It’s been a while since I last bought a book, and today, when we celebrate the International Day of the Book, I can’t help but thinking about the harm that has been done to children all over the world by either making books unaffordable to them or by mass producing generic children’s literature.
The Challenges of Children’s Literature
My copy of Jack Zipes's The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature. Three next images taken from the Picture Books section
In the field of Children’s Literature, as an academic discipline, the debate about what constitute a children’s book, what constitutes a child, what subject matters that literature should deal with, and how, has occupied academics for decades. At this point, we might think that such a dispute is pointless and should have been already settled, but when it comes to human activities and interests, we should know that debate and discrepancies will never go away in the lay world, let alone in academia.
In any case, several things can harm Children’s Literature and keep it in some kind of arrested development that makes it always look like Literature’s little sister. Despite the abundance of titles (regardless of whether they were intentionally written for children), from the times of Alice in Wonderland to the present, people still wonder whether children’s books are literature or should be taken as seriously as, say any work by Shakespeare or Garcia Marquez.
The short answer the long question is yes, but obviously not all books marketed for children are Literature in the artistic sense of the word and some main aspects may contribute to whether we apply the term to them or not: the subject matter (no limit), use of language (the creative exploration of all its possibilities and resources), and the storytelling touch.
On the other hand, two things can really harm a children’s book: self-censorship and “speaking down” to the child. Sugarcoating subject matters does not make it any easier for children to find in literature the kinds of things life has in store for them. We do not need to get to the extremes of presenting crude realities or truths in ways that may actually have negative effects in the young readers, but there is no need to hide things from children either, fully knowing that they know better and can surely find other ways to learn about whatever tickles their fancy. The need some writers feel to be always didactic/preachy or simplistic because they feel they have to protect the child is in constant tension with the tendency we see today on the other extreme of writers or social activists who are pushing the child to dangerous territories of self-discovery and identity.
Most children’s literature scholars agree that we should not speak down, but up to the child. Children are smarter than we think and we should challenge their potentials, rather than thwarting them. There are always ways to balance that tricky game of bringing the child into the world of books and keeping them in, not because of what we, adults, think it will do for them, but because of what children themselves can discover and because of the skills they can develop in the process.
Just a simple example of unnecessary self-censorship in this new world of “writers” who actually commission their works. A customer asks for a rhyme story about friendship in the style of Julia Donaldson’s Room on the Broom or The Snail and the Whale. No more instructions are provided. No buts or don’ts. I come up with a story of a puppy that is kidnapped but who finds a way to escape and come back home with the help of some animals she meets on the road, as her kidnapper drives her away. She actually saves the life of these animals and, in return, they join forces to help the little dog go back home. The customer objects the very idea of kidnapping (even though the very word is never mentioned), so I have to rewrite the whole thing (still working on it).
Now, here is the thing. If you like and enjoy books like Room on the Broom or The Snail and the Whale, and you read them to small children, just because they have nice rhymes and simple words, you recommend these titles, and even wish to shape your own writing after these style or form, you are overlooking some actual problematic issues behind these stories. I am not arguing that the author might have actually had these issues in the background; most likely she didn’t. However, this is how it works with books: once they are out, they no longer belong to the writer or their intentions; they belong to every reader and become whatever those readers want to make of them (for better or worse).
The Snail and the Whale is about a tiny sea snail who lives a boring life on a rock surrounded by its fellow snails, who it feels prevent it from exploring the world beyond their rock. The snails meets a whale and the whale takes it to exciting places. The snails ends up saving the whale when this one beaches on a shore, thus “proving” that no matter how small you are, you can make a difference.
Room on the Broom is about a witch and her cat flying on a broomstick, dropping some objects and these objects being found by some animals on the ground who ask for a ride in return. They all ride the witch’s broomstick and end up saving the witch from a dragon.
Now, if you think about how problematic it may be to picture a little girl as the snail, at home, with family, complaining about how boring her life is, and here comes a perfect stranger, an adult by all means, who knows the world and wants to show it to her. Or if we picture the dog and the bird that pick up the witch’s things and ride on her broomstick as children riding on a car of a perfect stranger, aren’t those the kinds of things parents warn children about? We do not even want our children to talk to strangers, let alone go for a ride or travel the world with them.
Just a thought.
Am I suggesting that that’s what those books are all about? No.
Should they be challenged? Of course not.
This was just a critical reading exercise, the kind of exercise all readers should do with everything they read. Books like Donaldson’s are fun; there’s no question about it, but they are also complex and it is in that complexity that we can find multiple readings or interpretations, issues worth discussing and exploring with our kids.
Avoiding things like kidnapping will not make kidnapping go away from our world; it will not make our children safer. If, on the other hand, we present the topic through an entertaining story, children will have the chance to know about it and be prepared to face it if it ever happens. There is obviously an age for every subject to be discussed with children, and that is probably the highest point of contention. Every child is ready for things at different ages. They somehow tell parents when they are, if only parents (or willing to listen to) pay closer attention to them.