What do kids want...? Monsters!

What do kids want? Monsters!

One theme that comes up again and again when I’m chatting to kids while helping at the local library is… Monsters! They can’t seem to get enough of them. Funny ones, scary ones, friendly ones… If I ask children which are the favourite of the books they’ve been reading, time and again the books with monsters are the winners.

Don’t be silly Sarah, didn’t you know? There’s no such thing as a Gruffalo! Hah, well that’s what the grownups might say. But every child knows that monsters really do exist and they're lurking under the bed and behind the wardrobe, just waiting for the right opportunity to jump out and pounce.
My own childhood monsters didn’t just hide under the bed. They actually crept inside... or they would have done so if I hadn’t had a night time routine of pulling the bed sheets back to check before I went to sleep each night. I fooled them, see?

So given the actual existence of monsters, what better place to encounter them and learn how to fight them than in books? If anyone can recommend a literary monster or two, please send them my way.

Well, perhaps don’t actually send them my way. Not the scary ones anyway. It’s hard enough getting to sleep during the hot summer nights without having to worry about what might be about to chew off a toe or two…

Horrid Henry's Nightmare

The front cover glows in the dark!

Well it grabbed my attention anyway. I had to cup my hands around my eyes to check. And glow it did. Having pressed my face so close to the copy on the shelf, it seemed a bit rude not to take it to the check-out...

Not that I needed much encouragement. I’d heard good things about horrid Henry from some of the kids at the library where I’m doing voluntary work. The only complaints were about the distinct lack of Henry on the library shelves, the early kids having stripped them bare.

This latest offering from Francesca Simon has the usual collection of short stories. My favourite is the one where Henry and his pal, Rude Ralph, try to freak each other out with scary stories. Here Henry shows a rare vulnerable side. It turns out that he isn’t quite as tough as he likes to make out. That makes him easy to identify with, and we can all think of someone a little (or a lot) like him. He has a certain charm so that, despite his horridness, we can’t help loving him.

Is Henry a good role model? One mum at the library said that she didn’t like her daughter reading the books because she copied the bad behaviour. But the thing with Henry is that he doesn’t always get away with misbehaving, there are often consequences. So perhaps the books are a good way to chat to would-be Henry’s and Henrietta’s about how being horrid can go horribly wrong.

Funny, loveable and glows in the dark. What more could a kid (however grown-up) want?

Rummaging in the wardrobe

My favourite book when I was growing up was “The lion the witch and the wardrobe” by C. S. Lewis. I loved it so much that I read it over and over again throughout my childhood. I was enchanted by the idea of stepping into a magical world full of dwarfs, fawns and talking animals. I loved the idea of being on the side of good, fighting against evil. And the possibility that an ordinary child could be crowned king or queen of a magical land.
 
I admit to checking the back of every wardrobe I came across, just in case a gateway to a magical world had appeared. Even now I can’t see an old wooden wardrobe without wondering...
 

That’s one of the beauties of books: they take you into another world where you meet new characters and you can feel you are right there, fighting alongside the good guys and sharing in their troubles and their triumphs. When ordinary life seems a bit... well... ordinary, books can give you a sense of excitement and adventure. And those adventures alongside the hero or heroine can inspire you with new ideas and inspirations to use back in your real life.

Now I should really go and do something boring like tidy my bedroom. But before I start I think I’ll have a quick rummage in my wardrobe, you just never know...