When Your Kid Rejects Your Favorite Kids' Books Part 2

Last week I asked for your suggestions on what to

do when your children reject your favorite books.

Many thanks to D. Marcotte who sent in a good one -

letting your children select and read the abridged

versions of classic stories.

Here a few of my thoughts:

1) Give them time. 

Every day brings a flood of posts

about other people's second graders reading Harry

Potter or Lord of the Rings. And some kids w autism

may do that. But most kids with or without autism

will not. That is OKAY. If you introduce a favorite

that is soundly rejected, wait a year or two and try again.

2) Be sneaky. 

My father had beloved books that he would offer with

a kind of righteous urgency usually reserved for green

vegetables at dinner (he hated vegetables so he had a

lot of urgency to spare). This meant I avoided Kim and

King of the Khyber Rifles for months - but when he stopped

talking about them and just left them in my way, I read and

loved them. Don't make a speech about the book, just 

hand it over when they're in the back seat of the car

or looking bored.

3) Be direct.

Get it out and start reading it at bedtime. Put the

audio version on at home or on the road. If they

hate it, go back to number one.

4) Watch the video.

If you want to share the story, but the book presents

a barrier, there's probably a movie or tv version 

somewhere. Find it and share that way.

Now I know there are more and better suggestions

out there. Make them! Make them here!

(please). 

When Your Kid Rejects Your Favorite Kids' Books Part 1

If you're like me, you couldn't wait to open up 
Alice in Wonderland,  Wind in the Willows, 
and the other books you adored as a kid and share them with your child.
If you did, and you and your child joyously bonded as
you read, mazel tov. You can stop reading now.
That did not happen for me. While we started
happily enough with Boynton, there quickly came
a day when he rejected But Not the Hippopotamus,
and soon wouldn't let me read to him at all. 
We worked through it.
He enjoyed almost all of Dr. Seuss and Madeline,
though he started to prefer to read to himself.
Next came The Nursery Alice which I doggedly
read aloud, despite the calm apathy he radiated.
And that was about it. Subsequent attempts
with The Jungle Book and Just So Stories 
were unwelcome and I cut them short.
I started looking somewhat desperately
for what he would like, while he contentedly
read and reread Dr. Seuss.
(digression Your Favorite Seuss is in his
high school library-do other kids his age
still read Seuss?).
What to do?
I don't have a solution, just some thoughts. 
But this post is long enough.
Why don't you comment, email me
- autismreads@gmail.com- or post
on the autismreads facebook page.
And I'll be back next week with what
wisdom I can muster.

Most RecomMended 3

When my son was very small, I read him a Fisher-Price book from who knows where. A flimsy book with a 

flimsy colorful cover with pages stapled in, and

then falling out, and then taped in, again and again

and again, because even though he had the whole

book memorized he wanted to read it again. 

And again.

And again.

It is now more tape than book and I swear I will

throw it out after posting this. Really, I will.

He can't really need to read this again?

(sigh)

Perhaps he does. But I may throw it out anyway.*

We've been trying to make the teenage divide 

visible to him.

Anyway,

Little People Opposite Safari is filled with simple big pictures and simple rhymes.

“Let’s go on safari.

There’s nothing to lose.

Remember your camera,

And wear comfy shoes.”

The rhymes are logical, the little Fisher-Price people and animals

direct and engaging with the opposites bolded for quick emphasis:

“The monkeys climb up, the lions lie down,

They’re all smiles, except for one

rhino’s frown.” 

This flimsy paperback soon became more scotch tape than paper.

Oddly, I never sought out the others in the series, perhaps because

though it clearly satisfied a craving for my son, the merchandizing link

and the simplistic structure became a bit much for me after a while.

If you’ve a source for old paperbacks, the others in the series are:

Alphabet Farm

Number Circus

Color and Shape Shop
-Spectrum Mom
* I tried to recycle it, my husband fished it out and said "But I read this to him hundreds of times!" It's currently in his car.