It is said that reading to children is the single most important investment parents can make in their children’s academic future. There is immense satisfaction in giving a book to a child which changes his or her life in some (even small) way. When a writer connects with us, or opens a door we never knew existed, the surprise can be so great that it leaves us with a new way of seeing and feeling.
Since the birth of my first daughter twenty (!) years ago, book buying has become an addiction for me. As a child, I categorized my family’s books into a mini-library (complete with alphanumeric codes and due dates!) That child became the woman who couldn’t peruse a display of children’s books without going into debt. Believe me, the overflowing bookshelves throughout our house bear witness to these moments of weakness.
Over the years, bedtime at our house has been a trip to a hundred faraway places with a hundred comfortable friends. Zoom and Max and Shrek (long before Mike Myers got hold of him) have long been household names. Shade and Harry Potter have traveled on car trips with us, and we’ve cozied with Taran and the Redwall mice by a roaring fire. Many bedtime curfews have been sacrificed to our desire to find out what happens next.
But these great escapes are not just reserved for bedtime, or for my own three children (Sarah now 20, Eryn now 16 and Tristan now 13). After several years of buying for 40+ children on a regular basis (nephews, nieces, the children of our friends and the friends of our children), I had done a lot of research and received a lot of feedback. For the last several years, I have written the children’s book reviews for Today’s Parent magazine.
This experience has taught me several things:
- There are many, many wonderful books for children of all ages. The quality of writing and illustrating has reached the level of art form, with the lucky beneficiaries being our children. Canada has a very strong children’s publishing industry with no shortage of very talented authors and illustrators.
- The proliferation of fake literature (movie, cartoon and toy spin-offs, and book-of-the month formulaic pieces) is phenomenal. While these pretend books are easy, cheap and available, they’re also as insubstantial as bubble gum. We can do better for our children.
- Choosing good books, that are appropriate for your child’s age, experience, interest and reading level, is a time-consuming task. Book covers and brief back jacket descriptions are not always adequate to give a true evaluation of what a book offers.
- While categorizing books by the physical age of a child is inadequate (children of the same age can vary dramatically in their reading ability, interests and psychological development), most of us want some help to determine which book(s) are likely to work for a particular child. The reading classifications I’ve developed (see Reading Classifications on the home page of this site) will help you make appropriate choices.
The goal of Neverending Stories is to provide parents with:
- An excellent offering of truly first class children’s books,
- A detailed description of what each book offers in terms of story and style, and
- A practical way to evaluate which book(s) will be right for the children you are buying for.
In other words, I want to make it easy for you to give the children in your life the gift of a rich literary diet. I think this can be accomplished by giving them the tools to make good choices, the vocabulary to present these choices to your children, and the confidence to participate as an active reading partner with your child. With an established pattern of success, children will become an eager and receptive audience and then active and informed decision makers themselves as they grow older.
Neverending Stories presents many of those too good to miss. While I’ve listed hundreds of books, it is still only the tip of the iceberg.
Welcome to the Neverending Story. Enjoy the adventure!