My sister has been bedridden the last few weeks with a broken ankle. Although both her and I are in our early twenties we may have gone through a ‘bed story’ phase where I read a book to her. And the best books for when you are sick? Children’s books!
Whether or not you are a grown adult or are reading to a sick kid, children’s books have the beauty of not being too complicated plot wise, entertaining and easy reads. Which, when you have a high fever that makes it hard to concentrate or lose your voice after reading aloud ten pages of book to your eight-year old with chicken pox, is ideal because very rarely do children’s books have page-long passages of description that really make no difference to the story but you’ve wasted a minute or so of your non-delirious time getting through.
Neither do they have deep symbolic meanings integral to understanding the plot line or character that require some use of the grey matter (they may have symbolic meanings but these tend to be secondary to the action). So simple, direct writing and plot make for good ‘sick person reading’.
What’s even better is a good children’s book, because bad children’s books will just be boring (or infuriating if you’re anything like me who cares about the quality of what gets published – especially for children in their young, impressionable states when they don’t know what makes a book good yet).
Here’s my list of five kids’ books for when you or your child are ill:
5. Danny The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
Every one needs a bit of Dahl when they’re sick. And with Danny you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be inspired to stick it to the man (or consider the ways sleeping pills in raisons could be used …)
4. The Eleventh Hour by Grahame Base
This is not just a mere picture book, but the pictures are good. There’s a mystery needing to be solved, and plenty of hours to be used searching for clues in the elaborate illustrations.
3. Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones
This would be the book in question that I started reading to my sister (until she stole it and finished reading it while I was at work because she couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Any book in the Chrestomanci series would be suitable, actually I’d recommend any Diana Wynne Jones book (although depending on the age of your sick child as some of her ‘for older readers’ might not be best. But really, Jones is one of my favourite children’s authors ever so she is worth checking out whatever your health status.
2. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Couldn’t pick a particular one (although my personal fave in the series is The Horse and His Boy, but this generally the book that most people forget about in the series). And depending on the length of illness/quarantine/bedridden state, maybe a whole series is worth tackling? Anyway, these books are classic fantasy adventure and always win extra points with me for their nostalgia factor – the memory of my mum reading these to me each night is a pretty fond one.
1. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
How can I go past a book that has a sick child being read a story by his grandpa? Plus this really has it all – romance, adventure, giant flesh eating rats, etc.
spoonfulofink 