From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 10:55:11 -0500

Lauren, I appreciate what you wrote about the importance of the text in a picture book speaking to the child rather than the adult. This was exactly the experience the Zolotow Committee members had with "When Sophie Gets Angry ? Really, Really Angry..." Adults were more likely to give it a literal reading and they worried about Sophie's safety when she ran outside to cool off, whereas young children seemed to understand it entirely on an emotional or gut level, and focussed on how Sophie felt.

I don't mean to imply that one interpretation is right and the other is wrong, but I do think that often times adult readers make decisions about what something will mean to children before they ever even give it a try, and then use that as a basis for their professional criticism. I applaud you for reading a book like "Can't Sleep" to your son and letting him make derive his own meaning from it.



Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Thu 11 May 2000 10:55:11 AM CDT