I'm torn about this. I primarily think that a a kid who won't pick books is a failure of the family of not noticing their interests. When i noticed my oldest 3 yr old was obsessed about cars, i bought him a car encyclopedia. He probably could not read most words or did not understand them. But pretty soon he was telling me about car models that i did not even recognize myself. And as i saw interests, i kept feeding t…
> At some point, you need to watch out for cynical/nasty series. In fact, all of the books we purchase are ranked against peers they have read in the past, or those we know to actively avoid buying due to cynicism, sarcasm, or open disdain towards adults (Wimpy Kid). This is interesting because when I was 7-8 my mum just recommended me whatever books she was reading, some of which were quite... adult in retrospect, a…
My comment was not one-dimensional. Its not that they can't tell the difference between realitiy and fantasy.
Every kid is build differently. It sounds cliche, but it is not. Some are incredibly resilient, some are extremely sensitive. Think Briggs Myers = some extremely concrete-driven, others perceiving. My recommendation was built on experiences that worked for all kids, the concrete and teh perceiving, the sensitive and aloof, which means you must consider all dimensions of a kid when sharing books with them.
Reality matters little when mimicking behavior. Kids will learn to respond with "This is stupid!" when they are given specific books.
Can a resilient kid capture that this is unacceptable ? Some will. OK, but why risk it ? We are talking about your lifelong companions here. Potential best friends. Caretakers.
Parenting is hard. There will be a time for risks.