too early for certain books?

I'd like to hear opinions on this situation:

My son (22 months old now) just loves being read to. Sometimes he'll
choose books that I would not have expected to read to him for a few
years yet - for example, he really enjoyed _When You Were Inside
Mommy_ by Joanna Cole.

I'm not trying to push him or teach him anything, but I wonder if it's
still not a good idea to introduce him to complicated concepts so
young. Or is it okay to share anything if he enjoys the story? What
do you think?

--
"I couldn't believe this was a book. It didn't even give me a
headache." -- Chris Crutcher on _To Kill a Mockingbird_

Terry Pratchett strikes again: http:www.armory.com/~web/vol11.no5.html

wrote:

I'd like to hear opinions on this situation:

My son (22 months old now) just loves being read to. Sometimes he'll
choose books that I would not have expected to read to him for a few
years yet - for example, he really enjoyed _When You Were Inside
Mommy_ by Joanna Cole.

I'm not trying to push him or teach him anything, but I wonder if it's
still not a good idea to introduce him to complicated concepts so
young. Or is it okay to share anything if he enjoys the story? What
do you think?

Anything that can be called a plain scientific fact seems to me to be fair game
for any age that can halfway make sense of the idea. If it were a book about
prostitution or something, that would be different. :-)

It partly depends on the emotional content, too. For instance, I wouldn't mind
reading a small child a book about the life cycle of some animal that mentioned
in a matter-of-fact way that the animals die and new ones are born, but I
wouldn't read a small child a book about how Johnny felt when his best friend
David died of cancer.

I can also remember refusing to read certain books that had concepts like
ghosts and vampires in them -- not because I am personally against books with
imaginary or supernatural beings in them, but because I didn't want to bring up
certain kinds of frightening images before the child had a good handle on what
was real and what was not.

--Helen

Wendy,

My son is seven--this is something I've thought about during the last few
years. I think I've always read "older" stuff to him than a lot of other
kids get, but it hasn't been a problem. A lot of times I'd try something
because the lighter stuff we were reading was getting a bit boring for
me--and then he'd like it, too.

And it always seems to me that if something is "past" him, he pretty much
shows it. We were reading The Boggart by Susan Cooper--he loves the
boggart's mischief, but we got about 2/3 of the way through, and when I
went to pick it up last night, he said, "No, Not the Boggart." So we left
the bookmark where we were, put it back on the shelf, and he picked a
Narnia book we hadn't read yet (funnily enough, one that we put down after
a few chapters sometime last year!).

I think, if your child loves being read to, and he loves what you're
reading, go for it. My guess is that having you read to him is so much fun
that the whole experience is what he's going for. In terms of the
concepts, I really think that the kids take in what they can of a concept
and let the rest go; if they don't like the material, they tell us. Your
son is probably not talking much yet, but I'm guessing he can still make
himself pretty clear when he's unhappy or bothered by something! I think
you'd see that in your reading, too.

There was a great quote from Steven King in a review he wrote of the 5th
Harry Potter book. To the question of whether children under 10 should be
reading this book, he said what his mother used to say, which was,
essentially: If they're enjoying what they're reading and understanding
what they're enjoying, let them read it. It keeps them from under foot.
Her corollary to that was: If its giving them nightmares, don't let them
read it.

Have fun!

Becky Levine

"Wendy E. Betts" wrote:

I'd like to hear opinions on this situation:

My son (22 months old now) just loves being read to. Sometimes he'll
choose books that I would not have expected to read to him for a few
years yet - for example, he really enjoyed _When You Were Inside
Mommy_ by Joanna Cole.

I'm not trying to push him or teach him anything, but I wonder if it's
still not a good idea to introduce him to complicated concepts so
young. Or is it okay to share anything if he enjoys the story? What
do you think?

--
"I couldn't believe this was a book. It didn't even give me a
headache." -- Chris Crutcher on _To Kill a Mockingbird_

Terry Pratchett strikes again: http:www.armory.com/~web/vol11.no5.html

In article , Becky Levine wrote:
boggart's mischief, but we got about 2/3 of the way through, and when I
went to pick it up last night, he said, "No, Not the Boggart." So we left
the bookmark where we were, put it back on the shelf, and he picked a
Narnia book we hadn't read yet (funnily enough, one that we put down after
a few chapters sometime last year!).

Oh, I hope he'll come back to it sometime - such a fun book!

I think, if your child loves being read to, and he loves what you're
reading, go for it. My guess is that having you read to him is so much fun
that the whole experience is what he's going for. In terms of the
concepts, I really think that the kids take in what they can of a concept
and let the rest go; if they don't like the material, they tell us. Your
son is probably not talking much yet, but I'm guessing he can still make
himself pretty clear when he's unhappy or bothered by something! I think
you'd see that in your reading, too.

Actually, he talks up a storm. :-) But yeah, if he were sitting
around thinking, "that whole coming from inside mommy thing - what the
heck is with that?" he'd probably find a way to show me. I guess what
I worry about is scaring him and then not being able to make him
understand it's okay.
--
"I couldn't believe this was a book. It didn't even give me a
headache." -- Chris Crutcher on _To Kill a Mockingbird_

Terry Pratchett strikes again: http:www.armory.com/~web/vol11.no5.html

"Wendy E. Betts" wrote:

In article , Becky Levine wrote:
boggart's mischief, but we got about 2/3 of the way through, and when I
went to pick it up last night, he said, "No, Not the Boggart." So we left
the bookmark where we were, put it back on the shelf, and he picked a
Narnia book we hadn't read yet (funnily enough, one that we put down after
a few chapters sometime last year!).

Oh, I hope he'll come back to it sometime - such a fun book!

I think, if your child loves being read to, and he loves what you're
reading, go for it. My guess is that having you read to him is so much fun
that the whole experience is what he's going for. In terms of the
concepts, I really think that the kids take in what they can of a concept
and let the rest go; if they don't like the material, they tell us. Your
son is probably not talking much yet, but I'm guessing he can still make
himself pretty clear when he's unhappy or bothered by something! I think
you'd see that in your reading, too.

Actually, he talks up a storm. :-) But yeah, if he were sitting
around thinking, "that whole coming from inside mommy thing - what the
heck is with that?" he'd probably find a way to show me. I guess what
I worry about is scaring him and then not being able to make him
understand it's okay.

You know--I'm not the best person to ask about this, because pretty much NOTHING
seems to scare my son. But I do think your son will let you know if something is
scaring him--and then you stop. I have friends whose kids seem to have a
lower-tolerance level for scary things (well, ok, all their kids do!), and they do
things like get up and leave the room, cover their ears, choose NOT to see movies
they think will scare them. One of my son's best friends just didn't want to read
Harry Potter at bedtime--then he felt like it gave him nightmares, so they just
read it during the day. My guess would be that your son would do something like
hit the book or try and get you to close it (if I can remember back that far!).
And the other thing is if he is talking up a storm, I wonder if some things are
just less scary, because he can, if he wants, talk about them?

You know, if he liked that kind of nonfiction, you might look for the picture
books that Gail Gibbons wrote/writes (?). She's got a whole range of levels, but
whatever topic she picks has interesting details (I definitely remember reading
about things I hadn't known) that most books don't see to cover. And they all have
illustrations on every page, too.



--
"I couldn't believe this was a book. It didn't even give me a
headache." -- Chris Crutcher on _To Kill a Mockingbird_

Terry Pratchett strikes again: http:www.armory.com/~web/vol11.no5.html

"Wendy E. Betts" wrote in message
. ..
I'd like to hear opinions on this situation:

My son (22 months old now) just loves being read to. Sometimes he'll
choose books that I would not have expected to read to him for a few
years yet - for example, he really enjoyed _When You Were Inside
Mommy_ by Joanna Cole.

I'm not trying to push him or teach him anything, but I wonder if it's
still not a good idea to introduce him to complicated concepts so
young. Or is it okay to share anything if he enjoys the story? What
do you think?

--
"I couldn't believe this was a book. It didn't even give me a
headache." -- Chris Crutcher on _To Kill a Mockingbird_

Terry Pratchett strikes again: http:www.armory.com/~web/vol11.no5.html

i think as long as there are lots of books to choose from, he'll let you
know if he likes it or not? he wont choose that one after a while? or
perhaps he is not at the chooseing stage yet? and i dont think they really
think much past face value at this stage either. like how in the hell does
that baby get there? (my brother used to think women ate babies and as such
he was terrified of pregnant women).

c

(Wendy E. Betts) wrote in message ...
I'd like to hear opinions on this situation:

My son (22 months old now) just loves being read to. Sometimes he'll
choose books that I would not have expected to read to him for a few
years yet - for example, he really enjoyed _When You Were Inside
Mommy_ by Joanna Cole.

I'm not trying to push him or teach him anything, but I wonder if it's
still not a good idea to introduce him to complicated concepts so
young. Or is it okay to share anything if he enjoys the story? What
do you think?

I know when I was a kid I sometimes had a fascination with things
during the day that scared me at night. I had a prolonged 'snake'
phase (much to my mom's non-delight, she hates them) where I would
obsessively read snake books, learn snake facts, etc. and then
wake at night afraid snakes were under my bed.

What I don't know is which came first. It could be that all
the snake reading made me scared, but it could also be that all
the reading was a way of coping with a fear of snakes, maybe one
I got from my mom. My parents never tried to stop me, and I'm
now completely comfortable with Our Friend The Snake (assuming
they don't choose to visit unexpectedly at night). :-)

So my opinion, if he's not scared/disturbed it's no problem, and
even if he is, if he *chooses* to read the scary material, it
may be a way of working out a fear.

Beth

In article ,
(Wendy E. Betts) wrote:

I'm not trying to push him or teach him anything, but I wonder if it's
still not a good idea to introduce him to complicated concepts so
young. Or is it okay to share anything if he enjoys the story? What
do you think?

I don't think there's a problem, if the child is leading the way. At 25mo,
our DS started requesting The Tale of Jeremy Fisher. It was top of the pops
for about 6 weeks. I have no idea how much he understood -- he has never been
fishing, nor seen a frog, tortoise or newt IRL, and certainly not a trout!

His current favourite is How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods -- though of
course he can't identify/understand the emotions very well yet.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"...children should continue to be breastfed... for up to two years of age
or beyond." -- Innocenti Declaration, Florence, 1 August 1990

With my girls (now 13 and 10), we let them read, or read to them, pretty
well whatever they wanted, just advising them to wait until they were older
to read the occasional scary or inappropriate book (eg Garth Nix's_Sabriel_
, and Jacqueline Wilson's _Girls_ series). This seemed to work well for us.

The only _big_ mistake I made was reading _Charlotte's Web_ to my elder
daughter when she was a sensitive four year old. She was absolutely
distraught about Charlotte's death, and no amount of compensating baby
spiders made any difference. She cried inconsolably, and has never wanted
to go back to the book. In this case, I wish I'd left the book until she
was older.

Also, story tapes: abridged recordings of books (eg the BBC's excellent
_Wizard of Oz_ dramatization and their Narnia dramatizations) are generally
scarier to listen to than the book is to read - lots of vivid sound effects,
and all the more reflective bits of the book are edited out so that you are
left rushing pell mell through the most exciting bits.

Diana Hutchison


"Wendy E. Betts" wrote in message
. ..
I'd like to hear opinions on this situation:

My son (22 months old now) just loves being read to. Sometimes he'll
choose books that I would not have expected to read to him for a few
years yet - for example, he really enjoyed _When You Were Inside
Mommy_ by Joanna Cole.

I'm not trying to push him or teach him anything, but I wonder if it's
still not a good idea to introduce him to complicated concepts so
young. Or is it okay to share anything if he enjoys the story? What
do you think?

--
"I couldn't believe this was a book. It didn't even give me a
headache." -- Chris Crutcher on _To Kill a Mockingbird_

Terry Pratchett strikes again: http:www.armory.com/~web/vol11.no5.html