Children’s reading during lockdown
“Of course, good parents would have already compiled a reading list ready for the day when they are holed up for an unspecified number of weeks with their beloved offspring in the face of a global pandemic,” said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. But the rest of us may “need to play a little catch-up”. A lot of the recommendations doing the rounds tend to be books that either “lean in to the current situation” or, conversely, remove readers from it: either “resonant” or “escapist”. In the former category, older children have “plenty of dystopian fiction to devour”, including Meg Rosoff’s How I live Now, Polly Ho-Yen’s Boy in the Tower and Gillian Cross’s After Tomorrow. For younger readers, there are many books about anxiety and how to deal with it. Standouts in the three-to-six age range include Tom Percival’s Ruby’s Worry, and The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright and Jim Field, about an animal who “cannot cope with change”. For ages seven to 11, there’s the fast-paced Sam Wu Is NOT Afraid Of… series by Katie and Kevin Tsang; and for children a little older than that, the “stunning wordless graphic novel” Small Things, by the late Mel Tregonning, tells the story of a boy whose “self is being eaten away by strange shapes”.
When it comes to escapism, there’s an almost endless range of choices. However, if ever there was a time to read The Lost Book of Adventure, it is now. For ages seven and up, Teddy Keen’s enthralling compendium of jottings and sketches by an “unknown adventurer” teaches children how to build a treehouse, survive a Saharan dust storm and perform first aid in the wilderness. In compiling children’s reading lists, said Mangan, an “often overlooked provision” must also be made for books that make children laugh. Technically for ages three to five, B.J. Novak’s The Book With No Pictures and Oliver Jeffers and Drew Daywalt’s The Day the Crayons Quit “will withstand multiple rereadings at multiple ages with no diminution of laughter”. And eight- or nine-year-olds who enjoy a joke will be well served by Elys Dolan’s For Beginners series, comprising the Wizarding..., Knighthood... and Royalty... trio of titles.
The lockdown is also an opportunity to introduce children to the classics, said Claire Allfree in The Daily Telegraph. Given its theme of “homely, self-sufficient domesticity”, now seems an apt time to try Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House
on the Prairie series, based on her early years “amid America’s isolated, rural homestead communities”. Indeed, tales that provide “templates for how to live” seem more “necessary and valuable” than ever now. It makes me want to read about the “inspirational characters” from the books I loved as a child, said Allfree – from the “clumsy, brilliant” Jo March in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women to the “eccentric, spirited” Anne Shirley in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables.
For younger children, the classics can provide a sense of “reassuring family normality”. That is certainly true of my daughter’s favourites, the Milly-Molly
Mandy tales by Joyce Lankester Brisley, and the My Naughty Little Sister stories by Dorothy Edwards, both of which suit ages five to nine.
“Parents need all the help they can get at the moment,” said Nicolette Jones in The Sunday Times – and many new titles come with online material that will help keep children occupied. Clem
and Crab by Fiona Lumbers is an “inspiring picturebook” for children aged three to six about a girl’s seaside adventure, and the author has also published colouring sheets and drawing tips online. For ages five to nine, Grow: Secrets of Our DNA by Nicola Davies is an “engaging science lesson” accompanied by YouTube videos from the writer. For older children (aged nine to 12), Adventures on Trains: The Highland Falcon Thief by M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman – “a thundering story about the theft of a valuable brooch on a royal train to Scotland” – is one of many accompanied by author masterclass videos on Authorfy.com. Finally, “for teenagers who might like to lose themselves in an Edwardian
London overrun with demons”, Chain of Gold: The Last Hours, the first book in Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunters series, “offers glamour, romance and peril” – as well as an author website full of interesting material.