Can I boast a moment? I can’t believe it – no, wait, I can. The Little One has just finished reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Well, an adaptation of her 1818 novel. But the adaptation is aimed at 3rd and 4th graders. Little One is reading three grade levels over where ‘they’ say she should be.
Thematically, as well as graphically, I suppose, Frankenstein may be a tad too much for her. But she’s shown no signs of distress – and the wife and I, who have been taking turns reading with her, have been monitoring her closely. There have been no nightmares, no moodiness, no probing questions about such weighty topics as death and murder and whatnot. As far as we know, she’s probably forgotten most of the details, though she still remembers the basic gist of the story.
When we started the book a few days ago I wondered whether we were making a mistake introducing such drama into her life. Then I realized that the novel is no different than anything she might see on television after 8 pm. No, let me correct myself on two points. First, most of the violence on teevee is meaningless and fetishized. At least Shelley is trying to probe the depths of man’s heart and the relationship between Creator and Creature. And second, it doesn’t have to be teevee after 8 pm. I firmly believe Twilight commercials on Nick Jr during the day gave my daughter her rash of werewolf nightmares last month.
So, what’s next? Dracula? War and Peace? Quo Vadis? Probably not. Though Little One picked out this particular Frankenstein adaptation at the library sale on Hilton Head, we’ll most likely move on to a few books in the Cam Jansen series she has at home. Cam is the modern-day, girl-equivalent to the Encyclopedia Brown stories I read as a kid in the seventies.
But I’m toying with the idea of reading The Hobbit with her ...
Thematically, as well as graphically, I suppose, Frankenstein may be a tad too much for her. But she’s shown no signs of distress – and the wife and I, who have been taking turns reading with her, have been monitoring her closely. There have been no nightmares, no moodiness, no probing questions about such weighty topics as death and murder and whatnot. As far as we know, she’s probably forgotten most of the details, though she still remembers the basic gist of the story.
When we started the book a few days ago I wondered whether we were making a mistake introducing such drama into her life. Then I realized that the novel is no different than anything she might see on television after 8 pm. No, let me correct myself on two points. First, most of the violence on teevee is meaningless and fetishized. At least Shelley is trying to probe the depths of man’s heart and the relationship between Creator and Creature. And second, it doesn’t have to be teevee after 8 pm. I firmly believe Twilight commercials on Nick Jr during the day gave my daughter her rash of werewolf nightmares last month.
So, what’s next? Dracula? War and Peace? Quo Vadis? Probably not. Though Little One picked out this particular Frankenstein adaptation at the library sale on Hilton Head, we’ll most likely move on to a few books in the Cam Jansen series she has at home. Cam is the modern-day, girl-equivalent to the Encyclopedia Brown stories I read as a kid in the seventies.
But I’m toying with the idea of reading The Hobbit with her ...
Absolutely. Old Smaug and Bilbo would make a great read.
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