesn't care for books that express intense emotion. I do think touchy-feely books would help her in learning to understand and express her feelings, but she has always steered away from anything the slightest bit emotional. That's how sensitive she is. Still unable to handle her strong emotions, she finds it upsetting to read about others' especially in school and domestic situations that are very close to hers.
So this leaves us with girl adventure books, which for some reason are few and mostly quite slim. I could try Harry Potter on her but it fulfills too few of her requirements. I've given her Pippi Longstocking, but refuses to read it. Maybe because Pippi is a little girl who lives all alone and has to fend for herself. Main characters for my daughter need warm, loving families or steadfast guardians.
I could of course just give her books for her age, regardless of her advanced reading level. Certainly she still likes the shorter Geronimo Stilton books as well as the longer ones. But the way she breezes through chapter books, I know she needs something more substantial and yet deals with issues that she can handle and are appropriate for her age and interests. No romances and crushes, which just mystify her No horrifying events. Death, evil, and parental abandonment are only permitted in fantasy, never realistic settings. It's not so much that I want to sanitize what she reads as that I know she doesn't like reading about these. As I said, she still can't handle intense emotion. And if I am to help her maintain her sophisticated level of reading, then I must make sure she appreciates and understands what she reads.
So many complications in choosing books for my child. What's a mom to do?
She has just turned seven and is in second grade, but since last year has been reading books at a fourth grade level, or books labeled for 8-12 years. This causes some problems in choosing reading material for her.
The first concern is that she still prefers, quite naturally, books with illustrations, which most fourth-grade level books don't have, though for books she finds really fascinating, this matters less. In particular, she has read Judy Blume's Fudge-a-Mania and Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great and Wilma Tenderfoot: the Case of the Frozen Hearts,which have no pictures whatsoever. But she will only do this if the subject is of especial interest for her. She likes the first because it is about a naughty little boy near her brother's age, the second because she relates so much to the fussy, fearful main character, and the third because she loves mysteries.
Print size is another important concern for me. Although she could have already read the Tutubi Patrol books last year, I held back from buying them for her because of the small print size. With myopia running in both sides of the family, I am determined to spare her eyes as much as possible. Hence also my hesitation to give her any of Nick Joaquín's Pop Stories for Groovy Kids, which I read at nine. The Tutubi Patrol books only passed this year because the stories were short enough, and because of her current craze for making up animal stories.
I cannot get her interested in reading Charlotte's Web, though. Maybe because she watched the movie and knows what happened to Charlotte. Which brings me to the next difficulty: Choosing books that have appropriate themes. She is very sensitive and cannot bear unhappy endings. She does not like most stories with pitiful characters like orphans. She only likes books with bumbling main characters if those characters are boys. She is such a perfectionist that I think she identifies so strongly with the struggles of girl characters her own age that reading about these makes her anxious. That's my theory, anyway, because she has never explained to me why she doesn't want to read the Ramona books. With Sheila the Great, I think despite the main character being a girl she is at ease because of the character's tough, spunky tone in the face of her fears. After all, my daughter doesn't care for books that express intense emotion. I do think touchy-feely books would help her in learning to understand and express her feelings, but she has always steered away from anything the slightest bit emotional. That's how sensitive she is. Still unable to handle her strong emotions, she finds it upsetting to read about others' especially in school and domestic situations that are very close to hers.
So this leaves us with girl adventure books, which for some reason are few and mostly quite slim. I could try Harry Potter on her but it fulfills too few of her requirements. I've given her Pippi Longstocking, but refuses to read it. Maybe because Pippi is a little girl who lives all alone and has to fend for herself. Main characters for my daughter need warm, loving families or steadfast guardians.
I could of course just give her books for her age, regardless of her advanced reading level. Certainly she still likes the shorter Geronimo Stilton books as well as the longer ones. But the way she breezes through chapter books, I know she needs something more substantial and yet deals with issues that she can handle and are appropriate for her age and interests. No romances and crushes, which just mystify her No horrifying events. Death, evil, and parental abandonment are only permitted in fantasy, never realistic settings. It's not so much that I want to sanitize what she reads as that I know she doesn't like reading about these. As I said, she still can't handle intense emotion. And if I am to help her maintain her sophisticated level of reading, then I must make sure she appreciates and understands what she reads.
So many complications in choosing books for my child. What's a mom to do?
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