Who cares about children’s literature?
Children’s literature isn’t important.
Not only is it easy to write, the content is simplistic and the target audience isn’t particularly discerning. Real writers pen works for adults: novels full of multi-syllabic words and sophisticated, philosophical themes.
Unfortunately, these are relatively common opinions. The worth of children’s literature is rarely regarded as meaningful or significant, and the value of children’s literature is often overlooked.
Children’s literature is just as important, if not more so, than adult literature. Both reading and writing literature for children has the ability to offer insight, power, discovery, and help in processing and understanding emotions and events. Furthermore, “We should also take children’s literature seriously because it is sometimes subversive: because its values are not always those of the conventional adult world” (Lurie, xi). Because children are in the process of growing, and they “lack experience in the world, they are able to accept the possibility of many things that adults know are impossible” (Paul, 16).
Children’s literature isn’t important; it is vital. It has the unique ability to make the impossible possible.
Reading Matters:
That the reading and writing of children’s literature are so disregarded and undervalued is a severe detriment to our society. Well-written children’s literature is crucial to developing healthy perspective, positive growth, and an open mind. Through reading, children can learn that there are “alternative ways of being in and thinking about the world” (Meek-Spencer, 547). This mindset is crucial for growth and development both of an individual as well as of a society, as “our society can only grow stronger as we teach our children to be stronger” (Trites, 138). It is through reading and learning that this growth is nurtured – by illustrating, sometimes literally, a range of perspectives, possibilities and potentials.
Children especially are in need of relevant literature because well-written children’s literature develops and strengthens a child’s cognitive and imaginative skills at a time when they are most open to learning. Experiencing a variety of perspectives helps to “make abstract ideas concrete, inviting young readers to consider complex philosophical, theological, and political questions in uniquely accessible ways” (Baker, 125). Children’s books can also provide and illustrate coping mechanisms for dealing with changes, and things unfamiliar, of which there are many during childhood. The stories and concepts found in children’s literature frequently “help (children) through hard times and let them know they’re not alone” (Paul,192). Books can help create “a place apart from the demands and stresses of daily life, a sanctuary in and from which the child can explore the many worlds” (Parravano, 6), and it is in this place a child can develop methods to help them both“understand and control the world” (Lurie, 202).
A well-developed imagination is a necessity in order to shape and understand the world.
While creativity should be “kindled and honored and treated with respect” (Lamb, 218), “the problem is, from early childhood, most of us are taught that imagination is inferior to intellect – that creativity is inferior to logic” (Lamb, 217). Children’s literature encourages creative thinking and problem-solving, opening the doors to a limitless array of possibilities. Reading “stretches the imagination, intellect, and emotions in ways that enhance, rather than discourage, children’s engagement with real life” (Baker, 125), which can lead to a more imaginative and intelligent society.
Children are an essential audience because they have such potential to shape the future – after all, “without a thoughtful, educated, and well-read population, how can we solve the many problems – environment, health care, schools, wars – facing us?” (Paul, 242). Through children’s literature, children learn that “what’s going on in their everyday lives matters” (Hepperman, 239) and they “emerge on the other side of the book as more capable, confident human beings” (Smith, 173). Words, stories, and ideas are “entering their minds, maybe making them see the world in a new way, maybe becoming part of them” (Levine, 155). Seeing the world in new and different ways allows children the opportunity to improve their situation and society by improving their minds.
Writing Matters:
Just as reading children’s literature grows and develops a child’s mind, writing children’s literature allows an author to grow and develop the mind of a child in themselves.
While “most people think writing for children is easier than writing for adults” (Lamb, 2), authors of children’s literature deserve just as much praise and recognition for their work, for they are “the first step up the ladder to create lifetime readers” (Paul, 242).
An author needs to utilize the same principles and fundamentals of the craft, and also translate these essentials into something applicable and appealing, to the viewpoint of a child – not an easy task!
In addition, children’s authors need to appeal to a more diverse audience, one that is composed of a multitude of subdivisions. Adult literature has a range of genres, but children’s literature consists of the same genres for a diverse variety of subdivisions of children’s literature, primarily based on age and developmental levels; from picture books to early readers to young adult.
It takes a great deal of skill in the craft of writing to appeal to an audience from which one is so far removed, and it is “the particular gift of some writers to remain, in a sense, children all their lives: to continue to see the world as boys and girls see it and to take their side instinctively” (Lurie, 14). This gift is one that has the potential to, through changing lives, change the world.
“When you write a book for a child, you give him or her words – you give a voice to the voiceless. You open new worlds, introduce new ways of thinking and lift that child closer to the light. This is the power and purpose of story. And this is the gift the storyteller can give” (Lamb, 5).
Writing helps both the reader and the writer find their voice. And at what better time than when you are a child do you need help discovering your own voice?
Both reading and writing not only embolden people to discover and use their unique voices, they “deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul” (Lamott, 237).
Reading and writing are both severely undervalued, but never more so than when it is the literature for children literature that is being written and read. It is unfortunately typical of an adult to see a children’s book as only a teaching tool for direct conceptual learning.
The potential of children’s literature is so much greater.
“Don’t think of books for young people as tools; try instead to treat them as invitations into the reading life – that life can be a rich place” (Sutton, xiv).
Literature can teach cognitive and emotional understanding, encourage creativity and empathy, and increase awareness and acceptance of different points of view. Children’s literature allows both readers and writers the strength and ability to “appeal to the imaginative, questioning, rebellious child within all of us, renew out instinctive energy, and act as a force for change” (Lurie, xi).
Literature for children matters immensely if we want to foster a future of kindness, respect, and harmony. And I hope we do.
Works Cited:
Baker, Derirdre F. (2010). Your Journey Is Inward, but It Will Seem Outward. In R. Sutton and M. Parravano (Editors), A Family of Readers. (pp. 124-132). Crawsfordville, IN: Candlewick Press.
Heppermann, Christine. (2010). Telling the Truth. In R. Sutton and M. Parravano (Editors), A Family of Readers. (pp. 239-244). Crawsfordville, IN: Candlewick Press.
Lamb, Nancy. (2001). The Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Children. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books.
Lamott, Anne. (1994). Bird by Bird. New York: Anchor Books.
Levine, Gail Carson. (2006). Writing Magic. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Long, Joanna Rudge. (2010). What Makes a Good “Three Little Pigs”?. In R. Sutton and M. Parravano (Editors), A Family of Readers. (pp. 76-82). Crawsfordville, IN: Candlewick Press.
Lurie, Alison. (1990). Don’t Tell the Grown-Ups: The subversive Power of Children’s Literature. New York: Nack Bay Books.
Meek Spencer, Margaret. (2003). What More Needs Saying about Imagination? In Reading Research Quarterly (Vol. 38, pp. 546-551).
Parravano, Martha V. (2010). Overview. In R. Sutton and M. Parravano (Editors), A Family of Readers. (pp. 1-6). Crawsfordville, IN: Candlewick Press.
Paul, Ann Whitford. (2009). Writing Picture Books. Cincinatti, Ohio: Writers Digest Books.
Smith, Vicky. (2010). Know-How and Guts. In R. Sutton and M. Parravano (Editors), A Family of Readers. (pp. 172-179). Crawsfordville, IN: Candlewick Press.
Sutton, Roger. (2010). Introduction. In R. Sutton and M. Parravano (Editors), A Family of Readers. (pp. i-xviii). Crawsfordville, IN: Candlewick Press.
Trites, Roberta S. (1997). Waking Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Voices in Children’s Novels. University of Iowa Press, ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=1021700.
