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[CCBC-Net] Hidden Adult/manipulation
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From: Claudia Pearson <pearsoncrz>
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:21:48 -0500
I was actually thinking of picture books more than novels for youth. Once children "learn to read" and adopt the allegedly universal way of reading and the meanings for words given to them by adults, I believe they lose a literary innocence which allows them to construct their own meanings from the words and pictures. Look at the issues Perry's use of the word manipulative raised for us, and then consider the ways in which children must reconcile what they know with what they don't know, often making up words and naming things for themselves. Does the word monster suggest something frightening to a very young child, or does it raise images of Cookie and Telly and Elmo?
Yes, I agree that there is a hidden adult moral/lesson for children in all children's literature. After all, it is written by adults to convey some sense of the world to the target audience. And as children's writers, we do often tend to shelter our audience from life's realities, to encourage, perhaps falsely, the hope that everything will turn out well in the end.
But perhaps children, especially very young children, "read" books in ways we have forgotten as adults. They certainly enjoy the book as an object, a thing to possess and claim. They read pages out of order, expressing either a resistance to an adult's efforts to teach them the "right" way to read a book, or perhaps an openness to alternatives in approaching books that we as adults may not have considered when evaluating and writing about books for children.
As adults we can only look back and try to remember what it was like for us as children, reconstructing a reading experience in a way that perhaps makes it more romantic and delightful to recall than it actually was. We can not now read as children.
There are some marvelous books for children coming from the French market which explore these possibilities. There is one book (Le Livre le Plus Court du Monde -- see Marie Derrien's article in the Lion and Unicorn) which has neither a clear beginning nor a specific ending, and which encourages children to question the linearity we as educated adults often assume turning a page indicates. Moreover, it is not the shortest book in the world, as the title suggests, unless you consider each page a book in itself, something which the book design again allows the child to consider.
Claudia Pearson pearsoncrz at earthlink.net
Received on Tue 21 Jul 2009 08:21:48 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:21:48 -0500
I was actually thinking of picture books more than novels for youth. Once children "learn to read" and adopt the allegedly universal way of reading and the meanings for words given to them by adults, I believe they lose a literary innocence which allows them to construct their own meanings from the words and pictures. Look at the issues Perry's use of the word manipulative raised for us, and then consider the ways in which children must reconcile what they know with what they don't know, often making up words and naming things for themselves. Does the word monster suggest something frightening to a very young child, or does it raise images of Cookie and Telly and Elmo?
Yes, I agree that there is a hidden adult moral/lesson for children in all children's literature. After all, it is written by adults to convey some sense of the world to the target audience. And as children's writers, we do often tend to shelter our audience from life's realities, to encourage, perhaps falsely, the hope that everything will turn out well in the end.
But perhaps children, especially very young children, "read" books in ways we have forgotten as adults. They certainly enjoy the book as an object, a thing to possess and claim. They read pages out of order, expressing either a resistance to an adult's efforts to teach them the "right" way to read a book, or perhaps an openness to alternatives in approaching books that we as adults may not have considered when evaluating and writing about books for children.
As adults we can only look back and try to remember what it was like for us as children, reconstructing a reading experience in a way that perhaps makes it more romantic and delightful to recall than it actually was. We can not now read as children.
There are some marvelous books for children coming from the French market which explore these possibilities. There is one book (Le Livre le Plus Court du Monde -- see Marie Derrien's article in the Lion and Unicorn) which has neither a clear beginning nor a specific ending, and which encourages children to question the linearity we as educated adults often assume turning a page indicates. Moreover, it is not the shortest book in the world, as the title suggests, unless you consider each page a book in itself, something which the book design again allows the child to consider.
Claudia Pearson pearsoncrz at earthlink.net
Received on Tue 21 Jul 2009 08:21:48 AM CDT
