Some children are so easy to find a book for. There are those for whom any book will do as long as they have a book. Several books really because they devour them so fast. In some cases I worry if they hurry through them too fast. Are they even enjoying them? Can they even remember them?
Some children are so easily encouraged by their peers and sometimes even their siblings. Big sister read Twilight so I need too. All of my friends are reading The Lightning Thief so I must. Wow! That’s the biggest book I’ve ever seen, but looks are deceiving. It is full of pictures! I can handle this and look cool at the same time!
Some children stick to a certain genre. This one likes ghost stories. This one wants fantasy. Another wants only historical fiction in the form of diary entries. I always cringe when a child asks for a mystery. I don’t personally care for mysteries. Good thing that we have stickers on the spine! Already read all of Nancy Drew? Want to try the Hardy Boys? You like sports? Have I got some authors for you!
And then there is my own daughter. She has finally started reading without being coerced. She can finish a sizeable novel within her time constraints without me keeping tabs on her. But boy is she hard to supply. Especially if Accelerated Reader books are required. First she read 1950’s Newbery books. Then she switched to fairy tales. And then there were dragons. Now back to fairies. But I haven’t been successful. She has requirements.
Unlike me, who must finish every book regardless, she can read a few chapters and discard a book easily. Why? Usually because of violence or death. I should be proud. She doesn’t want to read a book where people get hurt. And she doesn’t like villains either. I cannot get her to watch a Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia or Star Wars movie. It is too much on her poor system. Those books that I thrive on and crave? I wouldn’t even go there with her.
Now, when I put a book into her hand, I have to be able to say, “No one dies.” Maybe they think someone has died, but it turns out to be false. And there is a happy ending. There are bad people, but they don’t win. Not even close. There are wolves! And they are meant to be frightening like discovering an alligator in your bathtub, but no one ever gets hurt! Ever. Really and truly. I promise.
So if you need a book for the faint of heart. The older child who somehow remains young and retains her innocence when the others are aging in decades. Perhaps a child who was born into the wrong century. (Like I myself was.) Well, try The Wolves Chronicles. Black Hearts in Battersea is the second in the series. Our young, orphan, homeless, goose boy from the first novel, discovers he is a duke. Doesn’t everyone still believe that they were somehow switched at birth? My daughter must surely believe it!
For girls who know they aren’t into or ready for Twilight, 4th-6th grade. And maybe a tenderhearted boy.
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