Should I let DD read only one kind of books she likes?

[Jessica1501]

My 5 year old DD currently loves reading Curious George and always thinks about George when she gets into bed.

I think the stories about a curious monkey loving to discover life and having good behavior is pretty meaningful, so I let her pick up what she likes. So at our home now, there are only Curious George books, nothing else because DD only chooses them.

I have two different thinking.

1/ Since she loves the character, she loves to read more, and this is good (as long as the character is good).

2/ She loves to read nothing else at the moment. If I introduce other kinds of books, she will learn more about other things.

Should I continue to let her read only a kind of books she likes until she changes her mind (this may take long time), OR should I add more books for her?

The latter sounds better, but there is a trade off. If I take Curious George and other books together, she will be into only George, so if i want her to read other books, I shouldn't borrow George.

[meemee]

do you still read to her?

since from your words it sounds like she really, really loves curious george, i'd stick to curious george. i mean you can only get so much before you start repeating right? is she ok with repeating? or do you think once she finishes the series she'll be done with it.

what i'd do is check out other books that you can read to her. in this way if she gets hooked she might want to check them out to read. maybe you can leave bedtime for curious george. maybe at other times you can just read to her a little bit from other books - like angelina ballerina, dr seuss...

[LynnS6]

I'd pick up other ones and suggest to her that you read them together, but I wouldn't force it. Ds spent the entire 3rd grade reading nothing but Boxcar Children stories. I was bored silly, but he liked them. (Thankfully dd has more eclectic tastes.)

[lmk1]

Ds1 really wasn't into books at all (being read to) when he was 2...then he discovered Thomas the Tank Engine....and I bought a ton of Thomas books as he would listen to those.  I really hated them, it must seriously be some of the poorest writing.  I think they probably have high school students writing some of them for assignments.  Anyway, with him being interested in Thomas books, eventually he became interested in other books.  And he loves all kinds of books now, fiction and non-fiction.  I think there's nothing wrong with having an interest in one thing, although I dislike the kids being into a character and then wanting everything (underwear, socks, bedcovers,etc) with that character.  Eventually she'll grow out of...she won't be an adult still reading Curious George books :)  You can honor her interest, along with allowing her the opportunity to discover other things she may fall in love with.  Like how about getting some really neat non-fiction books on monkeys?  

[curiouscanadian]

I compromise with DS. He generally gets two stories at bedtime so if I feel like he needs help expanding his choice of books, I'll tell him he can have his train book (equivalent to Curious George in our house) but we have to read a different book first (often my choice). And in the past I've been known to institute a rule where I won't read the same book tonight as I read the night beofre. Although that was/is more for my sanity than anything else.

[gabklein]

I second what the wise people who've commented before me have said, and I also want to add that I was hooked on one type of book at a much older age, and I don't believe it held me back in any way (except that now I have a hard time deciding what to read next!). I was a sci-fi/fantasy fanatic, and especially liked the author Piers Anthony, who's so prolific, he's written over 100 books. From middle school through high school, I read little else. Luckily, books are not the only place we get our information about the world from. And let's be honest, a 5yo is not really reading books to gain information. As long as you "narrate" what you're doing and thinking about, and include her in conversations, she'll know about way more than just a curious monkey and his indulgent friend.

[LitMom]

I let my kids choose their books that they read themselves, but I also offer to read other books to them of my own choosing at the library, bookstores, and at home. If they're asking me to read it, I will read what they request within limits. By looking myself at the library and sitting down to read books by children's book authors I know I love (Suess, de Paola, Wells, Emberly, Jules Feiffer), it gets my kids curious and asking me to read it aloud. They like to know if it's something I read as a child. I don't demand that they listen to those stories though. DD is decidedly NOT into any of the ones I loved as a child like Where the Wild Things Are, and DS is. 

I would let her choose if she's reading them to herself, get other books that you want to read and let her choose to listen or not, and read as much Curious George as you personally can deal with. 

[tiqa]

When I was about 6-8 I went through a major Babysitter's Club phase.  My parents hated it and tried to dissuade me from it.

It didn't kill me... I went through all of Dickens' works by the time I graduated high school and became an English major.  Nowadays I read about 6-7 books per week.  Everything under the sun.

I had another friend who was similarly into the Goosebumps books.  Real quality stuff, right?  She is also an avid reader and while she wasn't an English major, she went Ivy League and did some sort of biochemistry course.  And she still loves reading.

I have yet another friend who read really steamy romance novels from sixth grade forward.  (We shared them sometimes between the two of us.)  She went on to become a veternarian.

I say let her read what she loves.  It's the love of reading that's important... not so much the material.  IMO, anyway.

[greenemami]

I'd let her read what she likes. I still go through phases where I read straight through everything I can find by a particular author or in a certain genre or series or whatever.  When dd gets into phases like this, I do occasionally insist on a break by reading something else just so I don't go crazy :)