What Kids Are Reading

This week I'm letting you know what I've seen kids reading in the wild lately. And also getting ready to dish out some bibliotherapy recommendations for you and your young readers.

Today’s newsletter is a two-parter. Firstly, I’m requesting some help from you! Please see below on how you can assist in making this newsletter as useful as it can be.

And then after that, I’m going tell you what I saw kids reading while I’ve been in various schools over the past few weeks. In good news: so much local literature!

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Bibliotherapy

Get in touch, please! I’m currently looking for reader profiles for a new section on bibliotherapy. Can fiction cure everything? No. But it may go some way to helping a young person work through a tricky time.

Growing up, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret helped me get through puberty, and Girls in Love taught me about the rockiness of female friendship, but these days there are endless contemporary options for young people who need a little guidance, or a little push in the right direction, without being totally hit over the head with it.

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

In order to write some bibliotherapy recommendations, I’m looking for real-life examples of stuff your kids or students (or you) need help with. Do you have a toddler who is struggling to learn to share? (Hi, I see you.) Is there a teenager in your life that you think is keeping secrets? A grandchild you aren’t sure how to connect with? A young person feeling left out of a friendship group? An only child who doesn’t understand why they don’t have siblings? A small person who deserves to understand what divorce is without the use of clichéd tropes? A kid who is endlessly curious and you have no idea how to answer their questions about the universe? A child who is now technically a grown-up but you still want to send book recommendations to?

Anything! I’m here to help.

I am not a trained therapist in any sense of the word, but I do know books, and I am keen to match them to the young people who may need them.

I know there is a diversity of newsletter readers here: retired librarians, working librarians, early childhood professionals, babysitters, parents with kids of all ages, grandparents, extended family, and teachers. And maybe more! You all clearly care about reading and kids, sometimes in universal ways, but also sometimes in very personal ways. I want to provide resources and assistance to as many of you as possible, so don’t be afraid to reach out, no matter what your connection is with young people and books.

Please comment below or send me an email (karysmcewen@gmail.com) or private message on Substack, and let me know about a young person in your life who could use a little bibliotherapy.

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What Kids Are Reading

If you read my paid newsletter last week, you’ll know I’ve just spent a couple of weeks talking in schools and libraries. A lot of the students asked me what my favourite books were, or what I was currently reading. And I asked that question right back!

I’m always intrigued to see what kids are reading, and hopefully you are as well.

I have to say I was pretty impressed with how much local literature they were consuming. And of course, love it or hate it, BookTok seemed to play a big part in their reading habits.

Here is what they were reading:

Year 9s: Eta Draconis by Brendan Ritchie (young adult)

These students were reading this novel for English (excellent booklisting!), and reluctantly admitted that they actually really liked it. I urged them to check out Brendan’s dystopian novel Carousel, as well.