Worrisome

Reading for pleasure builds empathy in children, but fewer kids are picking up books just for the fun of it

Reading allows children to live in a vibrant world, surrounded by fairies, elves and talking animals, transporting them to places where the impossible becomes real. But reading for pleasure also helps children learn more effectively and broadens how they view, interpret and interact with the world. It gives them a form of expression that fuels their imagination and empathy for themselves and others.

But the percentage of children who read for fun is declining.

Just 37% of 9-year-olds and 14% of 13-year-olds read for fun almost every day in 2025, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. By middle school, just 1 in 7 kids say they read for pleasure each day.

Favourite books

These are some of mine

• Picture Book: Curious George by H.A. Rey and Margret Rey
• Children's Book: The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams 
• Young Adult Book: The Grey King (Dark of Rising Sequence # 4) by Susan Cooper 
• Mystery: The Last Camel Died at Noon (Amelia Peabody Mysteries # 6) by Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz) 
• Fantasy: The White Dragon (Dragonriders of Pern #3) by Anne McCaffery 
• Science Fiction: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 
• Classical Literature: Timaeus by Plato
• Late Antiquity Classics: Meditations  by Marcus Aurelius
• Mediaeval Classics: Consolation of Philosophy by Boëthius
• Renaissance/Early Modern Classics: Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• Regency/Victorian/Edwardian Classics: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Modern Classics: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Play: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 
• Novella: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 
• Short Story: 'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson 
• Non-Fiction: (I can't choose!) Most recent was probably The Art of Living by Thích Nhất Hạnh 
• Comic: Sandman by Neil Gaiman
• Graphic Novels: Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman
• Most Recent Book I Read: Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women by Sarah Bargiela

There will be many repercussions

How did the pandemic affect babies starting school as children now?

In Bethnal Green, London, twins Aqil and Fawaz were just eight weeks old when the pandemic hit.

Their mother, Fahmeda Ahmed, lived in a second-floor flat with her husband and their two older children - Hasan, four, and two-year-old Khaijah. "It was just the same day over and over again," she said. "We couldn't go out, we couldn’t socialise, we couldn’t invite friends over and we couldn't go anywhere with the kids.

"“I was so scared going into the hospital because you would hear stories that you would catch [Covid]," Fahmeda said.

... 

She attempted to homeschool her four-year-old, who had just started reception, but he completely stopped talking. And then there was baby Aqil. He was having difficulty swallowing and Fahmeda tried for months to get a face-to-face appointment with a doctor. Eventually, at three months, he was diagnosed with tracheomalacia, a condition where the walls of a child’s windpipe collapse. He needed a minor operation.

"And I remember when Aqil was going into theatre, I was so upset. There was a nurse there and she said ‘I'm so sorry. I can't hug you’."

Four years on, Aqil and Fawaz are healthy young boys, about to start reception at Elizabeth Selby Infants' School in Bethnal Green. But they both have speech and language needs. Their two-year child development check was delayed, they weren't able to attend any baby classes and their first year involved very little interaction with the outside world. Fahmeda believes all these factors have had a lasting effect, and experts agree.

Love this...

A co-worker who used to live in Hawai'i brought this story to my attention

It's so heart wrenching.

Parents find remains of teen son hugging dead dog in Maui home destroyed by wildfire

So yesterday

So yesterday a child who wasn't even two nearly destroyed my bay at work.  She pulled down the giant Plexiglas screen (I don't understand why it was there, because the other half of the desk was completely open, so anyone could sneeze. The masks are protection, too, but still...)  she was pulling the rmonitor iser back toward her until she was tired of the tug-a-war as I tried to bring it back. She nearly broke the chalkboard I had out dropping it on the floor (it had previously been hidden behind the Plexiglas, along with my plants, including a glass 'light bulb' on a stand with pothos in it).  Mom was just trying to hold her but did not get her far enough from the desk to do a bit of good.  There was a language barrier, and the child was also having a meltdown, so the interpreter and mother had a hard time understanding each other, and since it was a video interpreter [think iPad on a stick], it was on my side of the counter, so I could hear better, but it was Arabic, which I don't know at all. If it had been Spanish I might have been able to help, or at least repeat it.

Once they left, I hung the blackboard on the wall high up, storing the stand and the Plexiglas under my back counter in the cabinet, and also moved most of the small plants, including the glass holder, to that back counter, along with a picture friend of my best friend. Now the only things left there are the larger ZZ plant and a small Peperomia on my side of the ZZ, where I also hid my pen holder, which includes these flower-top pens I love that my supervisor gave me for Secret Santa, which one other patient has already tried to take.  I had already moved my one Beanie Baby, a purple cat with big eyes that a friend gave me when the older cat died.  My magnifying glass, which is a big half-globe lens, is in its box, far away from prying eyes or little hands [I had a kid stick his arm under the riser to get that when it was out of the box at one point].  I think, with the exception of the monitors, I've got everything situated so nothing can break.  Mind you, the only reason I had anything of sentimental value or breakable on the desk in the first place is that most were hidden by the Plexiglas.

Sigh.  While I like children in theory [as in, they can be cute from a distance and I believe it is everyone's duty to protect them], I don't really feel completely comfortable around them, especially wiggly toddlers, and I'm absolutely terrified of babies because I'm afraid to hold them in case I drop them. So when a coworker comes with their newborn to show it off, I am not in line to hold it. I was an only child, never babysat enough, and never have had kids. I just don't have easy rapport. As a result, the coworker told me once they were gone that my face was priceless, a sort of RBF.

This is one of the many reasons I never had kids. I just couldn't handle it.

Pow! Pfft!

I went to Kroger this morning and this little boy saw my cane in the cart and thought it was a grappling hook. I think that makes me Batman.

:(

I'm a little frustrated. On the one hand, I finally made it back to the YMCA after an absence of nearly a month [things happened], mainly because the Cthulhu game was called, and open swim in the warm water pool is all day, from 10 am-7:45 pm, so I made an effort to get over there after doing my Sunday chores. Unfortunately, that means that lots of kids, who could not be in the main pool due to a full round of lane swimming, were all through the warm water pool, jumping in and splashing and playing with balls, etc., and there was precious little space to actually use the pool for exercises while this was going on. I won't say they were young hellions or anything--they were just kids being kids and largely unsupervised ones at that. So I managed to do some exercises next to the wall, but I couldn't do the warm-up walks or anything. After about half an hour I gave up, got towelled off and dressed, and went home. On the other hand, previously to going into the pool I managed to use the Nu-Step reclining elliptical for a longer period than before, about 15 minutes, or about 2/3 of a mile. I also tried out my new Bluetooth headphones, which are placed inside a sport band that is washable (you just take the speakers and controller out). They worked well. I think the solution, for now, is to go to the pool late in the day, after the swim lessons and classes, so about 8:30 pm-9:45 pm. It's late, I know, but hopefully, it's quieter and the kids will be in bed. Of course, it's about the time I start winding down for bed myself. But I'd hate to not be able to use my membership fully or have to cancel, but I'll have to find a time to do my exercises, as that was absolutely the whole point of joining. And the Beaumont YMCA is the only one in town with a warm water pool, so I can't just go to one of the others for that, anyway.

Concerning

Youth Suicide Rate Increased 56% in Decade, CDC Says

There are always risks in any medical treatment, but they have to be weighed against the benefits. I can't imagine making these sort of life and death decisions on a daily basis (the main reason I did not pursue a career as a doctor or nurse), and pharmacology can be extremely tricky. But short-term studies are not foolproof, and if I had a teen with major depression, I'd seriously consider putting him or her on anti-depressants on the condition of close medical and parental monitoring. Of course, with my mental health history, I'd also make sure it was major depression and not bipolar, as SSRIs can make a person with bipolar disorder manic, triggering that phase of the disease, which can be just as devastating as the depression.

FDA’s continuing use of ‘black box’ for antidepressants ignores the harms of this warning

I thought this was interesting

Saving Tiny Tim--Pediatrics and Childhood Poverty in the United States,  by Perri Klaas,  MD.

Dr Perri Klaas was the medical director of Reach Out and Read,  the national early literacy organisation which we participate with at work in our clinic.  I don't know if she still is.  Her Perspective article in the New England Journal of Medicine was published this week.  She talks about the challenge for paediatricians and practices serving as a medical home to evaluate the needs of patients and their families in regards to where they might be having trouble making ends meet and services that can be referred to help. It's worth a read,  and had some interesting statistics about extreme poverty in America.

I seem to get home about 8:30 or so at night no matter what I do during the day

Today is no exception. I picked a friend up from work and took him to get his bus pass and on a couple of errands, then took him to where he's staying. Then I went to another friend's and washed dishes, taught him how to forward an e-mail (apparently I've never covered this in all these years), and set his default font in Office to Times New Roman rather than Calibri because he prefers that. Then I headed home, parallel parking for the first time in a long time, and nailing it. Now I'm back in air conditioning, with a big glass of ice water, and eating a strange dinner of burritos, cheese, and fruit (a banana and berries).

There was a general notice on my door this evening from the leasing office about how someone really made a mess of the fitness room and laundry, even destroying a trash can in the ladies' room, over the weekend. That's a shame--I thought our tenants were more mature than that. If it continues, they'll just keep it open during office hours, which means I can never use it, as those hours are when I work, except on weekends, maybe. So here's hoping people straighten up. The apartment complex has been doing a lot of upgrading and without more than a tiny increase in rent--$5 this year--and they deserve better respect for their efforts. I think maybe they need to put in cameras. There probably should be some, anyway, as they're open from 5 am-midnight, and even with the fobs, they can't tell who all's been there, I'm sure, if someone lets others in, so it would make it more secure for those of us in there.

Work went really well today; my pace was very steady and I got everything accomplished I wanted to, even the monthly audit. It will be a slow clinic week, so I may catch up on some things that have been on the back burner like processing and cataloguing books and creating a new order to take advantage of our vendor's spring promotion (22% off). I wound up finishing everything up about 15 minutes before it was time to leave. I love days like that, when I feel my time has really been used well and I've had progress in meeting my goals for the day.

I've felt energised these last couple of days. One of my co-workers insisted that it might be the steroids they prescribed for my crud, as she always gets revved up and cleans house when she's on them. I don't know if that's true, but I have had a burst of energy. I thought it was just getting over being sick, but maybe she's right. I'm down to four pills a day and go down to two soon, so that'll be gone in a bit. But at least it was productive while it lasted. :)

My face is still pretty red, but the arms have darkened a bit into what I'd almost call at tan where I burned the other day. My neck got red, but not splotchy, for a change. So I look like I got sun, but no one's come up to me and said, 'Oh, God, don't you know what sunscreen is???'

I talked with one of my co-workers who was at the Cincinnati Zoo this weekend during the incident where a three- or four-year-old boy [accounts differ] climbed a barrier and fell into the moat of a gorilla enclosure, and then was picked up by a male gorilla, who was then shot to death to save the boy. They never made it to the gorilla enclosure, and didn't know what had happened until later. But her daughter is three, so I think she had a good perspective on things. It's caused quite a controversy, and I've avoided comment. I admit, my first response was, 'where on earth were the parents?', but I also know that as someone who has not had children, it's not very fair for me to comment when I've never tried to keep up with a quick, wily four-year-old. Even the best of parents let their guard down, sometimes for enough moments for a child to get away, and usually it doesn't have such terrible consequences--but it could. My understanding is that in this case the mother--who works in a care facility for small children--told him he couldn't go in the water when he said he would and then was distracted by other children in her care. My co-worker said it disturbed her and her husband that people have been posting the personal phone numbers and information of the family online for harassment, after having such a terrible scare. I have to agree. That's wrong. It's horrible that the gorilla, Harambe, was killed. Most of the experts are saying tranquilising the gorilla could have meant the boy was more likely to get hurt. I don't know if I completely buy that, but unlike apparently most people out there, I do know tranquilisers don't work as fast as what you see on TV and in movies, either, so they may be right. My friend did say the enclosure had a small barrier, a brushy area, and then the moat the boy fell into that the gorilla retrieved him from. Maybe the zoo needs to consider another system of barriers.

But the fact of the matter is that the great majority of the people calling for blood over the death of that magnificent creature weren't there, don't have all the facts, and probably should not be making comments. Do I wish they'd done something else in response? Yes, of course, if at all feasible. But if the boy had died, the same people would have been blaming the parents and the zoo for a terrible tragedy, too. There really is no winning in this situation. It does, however, bring up a dialogue on keeping wild animals in captivity to be gawked at by clueless humans, all in the name of preserving the species and conservation. Don't get me wrong, my grandmother instilled in me a love of that zoo (I've been to only three, but the Cincinnati one is the one I've been to the most). I think it can be very educational. But there are issues that the animal rights people (many of whom I think are a bit too far in left field, no matter how much I love animals) have some very good points about. Anyway, the authorities are now investigating, and I'm sure there will be lawsuits and reports on what could have been done differently, that sort of thing. I am very saddened by the death of the gorilla. I'm very glad the boy is alive. Enough said.

What I've been following more than that, however, is the story out of Japan where the parents put their child out of the car for misbehaving (he'd been throwing rocks at cars and the like, definitely spoilt brat behaviour) in an effort to discipline him and left him, supposedly for a few minutes, out on the side of the road. When they returned, he was gone, vanished into a remote forest full of bears. Now hundreds of people have been looking through the area for FOUR DAYS trying to find him. Initially the parents gave a story of him wandering away while they were looking for wild vegetables, but then confessed that it had been a time out gone wrong. They are, of course, now very regretful about what they did.

Regretful? I know lots of people threaten to put their kids out of the car (and I know at least one who did, briefly, but not in a bear-infested woods), but this, I think, was not thought out well. I'm sure the kid said fine, I'll show them, and hid in the woods, figuring he'd make them look for him, and then got lost or hurt. He's seven, it would be natural. I hope they find him safe, for his sake, and that of his parents.

What do both of these stories tell us? In just a few short minutes, everything can change, especially when dealing with small children who don't really know much about life, but think they know everything there is to know. It's all our responsibility to keep kids safe, and we have to be vigilant--not just parents, any of us, of when they are in danger. But a parent must, especially, because ultimately, not only did you create this little human, he or she is yours to protect for life, and any day that you put them to bed safe and sound is a good day. Hold their hands, hell, put leashes on them if need be, but keep them close, because in a moment, everything can change, and what is done cannot be undone.

Drat!

I did a major no-no for someone with diabetes--I walked out onto our porch to water the windowboxes and apparently stepped on something incredibly small, like a sliver of glass or something else sharp. It's on my big toe, and I can't find anything in order to pull it out, so every time I step, it hurts. Not good. At least it's a fairly minor annoyance, and hopefully won't get infected or anything. I need to remember to at the very least wear my sandals (although those aren't ideal either, but I love letting my toes 'breathe'). I'm technically supposed to wear something inside, too. My feet have always gotten hot very easily (I hated footed pyjamas as a child, and wandered to find cooler areas as a result).

Today I'm thinking of a young girl half a world a way, the daughter of a Facebook friend, who has a terrible degenerative genetic illness and is having a lot of trouble the last few days. Here's hoping things get better for her and her family.

I've been on Facebook for at least an hour, catching up on my newsfeed. I was sorry to hear Doris Roberts died. I loved her even back when 'Angie' was on. And I found a Passover parody of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' that I'm a little afraid to watch. :)

It's a little late to start tonight, but I'm thinking that the game notes shouldn't take long at all this week. I'll try to do them before Saturday for a change.

What I think I will do is a little reading, especially a couple of books I have on intuitive eating. I'd put that on hold, and while, granted, I went a couple of days without my Lasix, which may mean I may have some extra water weight on me, I weighed myself this morning and topped out at my highest weight ever, 307.2 lbs. That scares me. I don't feel healthy at this weight, and I want to be healthier, but it'll probably mean some major lifestyle changes--exercising, ditching processed food for the most part, being mindful in my eating, and drinking water as my drink of choice, rather than diet drinks. Dieting itself doesn't work for me. I'm fine during the structured part of my day, then binge later in the day when I'm home, because I feel deprived of the food, which I eat emotionally. I need to make peace with food, finally.

I saw this yesterday, and I love it

Kids get shelter dogs' tails wagging by reading them tales

Through a slide show, the kids learn to recognize stress signals in a dog's body language. They also learn how to approach such dogs — sitting sideways, with quiet voices and "library behavior" — and how to reward them with kibble if they respond.

While the shelter doesn't have hard numbers, Klepacki believes the program has made a huge difference. "Just look at the dogs in these photos," she said. "These were dogs that before were hiding in the backs of the rooms with their tails tucked. You can see the connection — you can see them responding to those kids."

The kids get reading practice and develop empathy, and the dogs learn to calm down and come out of their shells. It's a win-win situation.

This was a terrible and thought-provoking story

shared by one of the librarians on the MEDLIB-L list. As another member said, I don't understand why so many baby teeth were going to be crowned for discolouration. Surely they could have seen what the permanent ones looked like before such drastic measures for a preschooler? But the whole thing is scary, whether you've got kids or you're going under sedation in a dentist's chair yourself. Thank you to Patricia Reynolds for sharing this. It was a sad read, but one people should see. I hope this story sheds some light on the profession's lack of regulation in terms of sedation and leads to changes, so there will be no more deaths like this one.

Deadly Dentistry--Junior’s Story: Drugged to death, in a Dallas dental chair by Brooks Egerton [part 1 of 7 in an investigative series]

First they drugged him. Then they sent Mom to the waiting room. Then they strapped his torso and wrists to a padded board. But Junior did not let down his guard. At the sound of the drill, dental records say, the 4-year-old began “whining, crying and moving.” So they pulled a strap across his forehead, then soldiered on to the last breath.

This makes me so sick

I thought the last story was horrific. But this? Words fail me.

Toddler Fatally Burned, Put Into Oven by Sibling: Documents

Police believe J'zyra was one of four children who had been left alone Monday by their mother and her boyfriend when the girl and two of her siblings began playing with the oven. CPS says the couple left the four kids home alone without telling a grandmother who lived in the same apartment complex.

FATHER OF SIBLINGS OF TODDLER BURNED TO DEATH TRIES TO FIND HIS CHILDREN

Court records show Price's two kids, just three years old, told investigators that one of them put the baby in the oven, and the other turned it on. Records show the children told CPS workers they made the oven "hot", and that the baby was kicking the oven door while inside. Records also show Thompson tried CPR when she got home. But it was too late, the child had multiple burns.

CPS said no suitable relatives can care for the three surviving children from the home, so they are currently in foster care. Thompson also has an older child who lives with his father. In addition, she is seven months pregnant with her current boyfriend's child. Thompson apparently also drove the kids without a license nor car seats.

There is something terribly wrong with the world

when something like this happens:

Boy, 11, charged with killing 8-year-old girl after argument about puppies

Each of the children had a puppy, the sheriff said. The 11-year-old “wanted to see the 8-year-old’s, and she said no, and then he went and retrieved a gun,” McCoig said.

The boy fired the 12-gauge shotgun from inside his house, striking the girl as she stood in her yard, the sheriff said. The gun, which was stored in a closet without locks, belongs to the boy’s father, McCoig said.

When first responders and police arrived at the scene Saturday night, they found the girl “lying on the ground with a gunshot to the chest,” McCoig said. She was taken to an area hospital, where she died from her wounds.

Because of course if your name is Mohamed, you have to be a terrorist, right?

Clock-making teen transferring to another school, family says

In an interview late Wednesday with MSNBC's Chris Hayes [N.b., I've changed the link CNN had, as it was incorrect and pointed to a different video], Ahmed said he was pulled out of class at MacArthur High School by his principal and five police officers and taken to a room where he was questioned for about an hour and a half.

He said he asked the adults if he could call his parents.

"They told me 'No, you can't call your parents,'" Ahmed said. "'You're in the middle of an interrogation at the moment.' They asked me a couple of times, 'Is it a bomb?' and I answered a couple of times, 'It's a clock.'"

"I felt like I was a criminal," the teenager said. "I felt like I was a terrorist. I felt like all the names I was called."

Hayes asked what he meant.

In middle school, Ahmed said, he had been called "bombmaker" and a "terrorist."

"Just because of my race and my religion," he said, adding that when he walked into the room where he was questioned, an officer reclined in a chair and remarked, "That's who I thought it was."

"I took it to mean he was pointing at me for what I am, my race," the freshman explained.

I have no doubt that if a white student brought a clock in to show his (or her) teacher, this would not have happened. It's ridiculous.

Interesting

The decline of play in preschoolers — and the rise in sensory issues

Here is a new post from pediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom, author of a number of popular posts on this blog, including “Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today,” as well as “The right — and surprisingly wrong — ways to get kids to sit still in class” and “How schools ruined recess.” Hanscom is the founder of TimberNook, a nature-based development program designed to foster creativity and independent play outdoors in New England.

Bring back free play in preschools and recess into elementary schools.

One iconic photo may turn the tide

on the world's apathy toward the crisis in Syria and the horrors and desperation there.

That Little Syrian Boy: Here's Who He Was

Parents, take heed

When should you talk to your kids about alcohol? Before they turn 10, doctors say

Adolescence is a time marked by testing limits and exploring the unexplored, the authors of Monday's study note.

"It is no coincidence that this is the chief period for initiating substance use," they said. "Alcohol is the substance most frequently used by children and adolescents in the United States, and its use in youth is associated with the leading causes of death and serious injury at this age (i.e., motor vehicle accidents, homicides, and suicides)."

Researchers found that 21 percent of young people have tried more than a sip of alcohol by age 13, and nearly 80 percent acknowledged drinking before graduating high school.

In addition, the study noted, 4 out of 5 teenagers said their parents had the biggest influence over when — and whether — they decided to drink. A 2013 study, for example, found that parental communication about alcohol before college helped prevent students who didn't drink from becoming heavy drinkers. It also greatly reduced drinking patterns among teenagers who already had begun drinking prior to college.