By Books Author Denise Turney

The best children’s books dig into real-world topics. That wasn’t always the case. Years ago, children’s books were limited to covering light-hearted topics like farm life, welcoming a baby sibling into the family and making new friends at school. Children’s book authors steered clear of deeper social issues. Today’s shift toward tackling more realistic issues could help prepare kids for the real-world. It also opens dialogue for parents and children to engage in healthy family communication.

Children’s Books Tackling Important Life Issues

For example, as a parent, when you ask your child what they honestly feel about school, sharing experiences you may have had with bullying, poor grades or awkwardness, you can open a window of healthy dialogue. Reading children’s books about bullying or a character who’s struggling to fit in at school could also encourage your child to tell you what’s going on with them at school.

You could learn about something that’s been worrying your child simply by discussing a central theme in a children’s book. Even better, to reduce the likelihood that your child might feel as if she’s being probed, you could ask her how she feels about what happened to a character in a novel, lowering your child’s desire to conceal what’s really going on in effort to avoid judgment or embarrassment.

Read out loud to your child and you could do more than encourage literacy. You could introduce your child to characters who help build confidence and celebrate your child’s uniqueness.

Children’s Books That Speak to a Child’s Core

For instance, your child might be drawn to confident, creative children’s book characters like Pippi Longstocking, Matilda Wormwood, Paddington Bear, Arthur, Big Nate or Rosetta Blay. Or they might gobble up books written by authors like Judy Blume, Christopher Paul Curtis, Mildred Taylor, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi or Jacqueline Woodson.

Experiences characters in these and other children’s books have are timeless, making these books great family communication tools. Talk with your child about books he reads and you might learn a lot yourself, a lot about the characters, storylines and a lot about your child.

Living with an aging grandparent, caring for a pet, moving to a new country, dealing with rejection and facing a fear are open conversations you and your child could end up having, simply because you stopped to talk about a book your child was reading.

Children’s Books Relevant Topics

Who knows? You might start turning to children’s books as a way to start a healthy discussion with your child. Fortunately, the best children’s books cover relevant topics such as living in a blended family (with stepparents and stepbrothers and sisters) and living as an only child in a big city. Other relevant topics authors are taking on include:

• Futuristic landscapes that stimulate imagination, offering entertainment and fun discussion
• Fantasy stories that probe real life situations. An example is the classic Alice In Wonderland.
• Competitiveness, self-esteem and confidence cocooned in an exciting adventure story. This may be one of the more popular forms of children’s books.
• Important social issues that could be happening in a child’s life right now. Examples include books with young characters who are adjusting to their parents divorcing or getting remarried. Immigrating to another country, confronting bullying, accepting one’s body and stepping into leadership roles.

Enriching Reading Practice

As you talk with your child about books she reads, she might feel more valued and included. This could encourage more conversation.

Support reading and healthy family communication by choosing books that entertain and enlighten. Also, let your child choose books that he wants to read on his own.

Another thing – as your child ages, consider presenting him with more text-based stories. And keep learning and growing with your child. After all, that’s what the best children’s books are about – learning, growing and healthy, rewarding relationships, the types of relationships that encourage open healthy dialogue.