Sunday, December 1, 2019

Why you should read children's books

The full title of this short book about reading by Katherine Rundell is Why you should read children's books even though you are so old and wise.

Rundell argues that adults should read read or reread children's books as adults in order 'to enlarge their world'. She discusses the childhood joy of reading books and discovering new worlds, the joy of entering a world of imagination and encountering a love of words, even when they may not be fully understood. She discusses the emergence of books written specifically for children dating back to the fifteenth century, the genre of fairy tales told in many versions, plus how political themes can be found in many early twentieth century children's books.

The author concludes:
Children's books are not a a hiding place, they are a seeking place. Plunge yourself soul-forward into a children's book: see if you can find in them an unexpected alchemy; if they will not un-dig in you something half hidden and half forgotten. Read a children's book to remember what it was to long for impossible and perhaps-not- impossible things. Go to children's fiction to see the world with double eyes: your own, and those of your childhood self. (page 62)
See also Storytime by Jane Sullivan

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