Books as Comfort Food

By Kathleen McCoy

My daughter lives in a blue nest surrounded by books. She has a favorite old blue upholstered rocker in the living room, with a giant bookshelf next to it. She curls up in this chair with an afghan over her (also blue), and is lost for hours.

It could be early Sunday morning, I'm just home from a walk/run/ski with exercise-ambitious friends, and she's there, curled up reading, waiting for breakfast.

Entire Saturdays can pass for her in that chair. The books are within easy reach, it's warm and cozy. The mere fact of this blue nest testifies that books are comfort food for her.

How this became a favorite place, and a favorite pastime, has roots in family behavior and interests.

A few recollections:

• Not to sound pedantic, but I believe there is no substitute for reading to your child. And guess what, it is FUN. When Maeve was about 7 or 8, we went through the Little House on the Prairie books, insatiably, and I enjoyed them more as an adult than I did as a child. But essentially, if anything is going to light the fire for words, good storytelling is it.
  
  Before they can read, a good story can capture them. I admit that turning the pages to Goodnight Moon, while heartwarming, is not as much fun as the chapter books we eventually got to, but it starts there and builds. There are some great books out there for kids (and the adults reading to them).
  
  
• Another memory: Finding Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream on tape, with a picture book attached. Same thing with Les Miserables. These classics, introduced early, hooked our daughter because she could read along and play the tape. Maybe it's a gimmick but, eventually, Peter was reading the real text to her, and since she knew the story already, she could follow along, and they could talk about the language and meaning together.
  
  
• Avoid the eat-your-peas approach to the classics. Anything shoved down your throat you will resist. Another way of looking at this is to let your child read virtually whatever she wants. Even Nancy Drew #67, or Babysitter Club # 104. The reading habit, the sustained focus, is worth it. And eventually, or along the way, other things -- Avi, Lois Lowry, Louis Sachar, creep in and get read too.
  
  
• We've often read in bed together, each with our own book. I guess it's another version of books as comfort food, living in a nest of books. It's virtually an every night thing, and certainly a weekend night thing. It's walking your talk, I guess. You can't preach books and watch TV.
  
  
• Plays, actors, drama, -- we go. Kids theater, and appropriate adult theater. It's exciting, it's happening right in front of you, and it's stories unfolding with characters.
  
  
• Mother/Daughter Book Club: Maeve and I are in one together. There are 7 sets of moms and daughters. We select books different ways. Sometimes the girls nominate books, and we all vote, getting down to the top 3 and usually selecting all of them. Or, sometimes we let the girl hosting select the book we will read and discuss at her home. The hosting girl runs a discussion of the book based on her reaction to it. There's usually a game (charades of scenes in the book, or a trivia quiz on book facts), often the girls vs. the moms.
  
  
• Almost forgot this one: We have a family tradition of hiking into the Resurrection Trail cabin called Caribou Creek. Seven miles in, sleep two nights, and seven miles out. There were many trips in which Maeve and I walked along the trail, side by side, and I read as we walked. She would literally follow me anywhere. This made what was a daunting, long hike for a young kid a very endurable experience. We made amazing time on the trail, lost in the book. The down side to this is carrying enough books in the backpack to cover a 2-night stay and 14-miles of trail.
  
  
• Write your own: Maeve has gone through periods of intense interest in fiction, and creating it herself. This has included self-illustrated picture books, a spiral notebook that went back and forth between her and a friend, in which each girl added a chapter before returning it. Then, when we bought a computer, at home, Maeve launched into another novel. No fancy storytelling software, just the blank screen, and the ability to store it and then recall it later. These are all works in progress, not sure if any ever reached the final chapter.

These are just a few of the family memories I can recall when I think about how reading has become a part of our family culture, and how we've sustained it. Or, more precisely, it sustains us.

  Excerpt From Maeve's Book