Books will help a child make this difficult choice: some of them will be liked and taken root, and some will go unnoticed. It will be easier for parents to trust the children’s choice, not to rush between circles and sections and not torturing the child needlessly for many years at a music school.
7 – 12 years
For little zoologists, felinologists, ornithologists and veterinarians
Stories about birds by Stanislav Vostokov “Godfather to the King” – detailed descriptions of goldfinches, robins, woodpeckers, jays, their migrations, singing and habits, along with soothing stories from village life and pink-green piercing watercolors by Vera Tsepilova. They do not just tell who inhabits the sky of the Middle Strip except for pigeons and sparrows. They draw attention to the beautiful world around us, teach us to be touched by it and distinguish its chirping.
A cycle of stories about life near Moscow among dogs, chickens, cats, goats and horses “Letters from my farm” is similar in spirit to Masha Slonim, a legend of dissidence, BBC radio and the current Svoboda. There are more authors in them than heroes – the author worries, takes care of, heals, persuades, endlessly loves his diverse household members, and the world of man and animals in Slonim is much more comfortable and softer than Prishvin’s. The stories came out as a disc in the author’s performance, Slonim’s calm velvety voice suited them very well, but a book always wants to be a book.
S. Vostokov “Godfather to the King” (White Crow, 2016).
M. Slonim “Letters from my farm” (White Crow, 2016).
Pass the tests
- How do you get through your child’s adolescence?
6 – 10 years
For future mechanics, mathematicians, physicists…
Martin Sodomka wrote “Technical Tales” for talented children. In them, Bill the sparrow, Arnie the mouse and Christian the frog assemble a car, plane and motorcycle, and the child learns what a radiator is, what spars are for, how a four-stroke internal combustion engine works and how to balance a propeller. The books contain not only author’s illustrations, but also detailed diagrams of instruments and mechanisms. An exciting boyish read, but for the recommended 6+, I think it’s too early. There is also a book about a little girl-aircraft designer and how difficult it is to explain to the family what you are messing with in the attic. Andrea Beti’s poem “Rosie Rivera the Engineer” does not teach how to assemble aircraft. It teaches parents to support their children in their endeavors, and children to believe in themselves even with continuous failures.
M. Sodomka “How to assemble a car”, “How to assemble an airplane”, “How to assemble a motorcycle” (MIF, 2016).
A. Beti “Rosie Rivera – engineer” (Career Press, 2016).
Read more:
- Fantastic Beasts, Bone Collection, and Other Children’s Reading
…and architects
Maybe your children are building dollhouses out of priceless books, dens out of blankets, huge cities on the floor in every room, feeders out of shoeboxes, towers out of tea cups? Hector from the book “Hector the Architect” built everything and from everything from birth, and his mother, father and teacher did not approve of him: “We don’t need Empire and Baroque for the lesson, / and even more so any Gothic. / About cranes to you it’s too early./Now draw me a cat. But Hector believed that the cat is boring, about balconies, arches, buttresses and arcade belts – it’s time, and confidently walked towards his dream. The adventures of little Hector are described in the verses of Andrea Beti, translated by the wonderful modern poets Maria Galina and Arkady Shtypel. The book will amuse, support emotionally, because it’s always nice to find a hobby comrade, and teach you not to give up and believe that “building castles in the air is an important, necessary thing, / and not at all a bad thing.”
A. Beti “Hector-Architect” (Career Press, 2016).
Read more:
- What to read to children at leisure?
7 – 10 years
For those who live in the Russian language and literature like a fish in water
If from the very first years a child composes poems, songs and fables, invents new words from old roots and explains their meaning, then you will like this project. This is how the book was made. The famous children’s writer Artur Givargizov wrote stories, plays and poems for children. The even more famous philologist Maxim Krongauz read them to his grandchildren and told what this or that word means, why there is rhyme here, and here it’s funny, why it’s so polite, but it’s also polite, but stupidly. The grandchildren listened, rocked in their chairs, nodded knowingly, were surprised, argued and laughed. This book is a great way to amuse children with paradoxical humor and quietly, stealthily teach them secular etiquette and the Russian language.
A. Givargizov, M. Krongauz “From child to child” (Kid (AST), 2016).
Read more:
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and other children’s books
7+
For those who still chose a music school
Elena Sergievskaya’s book “About music is simple” explains the basics of solfeggio: what is whole and eighth note, who is Guido from Arezzo, why do we need accidentals and why it turns out that music does not name anything, but causes so many emotions. The material is exhaustive and presented in a memorable way: the pages are collected in clips, from pictures and color inserts. Unusually colorful and colorful, but not boring at all.
The children’s encyclopedia “Music” by Robert Levin tells well about the basics of musical literature. In the first 30 pages, you can go over the history of composition from baroque to modernism and learn both valuable and simply amusing information, for example, that Vivaldi was red-haired, and Debussy went down in history with the phrase “There is too much singing in the opera.” The next 60 pages are devoted to the instruments of the symphony orchestra, their features and history. At the end of the book you will find a list of referenced musical passages to listen to at home.
It is hard to imagine a first-grader who will read these books himself, voluntarily and excitedly. But if you agree to do it together, accompanying at least Tchaikovsky’s “Children’s Album”, several live classical music concerts aimed at children, symphonic fairy tales and, for example, Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko’s “Introduction to the Orchestra” at MT, then the success of the enterprise is guaranteed .
E. Sergievskaya “Music is simple. Music: secrets and secrets” (Art Volkhonka, 2016).
R. Levin “Music. Children’s encyclopedia. The history and magic of the classical orchestra” (AST, 2016).
Read more:
- How to develop a creative personality
10 – 14 years
For everyone and especially parents
For those who are dissatisfied with themselves or their children, this is a motivating book that will help you find yourself and fall in love, even if the grades at school are so-so and the results of IQ tests are disappointing. Appealing to the theory of multiple intelligences of Harvard professor Howard Gardner, Thomas Armstrong identifies 9 types of intelligence, where, in addition to the previously understood types of “natural scientist’s intelligence”, there are such unexpected ones as “musical”, “bodily-kinesthetic”, “existential” and “intrapersonal” intelligence. From chapter to chapter, in simple language, Armstrong describes them and tells how to develop each. It is curious that it is proposed to develop those areas in which we are not very strong using the main identified talent. For example, in order for happy owners of verbal intelligence to learn to count and control their body, they are invited to say tasks out loud and participate in school plays in roles where you need to memorize a large text. Worth at least trying.
T. Armstrong “You can do more than you think” (MYTH, 2016).