Living books are not textbooks. They are actually quite the opposite. Living books are quality literature that can be either fiction or non fiction that is written by an author who expresses passion for a topic. The book draws you into the story, stirs up your imagination and causes you to care about the subjects that you are reading about. They also make you think. Living books are inspiring stories that help engage your children’s mind and, honestly, help to engage the minds of adults as well! Living books provide honorable characters that your children can look up to!
As much as we, parents, would like to think that we know a lot, there is so much we don’t know. So let’s allow our children to form relations with great minds of the past and present. The best way to get in touch with those great minds is by reading their thoughts. Look for worthy ideas in books.
Avoid books that present “little pills of knowledge mixed into weak diluent.” Twaddle talks down to the child and assumes she can’t understand more than tidbits of information. Look for books that you, the adult, will enjoy too.
Give the children the idea that knowledge is supremely attractive and that reading is delightful.
In other words, check both the content and the style in which it is presented. Look for books that will give your child a love for learning through books.
Here’s a list of some living books you could introduce to your kids, to the following add, biographies written for children, some of my special Nigerian authors :
Chukwuemeka Ike, whose book, ‘Sunset at dawn’, I let my daughter read to expose her to our history, the real one not the coated version for class use. Next would be,
Buchi Emecheta, ‘The Bride Price’ , Nnedi Okafor-Machu ‘ Zahrah the wind seeker’, my kids really loved it, and read it more than twice.
1. Joan of Arc
2. Stories from the bible
3. Robin Hood
4. Ben-Hur
5. Robinson Crusoe
6. The Chronicles of Narnia
7. Oliver Twist
8. A Christmas Carol
9. George Washington Carver
10. The Hiding Place
11. Pilgrim’s Progress
12. Aesop’s Fables
