"If a book is not good enough for a grownup, it is not good enough for a child." ~Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water
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As a soon-to-be librarian, one of the most frequent questions I am asked is "What is your favorite book?", or the equally popular, "Who is your favorite author?". I'm sure I find this question as equally flummoxing as young children find my question, "Well, what types of books do you like to read?" It's a hard question to nail down. Children usually respond, "Um, something good?"
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As a soon-to-be librarian, one of the most frequent questions I am asked is "What is your favorite book?", or the equally popular, "Who is your favorite author?". I'm sure I find this question as equally flummoxing as young children find my question, "Well, what types of books do you like to read?" It's a hard question to nail down. Children usually respond, "Um, something good?"
My response usually depends upon the person asking the question. For people in the adult academic world, I bumble through my favorite "you should read these" kinds of books and authors such as Crime and Punishment, John Steinbeck, Jane Austen's plethora of English prose. For children, I seem to revert back to the earliest favorites I can remember, Charlotte's Web, Island of the Blue Dolphins, or A Cricket in Times Square. And if I really panic, I might cite my favorite Christian fiction (probably equivalent to my favorite candy) such as The Princess by Lori Wick, the Christy Miller Series, and many of the others I read throughout my pre-teen and teen years.I'll say, all of these answers are true. At certain times, any one of these rises to my favorite depending on the time of year or what is going on in life.
But I think the truest answer, and the one I've usually been afraid of giving, is that I have always loved, and still love, literature written for children. Not all of it, but my true favorites definitely fall under that category. I think I've been ashamed of this answer because it seems, well, juvenile. Isn't children's literature just for children? And suggested by this first question is another: isn't children's literature somehow of lower quality than literature written for adults?
This weekend, as I traveled back and forth into Chicago on the train, I started Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water, and I found her apologetic of children's literature to be most helpful. After much discussion, L'Engle points out that "If you are not good enough to write a book for adults, you are certainly not good enough to write a book for children." She further insists that any book that is written "down" to children cannot succeed. Authors who write good children's books write good books, not "childish" or "juvenile" books.
Why do we doubt that children can handle deep issues? Why do we assume that they will be amused and kept quiet with the trivial, the mundane, and the stupid. The best children's literature deals with things that adults have a hard time grasping, but that children accept by faith. I think this is what I appreciate about L'Engle the most. She accepts that children will understand what adults miss. "A child is not afraid of new ideas, does not have to worry about the status quo or rocking the boat, is willing to sail into uncharted waters."
I think this is why 'children's' literature is my favorite. Because the really excellent books written for children (A Wrinkle in Time, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, to name a few) explore all these themes and do so with more integrity and hope than books written for adults. I think I'll leave the subject of hope for a different post.
This weekend, as I traveled back and forth into Chicago on the train, I started Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water, and I found her apologetic of children's literature to be most helpful. After much discussion, L'Engle points out that "If you are not good enough to write a book for adults, you are certainly not good enough to write a book for children." She further insists that any book that is written "down" to children cannot succeed. Authors who write good children's books write good books, not "childish" or "juvenile" books.
Why do we doubt that children can handle deep issues? Why do we assume that they will be amused and kept quiet with the trivial, the mundane, and the stupid. The best children's literature deals with things that adults have a hard time grasping, but that children accept by faith. I think this is what I appreciate about L'Engle the most. She accepts that children will understand what adults miss. "A child is not afraid of new ideas, does not have to worry about the status quo or rocking the boat, is willing to sail into uncharted waters."
I think this is why 'children's' literature is my favorite. Because the really excellent books written for children (A Wrinkle in Time, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, to name a few) explore all these themes and do so with more integrity and hope than books written for adults. I think I'll leave the subject of hope for a different post.
Loving this first post Shelby! This should prove to be a stimulating blog.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Katie
C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite thinkers and authors, said of his Chronicles of Narnia that he wrote the work (along with other novels written for a younger audience) because he perceived a need for good, meaningful children's literature. The world is the richer for his sensitivity to this need.
ReplyDeleteG.K. Chesterton, another among the sharpest modern Christian thinkers and authors that England has given the world, once said: "Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed." This is one of my favorite quotes, and it is so rich that it readily repays a sustained reflection. I immediately thought of this quote upon reading your post, Michele.
I also thought of the movie, "The Librarian" :)
@Katie, thanks for reading! I can't promise to be too consistent in writing, but I'll do my best. :)
ReplyDelete@Ryan, I love that Chesterton quote. L'Engle is astounding in her number of literary and cultural references, and the Chesterton quote is among them. Do you have any Chesterton reading recommendations? He's been on my list of authors to read for a long time, but I haven't had a chance to follow up on him yet.
Also, I've been meaning to ask you, what is the movie, "The Librarian"?
You reminded me of one of my favorite C S Lewis quotes. I think it fits nicely in with L'Engle's comments:
ReplyDeleteCritics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence...When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly.
Michele,
ReplyDeleteOf books by G.K. Chesterton, certainly 'Orthodoxy' is his most famous and widely read. That said, most agree that 'The Everlasting Man' is truly his masterpiece. I suppose I would point you to those two, in that order.
The movie 'The Librarian' is a family-friendly film - actually, three films in the series have now been made - that features a kind of supernatural special collection of enchanted and otherwise remarkable items, secretly hidden within what appears to be a normal library. The hero (played by Noah Wyle) is a brilliant, though at first mild-mannered man, who thinks he is going to be a simple librarian, but then is introduced to his true calling dealing with the special collection. He goes on many supernatural adventures, dealing with every imaginable theme from Biblical items to things from ancient mythology, and he ends up having to defeat bad guys, save the world, and even discover himself in the process. It seemed like the kind of fun movie that you might like, and, hey... the hero is a librarian! :)