Until last week, Mark Kuller considered the Hardy Boys mystery series among the dullest books he'd ever read to his 6-year-old son, Aryeh. Then Aryeh discovered a Star Wars book.
"This is the worst book I've ever read," says Kuller, who lives in Wilmington, Delaware. "A lot of nights after I read to him I fall asleep within a half hour."
Like many parents, Kuller is learning the hard way that not all books are fun to read out loud. And if they're not fun to read, you're probably best off avoiding them.
"There are a lot of kids out there in the third grade reading R.L. Stine," says Barbara Kiefer. "They want to read the yucky stuff, but it's the parent and the teacher who can come in and read them the better stuff."
If your child is too young to read, you can simply leave the offending book on the shelf. This is what Don Thacker of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, did with a series, THE STUPIDS, that had been presented to his 3-year-old daughter, Sarah.
"I find them really stupid, so even though she'd ask for them, I'd say, 'I don't like that book. I'll read this one instead,'" Thacker says. "She would realize she wasn't going to get it read to her and she'd find something else. Now nobody reads it anymore, and she's stopped asking for it."
Kiefer recommends reading books with interesting rhythms, such as GOODNIGHT MOON, to young children. Counting books that have interesting pictures and rhymes can also be fun to read.
For children in elementary school, Kiefer suggests age-appropriate books such as RAMONA QUIMBY, AGE 8 and THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE rather than classics such as MOBY DICK.
"If they'll sit for it, I don't object to it," Kiefer says, "But there are so many wonderful books written for 6- and 7-year-olds, both picture books and a few longer books of fiction, and it's through those books, written for children, that they learn to engage with a character and live in that character's shoes."
"They might respond to MOBY DICK and possibly part of the action, but I don't think they're going to learn much of the whole richness of what a literary experience can be," Kiefer says. "And it might turn them off."
