Reading aloud to your kids invariably ends. Children grow up, they move out and despite what the mother in Love You Forever does, you should never stalk your kids. The beginning of the end looks like this: You finish a chapter one night, and the next time you get ready to pick up where you left off, your ‘little’ boy says he’s already read that part. In fact, could you pass the book over? “I can read it faster on my own, Mom.”
But maybe you’re not ready to let go. If that’s the case, there are ways of prolonging that special reading time as your child advances through the middle school years. By choosing the right books, he or she will continue to look forward to a bedtime story with you.
The trick is to choose a book that keeps your child engaged, but for one reason or another, doesn’t tempt him or her to keep reading when you’re not there. Maybe the language is arcane, or the print is too small. The book itself is heavy. There aren’t any pictures. And the plot is s-o-o slow.
Sounds like a yawn, doesn’t it?
Think again. What we’re talking about here is literary fiction. Children don’t often pick up this kind of book, but the classics cast spells that few children can resist once they get started. Check out some of the time-honored tales listed below and settle in for an entire season of sharing one really good book with your child.
7 Classic Children’s Books to get you started:
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
Brown Girl Dreaming
Jacqueline Woodson
Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame
At the Back of the North Wind
George MacDonald
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain
Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
Children’s books: If your child is a hopeless romantic, the unrequited love between Heathcliff and Catherine will be sure to satisfy. English moors, lovers who can’t have each other and tragic deaths, this book has it all.
