We were standing outside\u00a0my house when the\u00a0sky opened\u2014a\u00a0blessed relief\u00a0at the\u00a0tail end of the Los Angeles\u00a0wildfires.\u00a0We pulled up our hoods, letting\u00a0the rain shimmer\u00a0over\u00a0us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll be okay,\u201d I said\u00a0to my friend.\u00a0\u201cKids are resilient.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u00a0looked unimpressed by\u00a0my\u00a0dazzling\u00a0use of\u00a0an\u00a0empty platitude.\u00a0\u201cAre they, though?\u201d<\/p>\n
Months later,\u00a0I\u00a0haven\u2019t stopped thinking about this\u00a0conversation. Are kids resilient?<\/p>\n
My\u00a0instinct is to\u00a0shake my fist at\u00a0anyone who would\u00a0dare\u00a0say\u00a0\u201cno.\u201d\u00a0I write for kids. I spend a lot of time with them.\u00a0I\u2019m raising a few of my own.\u00a0On any given day, you could\u00a0go\u00a0to\u00a0any playground in the U.S.\u00a0and find\u00a0children\u00a0who are\u00a0smiling and swinging from the monkey bars\u00a0despite\u00a0the\u00a0recent\u00a0loss of a\u00a0loved one\u00a0or\u00a0parental\u00a0divorce or\u00a0bullying or\u00a0failing to make the team or\u00a0learning\u00a0struggles\u00a0or\u00a0abuse or\u00a0friend troubles\u00a0or food insecurity.\u00a0On the surface,\u00a0the evidence is there: Kids are\u00a0as\u00a0tough\u00a0as nails.<\/p>\n
But then\u2026look at us\u00a0grown-ups. What are we\u00a0all\u00a0talking about with our therapists?<\/p>\n
Our childhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We perceive kids as\u00a0resilient,\u00a0in part,\u00a0because\u00a0their\u00a0pain\u00a0gets packed away\u00a0for\u00a0their future selves\u00a0to\u00a0deal with.\u00a0But what is this costing us as a society? Does\u00a0this\u00a0packed-up\u00a0heartache\u00a0make\u00a0for\u00a0secure\u00a0adults? Or does it make for reactive\u00a0humans\u00a0who\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know\u00a0their\u00a0unprocessed\u00a0pain is\u00a0in the driver\u2019s seat?\u00a0Goodness gracious, if I\u2019m not\u00a0always\u00a0living in fear of\u00a0being\u00a0excluded\u00a0from\u00a0any social circle.\u00a0And\u00a0I could tell\u00a0you\u00a0the exact moment\u00a0from Middle School\u00a0it\u00a0all\u00a0stems from.<\/p>\n
In 2012, 53%\u00a0of\u00a0all nine-year-olds reported reading for fun \u201calmost every day.\u201d\u00a0In 2020, it\u00a0fell\u00a0to 42%.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Compare\u00a0that\u00a0to these\u00a0numbers:\u00a0in 2012, about 11.6% of\u00a0youth worldwide\u00a0had anxiety.\u00a0In\u00a02020, those numbers\u00a0nearly\u00a0doubled,\u00a0to\u00a020.5%.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re telling me the\u00a0number of\u00a0kids\u00a0reading for\u00a0fun\u00a0fell\u00a0~10% in\u00a0eight\u00a0years,\u00a0and\u00a0in that time,\u00a0the number of kids with\u00a0anxiety and depression\u00a0grew\u00a0~10%?\u00a0There\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0clear and crucial relationship\u00a0we must acknowledge\u00a0here.\u00a0And\u00a0I\u2019m no scientist, but\u00a0we can\u2019t\u00a0afford to sit around and\u00a0debate correlation verse causation.\u00a0Kids\u2019\u00a0lives\u00a0are\u00a0at stake.<\/p>\n
So,\u00a0we have a two-part issue: Kids\u00a0need\u00a0to read to survive.\u00a0But they don\u2019t\u00a0want\u00a0to.\u00a0How do we bridge\u00a0the\u00a0gap?\u00a0We\u00a0introduce kids\u00a0to books they\u00a0want\u00a0to pick up.\u00a0In the same way that I hide spinach in my kids\u2019 smoothies: it\u00a0has\u00a0to\u00a0look\u00a0good.\u00a0It\u00a0has to\u00a0taste like\u00a0fun.\u00a0Or else, guess what? They\u2019re\u00a0going to plug their nose and refuse it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My\u00a0newest\u00a0middle-grade\u00a0novel, The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest<\/em>,\u00a0is about a\u00a0fox who ushers\u00a0lost\u00a0souls into the Afterlife.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0fantastical\u00a0and quirky (and according to\u00a0Kirkus, marvelously funny),\u00a0but it is\u00a0also\u00a0a secret\u00a0spinach\u00a0smoothie.\u00a0An\u00a0exploration of\u00a0loss, grief,\u00a0change,\u00a0self-love,\u00a0and\u00a0death.<\/p>\n \u201cKind of\u00a0deep for a middle grade\u00a0book,\u201d one\u00a0well-meaning\u00a0reviewer wrote.\u00a0Maybe\u2026\u00a0but then again,\u00a0my ten-year-old recently\u00a0announced\u00a0that\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0wrestling with the existence of a higher power.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0contemplative\u00a0and observant,\u00a0and\u00a0she\u2019s not unique.\u00a0All the things that pain and worry us, kids\u00a0feel, too, they just\u00a0don\u2019t show it on the blacktop.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m not suggesting we step in and pathologize\u00a0every\u00a0hard\u00a0thing kids encounter. I\u2019m saying the exact opposite: when properly equipped, kids are infinitely capable of solving their own problems.\u00a0But\u00a0first,\u00a0we\u00a0have to\u00a0put the tools in their toolbox. With every\u00a0story, we are\u00a0doing just that:\u00a0See here?\u00a0This\u00a0is a story of someone who felt\u00a0just like you.\u00a0Here is how they coped. Here is\u00a0how they triumphed.<\/p>\n A\u00a0well-read kid\u00a0is an empowered kid. An empowered kid is a resilient one.\u00a0<\/p>\n The unflinching depth and heart of Middle Grade is the reason I\u00a0wanted to\u00a0write\u00a0for kids, but at the end of the day, I\u2019m in the business of making little hearts lighter.\u00a0As much as kids\u2014and\u00a0adults!\u2014\u00a0need\u00a0literary\u00a0nutrition,\u00a0they need a\u00a0heaping scoop of laughter. A\u00a0big, fat\u00a0slice of\u00a0joy.\u00a0My goal is that journeying through\u00a0my\u00a0books\u00a0feels\u00a0like\u00a0fun,\u00a0even as\u00a0we explore\u00a0complex and\u00a0weighty topics. For,\u00a0as\u00a0my\u00a0daughter\u2019s\u00a0speech-language pathologist\u00a0says, \u201cOur work is our play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0asked\u00a0why I write, I\u00a0always\u00a0give\u00a0the same half-joking response,\u00a0the\u00a0answer\u00a0to\u00a0which\u00a0could\u00a0also\u00a0serve as a\u00a0reply\u00a0to\u00a0the question, \u201cWhy do kids need to read?\u201d\u00a0Why do kids need to find grief and joy and\u00a0hurt and\u00a0humor\u00a0all\u00a0in the pages of a\u00a0single,\u00a0good book?\u00a0Well, friends, I\u2019ll tell you why:\u00a0Because\u00a0books are cheaper than therapy.<\/p>\n Aubrey Hartman<\/strong>\u00a0grew up in Virginia just before the technology boom, when exciting weekend plans consisted of a library card and a few dozen ice pops. Her most beloved friends all lived the pages of her favorite novels, and if she\u2019s being honest, they still do. After high school, she studied at Brigham Young University, earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in advertising and a minor in art history. Currently, she lives in California with her husband and three young children. In her thirty-some years, she\u2019s lived many lives, and is currently in her medical-mom era\u2014learning how to be an advocate for her youngest child, an objectively delightful baby with a trach and a feeding tube. She invites you to visit her at\u00a0aubreyhartman.com<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We were standing outside\u00a0my house when the\u00a0sky opened\u2014a\u00a0blessed relief\u00a0at the\u00a0tail end of the Los Angeles\u00a0wildfires.\u00a0We pulled up our hoods, letting\u00a0the rain shimmer\u00a0over\u00a0us. \u201cThey\u2019ll be okay,\u201d I said\u00a0to my friend.\u00a0\u201cKids are resilient.\u201d\u00a0 She\u00a0looked unimpressed by\u00a0my\u00a0dazzling\u00a0use of\u00a0an\u00a0empty platitude.\u00a0\u201cAre they, though?\u201d Months later,\u00a0I\u00a0haven\u2019t stopped thinking about this\u00a0conversation. Are kids resilient? My\u00a0instinct is to\u00a0shake my fist at\u00a0anyone who would\u00a0dare\u00a0say\u00a0\u201cno.\u201d\u00a0I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}