There is no better way to encourage kids creativity and help them excel in school than by encouraging reading. You can do this by reading to them as small children, then having them read to you, letting them catch you reading by yourself, and by providing them with plenty of exciting and stimulating books to read. Remember too that reading together isn't just an activity enjoyed by little children. Older kids appreciate family reading time too. (Even if they are pretending to ignore you off in the corner with their computer or sketch pad!)
Five Children and It
, by Edith Nesbit is an excellent story about five siblings who, one boring summer, come upon a creature that can grant wishes, not that he's very excited about doing so. They have various adventures and learn important lessons along the way. Another very good book by Edith Nesbit is The Enchanted Castle in which three children discover a castle and go about pretending its an enchanted castle with a sleeping princess hidden inside. Soon strange things begin happening and they suspect that the castle may actually be enchanted! (I know, her plots sound run-of-the-mill, but they are very cool.)
Of course no reading list for Pagan youth would be complete with mention of Harry Potter. And that's all the mention I will make!
Another great series for Pagan youth is the His Dark Materials series, which includes the Golden Compass, recently made into a movie. These books are awesome and they contain many magical concepts which are difficult to explain to children. In fact, many of the concepts these books explore are those usually reserved for personal gnosis. Buyer beware though, these books are quite violent and have some very mature themes. The main characters are children, which is probably the only reason they end up in children's literature catagories, these are very grownup type books. That being said, my 10 year old and 13 year old loved them. They're older now, and still love them (and so do I, and all my friends who I told to run out and get these books)!
Hellenic Pagan? Have a sense of humor? Percy Jackson and the Olympians was a huge hit with my 11 year old son and my friend's 10 year old daughter (The former grew up Hellenic so knows the stories, the latter comes to me with questions all the time now.). It's like this- Percy Jackson finds out he is the son of a Greek God (you don't get to know which one right away) and as such, he's expected to be a hero. Of course, all the monsters in the world want to try their hand at destroying heros, so as he approaches puberty he's in greater and greater danger, so where does he get sent off to? Hero Camp, of course. But that doesn't mean everything is fine and dandy. There's all kinds of stuff going on. Enough stuff that I think the series is up to four books and counting.
If your young man or woman is looking to start his or her magical training, then you won't go wrong with Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart. It is required reading for students at the Grey School of Wizardry and not a bad overview. It's not perfect, however. There were annoying inaccuracies in the information about Greek mythology and there's not alot of detail in any section. It would seem that its authors were simply trying to jam too much into one volume. It's too broad, so nothing gets a great deal of attention. Its companion volume, appriately titled Companion for the Apprentice Wizard provides more practical applications, but still, each subject is merely glanced upon. One would assume that students at the Grey School would received further elaboration.
