We are going to be away for a week after Christmas to a place where the children will have less access to their friends and the internet. It seems a perfect opportunity to entertain them instead with reading aloud. Can you recommend any books that might entertain an eight and a 10-year-old?
Hearing stories read aloud lives long in children's memories. Typically, the setting and the holiday mood of the family, perhaps away from home, is a part of that memory. Apart from the inherent pleasure that listening to a story brings, reading aloud has the additional advantage that you can give your children access to books that they might not think about reading on their own. When listening to a book rather than reading it children grasp meaning far more easily which means that they can understand both more complex language and a more sophisticated and multi-layered plot. Finding good books with those qualities could mean taking a step back into the classics, many of which unfold at a slower pace than most children today are willing to tolerate. Or, it could mean seizing the moment to introduce them to a contemporary author whose books they do not yet know.
The most reliably successful titles are those in which there is a strong sense of adventure to keep them hooked. If you are looking for a classic I'd go for Robert Louis Stephenson's Kidnapped or his better known Treasure Island with its iconic pirate Captain Long John Silver – both feature characters they are likely to encounter in all sorts of cultural forms later in life. Kidnapped is a much simpler story but it revolves around one of the most exciting and atmospheric pre-technology chases in literature. Because they are also full of adventure and action, I'd love to suggest either of Mark Twain's classic titles Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn with their vividly described adventures on the Mississippi river but, unless your reader is American, the struggle to replicate the accent can be a trial.
Modern classics that read aloud well include the recently republished The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt, a dramatic story set in the middle ages which is seeped in mythology and coated in chivalry. Or, as a way of filling in the increasingly large gaps left by the history curriculum schools must now follow, go for almost any title by either Leon Garfield or Rosemary Sutcliff. Try Garfield's novel Smith, the story of a boy living on the streets in 18th century London, or Sutcliff's Warrior Scarlet, which will take your listeners back to Britain's bronze age.
For more technology-minded listeners, Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines is a fast-paced steampunk adventure with the additional advantage of the being the first in a series of stories which your listeners can then enjoy on their own.
Whatever the adventure, all the best stories need a hero or heroine to take you on the journey. Philip Pullman's Northern Lights, the first title in his highly acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy, with its heady mixture of fantasy, adventure, history and ethics, will also introduce your readers to Lyra, a heroine to remember for always.
