Parents often write to me and say, “My child doesn’t like Enid Blyton!” Or it could be Roald Dahl the child doesn’t like. Or Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson. It varies. But what is common is that it is usually a popular author/book that the child refuses to read, one that nearly everybody seems to love. And the parents are almost hesitant to even ask me about it because the unspoken implication is — “Please don’t judge, but why’s my child like that?”
I’ve been in that position multiple times, of not liking a book everybody seems to like. Long back, I borrowed Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree from the library, because it is considered a classic, a book for all ages. It turned out I didn’t like it at all. I was gobsmacked — because I love his other work, and because this book is so highly talked about. And yet, I kept my opinions to myself because I started doubting myself. Maybe I am not clever enough to understand it. Maybe I’m missing something. But then, I read it to my daughter to see what she thought. When she got to the end, she pushed the book away and declared, “I don’t like it,” in that ruthlessly frank way that children have. That’s when I felt confident enough to admit aloud that the book didn’t work for either me or my daughter, and I found an entire bunch of people of the same opinion!
Peer pressure among readers is real! It ought not to be like that, but it can be terribly scary to come out and say you don’t like a book when everybody around you is head over heels in love with it. I know, because it took me a very long time to admit that I didn’t feel the connection with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and The Little Prince by Antoine St Exupery. The latter especially is such a beloved classic!
It also hurts when, as a parent, your child doesn’t like something you yourself loved as a child. I see this commonly with Enid Blyton, and occasionally with Ruskin Bond. I have also heard this happen with the much beloved Kannada classic stories Dinakkondu Kathe by Anupama Niranjana. Just because your kids don’t like them, and you did, it’s not a betrayal! They live in a different time, and it is quite possible they will experience a book quite differently. It can also be shocking when children reject stories that are part of the social fabric, or something that has endured through the centuries. One parent was taken aback that her child didn’t like stories of Panchatantra. My daughter declared Tenali Rama a cruel man who gets enjoyment out of other people’s pain. Another parent was crestfallen because her child didn’t like mythological stories. Yet another doesn’t like fairy tales. Or stories of kings and queens. Or mysteries. So what!
Peer pressure — avast! Let’s all read what we like, and not worry about what we don’t like.
The author has written 14 books for children and can be reached at shruthiraoauthor@gmail.com and www.shruthi-rao.com
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