After Tom Hodgkinson’s recent How to be an Idle Parent event at The School of Life last week, our kids' bibliotherapist Charlotte Raby caught up with him to talk about idle parenting and books.
How can the idle parent make the most of story time, avoiding tedious tales, and if possible winning fruitful hours for yourself while children entertain themselves?
Tom reminded us that stories must grab your children, otherwise it’s a waste of time putting your all in; using funny voices and fabulous expression. His moment of enlightenment was when he saw how his children sat transfixed, wide eyed and still, through each chapter of ‘Treasure Island’ (full of death and killing) after fruitless sessions of ploughing through ‘Watership Down’ to their wriggles and interruptions, even though he gave the text the whole package! Indeed Tom and I both agreed that casting aside vapid horrors such as the ‘Magic Kitten’ and ‘Rainbow Fairy’ collections, and instead choosing books you can bear and more importantly enjoy is essential to the Idle Parent’s reading aloud experience.
For younger children Tom suggests engaging with the wonder of nonsense poetry such as ‘The Jumblies’ by Edward Lear, illustrated by Ian Beck, as well as ‘The Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Carroll, which has eerie illustrations by Joel Stewart. These well-composed poems could earn you further idle hours as your offspring begin to learn them by heart and entertain each other in dramatic renditions. For even the youngest child it is possible to coax utter absorption by sharing such classics as ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak, and Tom says he finds the intricately detailed interiors of Alan Alberg’s ‘Each Peach Pear Plum’ and ‘Peepo’ completely fascinating observations of the minutiae of life.
Tom and I agreed that Enid Blyton deserves a second chance; in terms of reading aloud it’s a winner. For girls there are the wonderful school series ‘Malory Towers’ and ‘The Twins at St Clares’ full of tales of horrid children being redeemed by sport, japes and hard graft, as well as the co-ed ‘The Naughtiest Girl’ stories, which deal with perennial school issues such as friendship, bullying and pet-care! Whether you give Enid a go for a hit of nostalgia from your reading past or are purely curious Tom recommends the ‘Adventure Series’ that features four children their pet monkey and hilarious cockatoo, Kiki, whose every utterance had Tom’s children in stitches. I would also recommend graphic novels for any child that finds reading a trial, especially Neil Gaiman’s ‘Coraline’ .Tom says his eldest aged 8, spends hours of absorption reading ‘Tin Tin’ and ‘Asterix’ as well as the weekly comic The DFC, which has an amazing range of illustrative styles from Manga to ‘Ren and Stimpyesque’ strips, with forceful, imaginative story lines.
Tom ended our idle chat with a thought about the importance of creating our own stories, and having, as Philip Pullman suggests, a stock of oral stories that can be pulled out when needed. Tom told me about a family camping experience, where deprived of light to read, he had to make up a story to entertain his restless clan. He was amazed at how much they enjoyed his hastily assembled narrative and although he was not entirely at ease in the mantle of the storyteller he felt that in terms of reward and child-parent appreciation it was one of his best storytimes.
To find out more about bibliotherapy for kids and parents click here.
Frankly, anyone who can slog their way through 
