Children's book doctor: Julia Eccleshare answers your queries

Julia Eccleshare, the children's book doctor, offers advice

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portrait of Jenny Valentine, author of Finding Violet Park
Why not try Jenny Valentine's Finding Violet Park?

The question: I loved reading as a child, but my eight-year-old daughter doesn't seem so interested. Once she finds an author she likes, she just gets stuck on them. Although she is a very good reader who can read well above her age group, I find it hard to find the right books for her.

The answer: One of the difficulties of being a parent is that we always want our children to like the same things as we do. An even greater problem is that we tend to misremember some of the things we did as children. From your letter I sense that you set a high value on the fact that you were an enthusiastic reader as a child and that you want your daughter to be the same. I also get the impression that you want her to read well and that you are concerned that what she is reading isn't good enough. But maybe you weren't reading quite so much at eight as you think, and maybe the books you are suggesting are too challenging for her. Finding an author and reading through their whole output can seem boring to an adult, but is very helpful to a child and very satisfying. They know what to expect, which often accentuates their enjoyment rather than dampening it. If your daughter is currently enjoying a particular author, don't deter her. Try to find other authors who are doing a similar thing. 

Q: Ever since the success of the Harry ­Potter series, it seems to have been impossible to find any books that aren't fantasy. My 12-year-old son likes stories set in the real world. Can you help?

A: Your perception that the bulk of ­new books are fantasy is true. After the success of any title there are always a great many lookalikes. Fantasy has an additional attraction for authors as it allows them to write about children being unsupervised and taking risks. In real life, children are no longer able to do this, and authors are strongly warned away from showing children in potentially "risky" situations. Authors also need to avoid situations in which a child talks to a stranger. In other words, "real" stories ­reflect the very proscribed and watched state into which we have ­corralled children. To counter this, contemporary novels often begin with a child losing a mobile phone, freeing them from outside interference. In fantasy and ­historical fiction this isn't an issue and the child can be bold, brave, cowardly or sensible. But, of course, there are good stories set in the real world. Have you tried A Trick of the Dark (Bloomsbury) by BR Collins (below), which mixes the supernatural with family breakdown, or Jenny ­Valentine's Finding Violet Park (HarperCollins), a detective trail which begins with a boy's chance discovery of the ashes of an old lady?

Q: John Christopher's Dom and Va and John Verney's Friday's Tunnel, my two favourite books from childhood, seem to have gone out of print. Why can't I find them?

A: Children's books can be timeless and universal, or immediate and particular. Dom and Va, for instance, fell out of favour in the 1970s because of its perceived sexism. Attitudes to children, interactions between adults and children and especially wider social attitudes change swiftly, and books sometimes get left behind. The kind of holiday adventures that Arthur Ransome described so well in Swallows and Amazons have a much smaller readership now because it seems such an old-fashioned existence – time has robbed them of their universality. Revisit your childhood favourites with a fresh eye and see how they look nowadays. You may find yourself cringeing at their racist or sexist attitudes, and understand why publishers feel it is no longer acceptable to promote them.

Email your questions to books@guardian.co.uk

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Julia Eccleshare opens her surgery to all kinds of questions about reading for youngsters, and prescribes solutions. Please submit your questions to books@guardian.co.uk

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