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ОглавлениеA IS FOR . . .
about, what’s it all?
You Are Stardust ELIN KELSEY, ILLUSTRATED BY SOYEON KIM
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas JOHN BOYNE
For some of us, it’s the question we’ve been waiting for. Finally an excuse to get up on the soapbox and hold forth about the meaning of life, the universe and everything. For others among us, being asked to explain where we came from and where we go next as we’re mashing up bananas can at best catch us on the hop and, at worst, provoke an existential crisis all our own.
Those wishing to approach the answer from a scientific point of view will appreciate the blend of biology and wonder in You Are Stardust. With simple words, accompanied by photographs of homespun dioramas by Korean artist Soyeon Kim, it takes us from our beginnings as atoms shooting out from an exploding star to living, growing organisms with constantly renewing cells. The emphasis is very much on being part of the great cycle of life – and on just how much we have in common with the rest of nature. Did you know, for instance, that the water inside our bodies is as salty as the ocean? Or that when we sneeze we expel air faster than a cheetah sprints? Or that bats and sperm whales get their friends to babysit? Of course, an inevitable part of being a living organism is that, along with everything else, we will one day die. But then the great cycle starts again. We are left with a sense of wonder at the miracle of it all – and the need to look after both our fragile planet and the precious ecosystem that is ‘planet You’.
As children get older, the question becomes, more fundamentally, one of how to live a good life. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas tells the story of nine-year-old Bruno, who has moved with his father from Berlin to a desolate place called ‘Out-With’. It’s only gradually that we learn his father is the commander of the notorious Nazi prison camp.
Bruno hates his new home. There’s a huge garden, but he has no one to play with. And why is it that the people on the other side of the fence – fathers, grandfathers, children, none of them girls – go around wearing striped pyjamas all day? Bruno fondly imagines that these people are having a wonderful time, riding their bicycles and enjoying their meals communally. Only the reader knows how horribly far this is from the truth.
When one of these pyjama-clad figures comes up to the fence one day, he finally makes a friend. He and Shmuel talk to one another through the fence, and Bruno brings him food. Later, when grilled by a Nazi officer who visits their house, Bruno finds himself denying that Shmuel is his friend – and we see the terrible complicity he’s unwittingly embracing. But Bruno, in his innocence, also sees no reason not to stick by his friend when they embark on their awful, final adventure.
This book challenges the reader to ask what they know about right and wrong, what they know about human nature, and what they know about themselves. Bring it into your own household, and use it to establish the human values of justice, fairness and respect.
| CURE FOR GROWN-UPS | The Three Questions JON J MUTH |
If you are indeed having an existential crisis, see this handsome picture book, inspired by a short story by Leo Tolstoy. Featuring a giant panda delivering Zen-inspired wisdom, it’s as potentially life-changing for a grown-up as for a child.
SEE ALSO: death, fear of • god, wondering if there is a
abuse
A Family That Fights SHARON CHESLER BERNSTEIN, ILLUSTRATED BY KAREN RITZ
The Words Hurt CHRIS LOFTIS, ILLUSTRATED BY CATHERINE GALLAGHER
Learning to Scream BEATE TERESA HANIKE
The Perks of Being a Wallflower STEPHEN CHBOSKY
It won’t always be apparent that children exposed to abuse in the home – be it physical or emotional – are struggling. Children develop all sorts of coping mechanisms to help hide their shame or make themselves feel safe. Professional help should always be sought where abuse is suspected, but sharing a book that reflects what may be going on1 might give a child who has suffered abuse some relief – and even begin to open the door to a conversation. Knowing that someone cares, and can be trusted to listen and give support, is crucial – and books are a way to create a safe and patient space.
On the surface, A Family That Fights is about an ordinary sort of family – one that ‘goes to movies, bakes cookies, plays games and builds snowmen’. But this one also includes a father that ‘fights with his hands’. The range of things that can and do happen in this family are explored in careful detail: the mother becomes nervous when the father is due to come home; the child feels angry with the mother for pretending everything’s fine. The black and white pencil drawings capture pent-up emotional states with great sensitivity.
For verbal abuse, go to The Words Hurt, in which an angry father – a victim of abuse himself – unleashes regular torrents of criticism on his son, Greg. At night, Greg lies in bed wondering if other kids’ dads get so furious when they’re late for school, and whether cleaning your room is every family’s ‘VERY SERIOUS rule’. There’s always just enough truth in what his dad is saying that Greg’s left wondering if perhaps he deserves the yelling. It’s only when his best friend Joe and Joe’s parents witness one of the outbursts – the tell-tale blush burning on the father’s cheeks as he rapidly loses control – that Greg finally finds an ally. That the father immediately acknowledges what a bully he’s become and admits to needing help is rather too good to be true; but the fact that this family faces the abuse together, with the love between father and son soon flowing back in, provides a positive, hopeful model. In cases of abuse, children need assurance that asking for help won’t just make things worse.
The possibility that a grown-up close to the child may know of the abuse but turn a blind eye is explored in the gut-punching Learning to Scream. Since the age of seven, Malvina has visited her grandparents every Friday and taken a bath with Granddad. Underneath the bubbles, Granddad touches ‘his little Malvina’ and makes her touch him too – while Gran waits outside with a towel, complicit. Now thirteen, Malvina has developed the habit of disappearing inside her head during these bath times, deciding that ‘he can do whatever he wants as long as he doesn’t touch my thoughts’. She tries to tell her father and her brother about what’s happening, but can’t seem to get the words out. ‘He kisses me,’ is all she manages to say, and they call her ‘little miss don’t-touch-me’, as if she’s simply prudish. To compound matters, her grandmother’s dying words to Malvina are a request to keep her mouth shut. ‘Granddad can’t help it,’ the old lady says. ‘Promise me you won’t leave [him] in the lurch.’
It’s when she meets a boy her own age and starts wanting a normal, healthy relationship that Malvina comes to understand exactly how wrong what’s been going on has been. She wonders what her new friend Screwy would think of her if he knew the truth, and practises whispering to him: ‘You’ve got to help me.’ In the end it’s her grandparents’ neighbour, Mrs Bitschek, who realises that Malvina has something to say – though she has to kick her under the table to make her say it. As this story makes chillingly clear, sometimes even close family can stand between an abused child and the help they so badly need.
At the heart of The Perks of Being a Wallflower lies the revelation that sometimes abuse can take years to come to light. Fifteen-year-old Charlie is the sort of boy who would rather observe from the sidelines than take an active part. A wannabe writer who suffers from bouts of depression, he’s nervous of starting high school – and when we find out that his best friend committed suicide at the end of the previous school year, it seems explanation enough for his mental state. But then he meets Sam, a girl he likes, and during their first kiss he’s assaulted by disturbing flashbacks. At first he ignores them; but they come back even more strongly. The discovery of the trauma in his past is shocking to all parties, including the reader; but Chbosky handles it delicately, with Charlie shown to be in control of how much is revealed. Teens will see that, with the trauma now uncovered, Charlie’s recovery has begun.
SEE ALSO: bullied, being • bully, being a • heard, not feeling • foster care, being in • trauma • violence
academic, not very
SEE: good at anything, feeling like you’re no
acne
Spot the Difference JUNO DAWSON
Though in fact caused by a virus, the popular misconception that acne is a result of lack of cleanliness only adds to the misery it inflicts. Until recently, it featured in fiction only to express an inner ugliness. Thankfully, Juno Dawson has now brought us a heroine who we love – and who overcomes its stigma.
Sixteen-year-old Avery is known as ‘Pizzaface’ at school. Her previous best friend, Lucy, dumped her to be with the ‘A-list’ – the girls who sit smugly within their bubbles, perfecting their hair, skin and nails. Her best friend now is Lois, who, with her button nose and Taylor Swift bob, might have made the A-list too, but for her one tiny arm. She is known as ‘T-rex’.
Then Avery is given a new drug that clears up her acne completely. Suddenly everyone can see her for the beauty she is. Swiftly courted by the A-list, she abandons Lois, acquires a boyfriend, Seth, and – feeling unstoppable – decides to run for head girl. But just as the battle for the position of head girl is about to reach its climax, Avery is told to stop taking the anti-acne drug: it has severe side-effects that are only now being understood. She makes her election speech with a paper bag over her head – ‘Imperfect, but content’ in her skin – standing not for her looks but for who she is and what she believes in. We never know which way the vote goes – and for kids reading this story it doesn’t matter. The empowering point has been made.
SEE ALSO: adolescence • confidence, lack of • zits
ADHD
SEE: fidgety to read, being too • short attention span
adolescence
Everything’s in flux for teens in these testing years – their body, their beliefs, their sense of self and their relationships with everyone else. No one should be expected to go through it without some fictional allies to hand.
THE TEN BEST BOOKS FOR ADOLESCENCE
Dogsong GARY PAULSEN
Go Ask Alice ANONYMOUS2
The Chocolate War ROBERT CORMIER
Dear Nobody BERLIE DOHERTY
The Princess Bride WILLIAM GOLDMAN
The Farthest Shore URSULA K LE GUIN3
All Our Pretty Songs SARAH MCCARRY
Remix NON PRATT
The Square Root of Summer HARRIET REUTER HAPGOOD
The Scar Boys LEN VLAHOS
SEE ALSO: acne • alone, wanting to be left • arguments, getting into • astray, being led • bargaining, endless • body hair • body image • body odour • chores, having to do • clumsiness • dating • different, feeling • embarrassment • exams • friends your parents don’t approve of, having • gaming, excessive • gay, not sure if you are • good at anything, feeling like you’re no • happy ever after, had enough of • hormones, raging • innocence, loss of • laziness • moodiness • obstinate, being • periods • screen, glued to the • sulking • trashing the house while your parents are out • understood, not being • wet dreams • zits
adoption
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly SUN-MI HWANG, ILLUSTRATED BY NOMOCO
Once upon a time, adopted children were sat down at a random moment in childhood and delivered the ‘oh, by the way, you’re adopted’ bolt from the blue. Thankfully, we’ve moved on since then, drip-feeding the knowledge from the beginning. Picture books are a great way to help do this, as well as reiterating the message that adopted children are planned and deeply wanted. Which stories strike a chord will depend on the particular circumstances of the adoption: find those that best fit the picture from the list that follows.
As adopted children get older, they generally ask more questions about their birth parents and may try to seek them out. This brings a flood of new and complex emotions for both the child and the grown-ups who adopted them. A story which shows it’s normal to have mixed feelings about your adoption is The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by the South Korean author Sun-mi Hwang. Sprout is an egg-laying hen who harbours a dream – not to fly, in fact, but to become a mother. So, together with her friend Straggler, a duck, she escapes the barnyard and makes a new life in the wild, foraging for food and doing her best to avoid the ever-hungry weasel. When she stumbles on a nest in a briar patch containing a ‘large and handsome’, still-warm egg, she sits on it through the night. By morning she can feel the tiny heart beating inside the shell.
When the little duckling – as it turns out to be – emerges, Sprout’s happiness is moving to behold. With her baby, Greentop, in tow, she struts proudly past the animals in the barnyard, impervious to their taunts. ‘Sure, he’s a duck, not a chick. Who cares?’ she says to herself. ‘He still knows I’m his mum!’ When, all by himself, Greentop learns to swim, then fly – spending entire days wheeling over the reservoir – Sprout is happy for him, even though she’s left on the ground. One day, Greentop senses something approaching the reservoir – something that will cover the entire sky and fill the air with its honking . . . and he begins to tremble with a mixture of excitement and impending loss . . .
This fable-like novella is about many things – the desire to be a parent, and the need for a child to be who they are. But what we remember most is the over-arching love Sprout feels for her baby. Sprout knows that the best way to love her son is to understand him – even if that means acknowledging he’s different to her and may have to go away at some point and find out who he is. Give this to kids as they begin to ask questions about their birth parents to show that you understand.
THE TEN BEST BOOKS FEATURING ADOPTION
The Teazles’ Baby Bunny SUSAN BAGNALL, ILLUSTRATED BY TOMMASO LEVENTE TANI
The Most Precious Present in the World BECKY EDWARDS, ILLUSTRATED BY LOUISE COMFORT
The Nanny Goat’s Kid JEANNE WILLIS, ILLUSTRATED BY TONY ROSS
Anne of Green Gables LM MONTGOMERY
Wintle’s Wonders (later renamed Dancing Shoes) NOEL STREATFEILD
Kimchi & Calamari ROSE KENT
Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye LOIS LOWRY
Girl Missing SOPHIE MCKENZIE
Saffy’s Angel HILARY MCKAY
Daughter of Smoke and Bone LAINI TAYLOR
| CURE FOR GROWN-UPS | Horton Hatches the Egg DR SEUSS |
This story doesn’t represent birth parents who give up a child for adoption in the most charitable light, but at times of extreme exhaustion, or when you get the ‘You’re not my real mother/father anyway’ line hurled at you, the depiction of the faithful Horton will be a comfort. Having agreed to sit on an egg laid by Mayzie – a lazy bird who’d rather soak up some rays on Palm Beach and delegate the incubation job to someone else – Horton keeps his word, protecting the egg through rain and sleet, and sitting there even when the tree bends beneath his weight, when icicles form on his trunk, and when a hunter takes aim – Seuss’s endlessly inventive illustrations bringing all these travails to life in the way that only he can. When the chick finally hatches and Mayzie has the audacity to claim it as hers after all, we’re in no doubt who the rightful parent is. Whenever you – or your child – need reminding, adopt Horton’s rallying cry as your mantra: ‘I meant what I said/And I said what I meant . . ./An elephant’s faithful/One hundred per cent!’
SEE ALSO: anger • different, feeling • feelings, not able to express your • parents, having
adventure, needing an
When there’s none to be had at a child’s own back door, send them on one in a book.
THE TEN THIRTY-NINE4 BEST BOOKS FOR TAKING YOU ON AN ADVENTURE
The Snail and the Whale JULIA DONALDSON, ILLUSTRATED BY AXEL SCHEFFLER
Rosie’s Walk PAT HUTCHINS
The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My TOVE JANSSON
Not a Box ANTOINETTE PORTIS
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt MICHAEL ROSEN, ILLUSTRATED BY HELEN OXENBURY
Down the Bright Stream BB
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L FRANK BAUM
Circus Mirandus CASSIE BEASLEY
The Magic Faraway Tree ENID BLYTON
The Child’s Elephant RACHEL CAMPBELL-JOHNSTON
The Mouse and the Motorcycle BEVERLY CLEARY
The Saturdays (Melendy Quartet) ELIZABETH ENRIGHT
The Snow Merchant SAM GAYTON, ILLUSTRATED BY CHRIS RIDDELL
The Mouse and His Child RUSSELL HOBAN
Biggles Goes to War CAPTAIN WE JOHNS
The Phantom Tollbooth NORTON JUSTER
Sparks ALLY KENNEN
Stig of the Dump CLIVE KING, ILLUSTRATED BY EDWARD ARDIZZONE
Island of Thieves JOSH LACEY
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (and Starry River of the Sky) GRACE LIN
The Story of Doctor Dolittle HUGH LOFTING
The Children of the New Forest CAPTAIN FREDERICK MARRYAT
The Apothecary MAILE MELOY
Ribblestrop ANDY MULLIGAN
Five Children and It EDITH NESBIT
Amazon Adventure WILLARD PRICE
The Firework Maker’s Daughter PHILIP PULLMAN
Mortal Engines PHILIP REEVE
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children RANSOM RIGGS
Haroun and the Sea of Stories SALMAN RUSHDIE
The Invention of Hugo Cabret BRIAN SELZNICK
Amazon Summer (Amy Wild) HELEN SKELTON
The Egypt Game ZILPHA KEATLEY SNYDER
Kidnapped ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Treasure Island ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Stuart Little EB WHITE
The Swiss Family Robinson JOHANN DAVID WYSS
The Last Unicorn PETER S BEAGLE
The Westing Game ELLEN RASKIN
SEE ALSO: bored, being • family outings • summer holidays
alcohol
SEE: drugs • peer pressure
allergies
The Princess and the Peanut SUE GANZ-SCHMITT, ILLUSTRATED BY MICAH CHAMBERS-GOLDBERG
Shadow Jumper JM FORSTER
There’s nothing fun for kids about having an allergy. Not only do they have to make sure they don’t come into contact with whatever triggers a reaction – be it pollen, poodles or peanuts (see: worrying) – but they have to deal with the effects on their social life and close relationships as well. A child with severe allergies can end up feeling cut off from all the fun and more fragile than everyone else (see: different, feeling; friends, finding it hard to make). Sue Ganz-Schmitt’s delightful twist on the classic Princess and the Pea fairytale is doubly welcome, therefore, for bringing levity to the issue – and showing that allergies can actually make you rather special. When a wet and soggy waif turns up at the palace door claiming to be a ‘real princess’, the queen decides to put her to the test in the usual way. But they’re out of peas in the palace, so she plants a peanut under the mattresses instead. By the next morning, the poor princess is crying out for an EpiPen. The king and queen react impeccably, throwing out all the peanut-contaminated foods in the palace larder, and the love-struck prince swears to give up his beloved peanut-butter-and-jam sandwiches if she’ll accept his hand in marriage. Three cheers for the allergy that brought the happy pair together!
Older kids will appreciate Shadow Jumper, the story of fourteen-year-old Jack who was born with photosensitive skin – an allergy to sunlight. His condition is so severe that he can’t go outside without covering every inch of himself with creams or clothes – and, as a result, spends most of his time inside, ultra-pale and alone and feeling like a vampire. At school, he can’t join in with sports or break times, which means it’s hard to make friends. But like any other kid his age, he wants to have fun and take risks.
So it is that he goes up to the rooftops at dusk and jumps daringly from shadow to shadow. He knows he’s dicing with death – and not just because of the danger of falling. Even in the twilight, it would only take a glancing contact with the evening rays for him to come up in an angry, fizzing rash.
When, on the rooftops, he meets Beth – an angsty teenager who, with her white make-up and dark eyeliner, looks almost as freakish as him – he feels an instant connection. Together they set out by night bus to find Jack’s missing father, breaking into the lab where he works – and so begins a gradual awareness of the issues with which they both have to contend. It becomes apparent that Jack’s condition worsens under stress and improves when he’s calm and happy; and as he opens up to the important people in his life, his skin starts to heal. This is a story that encourages teens to share the challenges they face with others. After all, how can one’s needs ever be effectively met if other people don’t know what they are?
SEE ALSO: different, feeling • fussy eater, being a • worrying
alone, wanting to be left
The Cloud HANNAH CUMMING
All Alone KEVIN HENKES
The Knife of Never Letting Go PATRICK NESS
Sometimes it helps to be alone. Away from the mêlée, a child can experience their emotions without having to pretend they’re OK. But sometimes a child would rather be rescued from their funk, if only someone would notice. Such is the case for the child with the angry charcoal scribble hovering over her head in The Cloud.
While all the other kids in the art class are filling their canvases with spaceships and giant yellow chicks, the canvas of the girl with the cloud remains resolutely blank. No one dares approach her. But then a girl with a delightfully wonky-eyed portrait on her canvas walks boldly through the charcoal scribble and talks to her. It takes her several attempts, but eventually she engages the cloud girl – and soon they’re combining their skills to make pictures together. The more they produce, the smaller the black cloud gets, until – puff! – it’s gone, and a big, sunny smile appears on the cloud girl’s face instead. Use this sensitive book with a prickly child and, ideally, their peers. Its message of patience, persistence and acceptance will help show everyone how he or she might be drawn out.
Sometimes a child wants to be alone because they’ve cottoned on to the fact that you can feel more truly alive when you’re by yourself. Kevin Henkes introduces this concept with impressive minimalism, setting the sketchy figure of a boy against semi-abstract watercolour landscapes in All Alone. ‘Sometimes I like to live alone, all by myself,’ it begins – the choice of the verb ‘to live’, rather than ‘to be’, immediately elevating us to the level of poetry. When the boy walks in the woods by himself, he can ‘hear more and see more’. He notices the way the trees sigh in the wind. He feels the heat of the sun on his skin. Many adults never learn to enjoy being alone like this. Use it to introduce solitude as a positive concept, and you’ll give a child a key to contentment in life.
For older children, wanting to be left alone takes on new, hormonal angles which are hard for the grown-up to interpret and even harder for the adolescent to explain (see: adolescence; hormones, raging). The bedroom door stays shut for hours on end and excuses are given for not joining in with family activities. Todd, the hero of The Knife of Never Letting Go – the first in Patrick Ness’s excellent Chaos Walking trilogy – feels the need to escape the company of others more than most, living as he does on a planet where everyone can, literally, hear one another’s thoughts. Surrounded day and night by ‘All the Noise that men spill outta themselves, all their clamour and clatter’ which comes ‘at you and at you and at you’, it’s not surprising that Todd has started taking long walks on the lonely marshes with his dog, Manchee, to try and find some peace. Even here, he still has Manchee’s thoughts to contend with, though they are somewhat basic in content and expression (‘Need a poo, Todd’; ‘Hungry, Todd.’)
While he’s trying to limit his exposure to Noise, and avoid whatever it is the older men have in store for him – a vague menace lurking around his imminent transition to ‘manhood’ – he stumbles across something unexpected. No women have existed on this planet since a virus wiped them out; and yet, here on the marshes, Todd finds cause to question this assumption . . . Teenagers will relate to Todd’s need for privacy – and also to the joy of one day finding someone with whom to share their innermost thoughts.
SEE ALSO: different, feeling • friends, feeling that you have no • friends, finding it hard to make • heard, not feeling • loner, being a • moodiness • trauma
anger
When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry . . . MOLLY BANG
Dogsbody DIANA WYNNE JONES
Breathing Underwater ALEX FLINN
Over time, we learn to control the primal urge to shout, scream or hit – but it’s not a skill we’re born with. And if a child is exposed to peers, older siblings or grown-ups who express their rage inappropriately, or who never express it at all, a story can be a brilliant way to bring healthy role models into the house. When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry . . . shows what happens during an outbreak of red-hot temper – and a way of calming oneself down.
At first glance, the deceptively simple illustrations might be the handiwork of a child with a fat brush and poster paints: here is Sophie and her sister, with flat circles for faces, dots for eyes, and a red daub for the mouth. But their artfulness soon makes its impact. When her sister snatches her toy gorilla and so triggers her anger, Sophie’s face takes up the whole page, huge and there. And when her anger erupts, Sophie’s entire body sizzles with a jagged, red outline. When she runs out of the house, everything else starts to sizzle too – the slammed door, the trees, a squirrel – as if absorbing her projected upset. In time her anger starts to burn itself out, and her outline dims to orange. But it’s only when she finds an old beech tree – its gnarled branches spiralling up with a cool, blue aura – that it ebbs away completely. By the time she goes back inside her outline has faded to yellow, matching the rest of her family’s outlines – all of whom are now quietly getting on with other things and are glad to see her back. This story shows that anger is natural – and that it’s possible to deal with it by yourself without hurting other people’s feelings.
Children too old for tantrums and too young for hissy fits will find much to relate to in the magical, thoughtful Dogsbody. Sirius, the immortal Lord of the Dog Star, has lost his rag all too often. Now, he’s been accused of murder – and the celestial judge banishes him to Earth. Here, he must inhabit the body of a dog and find the ‘Zoi’, a weapon shaped like a ball, before he can return to his super-luminary state.
Sirius is humbled in various ways – first by enduring the horror of being unwanted; and then by becoming the pet of a poor family who mistreat both their animals and their children. Luckily he’s rescued by Kathleen, who loves the dog wholeheartedly, calling him ‘Leo’ – an imposition Sirius puts up with. Life is still not easy – Kathleen lives with an abusive aunt; and the search for the Zoi is hampered by Sirius’s doggy nature, which has him following his nose, literally, after all sorts of diversions from the path. Sirius still gets angry in his dog form – his eyes flashing green when he does – but it’s usually short-lived and in response to injustices suffered by Kathleen rather than himself. And when he finally returns to life as a shimmering, green star, he is far less inclined to rage and rant, having learnt to accept a few home truths.
Inappropriate outbursts of rage are explored in an eye-opening fashion in Breathing Underwater. On the surface, Nick Andreas has it all – a rich dad, a cool car provided by said rich dad, good looks and good grades. He’s also got a girlfriend, Caitlin. Told from Nick’s point of view, the story begins as Nick – having lost his temper and slapped Caitlin, leaving her badly bruised – complies with a court order to write five hundred words a week in a journal and attend an anger management course with other aggressive teens. At first Nick comes across as a sympathetic character. But gradually we start to see what really happens between him and Caitlin. When Caitlin wants to enter a talent contest for her singing, Nick won’t let her. Caitlin enters secretly – convinced that when he sees her from the audience fulfilling her dream, he’ll be thrilled. But the moment the recital is over, Nick takes her outside and hits her until she blacks out.
We abhor Nick’s actions, but by now we also know what he has had to endure at the hands of his own father, who has constantly criticised him and left him feeling worthless (see: abuse). When Nick begins to see how unacceptable his behaviour is, and that he needs to find ways to be a good boyfriend – and a good man – we root for him. For teens who find expression in their fists, or aggressive words, this story shows where the anger might be coming from – and how getting help will be like finally coming up for air.
| CURE FOR GROWN-UPS | The Day Leo Said I Hate You! ROBIE H HARRIS, ILLUSTRATED BY MOLLY BANG |
Children generally let us know when they’re angry in blunt and basic ways – such as hurling the ‘I hate you!’ line. Even the most quick-witted grown-up can find themselves lost for words when this happens – and feel hurt even though they know it’s an unconsidered sentiment provoked by a fleeting emotion. This book contains some good ideas on how to respond.
SEE ALSO: arguments, getting into • betrayal • sulking • violence
animals, being unkind to
James and the Giant Peach ROALD DAHL, ILLUSTRATED BY QUENTIN BLAKE
Incident at Hawk’s Hill ALLAN W ECKERT
What makes otherwise angelic children want to stamp on ants and slice worms in half? Perhaps it’s the rare chance to lord it over others (see: beastly, being). Or perhaps it’s because they haven’t yet learnt to feel empathy for the suffering of others (see: feelings, hurting someone’s). If you catch a child near you torturing insects, intervene with James and the Giant Peach.
When unhappy young orphan James – who, by the way, is on the receiving end of beastliness from humans himself – finds himself inside a giant peach, he’s alarmed to discover he’s sharing it with a variety of giant insects, including a grasshopper, a ladybird, a spider, a centipede, an earthworm and a silkworm. He’s convinced they’re going to eat him – but they’re quick to reassure him. ‘You are one of us now,’ they tell him. ‘We’re all in the same boat.’
This turns out to be true in more ways than one as, having started off in James’s aunts’ garden, the giant peach starts to roll downhill, toppling off the cliffs of southern England and floating out to sea in what is at times an exceedingly perilous adventure. And, as happens in stressful circumstances, the true colours of each of the characters begin to emerge. The grasshopper is wise, the spider hard-working, and the earthworm always hovers on the verge of despair. The lazy centipede, who is forever asking James to help him lace and unlace his forty-two boots5, turns out to be an even bigger pest than everyone suspected – although James is prepared to forgive a lot in return for his rascally sense of humour. All in all, the insects are shown to be as various in personality as humans are themselves – and indeed much more likeable than Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, James’s two wretched aunts who were, thankfully, flattened to death by the peach at the start. The ants in your garden will breathe more easily after the kids have read this story. Your rellies may not.
The possibility that animals might experience feelings just as we do is explored with an admirable lack of sentiment in Incident at Hawk’s Hill – a story that may transform the attitudes to animals of everyone in the household. Set on the prairies of Canada in the late 19th century, it is the story of six-year-old Ben, the youngest of four siblings and the only one their hardworking settler father, William MacDonald, doesn’t understand. ‘There’s just no communicating with him,’ William complains to his wife. Ben’s strange habit of mimicking the animals and birds around the farm makes his father wonder if the child is even quite normal.
One day, wandering over the emerald-green grasslands, Ben comes face to face with a large female badger – a ferocious predator, quite capable of killing a wolf – who hisses and bares her sharp teeth. Awed and alarmed in equal measure, Ben hisses back; but when he realises the badger is more interested than frightened, he ‘chitters’ and grunts instead. Soon she’s letting him approach her, accepting a dead mouse from his hands, and even allowing him to touch her. When Ben goes home for lunch that day, he is all aglow with the encounter.
Some time later, Ben gets caught in a lightning storm and, frightened and shoeless, takes refuge by backing down a burrow. It turns out to belong to the same badger, recognisable by the notch on her ear; and so begins an extraordinary few weeks in which they share the burrow and care for one another, Ben becoming increasingly badger-like in his behaviour and movements, and the badger increasingly zealous in her protection of the small boy. Told with a keen naturalist’s eye, this story shows that even wild animals may have a lot to teach us about loyalty and respect for others. No teen will treat animals thoughtlessly after reading this.
SEE ALSO: beastly, being • bully, being a • in charge, wanting to be
animals, fear of
My Family and Other Animals GERALD DURRELL
In our atomised and increasingly urban world – where most of us live a long way from the beginnings of the food chain and have no use for animals in our daily lives – it’s no surprise that children can develop a fear of fur, claw, wing and whisker. Such children will learn to love small beasts more easily if they meet them first in books.
My Family and Other Animals – a memoir6 which reads like fiction – is the most entrancing story of living with animals we know. Set on the sun-kissed island of Corfu, it tells of a young Gerald Durrell – known as Gerry – as he discovers a natural affinity for all creatures, from the lowliest insect life to a pelican, brown rats and a dog. As he roams the island gathering specimens for his zoology collection – kept in a dedicated room in the house – we observe, over his shoulder, crab spiders as they change colour to match their surroundings, and black caterpillars that are in fact baby ladybirds. We watch him adopt a tortoise (Achilles) and a pigeon (Quasimodo), who become his constant companions. A young owl (Ulysses) also spends months in his pocket. Gerry’s protectiveness over these creatures is humbling: finding a nest of earwig eggs one day, he erects a sign that reads ‘BEWAR – EARWIG NEST – QUIAT PLESE’. Telling of an idyllic, lost world in which moonlit bathing among porpoises was a regular evening event, no one can read this book without marvelling in a whole new way at the wonders of the natural world. Out of its pages many a young botanist, zoologist or eco-warrior will be born.
SEE ALSO: scared, being
anorexia
SEE: eating disorder
ants in your pants, having
SEE: still, unable to sit
anxiety
The Invisible String PATRICE KARST, ILLUSTRATED BY GEOFF STEVENSON
The Bubble Wrap Boy PHIL EARLE
Watership Down RICHARD ADAMS
Being entirely dependent on others, babies have good reason to be anxious, and reassuring, familiar stories – such as Guess How Much I Love You, The Runaway Bunny, Thomas the Tank Engine and Frog and Toad7 – create safety and comfort at the end of every day. When levels of anxiety continue into toddler-hood and beyond, throw in The Invisible String. This simple picture book introduces the idea that we’re all attached to those who love us by an invisible string, and that whenever a child misses their grown-up, the grown-up will feel a corresponding tug on their heart.
Constant, low-level anxiety can be debilitating, shutting off opportunities and generally getting in the way of living life to the full. It can also be contagious. Fourteen-year-old Charlie Han in The Bubble Wrap Boy suffers from anxiety passed down from his mother. She still keeps a stair gate at the top of the stairs, and she won’t let him go to the cinema in case he chokes on a piece of popcorn. So when Charlie discovers he has a spectacular talent for skateboarding, it’s an exciting moment for the overprotected boy. And to call it his mother’s worst nightmare is the understatement of the year.
Suddenly, Charlie – who has always been mocked at school for being small, and for being best friends with ‘Sinus’ Sedgley, so named for his enormous nose – finds himself admired for his cool, new hobby. He can fly; he can turn in the air – and he feels like the king of the world. But then his mother catches him at it and launches into a tirade in front of his peers, which is pretty much Charlie’s worst nightmare. Now it’s time for Charlie’s worst nightmare. But there’s more humiliation to come. Once his mother has reduced him to a laughing-stock, a group of boys swathe him in bubble wrap and, thus mummified, leave him to walk home.
It takes the root of his mother’s anxiety to be revealed for Charlie to break free of his own. By the end, the Bubble Wrap Boy has become a graffiti legend. This triumphant, liberating story – great for the grown-up too – is best enjoyed by kids with a sheet of bubble wrap to pop as they go.
The long-eared, twitchy-nosed inhabitants of Watership Down – a story which stands up well to the test of time – will feel like kindred spirits to tweens and teens with an anxious streak, constantly on the alert for danger as rabbits are. As long as they can hear the blackbird singing, the rabbits know it’s safe to graze. But the second the blackbird’s song turns to a distressed squawking, the rabbits startle, sniff the air, then bolt like blazes in the other direction.
When a sign goes up in their field announcing a new building development, Fiver senses that something ‘very bad’ is going to happen – and he tells his brother, Hazel. Hazel has learnt to listen to his brother’s presentiments; and that very night they split ranks with the heads of the warren and lead any other rabbit that will listen to a new, safe home. Fiver’s sixth sense saves the rabbits again and again on their journey – and ultimately brings them to the high, dry downs where they can see for miles around.
Many of the rabbits are prone to panic; but they also make the most of the strengths bestowed on them by Fritha, their creator, in the stories of long ago. ‘Digger, listener, runner,’ the incantation goes – and whenever they’re threatened by one of their ‘thousand enemies’, they put their skills to use, digging burrows, listening for danger, and running to safety. Give this story to the nervous child in your midst and prompt them to notice their own special strengths. They may not be able to stop their anxiety, but their strengths will help them to live more successfully with it.
SEE ALSO: depression • worrying
apocalypse, fear of the
Teens worried about the end of civilised life as they know it will find comfort – and a great role model for how to survive – in Robinson Crusoe.8 The apocalypse may be a long time coming, though, and imagining worst-case scenarios with the help of a good dystopian novel will keep them on their toes as they wait, while also encouraging them to appreciate what they’ve (still) got.
THE TEN BEST DYSTOPIAN READS
The Giver LOIS LOWRY
Pax SARA PENNYPACKER, ILLUSTRATED BY JON KLASSEN
Floodland MARCUS SEDGWICK
The Handmaid’s Tale MARGARET ATWOOD
The Death of Grass JOHN CHRISTOPHER
The Hunger Games SUZANNE COLLINS
The Stand STEPHEN KING
Station Eleven EMILY ST JOHN MANDEL
Uglies SCOTT WESTERFELD
The Day of the Triffids JOHN WYNDHAM
SEE ALSO: anxiety • planet, fearing for the future of the • worrying
appendicitis
SEE: The Novel Cure
arguments, getting into
The Quarreling Book CHARLOTTE ZOLOTOW, ILLUSTRATED BY ARNOLD LOBEL
Ordinary Jack HELEN CRESSWELL
The Book of the Banshee ANNE FINE
Not all arguments occur because someone’s in a bad mood, but it certainly makes an argument more likely. In the brilliant little The Quarreling Book, we see how bad moods can be passed, like fire, from one person to the next. It all kicks off when Mr Brown forgets to kiss Mrs Brown before he leaves for work. Mrs Brown then snaps at son Jonathan when he comes down for breakfast, who in turn snaps at sister Sally, who snaps at her best friend . . . and so on until, inevitably, it’s somebody’s dog that gets it in the teeth. The good-natured dog, of course, just thinks it’s all a big game, which starts a counter-domino-effect of good moods going in the opposite direction. Arnold Lobel’s black-and-white illustrations capture the changing moods with the tiniest of lines – a mouth turned down on one side, a hurt eye widening. Read this one to the whole fractious family; then go and buy yourselves a dog.
If your child seems determined to pick fights, at least make sure they do it with a sense of humour. The extended family in Helen Cresswell’s wonderful Ordinary Jack and the other Bagthorpe Saga books are great role models for inveterate quarrellers, with mealtimes usually beginning with everyone talking at once and ending with the slamming of doors. The elderly matriarch, Grandma, is the ringleader, liking nothing better than throwing a pointed jibe, and she’s disappointed when it fails to stick. Mr Bagthorpe and his brother-in-law, Uncle Parker, have so many ‘first-class rows’ that Jack suspects they enjoy them, too – and he’s noticed that many of their interchanges turn up ‘pretty well word for word’ in his father’s TV scripts. Luckily, Grandpa’s tendency to make sudden, irrelevant statements – finishing a train of thought he started in his head – tends to throw an argument off course before it can get too savage. And if that doesn’t work, five-year-old cousin Daisy’s newfound habit of playing with matches underneath the table does (see: pyromania).
Dare we cast the aspersion that teenagers are frequently the cause of arguments in the home (see: adolescence; hormones, raging)? To help both teens and their haggard grown-ups get through these rocky years, bring in the hilarious The Book of the Banshee. Written by one Will Flowers from the ‘Front line’ of family life, it opens with the announcement that his sister Estelle has ‘curdled’ – i.e. become a teenager – and that suddenly it’s like sharing a home with an apprentice witch. The arguments begin at 7am, with diatribes about why school is pointless, and take up so much of everyone’s time and energy that Will ends up having to leave the house without his lunch money – and with only a hastily put-together piccalilli or salad-cream sandwich instead. The day ends with more arguments, these ones about why she can’t wear what she’s wearing and why she can’t stay out till 1am.
Meanwhile, Will finds a strange sort of comfort in a First World War memoir called The Longest Summer by a man named Saffery. In it he finds remarkable parallels between his own home life and Saffery’s experiences on the Front lines of northern France. When Will’s father comes upstairs to have words with Estelle, it’s just like the brave lads going over the top. And when Will’s little sister Muffy tucks her head into Will’s dressing gown in fear of Estelle, it’s as if she fears being hit by shells flying overhead. Before long, the military atmosphere has ratcheted up to such a point that Will decides he must take a proactive stand. He gains valuable ground and self-respect in the process; but he also learns that the battles Estelle – and in fact he, too – are now fighting are helping them sculpt themselves into the separate, interesting adults they will one day become. Arguments are excruciating, but they also mark an important rite of passage.
SEE ALSO: anger • bargaining, endless • bath, not wanting to have a • bed, not wanting to go to • best friend, falling out with your • blamed, being • parents who are splitting up, having • sulking
astray, being led
Sam and the Firefly PD EASTMAN
The Invisible Girl KATE MARYON
Many a grown-up frets that the cherubic, innocent child in their care might be led astray by the depraved and delinquent one in someone else’s. If you introduce a child early on to the possibility that they may one day have a friend who takes off in an ill-advised direction – and they’ll need the presence of mind not to follow – you’ll be able to fret much less. A great story for the job is Sam and the Firefly, an early reader in which an owl named Sam, looking for a playmate, meets a zesty little firefly named Gus. Sam is impressed when the firefly shows him the shapes he can draw with his light, and soon the pair of them are scrawling their names across the sea-green Eastman sky. But then Gus gets the idea of writing ‘Turn left’ and ‘Turn right’ above the traffic lights for a laugh. Sam knows that Gus has over-stepped the line and tells the young firefly so – holding his ground even when Gus calls him a spoilsport (see: loser, being a bad). Sam is the perfect role model for how to stand firm against your wayward friends – without, in fact, having to lose them as friends.
The older children are, the harder it sometimes is to resist the influence of others. Gabriella in The Invisible Girl is a shy eleven-year-old – so shy, in fact, that she feels invisible – and when her neglectful father packs her off to Manchester to be with her mother, omitting to tell her mother that she’s coming, it gives Gabriella the perfect excuse to disappear. She’d rather try to survive on the streets of a city she doesn’t know than face her sharp-tongued mother.
In Manchester she finds herself more alone than ever before. Just when she’s reconciling herself to having to sleep in the cathedral doorway, she meets Henny, a girl who knows a thing or two about homelessness herself – a little too much, in fact. Soon, the older girl has Gabriella shinnying up drainpipes and breaking in to people’s flats; and for a while, Gabriella seems doomed to a life of crime. She’s saved by her faith in her older brother, Beckett, who she hasn’t seen in years, and by an innate belief that she’s a good girl at heart. This is a story to help young readers maintain the courage of their own convictions rather than be swayed by the first attractive, worldly personality to come along.
| CURE FOR GROWN-UPS | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer MARK TWAIN |
One such attractive personality being Tom Sawyer, and you’d do well to acquaint yourself with his type. Though on the surface this charismatic vagabond looks like one of the bad influences described above, Tom is in fact a good egg. And although he and his true love, Becky Thatcher, do end up spending several days in a cave and almost starving to death, their adventure is well intentioned – and inadvertently leads to the discovery of a bona fide fortune. Learn to recognise the mischievous prankster who always lands on his or her feet from the doomed disaster who will take your child down with them (and see The Novel Cure: rails, going off the). If the child in your care is being led astray by a Tom Sawyer type, stand back and let them enjoy the ride.
SEE ALSO: friends your parents don’t approve of, having • naughtiness • peer pressure • told, never doing what you’re
attention, seeking
SEE: praise, seeking
autism
Just as there are a variety of behaviours associated with autism, there are a variety of ways to respond to it. Encourage an empathetic, non-judgemental response in the children you know with a story, or two, which gives a flavour of what it might be like to experience the world via an autistic brain. Then read the stories yourself.
THE TEN BEST BOOKS FOR UNDERSTANDING AUTISM
Looking After Louis LESLEY ELY, ILLUSTRATED BY POLLY DUNBAR
My Brother Charlie HOLLY ROBINSON PEETE AND RYAN ELIZABETH PEETE, ILLUSTRATED BY SHANE W EVANS
The London Eye Mystery SIOBHAN DOWD
Rules CYNTHIA LORD
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend MATTHEW GREEN
Smart KIM SLATER
Loser JERRY SPINELLI
Mockingbird KATHRYN ERSKINE
Marcelo in the Real World FRANCISCO X STORK
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time MARK HADDON
SEE ALSO: different, feeling • routine, unable to cope with a change in the
awkward
SEE: shyness • tall, being
1 When tackling serious ailments, always read a book through to the end yourself before sharing it with a child. The picture books recommended here are written to capture what it can be like to experience violence in the home and unless the content bears some resemblance to the child’s own experience, it may disturb more than reassure.
2 This moving story about a teenage girl who becomes hooked on drugs after unwittingly taking LSD at a party – originally claimed to be taken from an actual diary but since acknowledged by its author, psychologist Beatrice Sparks, to be a work of fiction – contains explicit material. Full of compassion for the angst of adolescence, we recommend it as a cautionary tale about the dangers of drug use; but be sure your teen is ready.
3 Best enjoyed after having read the previous two titles in the Earthsea cycle.
4 Adventures are to chapter books as gin is to tonic. How could we restrict ourselves?
5 Yes, you read that right. The centipede would like others to believe he has the full quotient of a hundred feet, as his name would suggest. But, as Dahl clearly knew, most centipedes in fact do not.
6 We did say our cures were ‘almost’ always fiction.
7 By, respectively, Sam McBratney, illustrated by Anita Jeram; Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd; the Rev. W Awdry; and Arnold Lobel.
8 By Daniel Defoe.
