So You're In a Reading Slump

Does the childhood magic of reading feel out of reach right now for you, too? Here are seven books that might help.

It’s been winter. It’s been dreary. It’s been a cold, dim, cloud-covered time.

(At least, it’s been that way in the northern hemisphere. Hello, Aussie readers! I haven’t forgotten you. Your darkness is coming. Stay strong.)

And I, for one, was absolutely slogging along where the Reading of Books was concerned.

Maybe it was seasonal depression, maybe stress, maybe chronic busy-ness. Maybe it was Maybelline. Maybe it was The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Caffeine! But whatever the reason, I was scrolling my phone until it was simply too late to even halfheartedly justify an attempt at reading. Every night.

(I have a preschooler and a toddler and I am their full-time caregiver. Late At Night is the ONLY time I can use for reading time. There is no longer any “lunch break” or “hanging out in the car when you get somewhere too early,” Past Me. Shush.)

And then

Kristen Mulrooney

pestered me and the rest of

The Pomegranate

editors to read Holes by Louis Sachar. Like, she wouldn’t shut up about it. On and on and on in our group chat about venomous lizards and stolen pigs and onion juice and God’s Thumb. What??

“It was his nineteenth book,” she kept saying. “Most people have one good idea, if they’re lucky. But this was his nineteenth idea. And it’s so good. Maybe it’s the best book ever. Once you start reading it you can’t stop.”

Okay, fine. I needed something I couldn’t stop reading (actually, I needed something I could start reading) so I put it on hold at the library. On Holed, get it?

I read it in two nights. I stayed up way too late. I couldn’t stop. When I got to the end I felt like I did as a kid when I got completely entangled in a good story: dreamlike, thinking of it constantly, vaguely confused by the real world when I came up for air. It was like the days in elementary school when I sat curled in the armchair in my parents’ room, listening to John McDonough read Freddy and Simon the Dictator on my portable CD player while I crocheted a very ugly afghan out of odds and ends of castoff yarn. It was like the days in middle school when I picked up The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey at the library, soon after its release, and read the whole thing that very afternoon, fully absorbed and then filled with melancholy at the thought that the next book would not be out for another year. It was like when, the summer before high school began, I read the Emily Starr trilogy by L.M. Montgomery and my heart nearly stopped (okay, my 14-year-old self would have sworn to it) at That Shocking Part that turns the tide of everything near the end of Emily’s Quest. I was so verklempt that I whisked the book into the downstairs bathroom and locked the door, where I finished the last few chapters huddled on the cold faux linoleum floor, embarrassed that my sisters might see me bawling over the plot. (It was all okay, after all, but… whew. If you know, you know.)

I thought the stressors of adulthood had taken that feeling from me. Parenting, working, managing a household, worrying about a coup in the White House— you know, #justgirlythings— have, in so many ways, stolen the fervor from my reading obsession. Perhaps you feel that too.

And if you do? Here are seven books I recommend to reclaim it. The linking factor: they're all middle-grade novels, all written for kids at the age of peak reading-for-fun fanaticism (before the pressures of high school and young adulthood swoop in).

Holes by Louis Sachar

I mean, duh. I already mentioned this one but let's do a quick recap anyway. Twelve-year-old Stanley Yelnats, accused of a crime he didn't commit, is sent to a juvenile detention center where he is required to dig a mathematically impossible¹ daily hole in the Arizona desert. Family lore, unlikely friendships, a survival saga, a dollop of suspense and a dash of magical realism made this a truly incredible read.

From the The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

You probably read this as a kid, sure (maybe you read all of these titles as a kid!) but I promise it's worth a revisit. Claudia and her little brother Jamie run away from home to live indefinitely in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their plans? Meticulous. Their coordination? Flawless. Their funds? Replenished nightly from the coins at the bottom of the museum fountain, OBVIOUSLY. But when they encounter a statue of an angel reported to be maybe a work of Leonardo da Vinci [edit: oops! Michelangelo, actually. I'm due for a reread of this one too!], everything shifts. This book is perhaps the shortest of all those I'm recommending today, but it packs such a punch. I still think of Claudia whenever I inhale deeply from a garment that smells of laundry detergent.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

The oldest book in this list, Witch is not nearly as dated as its 1958 publication date might imply (apart from the colonialism, eek). Historical fiction set in 17th century New England, the story centers on Kit Tyler, a young woman who moves from sunny Barbados to rigid Puritan Connecticut. (The culture shock is almost as vividly portrayed as the first-love dynamics between Kit and a heartthrob young sailor.) I actually need to reread this one myself— I had to check a few plot details on Wikipedia, a sure sign of a too-long absence! After causing a village scandal, Kit befriends a fellow outcast named Hannah, a Quaker— but as I'm sure you've guessed, Hannah's unconventional ways and lack of church attendance soon earn her an arrest for witchcraft. The setting may be archaic but the themes are timeless. (Ironically, it made a banned-books-list last century for promoting witchcraft. Lol)

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Most of these novels would probably be great choices for audiobooks, but Eden Riegel's narration really sets this one apart. I listened to it while cleaning my kitchen, folding laundry, and sewing a toddler dress for my friend's daughter. It's a fast-paced, funny twist on a fairy tale (arguably one of the original differently-spun fairy tale novels) with a spunky and absolutely delightful heroine. One of the defining traits of Cinderella's character (as beautifully summed up in the 2015 Disney film) is “have courage and be kind.” Ella of Frell, despite a mean stepmother and a curse from an incompetent fairy that leaves her bound to obey anyone who gives her a command, embodies just that. Don't judge this one by the 2004 Anne Hathaway film— silly and fun as the movie is, the book is vastly different and worlds better.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Many of the other titles in this list are on the humorous side, but though Number the Stars has its fun moments, it's a deeply serious tale of the Holocaust and the Danish resistance against the Nazi occupation. Annemarie Johansen, the ten-year-old protagonist, is forced to grow up quickly as her family hides and protects her Jewish best friend Ellen. It's no wonder this book won the Newbery—its deft simplicity is haunting, and even the heartbreaking afterword has stuck with me for 20 years.

The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson

A lighter look at World War II, though still tinged with thrilling notes and moments of tragedy, Ibbotson (best known for her middle-grade fantasy) drew on her own memories of childhood in Austria to write this story. Though the main character Tally suffers from classic Eva Ibbotson Heroine Syndrome (constant perfection, beloved by all except those villains who misunderstand her, zero character growth whatsoever) the side characters make up for the Mary-Sueness of the protagonist. Add in an eccentric English boarding school, a quick-witted prince, a dynasty of lap dogs, a few thugs and a lot of folk dancing, and you have a lovely sun-dappled adventure, perfect for an insomnia read.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

When I first read this book at age twelve, it scratched an itch I didn't even know my brain had: a yearning for perfectly unlocked puzzles. The book opens with riddles and conundrums, a perfect stage setting for a fast-paced adventure featuring four brainy but rudderless children infiltrating a boarding school run by a malevolent genius. An adult reader will likely guess a few plot twists faster than my seventh-grade naivete did, but the charm of the side characters, the classic satisfying whomp of good vs evil, and the inner angst of Reynie, the protagonist, make this an absorbing read even if you suspect where it's going. Yes, I know Disney made a miniseries, but this isn't that. Read the NOVEL, and find yourself murmuring “Brush your teeth and kill the germs. Poison apples, poison worms,” during your bedtime routine every night forever.

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What deceptively simple reads would you recommend? What's pulled you out of a reading slump? Like Davey Keith in Anne of Avonlea, I want to know.

1. It's true! You can't dig a 5 foot by 5 foot hole with a 5 foot long shovel. They discovered this fact when filming the movie, lol.