Reading THE DOGS OF BABEL

My daughter and I like to read books together before bedtime. In this way, we both get to enjoy a story firsthand. The first book we did this with, though, was E.T., and I'd already read that book as a child. But she was insistent I read this book to her, too, and despite having to occasionally stop to explain things to her and "verbally rewriting" passages so they could be understood by a 5-year-old, she loved it. After that, we were hooked on enjoying books together.

Our latest book is Carolyn Parkhurst's THE DOGS OF BABEL. I'd read and heard things about this book when it first came out, but never read it. From what I could remember hearing about it, I didn't think it would be a "bad" book for such a young child to be read to. But as we have made our way through this book, I have realized that it's more than just a story about "a guy teaching his dog to talk." This story touches on subjects such as death, love and grief. I've read many different ways of how people cope with grief. And while Paul Iverson's way of handling his grief is completely unorthodox, it is still interesting to read all the same.

My child, of course, can't EXACTLY pick up on these little subtleties. (Though I wouldn't put it past her!) She seems to be more interested in the dog. When I read scenes such as the characters attending a wedding or going to Mardi Gras, she often stopped me from reading to ask, "Where's the dog?" Then I'll have to remind her of what LAST happened to the dog, named Lorelei. Still, she has shown interest in the passages where Paul "experiments" with different communication methods with the dog. We both laughed over the whole "wah" part (where Paul thought his dog could say "water") and even where Paul tries to teach his dog how to type.

But all the same, there are parts of this book unsuitable for a child's ears. I pretty much gleaned over the swear words and I handled the sex scene with..delicacy. Pretty much reading it to myself as I "read" it differently to my daughter (just saying Lexy was wearing a gown and a mask in the dark bedroom, that Paul didn't like the mask, asked her to take it off and she wouldn't).

We have still enjoyed reading this book together. It's a great story and I'm grateful I FINALLY picked it from my many books to read. I wonder if it was the wrong kind of book to be reading with a child, but I definitely think the whole concept of someone teaching a dog to talk has sparked my child's interest. If anything, it's a springboard for a discussion between us on that very topic -- and maybe even something to inspire us to come up with a more "kid friendly" version we can share.