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[CCBC-Net] The Hidden Adult
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:50:10 -0500
Today we turn to the CCBC-Net topic for the second half of July: Perry Nodelman?s newest book, "T/he Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature?/ (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).
In "The Hidden Adult," Nodelman explores the commonalities and shared themes of children?s literature, based on a comparison of six books for children written between 1801 and 1993. An examination of the plots, themes, and structures of ?/The Purple Jar//,/? ?/Alice in Wonderland//,/? ?/Dr. Doolittle/,? ?/Henry Huggins//,/? ?/The Snowy Day/,? and ?/Plain City?// /is the basis for Mr. Nodelman?s observations about the ways in which adult knowledge and experience are hidden in books for young people.
Perry Nodelman has graciously agreed to join us for this discussion. We know not everyone in the CCBC-Net community will have had a chance to read ?The Hidden Adult,? but we hope everyone can get some sense of the book through the CCBC-Net discussion in the coming days and will feel free to ask him questions.
I cannot begun to convey the observations in ?The Hidden Adult? in all their complexities and detail. I will say that in the book, Perry Nodelman argues that the six texts he so closely examines contain characteristics that can be considered identifiers of children?s literature as a genre?a genre that is almost wholly unique in that it is labeled in terms of its intended audience rather than in terms of those who create it. Of those characteristics, the ones I find most fascinating to contemplate are those that look at the tension inherent in the adult writer/child audience relationship, looking at the meaning that adult authors of children?s literature convey in texts through their child characters. He writes, ?. . . the texts tend to offer two different points of view, one childlike and one adult. . . . In being different, and often opposite, the two points of view imply a conflict between childlike and adult perceptions and values.? He also writes,
?The texts tend to work to encourage child readers to replace whatever sense they have of themselves and the meaning of their own behavior with adult conceptions of those matters.?
When I think of this adult ?intent? in terms of the children?s books I?m surrounded by every day, I think about a continuum. At one end are the books that are adult-centered, burdened by didacticism or adult nostalgia. At the other are the books that I consider among the best examples of the children?s literature genre: convincingly creating a child?s understanding of events and experiences; in short, offering a child-centered perspective on the world or some dimension of it. But the suggestion in "The Hidden Adult" is that an adult agenda is an inherent quality in the genre of children's literature.
I'm wondering what members of the CCBC-Net community think about this idea. Does it influence your understanding of the genre as a whole, or of some of the children's books you particularly admire?
Perry, I know your thinking about this and the other ideas you explore in "The Hidden Adult" have developed over many years. I'm wondering if there were specific texts--perhaps among the six you examine in the book, or others you read along the way--that really helped bring this idea of children's literature as a genre that in is part about conveying adult ideas and values to child readers into focus.
Megan
Megan
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:50:10 -0500
Today we turn to the CCBC-Net topic for the second half of July: Perry Nodelman?s newest book, "T/he Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature?/ (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).
In "The Hidden Adult," Nodelman explores the commonalities and shared themes of children?s literature, based on a comparison of six books for children written between 1801 and 1993. An examination of the plots, themes, and structures of ?/The Purple Jar//,/? ?/Alice in Wonderland//,/? ?/Dr. Doolittle/,? ?/Henry Huggins//,/? ?/The Snowy Day/,? and ?/Plain City?// /is the basis for Mr. Nodelman?s observations about the ways in which adult knowledge and experience are hidden in books for young people.
Perry Nodelman has graciously agreed to join us for this discussion. We know not everyone in the CCBC-Net community will have had a chance to read ?The Hidden Adult,? but we hope everyone can get some sense of the book through the CCBC-Net discussion in the coming days and will feel free to ask him questions.
I cannot begun to convey the observations in ?The Hidden Adult? in all their complexities and detail. I will say that in the book, Perry Nodelman argues that the six texts he so closely examines contain characteristics that can be considered identifiers of children?s literature as a genre?a genre that is almost wholly unique in that it is labeled in terms of its intended audience rather than in terms of those who create it. Of those characteristics, the ones I find most fascinating to contemplate are those that look at the tension inherent in the adult writer/child audience relationship, looking at the meaning that adult authors of children?s literature convey in texts through their child characters. He writes, ?. . . the texts tend to offer two different points of view, one childlike and one adult. . . . In being different, and often opposite, the two points of view imply a conflict between childlike and adult perceptions and values.? He also writes,
?The texts tend to work to encourage child readers to replace whatever sense they have of themselves and the meaning of their own behavior with adult conceptions of those matters.?
When I think of this adult ?intent? in terms of the children?s books I?m surrounded by every day, I think about a continuum. At one end are the books that are adult-centered, burdened by didacticism or adult nostalgia. At the other are the books that I consider among the best examples of the children?s literature genre: convincingly creating a child?s understanding of events and experiences; in short, offering a child-centered perspective on the world or some dimension of it. But the suggestion in "The Hidden Adult" is that an adult agenda is an inherent quality in the genre of children's literature.
I'm wondering what members of the CCBC-Net community think about this idea. Does it influence your understanding of the genre as a whole, or of some of the children's books you particularly admire?
Perry, I know your thinking about this and the other ideas you explore in "The Hidden Adult" have developed over many years. I'm wondering if there were specific texts--perhaps among the six you examine in the book, or others you read along the way--that really helped bring this idea of children's literature as a genre that in is part about conveying adult ideas and values to child readers into focus.
Megan
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706 608/262-9503 schliesman at education.wisc.edu www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/Received on Thu 16 Jul 2009 09:50:10 AM CDT
