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Gillian Chan's remarks: reply
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From: Wendy Blaxland <wendyblaxland>
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2002 11:09:34 +1000
Gillian, my children and I have always loved the Ahlberg books too. Our favourite was Peepo, which we read travelling through Europe and I found a wonderful way both to amuse the two year old and to tell the four and six year old about post-war Britain, because of the complexity of the illustrations.
I think that this can be a very important part of children's books for very young children. They will take what they can see and understand, but there is plenty more in a good and complex illustration to challenge them to move the next step on and explore for more meaning. So a book can work for the baby, the toddler, and so on including the adults. Complex illustrations in themselves have given rise to a whole set of puzzle books such as the Where's Wally? series, very complex alphabet or pictorial books (hope everyone knows and enjoys Anno) and maze books.
In reply to Gillian, I think children enjoy exploring the darker side because they know very well that it's there, so it's partly a way of defining the parameters of what a mummy is to explore all the things a mummy is NOT (like a wind-up toy) and a reassuring way of dealing with the fears of what happens if a mummy isn't there
(which happens every time we leave our babes, even if it's only to go to the loo!) and the terrible horrors of what might happen in the world (Mum not being there, babies in cradles being shot down accidentally by bears in the forest). We all of us have to deal with the unexpected inexplicable (from Sept 11 to car crashes to Grandma dying) and make sense of them, and children and babies are not exempt from any of the terrible wonderful emotions that pulse through us all at what happens in this world. Books and serendipitous grace such as Baby Bunting's miraculous survival in Ahlberg's Each Peach Pear Plum give us faith that there are good things, that people do care, that all will be well. Perhaps. That's what babies are dealing with too, much though we want to protect them, and these books help.
Wendy Blaxland 19 Lisa Valley Close Wahroonga NSW 2076 AUSTRALIA phone/fax 9489 4955 mob 0411 071 273
Received on Wed 07 Aug 2002 08:09:34 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2002 11:09:34 +1000
Gillian, my children and I have always loved the Ahlberg books too. Our favourite was Peepo, which we read travelling through Europe and I found a wonderful way both to amuse the two year old and to tell the four and six year old about post-war Britain, because of the complexity of the illustrations.
I think that this can be a very important part of children's books for very young children. They will take what they can see and understand, but there is plenty more in a good and complex illustration to challenge them to move the next step on and explore for more meaning. So a book can work for the baby, the toddler, and so on including the adults. Complex illustrations in themselves have given rise to a whole set of puzzle books such as the Where's Wally? series, very complex alphabet or pictorial books (hope everyone knows and enjoys Anno) and maze books.
In reply to Gillian, I think children enjoy exploring the darker side because they know very well that it's there, so it's partly a way of defining the parameters of what a mummy is to explore all the things a mummy is NOT (like a wind-up toy) and a reassuring way of dealing with the fears of what happens if a mummy isn't there
(which happens every time we leave our babes, even if it's only to go to the loo!) and the terrible horrors of what might happen in the world (Mum not being there, babies in cradles being shot down accidentally by bears in the forest). We all of us have to deal with the unexpected inexplicable (from Sept 11 to car crashes to Grandma dying) and make sense of them, and children and babies are not exempt from any of the terrible wonderful emotions that pulse through us all at what happens in this world. Books and serendipitous grace such as Baby Bunting's miraculous survival in Ahlberg's Each Peach Pear Plum give us faith that there are good things, that people do care, that all will be well. Perhaps. That's what babies are dealing with too, much though we want to protect them, and these books help.
Wendy Blaxland 19 Lisa Valley Close Wahroonga NSW 2076 AUSTRALIA phone/fax 9489 4955 mob 0411 071 273
Received on Wed 07 Aug 2002 08:09:34 PM CDT
