Children's books: Five great classics to tell children

Even before I have children, I have always been a proud enemy of those who give their children light squabbles, on the excuse that they get used to reading. It's not true: at most, they get used to light crap, and instead it's not just the habit of reading that counts, but the quality of what you read.

Personal anecdote: Once my mother, when we were little, asked the poet Alfonso Gatto if it was appropriate to let us children read the book she had just bought (1984 by Orwell), and he replied that certain, that she should rather have taken us to the cinema, to the theatre, that even if we seemed not to understand beauty, it would remain there, in the background, to settle, waiting to jump out when it would be served. Almost half a century later, I can assure you that it works; certainly if, as in my case, you're not 'very much I'm not, you don't get any better, but at least you get used to beautiful things.
It's true that today things are more difficult. When I was a child I didn't even have color TV, and even black and white TV, with only one channel at full capacity, and it didn't provide us with more than three hours of TV per week. You will understand that the only alternatives were to put your head in a book, or accompany your grandmother to visit her friends, and if you had met my grandmother's friends you would have preferred any book to them, even the murderer Necronomicon of Sam Raimi. Now, instead, among tablets, Disney Channel, dance courses, baby yoga, hip hop, German, Aramaic and theoretical philosophy, there is the risk that, once you propose a book, the child will take you for a while, as I did with my grandfather when he told me wrong' turn on the TV that I want to see the Radio Journal.

Therefore, I have adopted the method of betraying, or the infamous: that is, that when I drink my daughter in a rare moment of boredom, I approach her and I begin to tell her a story, precisely, to betrayedora. Obviously, I try to make her passionate, as far as I can, and if I can say it you liked appapa?, look, the story is here, and I shoot out a book, that she usually looks in a dog, but sometimes, instead of putting her face back on the tablet, curious and forces her to open. I don't know if it will work, but I trust Alfonso Gatto's advice.
If it does not work, I am ready for everything from corruption to threats, to prevent it from reading one of the crap that today passes through books when it is big. In any case, I enclose a list (short, but since the children do not give us more than one attempt per month, it lasts a long time) of books I use for the method of the Infamous (or the Traditora). Try it and let me know if it works for you.

(1) Cyrano De Bergerac:

Say what you want, but there's everything inside really. He fights for no reason, duels, shootings, ambushes, wars and even a beautiful love story. If you want to make it dirty, you can add the sad story of the Italian translator of Rostand, poor Mario Job (it was he who transformed the i of the verb amarenell'apostrophe rose rose among the words you love) died suicidal at just over forty years. Before you venture into the narration, however, I strongly recommend you listen to Baricco's one first: it's fascinating and you can try to brush it without shame.

2) Sandokan:

I tried it the other day and it was almost working. Charming pirates, struggles with tigers, people going around on elephant cocks, the Pearl of Labuan separated from his love outlaws from the evil Brooke, the figherrimo Yanez. Then the new episode of Violetta began and I was miserably defeated. I will try again.

3) White Fang:

Immortal and cruel story: if you tell a young girl about it, show her on a tablet or smartphone photos of newborn and cuddly wolves, if you insist on a little boy's tusks and ferocity. Also this tested, and works great.

**4) Small women **

I swear I read it, and I guarantee that I have also seen a couple of film versions, but I must fall my ears if I can remember anything about the plot. All I know is that many (especially girls, I must say), find it attractive even today, so I recommend it on trust.

5) The adventures of Tom Sawyer:

Here, too, you want to tell. The secret is to insist when you see a spark of interest in their eyes, and feed it by continuing on the path taken not to turn it off (however, it will last a few minutes at most, but you do not give up, I recommend). The great thing about telling Mark Twain's books is that he writes so well that if you can only convince the people to taste two lines of them they will never stop, noticing the difference between how phenomenal he is and how scarce you are. But there is no sacrifice that would not be made for the children.

Bonus Track: Please avoid book like the plague the boys of the Via Pal. If they give you the book, throw it away, set it on fire, recycle it to someone you hate, in every case don't let it get close to your children. Otherwise the curse of the death of poor Ernesto Nemecsek will fall on the children. I don't know you, I still cry. And that's not right: when Freddy Krueger came to you in a dream he killed you, but you took your thoughts away, while the deadly masterpiece of Ferenc Molnar still poisons our lives.