Make Read Aloud Sessions Manditory - They're Magic |
Bedtime has long been the traditional read-aloud story time. With all the pressures of modern life, is it really essential to make sure your child has a bedtime story? Mem Fox, former professor of literacy education and author of Reading Magic (Harcourt, $18.95), a book I highly recommend, has this to say about bedtime reading: "Although a read-aloud session can happen anytime, it's important to have a ritual about reading aloud every night, in the same place, at the same time, with the same cushions or pillows, the same stuffed animals, the same books. Children not only appreciate the safety of a predictable life, they actually need regular routines to feel secure in the world.... What could be more important than our children's literacy and the loving interactions that occur during a read-aloud session? The price of not reading aloud is too high."
And while you're at it, bedtime is also a great time to introduce preschoolers to the traditional tales that form the basis of Western literature. There are many wonderful versions of these old tales but a particularly delightful treasury is Nursery Classics (Clarion Books, $35.00) by Paul Galdone. In his 35-year career as an illustrator, Galdone worked hard at creating bold, unfussy drawings that would attract and hold a five-year old's straying eye. Even though he was meticulous about creating animals that acted naturally, he also added comic or homely touches: Goldilocks has lost a front tooth, Baby Bear drags a teddy bear everywhere he goes, the wolf's yellow-eyed glare belies his pseudo-pleasant smile, the little red hen looks like such a fusspot we're not surprised the other animals won't help her make bread. Each detail adds personality to what might otherwise be two-dimensional characters.
Marilyn Helmer has an intriguing idea - grouping nursery tales in threes for various ages. For the youngest, start with Three Tales of Three (Kids Can Press, $10.95), simple retellings of The Three Bears, The Three Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Then move on to Three Teeny Tiny Tales (KCP, $10.95) to meet The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Gingerbread Man and Thumbelina. As befits the theme, Vesalina Tomova's illustrations are full of teeny, tiny details to delight children as they pick them out.
Fairytales, the nursery tale's more sophisticated older sisters, are found in Helmer's Three Prince Charming Tales (KCP, $10.95). As always in Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel, good triumphs over evil, but before it does, Kaiso Charko's elegant illustrations make us shiver in enchanted forests, shudder at wicked witches and snarl at cruel stepsisters.
Ageless though the traditional tales are, there's always room for new stories created in the style of nursery and fairytales. In The Light of the Moon & Other Bedtime Stories (Kingfisher, $26.95) gives us Sam McBratney (author of Guess How Much I Love You,) playing with characters similar to those found in traditional tales - scurrying mice, crafty foxes, bears, even a ladybug. In the title story, three young mice who live in a warm, dry cellar pay their first visit to the country in the company of a wise old mouse. They have a perfect day playing in the cornfield, dancing on their shadows, jumping into puddles. But once the sun goes down the wise old mouse gathers them together for the trek home. Linking tails to keep together, they scurry through the dark and quiet night. Then the moon comes out and with it a danger from above that the young mice have never experienced before. Nothing in the story is too scary for bedtime, but the little mice do learn what we all have to learn - how to recognize and keep safe from the dangers of our world.
McBratney builds his stories around charming characters. Bargain Bear is a much-travelled stuffed bear who is passed from child to child until finally he has a miraculous homecoming. Speedwell Bunting is a tooth fairy who prefers daydreaming to getting on with his proper job. Bentley may be just a pig but when a lady with a trained dog comes calling on Bentley's owner, Bentley shows that he, too, can get his share of the treats by doing tricks. Delightful as these characters are, at least half of the reader's enjoyment comes from Kady MacDonald Denton's whimsical watercolour illustrations. Whether it's a frog dancing on a lily pad, a puppy upsetting a tea tray or a teddy bear drooping forlornly in a window, with a few quickly sketched lines Denton captures the character's essence and purpose.
In his foreword, Sam McBratney echoes Mem Fox's advice when he reminds us: "Reading to children, reading to them at the quiet end of the day, feels to me like one of the most natural and worthwhile things you can do. And the benefits may last – who knows? – for all of a lifetime."
