by Nancy Pearl
Table of Contents
Title Page
Introduction
Acknowledgements
PART I - YOUNGEST READERS
AHH, THOSE ADORABLE ANTHROPOMORPHIC ANIMALS
Aardvarks
Amphibians
Dogs
Donkeys
Earthworms
Elephants
Foxes
Gorillas
Hamsters
Pigs
Rabbits
Rodents
Wombats
B IS FOR BABIES
BEDTIME STORIES
BOO! HALLOWEEN BOOKS TO TREASURE (AND READ ALOUD)
BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS
THE CAT’S MEOW
CHAPTER ONE: GOOD BOOKS FOR THE YOUNGEST READERS
CHRISTMAS IS COMING!
D IS FOR DINOSAURS
DEATH AND DYING
A DOG’S LIFE
EASY AS 1, 2, 3: COUNTING BOOKS
FAIRY TALES (FRACTURED OR NOT)
Cinderella
The Frog Prince
Hansel and Gretel
Jack and the Beanstalk
Little Red Riding Hood
Puss in Boots
Rapunzel
Rumpelstiltskin
Sleeping Beauty
The Three Little Pigs
FOLK TALES
GIRLS RULE
GRANDMAS AND GRANDPAS
GRIN AND BEAR IT!
JUST FOR FUN
LATKES, DREIDELS, AND LIGHTS: CHANUKAH BETWEEN THE PAGES
LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO . . .
MANY CULTURES, MANY VOICES
MEET MOTHER GOOSE
MIND YOUR P’S & Q’S
MUSIC TO MY EARS
NOODLEHEAD STORIES
ONE PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
PICTURE PERFECT
QUACK AWAY
REALITY CHECK
REBELS WITH A CAUSE
RHYMING READ-ALOUDS FOR THE VERY YOUNG
SCHOOL DAZE
SIMPLE AS ABC
STOP BUGGING ME: INSECTS GALORE
TALL TALES
THANKS FOR THANKSGIVING
TRICKSTER TALES
WEATHER OR NOT
YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND
PART II - MIDDLE-GRADE READERS
ADVENTURE AHOY!
ALL IN THE FAMILY
ANIMAL TALES
AUTHOR! AUTHOR!
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
BEFORE AND AFTER HARRY (POTTER, OF COURSE)
BIOGRAPHICAL FICTION
BOYS WILL BE BOYS
COMING OF AGE
D@%! THE TORPEDOES, FULL STEAM AHEAD
DRAGON TALES
DEWEY LOVE NONFICTION? DEWEY EVER!
100s
200s
300s
400s
500s
600s
700s
800s
900s
DOGGONE IT, SHE SAID HO(A)RSELY
Dogs
Horses
DOLLS AND DOLLHOUSES
DOUBLE TROUBLE
FRIENDS MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND
G AND T’S : GIFTED AND TALENTED
GIRL POWER!
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
GOOD SPORTS
GOOSEBUMPS
GREEK MYTHS
GUARANTEED TO GRAB YOU—MEMORABLE FIRST LINES
HICKORY, DICKORY, DOCK
“I”BOOKS
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF NANCY DREW AND THE HARDY BOYS
THE KIDS NEXT DOOR
KIDS TO THE RESCUE
KING ARTHUR
LET’S TALK ABOUT IT: GOOD BOOKS FOR DISCUSSION
LOL: LAUGH OUT LOUD
MELTING POTS AND SALAD BOWLS
MYTHS, LEGENDS, FOLK AND FAIRY TALES
NOT A DRY EYE IN THE HOUSE
O PIONEERS!
ONE WORD IS WORTH A THOUSAND PICTURES (OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT)
ORPHANS ABOUNDING
OTHER TIMES, OTHER PLACES
THE PLEASURES OF POETRY
REAL PEOPLE YOU OUGHT TO KNOW
RELATIVITY
SCIENCE FICTION: FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
SLAVERY AND THE CIVIL WAR
THE WITCH TRIALS—SALEM AND BEYOND
PART III - TEEN READERS
AFTER SAM SPADE AND KINSEY MILLHONE
ALWAYS SHORT AND SOMETIMES (BUT USUALLY NOT) SWEET
CHICKLET LIT: FOR GIRLS ONLY
CRY ME A RIVER
DRAGOONED BY DRAGONS
FANTASTIC FANTASIES
GETTING TO KNOW ME : MEMOIRS
GHOSTS I HAVE LOVED
GIRLS KICK BUTT
GLBTQ
GROWING UP IS (SOMETIMES) HARD TO DO
HEARTBREAK HOTEL
HISTORICAL FICTION
IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
IT MIGHT AS WELL BE GREEK
IT’S A GUY THING
KUNG FU, THE SAMURAI CODE, AND NINJA STEALTH
MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE? OLD-FASHIONED LOVE HIP ENOUGH FOR THE JADED-AT-TWELVE CROWD
MOVING UP
NOT YOUR PARENTS’ COMIC BOOKS
ONE-WORD WONDERS
OUR LOVE IS HERE TO STAY—OR NOT
PAGE-TURNING PLEASURES
PLAY THE GAME
POEMS AS NOVELS AND NOVELS AS POEMS
QUEENS OF FANTASY
SHAPE SHIFTERS
SINK YOUR TEETH INTO THESE
SLOWLY UNRAVELING
SMELLS LIKE TEEN NOSTALGIA
TAM LIN
THIS IS MY LIFE
UP ALL NIGHT
UTOPIA—NOT!
WHAT’D I DO TO DESERVE THIS BIOGRAPHY?
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Copyright Page
INTRODUCTION
My happiest memories of a childhood that was otherwise scarred by an anxious and raging father and a depressed and angry mother were of escaping into books. I read. I went to the Parkman branch of the Detroit Public Library after school and on Saturdays, checked out armloads of books, brought them home, and read. I climbed the apricot tree in our backyard and, wishing I had a tree house just like Suzie Green, one of the two main characters in the Best Friends series by Mary Bard, I read. I closed my bedroom door, risking my father’s incomprehensible and unpredictable wrath, lay on my stomach on my bed, and read. (Looking back now, one of the things I most regret is that I didn’t keep a list of those books.While my memory is pretty good, I know there are many books that I’ve simply forgotten.)
My parents, despite their other flaws, were readers. And though I don’t have any memories of being read to, there were certainly a lot of books around. (Two I remember picking up and paging through, although I can’t link either to any particular age: The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer and Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care. I was struck by the fact that despite having lots of dialogue, there were no quotation marks in Mailer’s book. What impressed me about the Dr. Spock book was not the advice, but the cute line drawings on many pages—those kids looked so happy.)
I was very fortunate to have a cadre of librarians, both at the public library and my elementary and high school libraries, who happily and caringly fed my reading needs.
Although I included a few books for children and teens in Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason and More Book Lust: 1, 000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason, I thought that it would be fun for me, and useful for parents, teachers, librarians, and other adults who live
d or worked with children, to write a book devoted solely to great reads for kids and teens. And while I was mulling that thought over, teen librarian Marin Younker e-mailed me and suggested that I write a book called Book Crush, filled with recommendations and suggestions of good reads for children and teens.
It never occurred to me that writing Book Crush might be more difficult than either Book Lust or More Book Lust had been. After all, I had wanted to be a children’s librarian since I was ten years old; my first job when I finished library school at the University of Michigan was as a children’s librarian in the Detroit Public Library system. Even though my subsequent jobs in bookstores and libraries had been more focused on adult materials, I kept up with the field, always reading at least every year’s award winners, if nothing else.
So who knew?
I realized that before I could even begin writing, I had to think through two thorny issues. The first was how the books in Book Crush should be arranged. With my first two books, it was easy: one alphabetically arranged list of categories, from, as in Book Lust, “A, My Name Is Alice” to “Zero:This Will Mean Nothing to You.” But I thought that a book for children and teens wouldn’t work that way, would it? Surely readers of the book—parents, teachers, grandparents, librarians—would want some indication of what age the books were intended for.
My original idea was that I could use one alphabet of topics and make creative use of fonts to designate the three broad age groupings—birth to age seven, eight- to twelve-year-olds, and teens, for example.
At first this seemed like a perfect solution. By juxtaposing the different age groupings in the same list, it would automatically expose readers to books “older” and/or “younger” than those for which they were specifically looking. For example, there are many great books for all age groups that feature strong and unquenchable young women, and I compiled them under the heading “Girls Rule.” The list looked like this:Abuela
The Cry of the Icemark
The Misadventures of Maude March
Pippi Longstocking
Swamp Angel
But then a saner voice (my own, but in its saner mode) prevailed. The fonts were extremely difficult to read; even I, who had chosen them, was having trouble remembering which font indicated which age group. Clearly, despite the fact that I believe strongly in opening up the world of books and reading through minimal labeling and divisions, I needed to come up with some way of arranging the books sans imaginative fonts.
In the end, I decided to divide the books into three broad age categories, and then come up with topics to reflect the books I chose to include. My advice is to use these categories as a first step in finding age-appropriate titles, but to keep in mind that readers of the same age can vary greatly in the books they’re ready for and will enjoy.The suggested categories shouldn’t be thought of as ruling out either younger or older readers.
Once I had the general arrangement of Book Crush figured out and was madly reading and rereading away, I had to face another issue: what to do with those titles, mostly published before 1960, that feature ethnic characters who appear to our modern eyes to be stereotypical or who are presented in a negative light. I could easily see how a young Native American child might feel both hurt and upset to read, for example, Caddie Woodlawn, The Courage of Sarah Noble, or Little House in the Big Woods, with their stereotyped, one-sided portrayals of American Indians. In lots of these otherwise perfectly wonderful books, anyone other than a Caucasian is frequently portrayed as being either stupid or evil (or sometimes both).
In many cases, I chose to include such books when I thought their overall quality justified it. While I recognize that these books can be painful to read, I think they can also be excellent conversation starters to help young readers see how our dominant culture’s ideas about race and ethnicity have changed over the years.These books offer a ready-made opportunity to talk about what makes a character three-dimensional as opposed to being stereotypical, whether or not some people might still stereotype others who are different than they are, and how we might all work to overcome such destructive attitudes. I recognize that this is not a stance that will be popular with everyone, but I believe that there is an opportunity for reading and discussion to help make the world a better place.
Librarians like to say that there’s something in their library to offend everyone—it wouldn’t be a library, otherwise. The same is true of this book, which I like to think of as a small library catalog devoted to books for children and teens. There may be areas or subjects that you don’t want your child to encounter, say fantasies or books about death and dying. If you are at all concerned about a book your child or teen might read, my best advice is to read the book first. Don’t rely totally on anyone else’s description or recommendation. Not even mine.
Another consideration in suggesting books for the children and teens in your life is what I call emotional readiness. Often a child or teen is able to read (understands the meaning of the words) a book well before he or she is emotionally equipped to deal with the subject matter. At one talk I gave, a mother described her eight-year-old son’s reaction to reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea—he burst into tears when he finished it.While a reaction like this to a book at any age is painful, and painful to observe in a child, I can also see that it could be a valuable growth experience, even for an eight-year-old, and not one that he would regret later on (or even at the time). However, a parent’s emotional support and comforting would certainly be called for, until the reader develops the tools to comfort him- or herself.
Le Guin’s coming-of-age fantasy of a young boy growing into his destiny as the greatest wizard in all of Earthsea is awesome. It’s intelligent, it’s fast moving, it’s not to be missed. (I remember when I first read it I thought that Ged’s education in sorcery was the way Gandalf, in Tolkien’s books, must have been trained as well.) I reread it often.Yet it contains ideas and events that are beyond the full understanding of an eight-year-old, no matter the grade level at which he or she is reading. Not that the book will harm anyone (I’ve never found that reading any particular book has seriously harmed any child), but he or she will miss out on many of the nuances that make the book so powerful. And the child may never go back to that book again.
I fear the same sort of situation arises with the Harry Potter books. When J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was first published, millions of eight- to ten-year-olds devoured it (as did their older brothers and sisters, their parents, and their grandparents). And rightly so. It was a perfect choice for them—a three-dimensional hero near to their own age, a splendidly evoked world, and magic. Then we all waited for about two years for the second book to come out, then we waited a few years more for the third, and so on. By the time the really heavy stuff started happening (the true nature of evil being revealed, the deaths of beloved characters, a recognition that the world is not a particularly safe place), those original eight- and nine-year-old readers were in their teens, where such knowledge can be more easily assimilated and their knowledge of the ways of the world is broader. As the books grew in complexity (and length), the readers grew, too.
But what’s happening now is that eight-year-olds are starting with the first Harry Potter and immediately reading all the rest in the series, so that they’re confronting those terrible events with not a lot of emotional body armor. Again, it’s probably not going to hurt them—they’ll just miss a lot of what makes the Rowling books so great. And that would be unfortunate. I don’t have an answer to this, except that I think it’s important that adults suggesting reading material to young people be aware of it.
I do think that in general a sort of protective self-selection usually operates in reading (as opposed to television and film, where the material is more forced upon the viewer, rather than actively assimilated and interpreted, as it is in reading). The problem arises when children are guided to books based on their reading-level readiness rather than their emotio
nal readiness; they simply won’t appreciate all that the books have to offer. Indeed, they may then find the experience of reading books, generally, less fulfilling than it could be. In that regard, it would be interesting to examine the experience of those children who start reading the Harry Potter books at eight, and attempt to read them all straight through. Do they gradually lose interest or enthusiasm?
I am frequently asked how to encourage children to read, or read more. Here’s my four-step plan: First, introduce reluctant readers to books that match their interests. Is a teen passionate about bicycling? Try Lance Armstrong’s memoir, It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. A ten-year-old who loves computer games? Give him Terry Pratchett’s Only You Can Save Mankind; if he’s a bit older, hand him Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Crazy about horses? Don’t let her grow up without the opportunity to cry over Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty. Book Crush offers some good suggestions in a large variety of subjects, and your school or public librarian can surely help, as well.
Second, it’s a great idea for families to set aside half an hour, after dinner, to all sit down together and read. This can be a time when each person reads his or her own book, or it can be a time to read aloud a book the whole family might enjoy, such as John D. Fitzgerald’s The Great Brain, Farley Mowat’s The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, or M. T. Anderson’s Whales on Stilts, to name just a few. This shouldn’t be a time set aside only for the children in the family; it’s vital that everyone have this time every day to lose themselves in a good book.
