More than gatekeepers

Parents are important gatekeepers for their children as they read, but a good adventure needs more than a gatekeeper. If you only guard the entrance, you soon lose sight of your children as they escape into a place and time where you have not gone. It happens soon enough in life that they go on without you. But in this world – the world of books, you can enter a world with them, and enjoy the whole adventure together.

Here are my top picks:

• Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. These books appeal to a grade 6 boy’s sense of adventure, to a grade 2 girl’s love for hide-and-seek and horses, indeed to all ages. A lantern will always stand in my garden, to point the way to a world we cannot see.
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. This is a Newbery prize winner, often an indication of a good read. Between grades 5 to 8, my daughter read this book more than 10 times from cover to cover. I loved it too.
• Rikki-tikki-tavi by Rudyard Kipling. My son found it in a compilation of classic stories. It doesn’t matter how many times we read it, the story comes to life, brings a surge of adrenalin, and draws you toward the end holding your breath. Great for early elementary age.

Darlene Klassen is children’s minister at West Portal MB Church, Saskatoon.