SEE: animals, fear of
creepy crawlies, fear of
SEE: animals, fear of
cross
SEE: anger • moodiness • tantrums
cyber-bullying
SEE: bullied, being
1 And yes, you get your halo.
2 ‘A-penis’.
3 If it didn’t occur to you till now that there was a reason you were given Mr Slow, we apologise for breaking it to you so abruptly.
4 Yes, you read that right a second time. If you don’t know what we’re talking about – or if a child in the vicinity really has taken the legs off a centipede, either by talking too much or some other way – see: animals, being unkind to.
5 If you really want to know, he brings home all the cats and they eat each other up – leaving just one homely, frightened and presumably very full kitten.
6 Let it also be a tip-off for kids not wanting to fall into the grown-ups’ trap.
7 Yes, grown-up, that’s your standard.
8 We particularly love Tintin in Tibet, Prisoners of the Sun and Red Rackham’s Treasure.
9 The other titles in the series are One Was Johnny, Alligators All Around and Chicken Soup with Rice. All are great.
10 For those who are concerned by this: although this is a cautionary tale in the tradition of Heinrich Hoffmann’s Struwwelpeter and Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales, the story doesn’t end at the point where the lion eats Pierre. There’s another bit after that. Sendak has updated the form for fragile, contemporary nerves. Psychiatrists can focus on those suffering from the after-effects of Struwwelpeter instead.
11 In fact – ahem – this book might introduce the phrase into their vocabulary. Sorry about that.
12 Foodies will no doubt want to know the menu, so here it is: cream of watercress soup, snails in garlic butter, roast trout with capers, and a whole suckling pig.
D IS FOR . . .
dark, scared of the
Most children are scared of the dark at some point – although because it’s not so much the darkness itself that is feared as the horrible things that might be lurking within it, it’s often not until the imagination is fully fired up that the fear kicks in. The minute it does, bring out the irresistible Sleep Tight, Little Bear. When Little Bear says he can’t sleep, Big Bear has to put down his book just as he’s getting to the good bit1 and go and see what’s wrong. Lying on his back and holding onto both his feet in the way that children do when they’re a bit embarrassed to admit to something, Little Bear says that he doesn’t like the dark. ‘What dark?’ says Big Bear. ‘The dark all around us,’ says Little Bear, and you can practically see him rocking back and forth on the page. Big Bear goes off to find a lantern and its glow banishes the darkness a little; but there’s still darkness in the corners of the cave. And as Big Bear comes back with bigger and bigger lanterns, we feel his mounting tiredness. Meanwhile we watch Little Bear go through all the stages of restlessness and overtiredness (see: over-tired, being), captured with marvellous accuracy by Barbara Firth. Deeply comforting, this charming and ultimately soporific book will soothe both grown-up and child during these extended bedtimes and last just long enough that the little bear in your charge may also fall asleep before the end.
‘The dark lived in the same house as Laszlo . . .’ is the beguiling start to The Dark, a picture book by Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler, best known for his chapter book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events2). By introducing the dark as a something, Snicket separates it from those things it might be concealing, showing us that in and of itself darkness is not a threat. Laszlo, the little boy in this book, gets to know the dark. It has its own favourite places to hang out: behind the shower curtain, in the closet and in the basement. And when he actually engages with the dark, Laszlo finds it to be a surprisingly understanding and helpful thing. In amongst the muted beiges and pale blues of Jon Klassen’s lovely gouache illustrations, the dark makes its presence felt in a solid matt black. By the end, we’re seeing the dark as a something too, but, from now on, a friendly something.
For children on the verge of reading, or now reading themselves, introduce Jill Tomlinson’s charming Plop, the baby barn owl with ‘knackety’ knees in The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. Plop has decided that he’s too afraid of the dark to be nocturnal. ‘You can’t be afraid of the dark,’ says his mummy. ‘Owls are never afraid of the dark.’ ‘This one is,’ points out Plop. His mother decides to send Plop out each day with the special mission of finding something out about the dark. Only then should he make up his mind, she says. So Plop tumbles out of the nest each day and meets a succession of people and animals who each tell him something about darkness from their point of view. From the little boy who’s looking forward to fireworks, he learns that the dark is ‘exciting’. From the old lady who wants to forget her wrinkles, the dark is ‘kind’. From the girl anticipating a visit from Father Christmas, the dark is ‘necessary’. One by one, the arguments add up to a compelling case. We defy any child not to see darkness in a positive light, so to speak, by the end.
SEE ALSO: anxiety • bed, fear of what’s under the • nightmares • worrying
dating
For wisdom on how to look after yourself in the dating game, give teens the fourth novel in Madeleine l’Engle’s series about the Austin family.3 Vicky is nearly sixteen when, over the course of a summer at her grandparents’ New England holiday home, she dates three very different boys. There’s Leo, the boy next door, who is vulnerable, caring and puppyish. Then there’s the splashy, reckless Zachary, who gives her a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach – but drives too fast and takes her up in a plane without a licence. Lastly there’s Adam, who works with dolphins. Vicky handles her dates with impressive delicacy, experiencing exhilaration with Zachary, intellectual and spiritual understanding with Adam, and emotional intimacy with Leo when he tragically loses his father. Teenagers date differently now to when this story is set, but the need to test out different sorts of partners – without causing offence – remains the same. Young readers
