Bedtime Stories

[qos]

My daughter and I have been having an ongoing struggle around the subject of bedtime stories. The first issue is that she really isn't all that interested in stories -- a fact which boggles my mind. She would much prefer to read from an encyclopedia or read Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, which she loves.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with either of these, but I keep wanting to introduce her to some really good novels. She loved the first two books of Bruce Colville's Land of the Unicorns series, but it takes him 2+ years to write each book. She also loves Harry Potter, and her most common response to my suggestions of other books we could read together is, "I'm waiting for the next Harry Potter book."

Trying to explain to her that reading a novel now will not in any way diminish HP when it comes out has no effect.

Two nights ago, I finally put my foot down about yet another evening of Calvin and Hobbes. There is such a thing as Too Much of a Good Thing. I told her she was going to sit through the first chapter of The Jungle Book, and if she didn't like it we wouldn't read any further, but by damn she was going to at least give it a try.

As a little person far more interested in animals and the natural world than she is about fairy lands or real-life stories, Jungle Book was a pretty safe bet. Sure enough, she was delighted to snuggle up last night and listen to Chapter 2, about how the Bander-Log capture Mowgli, and Baloo and Bagheera enlist Kaa in their rescue attempt.

I read Jungle Book several times when growing up, and used to be able to quote most of the Law of the Jungle, but haven't looked at it a decade or more (although I still can quote the entire opening stanza of the Law, much to my surprise). Thanks to poliphilo for reminding me about the fun of Kipling.

Comments

[qos.livejournal.com]

That's a good suggestion -- and I actually own a copy, which I think was a gift from rocket_jockey back during the rocket company days.