I have convinced myself that my current queue means I can patiently wait for a copy from the library. We will see how long that lasts before I give in and buy it. A complicated equation involving free time, interest level of the other books, and desire foe this one
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I need recs.
Audiobooks for a 5 year old with advanced verbal skills. Unbeknownst to me, she was listening to my audiobook while playing next to me for like 30-45 minutes. Then we had a 45 min Q&A to explain some of what she heard. I wouldn’t have had the book on speaker if the content was inappropriate but she certainly absorbed a lot more than I thought she would have!
I have a list of books I’ve been waiting to introduce her to, but they are all intended for “middle grade” or above. I’ve been hesitant to start these- the Wee Free Men, the Graveyard Book, the Girl Who Drank the Moon, the Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.
So any recommendations?
Is Over the Wayward Wall too dark?
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She doesn’t like scary stuff?
Not quite as advanced, but what about Junie B. Jones?
Maybe some Judy Blume?
Also… obligatory…
For some classics, how about the Little Women books?
Roald Dahl?
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Thanks! I had forgotten about each of those. Little women, in particular, might work. She stongly prefers female protagonists. I’ll need to re-read those, particularly the Dahl books. I never noticed as a kid, but as an adult I’ve seen criticism around his anti-semitism and misogyny. I’m trying to avoid the really subtle hatred and directly address the more obvious stuff. I think she’d miss the subtle stuff, but I don’t want her absorbing it. The more obvious stuff is easier to discuss directly and talk about why it’s wrong.
Scary is a weird thing with her. She’ll ask for stories with scary elements and then 2 weeks later suddenly say no more of whatever-scary-thing she wants because she is having bad dreams.
I’ve tried to tempt her into audio versions of her favorite chapter books (Zoe and Sassafras and the Catwings) but she wants to listen to my books.
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Aw! So sweet! Enjoy it, as it won’t last forever!
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(Edit @anon23281680)
We read to our daughter a lot when she was little. She liked books that were a little bit scary, had fantasy elements, and characters who were complex enough that they would sometimes behave in morally ambiguous ways (my interpretation, natch). We had a lot of conversations about what was right and wrong and why characters (and people) don’t always do what they should. Come to think of it, we still do.
I remember her enjoying this book by Eva Ibbotson:
We also read through most of the Borrowers books by Mary Norton. The books get a little dark towards the end of the series and I don’t think we ever read The Borrowers Avenged.
The Sisters Grimm was another series she enjoyed. There was a kind of vogue around re-imagining fairy tales in the early 2000s and these books did it better than most. I remember the first few books being pretty good, but I think my wife picked up the reading duties halfway through so I don’t know how the series ends. There’s no shortage of fairy tale violence though, so you’ll want to review first before presenting. May need to wait a few years yet.
We have a couple Daniel Pinkwater collections that I think I enjoyed more than my daughter did. Out of those anthologies, Lizard Music and Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars are the standouts.
Finally there’s Three Times Lucky, which definitely needs to wait until your daughter is older since it’s a YA murder mystery. The Newberry Honor committee thought it was very good and I agree:
I second @anon61221983, enjoy it while it lasts! Mine’s 16 somehow, we’re a year-and-a-half away from college, and even now I miss storytime.
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Thank you! These sound good and I’ll add the last to my growing list of when-she-is-older. I’m so happy our kid loves books and stories and looking forward to finding some books we can listen to together. We read a lot together. I think that is part of why she hasn’t expressed a whole lot of interest in learning to read herself. She knows we will always make time to read with
her and there isn’t any peer pressure or formal learning at school yet.
@anon61221983 I am treasuring this!
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OH! Speaking of the Borrowers… what was that non-Discworld Pratchett books? The Bromeliad Trilogy!
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I am in awe. Just magnificent.
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Picked up Leviathan Falls so I can finish it before getting into the last season on TV. Having a hard time getting much reading done as I am also away from home for my great-nephew’s 2nd birthday party.
ETA
Finished the book! A satisfying ending to a great story. (Unlike the end of Steven King’s Black Tower series, which pissed me off so much I haven’t read a thing he’s published since.)
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Good stuff, a really satisfying end to things. (Spoiler for TV series) Reading it while watching the current season of the TV series really drove home the loss of Alex. The newest episode’s battle sequence was just not the same without that character flying the ship as he did in the books..
I hope in the future they’ll be able to return to the series and give us the final years of the story. Such a great ending.
I had no idea this was coming out. I never imagined seeing a new Le Carre book again. This was really a gift, and I enjoyed it a lot.
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Huh. I took a lot from the ending, but you’re not the first person I’ve heard was really mad. One said he threw the book across the room.
What was it that pissed you off?
I interpreted it to mean that the journey is the point, as in life. I took it to mean Roland was so fixated on the end throughout his whole life, that he missed a lot. Especially the last scene of him rushing frantically up the tower past all the memories of his life, instead of stopping to savor any of it or reflect…
It felt like King had run out of ideas and just dropped the whole thing. Many of his stories collapse at the finish line if he can’t use a gimmick. Also the gloating tone of his note at the end, where he says “too bad if you feel cheated by this.”
King is decent story teller, but a poor writer. There, I said it.
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Agreed. I’ve mainly read his short stories, and many of them tend to go on too long and/or have the punchline telegraphed pages before the climax. I won’t say he’s a horrible writer-- I read “The Boogeyman” as a kid and it haunted me for years-- but his writing can have certain flaws, at least for me. YMMV. 
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To be fair, it’s not a particularly novel complaint about King… literary writers have been shitting on him for years.
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Even as a genre writer he has good ideas and problematic execution. His short stories are all based on a single gimmick or twist for the surprise factor, and most of his novels need some serious editing. (the Stand was 300 pages longer than it needed to be, for example) The Black Tower series was an exception, until the last two paragraphs. Which is why I just gave up on reading his stuff.
It’s true, and I’ll admit I probably haven’t read enough of his work to have a really good, novel critique of it. I read some, thought “okay, but I like other authors better” and moved on, so I’m no expert.
Still… while I respect literary critiques and standards to a point, I don’t think a story must be impeccably crafted to earn merit. Some books are just fun to read, and that’s okay, even if they’re flawed. As a writer, King fits in that flawed-but-fun category for me, even if I’m not the biggest fan.
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I just started reading this today
And chapter 1 is already blowing my mind. Well-written, jam-packed with history, very interesting.
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I heard the interview for that book a few years back on Fresh Air… sounded interesting, but I never got around to reading it.
I am currently reading this…
Which was published prior to the Good Friday Accords. Doesn’t hide his biases, but he also questions the actions undertaken by members of the IRA.
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