out which person, if any, you really like.
SEE ALSO: choice, spoilt for • dumped, being • first kiss • first love • virginity, loss of
daydreaming, being accused of
Once upon a time, dreamy types caught gazing out the window were rapped over the knuckles and written off as fantasists at best and woolgatherers at worst. Happily, psychologists now recognise daydreaming for the creative pursuit it is.
Life quickly becomes very challenging. When Clare is set homework in 1918, it’s Charlotte who has to hand it in the next day; and when Charlotte agrees to be Susannah’s best friend in 1963, she must find a way to update Clare. As the horrors of the First World War invade both their lives, the day-to-day stresses mount. Soon teachers and friends are complaining that Charlotte’s attention always seems to be elsewhere – and there’s only the reader to empathise. Full of the small details that children notice – such as Charlotte’s first, surprised sight of freckled legs on one of her roommates; or the tired ‘stretched’ feeling she gets in her eyes when she’s overwhelmed – this story will show the daydreamer in your midst that time staring into space is time well spent.4
| CURE FOR GROWN-UPS | Mr Daydream ROGER HARGREAVES |
If you’re unconvinced, read how Jack is whisked off by the cloud-shaped Mr Daydream during class and taken on a quick world tour. They go to Africa, Australia, the North Pole and the Wild West before Jack is snapped back to reality by the sound of the teacher calling his name. Who wouldn’t rather travel to those places than be in a classroom?
SEE ALSO: about, what’s it all? • adventure, needing an • bored, being • short attention span
deafness
In the early years, picture books with strong, bold illustrations, featuring characters with expressive faces – allowing kids to ‘see’ the story, if not hear it – are imperative. Once a child is reading themselves, they’ll need the company of others who know what it’s like to deal with prejudice, hearing aids and trying to lip-read the expressionless Mr Spock on TV.5
THE TEN BEST BOOKS FOR DEAF KIDS
SEE ALSO: different, feeling • friends, finding it hard to make • heard, not feeling • understood, not being
death, fear of
For some, it’s a gradual dawning. For others, the realisation that we’re all going to die one day comes in a sudden shock of understanding. Grown-ups often shy away from exploring the after-tremors. But the more you can keep a child company as they grapple with their questions – where do you go when you die? who will die first, them or you? is it possible to die before you’re old? – the better their chances of reconciling themselves to the inevitability of death, and living a life not overly shadowed by the fear of it.
A light touch is very welcome, of course, and for that look to Babette Cole, fearless doyenne of picture books that dare to go where others fear to tread.6 In Drop Dead, a brother and sister ask their grandparents why they’re such ‘bald old wrinklies’. Their good-humoured elders explain that they weren’t always like this and proceed to take their grandchildren on a whistle-stop tour of their lives – which, by anyone’s standards, have not been dull. Cole’s lively illustrations show the pair of them careering downhill in their runaway pram as babies, racing their motorbikes at sixteen, experimenting with cigarettes at eighteen, dancing on the rooftops at twenty-one, and leaping off the backs of horses as a stuntman and film star in their respective, glamorous careers (having both failed to get steady jobs as scientists). Old age has seen them start to shrink, forget things and wear false teeth – but they still have the occasional OAP adventure (parachuting with their Zimmer frames, for example). And even though they’ve dodged death many times in their lives, they will
