Book Rapport

I was racking my brains, searching the archives, trying to figure out if there is anything that families with children can do together that does not involve technology. Clearly sending a text from the kitchen to the children in their upstairs bedrooms reminding them that it’s time for dinner requires smartphones. Obviously, screens are required to play Shoot Shoot Shoot Blood Blood Blood Kill Kill Kill. And it would be absurd to suggest that any creative endeavor could be accomplished with more facility or enjoyment with pencil and paper rather than computer assisted design.

Just as I was giving up on a recommendation, acknowledging that technology has unequivocally triumphed over analog, I walked into my living room and a bunch of books fell on my head. (I have only my shelf to blame.)

Dad jokes notwithstanding, I am going to be the proverbial voice in the wilderness, suggesting that reading to and with your children across ages and stages, remains the way to stay connected with said kids, to ensure that they are not accessing yuk.com online, and that you have some control of the content of their developing consciousness.

To be fair, your kids might be reading books online. They might be learning, exploring, focusing while ensconced in their glowing rectangles, reading Tom Sawyer rather than killing virtual zombies. In the sense that I might be visiting an opium den to study architecture or frequenting a whore house to learn about fashion. Rather than participating in the traditional undertakings prevalent in those localities.

In all seriousness, I gave some thought to what Books might be in the best interest of your kids but quickly lost interest and decided to write instead about the Books that I enjoyed with my kids. I am eager for your additions, edits, and suggestions. Hence the comment box at the end of this essay.

First and foremost. Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh is the quintessential children’s book, arguably the best volume ever penned for any age. To be fair, my dad read me Winnie the Pooh when I was a kid and I read Winnie the Pooh to my kids when they were little and, as much as I would like the Dolphins to win the Super Bowl in my lifetime and as much as I am in favor of World Peace, I am more excited about the possibility of reading Winnie the Pooh to my grandchildren. Winnie the Pooh, Piglet and Christopher Robin play “Pooh Sticks,” in which they drop small branches off a bridge on one side of a stream and are interested to see which twigs will come out first on the other side. Oh, glorious summer days with nothing to do except explore the Hundred Acre Wood and look for Woozles.

And the exuberant Tigger, the disheartened Eeyore, the overbearing Kanga, the supercilious Rabbit, a cast of characters from whom our children can learn more about human nature than from a terabyte of AI.

It is said that neither Marie Curie, Abraham Lincoln, nor Albert Einstein spent much time on computers as children. I can neither confirm nor deny this assertion as Einstein died the year before I was born and Curie spent much of her life in Poland and France countries I do not frequent. Lincoln’s family had no money—even by the standards of the18th century Midwest. So when Abe would get up before chores to read—extra candles were a luxury—the family probably couldn’t afford the latest tech.

But why would my kids want to read with me rather than play on their devices? All their friends have smart phones, I don’t want my kids to be Luddites, they have to know how to use tech. My child moved two fingers on the back of a cereal box and was disappointed when the page didn’t expand.

All good points. Especially the one about how you don’t want your children breaking into factories in the 19th century and destroying the mechanical looms. To which I am going to gently push back by asking, did your seven-year-old child get the money to buy a smart phone by selling crypto or by saving money working in corporate America? What’s that? Your child has no money? You are the one who bought them the smart phone? Hmm. Or as a client said to me recently, “I just don’t understand why our 20-year-old daughter is in rehab for substance use disorder for the third time and has neurological possibly irreversible damage from chemical dependency on crystal meth; whenever we smoked pot with her in high school, we told her to only use marijuana occasionally like we do.”

Which is not to suggest the false dichotomy, “either read to your kids or take drugs with them.” Only that no one is forcing you to give your kids access to the ubiquitous stream of crap available online any more than anyone is holding a gun to your head telling you to share a quart of vodka with your adolescent child. Stated more succinctly: you wouldn’t take Ambien with your kids, why would you give them a smart phone without parental controls?

So stop reading my diatribe on your computer and go sit on the couch with your kid and read a chapter of the following recommendations arranged in haphazard order from those your two-year-old will love to volumes appropriate for middle schoolers.

• Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown. Brilliant illustrations! Spend time on each page looking at all the cool stuff!

• Pat the Bunny. A classic for a reason.

• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. In print since 1939.

• Aesop’s Fables. Two and a half millennia and going strong.

• Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book. (E is also for Ernie. Ernie is the genie who lives in the ceiling. Ernie loves eggs. Take a nice fresh egg and throw it as high as you can and yell “Catch, Ernie” “Catch the egg!” and Ernie will reach down and catch the egg.)

• The Mouse on the Motorcycle. My favorite Beverly Cleary, but Beezus and Ramona from 1955 is also awesome.

• Little House on the Prairie

• A Wrinkle in Time. There’s a Reason Madeline L’Engle’s classic has sold over ten million copies.

• Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

• Treasure Island, as exciting in 2026 as in 1883 when it was first published.

• The Call of the Wild. Ok, right. To be fair, as my older daughter sarcastically pointed out when I finished reading it out loud by a fire on a cold camping trip, “Great book, dad, everyone you care about dies.”

• Anything and everything by Judy Blume

• Sounder by William H. Armstrong. (The movie is also excellent.)

• Harry Potter. (Fair Warning: at the end of Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows, about 4100 pages over seven volumes, be prepared to hear, “Thanks, Dad. Can we start over with the Sorcerer’s Stone?”)

Extra Credit: Use the “Comments” Box below to share the favorite books that you and your kids love.