It's been awhile, but I had a letter asking for advice this week, so welcome back to Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Romance Novels. It's not a book – that'd be EIKAL, which is a book – but it is advice and suggestions for romance readers who write in with problems that are sometimes befuddling. This week's letter comes from BSB, who writes:
Dear Sarah:
I have a very curious first grader who has taken to reading like a fish to
water. I used to be able to read my romance books in plain sight without her
understanding or caring about what I was reading. Now, if I pull out a book
to read while she's watching television, I suddenly have a 48 pound backseat
reader over my left shoulder asking what certain words mean. She's intrigued
by all the books I have which features headless men and generous man titty.
(She also thinks all the books about the same man because of the similar
cover shots.)
And, the other night she asked me if the latest book I was
reading contained sex. Because I cannot tell a lie, I told her yes. Now, I
have the overwhelming desire to hide all my novels like I'm trying to hide
evidence to a murder. On the one hand, I don't want to appear to be ashamed
of my reading material. On the other hand, I don't want her to pick up one
of my books and read something she doesn't quite have a full grip on. Any
advice?
Dear BSB:
I first read this email and thought it said, “I am a very curious first grader” and probably had much the same reaction as when you realized your first grader was reading over your shoulder. Oh, dear!
I feel your pain because I have a first grader, and he is a very precocious reader. And when there's man titty all over the house, it sends a very strange message to someone who is old enough to interpret sexuality in rudimentary fashion, but not old enough to understand what it all means.
If I can give a suggestion, my advice is to tell her in no uncertain terms that reading over someone's shoulder is uncool and not polite in the least. I also think it is ok for you to have things that are Just For You, and not for her. I don't think you need to hide the existence of sex from her, and I don't think it does either of you any good to feel embarrassed or ashamed about sexuality or the portrayals thereof in your books.
Bookcovers are your friend, in this case. If you're reading paperbacks, there are plenty of book covers that fit mass market and trade size, and allow you to read without the prying and curious eyes that can't help but look at all the glorious expanse of man titty. And that's not a slight to your daughter- we are all naturally drawn to looking at other people, particularly skin. I think that's part of why all that man flesh is on the covers.
For that reason I have a bit of a frustrated love/hate for romance covers, because while some of them are elegant and beautifully done, those that feature man chests and O-Face clinches still advertise very loudly that THIS IS A ROMANCE AND THERE BE SEXYTIMES IN IT. That's a great message for grabbing the buyer who is looking for a romance to read, but it's not necessarily a great message for you to transmit when you're holding the book on a park bench, on the bus, or in your own living room. It invites comments, from passersby and folks living in your house with you – from the condescending to the merely curious.
Overall, I think the best strategy is to show none of the shame or embarrassment you might feel, if possible, because that will likely make her (a) more curious and (b) confused as to why you're reading something you seem unhappy or reluctant to talk about. Your decisions about how to discuss sexuality with your daughter are totally your business, and I don't mean to advise you in that direction at all. Many a romance reader I know was introduced to the genre by their mother, aunt, or older sister – and someday you'll likely share your love of the genre with her. I hope so – it would make for outstanding Thanksgiving dinner conversations. It seems she might be a romance reader in the making – just not quite yet!
Happy reading – in peace!
Sarah
I also asked Tori, better known as Smexy's Sidekick for her advice – figuring she would also have words of wisdom. Boy howdy, did she ever.
Dear BSB:
Well first off, congrats on raising such a well adjusted, curious child. Second, I've always said it goes down hill once we teach them to speak. *laughter* As a mother and a reviewer, I have many books I do not want my child reading. A majority of them stay on an e reader that she knows contains books that are not appropriate for her. Of course, my child is 11 so it is easier for her to understand that then for your 6 year old. There is no shame in reading romance and no shame in reading things not appropriate for your little one.
Not lying to her is good though. Simply tell her that you are reading adult books (mommy books) and they are not for little girls to read. If she asks why, tell her that there are stories in there that are not for her age to read. That she has books just for her and direct her to go pick out one of her books to sit down and read with you. That worked with mine when she was that age. I just had to keep telling her that these were mommy's books and not for her and then redirect her to her bookshelf. Of course, I had to stop reading my book and read with her but that was fine.
As for leaving them lying around, you can either leave them where you normally do and keep reiterating that these are not for her or place them somewhere she cannot reach. She's always going to ask and be curious. Keeping it not a big deal will let her know it's not a big deal and make it less tempting.
– Tori from Smexybooks.com
Do you have advice for BSB? Have you been in this situation?
I handle the book issue the same way I handle the movie, tv show, bed time, beverage (etc,etc) issue: if I think my children (girl 11 and boy 14) aren’t ready for it, I tell them so and a brief reason why, and an alternative. My daughter is a very sensitive child, so I read the Hunger Games out loud to her and we discussed parts that bothered her. My son read them on his own around ten or eleven, but he is very analytical and had a completely different take on them. Given their personalities and the topic of sex, my son tends to look at things matter-of-factly, my daughter always brings emotion into it (she loves stories with romantic elements, but can’t handle anything where character’s feelings are hurt).
However you parent, do consider the child, and be flexible. It really is ok to say ‘no, not today but maybe tomorrow (or next week or year)’.
Everyone had such great advice! I don’t have much to add, other than reassurance…..I was a very curious six year old and went through books like tissues at that age and was no worse for it. I didn’t work my way to the adult books until I was probably 8 or 9…..some of it went over my head, some of it I understood. I think it’d be a great idea to get her out of the habit of reading over people’s shoulders (it drives me mad, personally) and perhaps just redirect her to something more grown up, but not too grown up for your liking. BTW congrats on raising a reader! I am hoping to cultivate one of my own here as well…..
I have a kindle with password, but I also have paperbacks. I don’t hide them, and really, my 15-old daughter does not want to read what I read. She pretty much makes fun of the covers and finds them entertaining. She is not a big reader, much to my dismay, although I have encouraged her where I can. She gobbles up what she loves though – The Twilight Series, Pretty Little Liars, and the Hunger Games were books she loved and read non-stop. If she is into a series, I do make sure I buy them for her. Otherwise she does read her magazines. I don’t want her to read my books, I don’t really feel comfortable reading them, but I know better than to forbid her.
I don’t have kids, but I remember what its like growing up. My mom didn’t have romance novels and she never censored my reading material probably since we didn’t have any material. My mother did censor television and movies to a level unmatched by any of my friends’ parents.
I think other people have good ideas about what to do. I do think that if your daughter is reading over your shoulder; it’s not just about the books. I think she’s possibly bored and/or craving attention, which I think is normal at that age. I think doing anything that would be bonding and together time would be good, from playing board games to hiking to cooking to listening or playing music, etc. I think she craves time with you which is something to take adavantage of before she becomes a teenager and wants nothing to do with you.
Out of the activities you could do with her, I can recommend highly enough reading together. My mother read to me until I was 12 and yes I could read. Reading together are some of my favorite childhood memories and the stories we read became inside jokes we still tell and share. I was with my mother when there is black out recently and we read Sherlock Holmes stories out loud. It was still fun.
I recommend books by favorite childhood authors Roald Dahl, Laura Ingalls Wilder, A. A. Milne, Beverly Cleary, and Maud Hart Lovelace. also series like Nancy Drew and the Babysitter’s Club.
Good Luck! She’ll grow up sooner than you think.
I always love to hear about kids who love to read. When I first learned to read, I used to hide under a bed with a flashlight so my mom wouldn’t catch me reading ahead in my schoolbooks. Yeah, I was a little confused. I guess I thought, “Anything that is that fun must be bad,” so I hid my addiction from her.
My parents never censored what I read. When I was about the age your daughter is now, I read a Piers Anthony book and loved it for all the wordplays and fantastical elements. When I was twelve, I went to the library and wanted to read it again. The librarian asked me if I wasn’t a little young for it, to which I indignantly responded, “I read it six years ago!”
So I checked out the book and reread it. Boy howdy! Even at the tender age of twelve, I picked up on all the weird sexual fetishes and other not-age-appropriate stuff that had totally escaped me when I was six. I couldn’t believe my parents had let me read it.
The thing is, years later, I’m not emotionally or psychologically scarred from it. I still love to read, but I don’t read Anthony any more. Some people might think that my parents were irresponsible for not shielding me from graphic content in my books, but I’m just thankful that they encouraged me to love reading.
So yeah. Not having children, this is the best observation I can make.
🙂
The dishwasher does tend to be a major issue. My parents are still married, but my mother used to come home and be furious because my father loaded the dishes the wrong way.
As for the over censorship, I think the problem is that parents that censor tend to start censoring at young age and never stop. My mother started letting up when I was in high school and officially stop censoring me when I went to college’ on the belief: if you live far away in a dorm how can I stop you from doing anything you feel like?
My aunt on the other hand still feels she can censor any of her children especially the unmarried ones four of whom are in the twenties and thirties.
Can’t add anything to the advise that hasn’t already been offered. Just wanted to say that KKW’s dad is the definition of awesome.
Advice! It’s advice! And I’m thoroughly caffinated so no excuse.
I like the idea of reading her a bit she will find boring.
There were lots of books in the house when I was growing up that I did not read, because they were about Social Work and so forth. I also thought my dad’s Manly Adventure books looked icky. The one book that I was *forbidden* to read was Lady Chatterley’s Lover (I actually don’t know why my parents had it to begin with, since neither of them were Laurence sorts of readers in general), so of course I did, on the sly, and found it UNUTTERABLY DULL (though I was too stubborn to give up and read each of the pages) and never actually realized when I was reading about sex. I’m sure if I had just run across it and paged around, I would never have even tried to read it until teenagerhood, at least.
Kids spend their lives surrounded by adult things going on that they often don’t understand in the least. My first chapter book was Alice in Wonderland, and I had no idea what a hare or a hatter or treacle or a dormouse was. Shortly afterward I read Jane Eyre and Down with Skool, and I didn’t know what consumption or charity schools or pinafores or Molesworth Minor or caning or poof meant.
If there’s another way to learn what the world is about than not knowing and half-figuring-out and half-asking, I do not know it.
I had a similar experience when I was 14 and I borrowed the novelization of the Mickey Rourke movie 9 1/2 weeks from the library. My grandmother was horrified and accused me of using it to get tips. She forbade me to read it any further.
(I’m the artist also known as BSB.)
My tween girls are totally uninterested in my books. Oh, they read, and read, and read, but they want no part of that romantic stuff with kissing and all. Thankfully, it is a great time to be a middle zone and YA reader as there is such a variety being published. I don’t think such was the case when I was their age, and maybe that’s why I jumped into the adult romances at a young age.
Hello, BSB here with the curious kid. Thanks for all the advice. I didn’t think this was going to be such a heated (in depth, controversial?) conversation. Because I am a parent, I do feel the urge to defend my parenting. (Are we not always made to feel to guilty even when we’ve nothing wrong, nowadays? lol.)
My daughters (5 and 7) both know about sex and where babies come from. My 7-year-old (the first grader) asked about sex last year because it was an answer on The Family Feud. (Those questions got to risque so I stopped letting her watch it.) My 5-year-old recently where puppies (and human babies) come from because her baby sitter’s dog had puppies. I gave the most rudimentary explanation including that sex was something that only happened between to consenting adults in love with each other who were married. Nothing too graphic. Frankly, I’m not even sure how my daughter came to ask the question about sex being in the book aside from the fact that I said “please don’t read over my shoulder this is a Mommy book.”
I am glad that my daughters, right now, still respect the “this is not for you” rule.
Now, my daughters have a book collection to envy that of their mom and dad, and we read together often. I did end up “hiding” the books in a drawer in my bedroom. I will invest in those special covers because I also borrow a lot of books from the library. Finally, I try not to read on my iPad because pulling out the iPad is more of siren call than a book that Mommy says “is not for you.”
I’m with those who say let her read what she wants. In all probability, at that age, she won’t want to read a novel and if she does get to a sex scene, she really won’t want to read that. Or she’ll think it’s icky. Which is fine for a six year old. When she’s a bit older, if you make them a forbidden thing, you’ll make them seem more exotic and interesting. If she has free access, she’ll decide for herself when and if she wants to read them, and that’ll be fine too. I read some things that I’m shocked by now when I was pretty young, but I was really too young to understand the implications of what I was reading, so they didn’t bother me.
She just started reading Judy Moody and the Rainbow Fairies books, and loves them as well as Archie comic books.
No censorship for me growing up. I actually skip most sex scenes nowadays it’s gotten so repititious and boring. It usually seems to only be there because it has to be not because it fits the story. I had to giggle at someone mentioning that romance nowadays is so much more graphic. I think it’s a matter of quantity not quality. if you ever read rosemary Rogers, Beatrice Small or Susan Johnson (just to hit the 70s, 80s & 90s) you’d see sex hasn’t changed in the last 2 thousand years or so.
BSB, I have some book covers you might like 🙂
http://www.hideabook.etsy.com
I also had a daughter who was reading Little Golden Books silently to herself when she was 3. I never hid my books from her and never forbade her to read them. I think if you forbid a child to read something, it just encourages sneaking, then hiding it, then lying about it. I agree that it is best to say that these books are for adults and she can enjoy them when she is older.
@Emily: Seriously. And there’s some grounds for it, I guess, in that if you do it really wrong the dishes don’t get done, but at the same time…damn.
@Jane: Ha! Yeah, I heard that The Scarlet Letter was about ZOMGSEX, when I was ten or so, and picked up a copy thinking I was getting away with stuff. Mom somehow refrained from snickering aloud.
Dad’s adolescent-psych books, on the other hand, were kind of a problem. To wit: reading about Oedipus/Electra complexes made twelve-year-old me severely twitchy. (“But I *don’t* want to sleep with my dad! Ewwwww!” and then putting several feet of distance between us at all times. Damn you, Sigmund!)
Actually, I’d recommend thrusting Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Supermysteries at her. There is a bit of romance with the Nancy/Ned, yes. But there is also some minor sexual tension between Nancy and Frank Hardy. I think these were my intro to romance. The love triangle (gotta have it in YA, right?) kept me titillated enough, for long enough to reach the age my mom thought was acceptable to just dive into whatever. Which, if I remember correctly,was a Silhouette Desire from the early 90s, Fortune’s Cookie. I have no clue who wrote it. I do remember the heroines name was Lorna (hence, Cookie), and the hero was a journalist trying to write a story about a rapist or something. God, do I want to read that again.
I was reading at an adult level at age 10. I read everything in our house – magazines (both “womens” and short stories like Analog or Ellery Queen), my mom’s books (she’s the one who gave me Clan of the Cave Bear when I was sick) and books from my brother’s friend’s collection (sci-fi and fantasy). I was reading Encyclopedia Brown and the Dune series at the same time. I may not have understood all that I read in some of the adult books, but I knew what I liked.
My parents were big on self-editing and taking responsibility for my own choices. If I read something I didn’t understand, sexy-wise, or that I found personally uncomfortable, it initiated a discussion session with my Mom and a suggestion that maybe I should wait until a later time to try reading that particular book or author. Or, I just skipped over that particular part – the sexy stuff usually bored the snot out of me.
So, maybe take your cues from the type of person your child is – know them and what they can or can’t handle. Also, encourage them to discuss the ideas books generate – you’ll never know where it will lead.
I’ve gotten very good at quickly scanning what’s on the screen of my ereader whenever it’s in my son’s line of sight. I actually like the fact that he’ll read whenever he sees text. He’s never interested for very long, so it hasn’t been a problem so far.
I haven’t read the awesome looking comments yet, but it’s hysterical, because I JUST OPENED MY COMPUTER TO EMAIL YOU THIS VERY QUESTION.
DANG you’re good…. 😉
Just spotted this thread, thanks to Sarah Frantz on Twitter. (Which means you may get a lot more comments soon!) As a romance-reading father, here’s how I handled the situation when my 8 1/2 year old daughter started to take an interest.
I divvied up my romance novels into three categories. Some I put on a high shelf out of sight—mostly Old School ones with sexual violence, and ones with a lot of kink—for her to read when she could reach them, if she wanted. Some I actively suggested she might like, once she started pulling things at random from the shelves, and most of these had particularly feminist heroines or really good guys as heroes. The rest were books that I wouldn’t recommend, but I wasn’t worried would particularly haunt or trouble or upset her: they were just more explicit than her mother would approve.
She started with Beverly Jenkins’s “Something Like Love,” glommed Jenkins, then moved on to Julia Quinn and Eloisa James and Jennifer Crusie. When she hit Crusie, some of the novels (like “Welcome to Temptation”) were in category 3—Mom might not approve—and if she asked me about them, I told her exactly that: it’s fine with me, but Mom might not approve. She generally put them back and read something else, at least in public; what she read in private is her business!
She’s now 13. A couple of weeks ago, after a long funny talk at dinner about “50 Shades of Grey,” I found an unexpected purchase email from Amazon. It wasn’t for that. It was for another book she’d decided to read, because she’d gotten so obsessed with angels and demons and good and evil and Satan, from watching episodes of “Supernatural.” Yes, my good girl daughter had secretly logged on to buy a copy of…“Paradise Lost.” Which she’s now reading aloud to herself, bit by bit, every night. Satan may be the original Bad Boy hero, but he’ll never compete with Jenkins’ Neil July.
My daughter loves the phrase “not appropriate.” She uses it a lot: “That outfit is not appropriate!” It has lots of power in my house so if something is “not appropriate” then she knows she’s just not old enough yet.
My Mom was a member of the HQ book of the month club. Do they still have that? She was always reading books with covers of poofy dresses and cleavage. I always saw her reading them but didn’t have any interest until I was a teen. I had my own books. I don’t really know why I suddenly started reading her books and I don’t think she said anything about it.
I think Sarah’s advice about reading over people’s shoulders is good too. I hate that actually and put it right up there with standing outside the bathroom door yelling, “Mooooooommmmm!”
Yeah, he’s alright. I think I’ll keep him.
Thanks, Bnsbrose – now I have something nice to tell him for father’s day.
Dad’s adolescent-psych books, on the other hand, were kind of a problem. To wit: reading about Oedipus/Electra complexes made twelve-year-old me severely twitchy. (“But I *don’t* want to sleep with my dad! Ewwwww!” and then putting several feet of distance between us at all times. Damn you, Sigmund!)
@Isabel C. lmao. My grandmom was an education major and around 11 or 12 years old, I tried to read some of her adolescent psych books. Man, my mind was blown because I didn’t know what they were talking about except that it was sexual. Then, I found my grandmother’s copy of the Oedipus play and tried to read it for clarity. Joke is still on me. lol.
Do you think you could give me a list of some of the titles you felt appropriate for when your daughter was 8-1/2? I wouldn’t go out and buy them for my daughter, but it would be a good list for me to have when I’m shopping for or borrowing books.
I have always been an avid reader and read “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” at age 7 and don’t remember my mom, whose book it was, being upset at all. I did notice some “sexy” stuff (I still remember the aunt, or some woman, brought the alcoholic father a bottle of booze by concealing it in her cleavage and I believe there was a flasher on the staircase) but kept going. I also read “Mara, Daughter of the Nile” as a child and loved it, so that when a copy showed up in our Friends of the Library room, I had to have it. I haven’t re-read it yet but I plan to someday. I did not actually start reading romance novels until my 40s and was both an English major and a reader of literary fiction before I switched to HEA books, so I’d have to say reading what some consider inappropriate content at a very young age did not harm me at all. I really think it’s the parents’ attitudes that are more important than the actual reading material.
As someone who has just this year turned 18 and still has vivid memories of being as young as 15 I’d have to disagree with you there.
When I hit my mid 15s I swore off reading the vast majority of ‘young adult/teen’ novels aimed at girls because I found and still find them incredibly tedious and repitive and branched out to a much wider spectrum of books that I felt challenged and gripped me far more a smallish portion of them were romance novels.
I’ve never considered those sort of books to be inappropriate for any 15/16 year old. Considering they’re in the height of puberty with curiousities about sex and love and the like I think it’s a much better idea to let them loose with some vanilla romance novels than tell them no it’s “adult” and let them seek out their own answers. Not to mentions kids at that age have a profound dislike of anyone telling them they can’t do something because they’re not old enough. My mam tried that with me about a romance novel and I swapped a book into the cover of it and read it anyway, it was super boring so I didn’t even bother finishing however I atempted to read it all the same. Hell most of the kids I was friends with at that age were out doing the real thing while I was at home reading so I’d say give them the novels!
And a small last thing, The Hunger Games was an incredibly poorly written, grammatically flawed, poorly characterised, derivitive piece of literature that in no way deserves its fame. As most of the best seller list I suppose. However it did have decent plotting and world building but it doesn’t make up for its flaws, yes I have, regrettably, read it. If I were you I’d encorage your children to mine from better ‘wonderful’ literature than that. All my opinion however, but it’s my belief that these books are another product of the Twilight generation of readers kids need to be a little more pushed with the intelectual basis of the novels they read I remember stumbling on an old pile of Christopher Pike books in my old school library and as far as young adult books go, his are the best I’ve ever read, maybe you’re familliar since you’re a lot older than me but he’s nearly completely disapeared from shevles in recent years, a shame.
Sorry for talking/typing your ears off/eyes out. Once I get going I find it difficult to shut up >_<
Coincidentally, I was just talking to a co-worker today about reading adult books at a young age. A lot of the stuff that parents worry about exposing their children to went RIGHT over our heads when we were young. When we read the books again as adults, we went, “Oh, THAT’s what was going on.”
In short, I wouldn’t worry about it. Be honest. Tell her it’s something that only makes sense to grown ups, but don’t turn it into forbidden fruit. She most likely won’t understand whatever she’s reading anyway.
No advice, but I loved this:
“(She also thinks all the books about the same man because of the similar
cover shots.)”
Brilliant. The mind of a six year old.
I don’t have children (and am not planning to), but I do remember as a child seeing my mother read romance books. I’ve always been a precocious reader and remember reading old Zebra (hologram on the cover!) books and Harlequins and some Old Skool romance books because my mother read them. I don’t recall exactly, but I’m sure I started to read romance books when I was around 12 or so. I don’t recall my mother ever censoring my books – I’ll have to ask, now that I thought of it. Although these are all anecdotal stories, I can say I grew up just fine with no scarring 🙂 I do remember my mother being concerned that I would think that all romances and relationships were like the ones in the books and she did talk to me about it. I suspect you will do the best thing for your daughter, whatever that might be.
Loved your reply!! I am a YA librarian, and let me say that Christopher Pike is still on our shelves being checked out although I think the books are reprints not new titles.
I remember finding an old paperback copy of The Graduate at age 12 that I read. Mom looked at me and said she was not going to tell me not to read it. Then she went on to say that I wouldn’t understand it. She was right for the most part.
Some authors I liked at that age: Beverly Cleary, Louis Sachar (the Wayside School books especially), Roald Dahl, Scott O’Dell, Gail Carson Levine, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Shel Silverstein, Louisa May Alcott, the Redwall books by Brian Jacques, the Narnia books by CS Lewis, and the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books by Betty MacDonald. Or, for some slightly more mature but still age-appropriate reading material, try the Lord of the Rings, A Wrinkle in Time, Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, the Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Pratchett, anything by Lois Lowry or Jane Yolen.
Also, in a few years when she’s 12 or so, I’d recommend finding a young-adult book that does have some romantic and vaguely described but not explicitly detailed sex in it, and offering it to her as you would any other book, without mentioning that scene. We all had That One Book that we came across, found an actual sex scene in, and read over and over in guilty fascination and curiosity. So put one in her path that’s actually a good book with characters in a healthy relationship, that has some tasteful sensuality but nothing twisted or immoral. If she’s read something like that, she won’t be drawn as much to less age-appropriate stuff just because there’s sex in it.
Yes, get this girl more book-crack that she’ll like, and she’ll probably leave mommy’s books along. Till she’s 11 or so, and that’s when she’ll start sneak-reading your anyway (with any luck she’ll be intelligent enough to leave your book mark where you left, and not leave any chocolate bar smudges). By 11 I was sneak-reading YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and other James Bond (like I was going to tell my sixth grade teacher _that_ when she wanted me to explain why I knew where Vladisvostok was in geography class), and FOREVER AMBER (the only thing I remember from that book was that the heroine was Too Stupid To Live). Besides, I was also inhaling Asimov’s Foundation books and the Skylark series by E.E. “Doc” Smith (Dad was an SF collector). All part of a balanced diet, I say.
So if your girl has plenty of good stuff at her age level (oh, Lord, how I remember Dick and Jane), she’s more likely to leave your stuff alone.
Till she’s 11. By that time she’ll probably be able to hack your password anyway, just make sure to keep the Visa locked up. <g> Besides, she’ll be ready to Harry Potter then, and will be explaining to you how sexist it is that Hermione isn’t the hero. </g>
I just wanted to post a wee follow up. My 7-year-old has appeared to have forgotten all about Mommy’s books, and has delved deep into three different chapter book series—Rainbow Fairies; Judy Moody; and Dan Gutman’s Wacky School Series. Bless her heart, she reads them while sitting on the toilet with such a serious face. I have hidden my books and I read only the books with the “bland” covers on the couch like the Harlequin American Romance titles.