Last night I made my kids roar with frustration. They hurled noisy complaints at me. Said that Life Wasn’t Fair.
And I couldn’t help feeling rather happy.
Not least because I can actually lay the blame for my kids’ despair at the feet of Jim Kay and J.K. Rowling; last night we finished Kay’s amazingly illustrated Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, our first ever family foray into the world of Hogwarts.
It’s been a brilliantly mesmerising experience. Taking a story that is so embedded in our culture, so ubiquitous and normalised as to have become something that didn’t excite or spark curiosity, and then to have the scales fall from our eyes in breathtaking fashion.
Yes, back in the late 90s I joined hundreds of thousands of other commuters on the London underground network reading the early books in the series. It was one of the first times I really experienced the community-building aspect of books. Books as bond builders, rather than something that marked you out as nerdy or posh or simply an outsider. I loved this new experience, the glances between otherwise total strangers as we smiled acknowledging the membership of the club we were both members of, proudly holding those brick-sized blue and red tomes in our hands.
But I never made it past book 4. I haven’t seen any of the films other than the first one, and… well, time moved on (marriage, babies, chaos… that sort of thing) and I didn’t take Harry Potter with me.
And then we arrive in October 2015 and it’s my turn to read at bedtime to my kids, 10 and 7, and in trying to find a book I think will appeal to them both I decide to give the new, fully illustrated Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone a go. Neither kid had read any JK Rowling themselves nor seen the films so I was starting with a blank canvas, their only experience of the Hogwarts’ world being witnessing other kids at school dressed up as HP characters on World Book Day, and a few hours’ very happy play in the attic at Seven Stories where they got their first taste of Kay’s illustrations.
And then something astonishing happened.
But before we get to that you need to know how bedtime reading normally works in our home.
One parent reads a novel to both kids at the same time once they are in their pyjamas. Whilst the parent is reading, the kids do NOT sit still. They dabble and doodle. They fiddle. They do all sorts of stuff that makes us grown-ups wonder if they are really listening to the story. I’ll freely admit neither of the adults in the home like this arrangement. It makes us uncomfortable and at times, on a bad day, I know we both wonder if it’s all worth it.
Despite our misgivings, it works well. As we stopped reading picture books, the kids didn’t feel the need to sit in our laps or next to us and moved onto their bedroom floor. They wanted more time to work on their various projects and we wanted to keep reading to them so we compromised. We read. They played. And we’ve gradually learned to trust that they do really listen to and hugely enjoy the story – all their questions and suggestions and corrections make that quite clear.
But still, it’s not like those good old days when we snuggled up in bed and had a cosy time calming down at the end of the day. Often a bedtime reading session leaves the bedroom messier than before with pencils strewn everywhere, detritus (or treasure, depending on your point of view) littering the floor.
But this was the astonishing thing which happened with Kay’s HP edition: suddenly we were all back in bed together (in our double bed to accommodate everyone), under the duvet, arms round each other or head leaning on shoulders as everyone was transfixed and transported by this wonderful tale of wizardry.
Kay’s illustrations brought us together. They acted like a hearth around which we gathered. Whilst I had other imagery in my head, my kids came with far fewer preconceptions so they weren’t playing a comparisons’ game. For them the illustrations acted like enchanting spells in their own rights. Something to amaze and to delight and (on the odd occasion) to frighten.
And then there was the story! I had forgotten how funny this book actually is and how thoughtful Rowling is with the nuances of friendship. Last night I actually cried when Neville won those extra points for Gryffindor which made all the difference to winning the House Cup. The kids, on the other hand, punched the air and leaped out from the bed whooping with exhilaration. Through my tears I couldn’t have been more delighted. Kay and Rowling and transported my kids into new parts of their imagination. They’d given them joy and wonder and enlarged their worlds and dreams.
But now what?
Do we move on to my old tube-train-grime encrusted copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? I’m desperate to keep reading the stories with my kids as the last three weeks’ of bedtime reading as been such a wonderous delight for me (saying nothing of what it’s been like for the kids). The hour or so at bedtime has been the highlight of each day. I can’t imagine anything, really anything, having made me happier in such a satisfying way.
The kids have taken the decision out of my hands. There’s been debate of course, weighing up hunger for the story with the bewitchment of the illustrations but they’ve decided to… wait.
AARGH! Now it is me roaring with frustration!
So, dear Jim Kay and Bloomsbury please don’t keep us waiting long! Anticipation is delightful (as it was the first time round), but waiting is also HARD!
Today, Kid Lit Reviews is pleased as a fat whale flopping in the ocean to welcome Spencer. Spencer’s story has been memorialized in Deborah Ridpath Ohi’s first solo picture book, Where Are My Books? (Simon & Schuster). Spencer has an interesting story that may have happened to you or your child. One-by-one his favorite picture books …
Over the past few years a lot of people have asked me where they could get a hold of my bedtime picture book Brave Little Monster. I would tell them that sometimes Scholastic makes it available through their book club in October, but that was hit and miss. Now I'm happy to say that you can purchase the paperback version of Brave Little Monster on Amazon. Yay!!!!
To top it off, an ebook version should be available in a few days as well. Enjoy!
The Guardian recently reported, in an article by Liz Bury, on a study that found that "only 13% of parents read to their kids at night every day of the week." The title of the article is:
"Children's bedtime stories on the wane, according to survey"
It's a brief article, but says:
"A poll of 2,000 mothers with children aged 0-7 years, carried out by the clothing and homeware retailer Littlewoods, highlighted the extent of the change. Only 64% of respondents said they read their children bedtime stories, even though 91% were themselves read bedtime stories when young."
Participants said things like that they were too stressed, or didn't have time to read to their kids before bed, even though they think it's important. This part is sad: "Only 13% of respondents read a story to their children every night, but 75% recall being read to every night when they were kids."
I shared this link on my Facebook page with a sigh, and my friend Jennifer remarked that she would have to answer no to the question, because she tends to read to her kids at other times, rather than at bedtime. Which got me thinking that perhaps this survey wasn't really asking the right question. (To be fair, the survey was focused on whether bedtime reading was on the decline, more so than bigger picture questions. So it was the right question for them, but not for me.)
I've been helping the organization Read Aloud to spread their message, which is: Read Aloud for 15 Minutes. Every Child. Every Parent. Every Day. This is delightfully concrete, and I've been happy to share it. But I still see people saying: "But I want to read for more than 15 minutes." Or, "I can't read every day."
To me, the right message is something like:
Read aloud to
your child whenever you can, as often as you can, for as long as you can.
For many families, bedtime is the easiest time for reading aloud, because you have a
routine in place, and it's relatively straightforward to make reading aloud part of that. This is great when it works. But if you can’t read at night
without falling asleep after 5 minutes, or you have different kids of different
ages, and you're working on the older kids' homework, and you just can’t fit the reading in then, ok. Find another time.
It doesn’t matter if you read in the morning before
breakfast, or after lunch during quiet time, or before bed. It matters that
you:
- Always have books around that you can read to
your child, whether they are your family’s own books or library books.
- Try to say yes when your child asks you to read
aloud.
- Make reading part of your daily routine, no
matter how busy that routine is, by fitting it in somewhere.
- Keep reading together fun!
- Keep reading aloud to your child even after your
child can read to herself, for as long as she will let you.
These are the important things. These are things that you
can do as a parent that will make a difference in your child’s happiness now,
and future success later.
In my house, I tend to let read aloud time be dictated by
what my daughter requests. Sometimes she wants to read a couple of books before
even heading down for breakfast. Often she asks her babysitter to read to her
after lunch, in the time period that she used to nap. If a new picture book arrives in
the mail, she’ll usually want to read it right then. Same for times when she
arrives home from the library with new books. I can't always say yes to reading at any particular minute, but I try to say yes as frequently as possible.
We do usually read to her at bedtime. Mostly my husband
does the nighttime reading these days, because my daughter in a major “daddy
phase.” I’ll often sit nearby and read my own books, so we’re still together. But
sometimes she falls asleep on her own before we get to the bedtime reading,
and, well, there isn’t any. Especially if we’re out somewhere, and she falls
asleep on the way home (sound familiar, anyone?). But most of the time, she’s
been read to at some other point during the day. Some days she’s probably been read
to at 5 or 6 points during the day. So I figure that what we’re doing is
working for us, and I don’t get too hung up about the occasional missed night.
I know that I'm lucky because I work from home, and can sneak in extra reading time during the day. I'm lucky because I have other people who read to my daughter, too, and because I only have to worry about one child's schedule. I realize that it's going to get harder as my daughter gets older, and has homework and activities. But I'm going to try to keep this mantra in my head:
Read aloud to your child whenever you can, as often as you can, for as long as you can.
I'm going to try to seize, and appreciate, those moments, regardless of what time of day they occur.
How about you? Does your family read before bed, or at
other times, or both?
© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.
Once a child gets hooked on reading, it’s hard to get them to put a book down. They won’t come to dinner. They stay up late. You can’t get them to watch TV or play video games. On road trips they stop asking “Are we almost there?” They smuggle books into the bathroom, creating long lines, impatient siblings and unfortunate accidents. The problems are endless.
One method that has had limited success in our household is to simply ground them from books when they sneak a read when they’re not supposed to. However, I’ve heard there are much more effective ways to stop kids from reading. High on the list is, if they ask you to read to them, refuse. Tell them you don’t have time. Put them off until you’re done watching your favorite TV show and hope they’ll get tired of waiting. Better yet, tell them books are dumb.
Other top ways to kill a child’s interest in reading is forbid trips to the library. Don’t let them choose what books they want to read. Only let them read books you like. Of course, that’s not a good idea if they like the books you like. So, better yet, force them to read only books that they hate. That will really convince them that books have nothing to offer.
If you’re lucky enough that none of your children have caught the reading bug, be sure to never let them catch you reading. That would be a catastrophe. They might get the idea that reading is fun, educational and even interesting. Then before you know it, they’re addicted to reading and the battle to get them to stop begins.
Here's a nice
story in a Colorado newspaper about its Lt. Governor visiting an elementary school to promote literacy as a driving force for kids' success. I've always felt that regular daily reading to children from a very young age and up is key to their success in school, work and life in general. This is a nice article that talks a little about that, and coincidentally, Brave Little Monster is one of the books that the Lt. Governor reads to the children to promote literacy. Enjoy! :)
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This is on C’s christmas list and I really can’t wait to see how she feels about it, as we’ve been reading the paperbacks. It’s going to be interesting when these get to the ‘darker’ books, the more grown up ones. But oh boy I really want to see this and the next and hope that by the time C is old enough to appreciate the later books the illustrated versions are complete.
The experience has been really eye opening for me, ReadItDaddy – the impact of the illustrations as a real draw, as a magnet. And experiencing the story afresh, through unclouded eyes. It’s been SUCH fun!
LOVED this post, Zoe. I’m giving this new illustrated version to my 16-year-old niece for Christmas. She’s a big HP fan, but only started reading the books in the last 2 years or so.
Thanks so much Jama. Lucky Niece! I haven’t yet been able to find out when book 2 is out… I’m really hoping we don’t have to wait till Christmas 2016!