Claire | The 1000th Voice

My daughter is a huge fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The show is actually pretty entertaining; I know this because I can admit that I do watch it with her frequently. As a book lover, I absolutely loved a recent new episode.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | When TV Writers Truly Understand Book Lovers

In a previous episode, Rainbow Dash, an athletic pony, was injured, laid up in the hospital and bored. Her friend Twilight Sparkle (Claire’s favorite pony) recommended a book that was part of the Daring Do adventure series. Rainbow Dash resisted reading the book but eventually gave in to boredom and quickly became addicted to the book. But, then she had to wait for the next book in the series.

And that’s when we arrive at the new episode. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle can hardly wait for the new book to be published. As true fans of the series, they get into an intense argument about who is a bigger fan of the books. The argument culminates in Rainbow deciding to track down the author and assist her with any real life things that are preventing her from writing the book.

I don’t generally start a series before the second, third, final, etc. book is finished. Series books, aside from Harry Potter, are something that I don’t really get into until they’re THE must read books (e.g.,the Millenium series, The Hunger Games). But I can absolutely understand finishing one book and needing to read the next one.

And, you know what? I’m happy that a TV show my daughter is watching is making reading a book a cool thing.

What experiences have you had with the portrayal of book lovers on TV? Good, bad, otherwise…

As I’ve made my way through the Little House series, Claire has looked at the illustrations on the cover (I ONLY read the books with Garth Williams’ illustrations), hopped into my lap and asked me to read her a story. So I’ve obliged her. In the first instance, I read a very detailed recounting of little Laura watching Pa make his bullets and clean his gun and also about how, you know, he could easily be mauled by a cougar or a bear in the Big Woods so he had to carry his gun with him. Surprisingly, Nick, who is a hunter, looked at me and asked if I really felt it was appropriate to read that to a three year old. “Of course it is. It’s Laura Ingalls Wilder!” I replied indignantly.

If you don’t think a three year old should be listening to a discussion about bears killing people or the sometimes casual and sometimes overt racism of the Little House series, I recommend Claire’s current favorite books. She’s still attached to some board books, but we’re starting to move on to longer story books.