CHOOSING A BOOK

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28362, 22 August 1957, Page 10

CHOOSING A BOOK

[Bu BEF.YI. TURNER) This article is frankly addressed to adults and particularly to parents, since children are not normally in charge of the purse strings. When a child chooses to buy a book, it is generally -with the approval of an adult Even when he ranges around the library shelves to make his own free choice of a book to read, his Choice has been guided from the outset by the librarian who is responsible for the selection on the shelves. This selection will represent a wide range in interest and topic to cover many tastes tor all ages throughout childhoods The books have been ordered with due thought for their literary and artistic qualities, their informational value and their appeal to children. As librarians in charge of children’s rooms are professionally trained in children’s library work, and are a conscientious breed devoted to providing the best of a wide range of the children’s books published yearly, we can safely leave the guidance of a child’s reading in their hands. Parents’ Responsibility But we cannot leave the sole responsibility with the librarians. It is not right that we should. The first acquaintance with books should come from the home. There are parents, though fortunately few, who allow their children to miss out on books until they either go to school or are able to read. I am certain that every parent is anxious that his child should do well at school, and that means basically, learning to read. Some children are not naturally equipped to learn to read easily, but I feel sure that a great deal can be done to help teachers in their work by introducing children to books long before they enter school. For bookloving parents it is a keenly anticipated pleasure to read to their children. I may add that it is a pleasure that sometimes palls as their now book-loving child gets out his favourite story for the fiftieth time. The right time to begin is when the child is ready to listen. Still, long before he can listen to a consecutive story, and this is often not until the age of three or later, a child can become familiar with books. He likes to recognise familiar

things and this early recognition later develops into an interest in homely stories about his everyday life. The child is, during his early years centred on home base, and simple little stories about home life with which he can identify himself are very satisfying to a tiny child. Some of the most successful books of this kind are the Lois Lenski “Little” series; “The Little Farm,” “The Little Train,” “The Little Aeroplane,” etc. The pictures in these first books need to be large, simple and clear. They also need to be whole. Children are frequently worried by a truncated picture. “Where are his feet?” they may ask. The pictures need to occupy a whole page and to be faithful to the simple text. Up to school age and beyond, a child will make a picture in a book completely his own. Every detail is very closely examined, interpreted and remembered.

And this is why I make a very strong plea that we as parents should do out best to provide our children with the very best picture books compatible with their interests. These first books are the ones that are certain to leave some of the most lasting impressions. These first books are the ones that will be pored over and listened to more often than any other books in later years: They will be literally loved to death. They will be remembered with fondness and perhaps wistfulness. Let them then, be worthy of memory. With a steady diet of suitable picture books, the child, by the time he is five, will already have quite a -ich mental life of his own. From his early introduction to simple books about familiar things in his own environment, he has now reached well beyond to make-believe. The naive but dignified Babar’s household will be as well known to him as his own. Mike Mulligan and his heroic steam shovel and Katy will have their appeal to the potential engineers. The animal loving child and the little housewife will have taken the Beatrix Potters to their hearts. And many a child will have shared the perils of the sea with Edward Ardizzone’s Little Tim. Poetry

Poetry too enters early into the life of a small child. The English speaking peoples have a particularly rich tradition of nursery rhymes and from the time a baby is jiggled on the knee to the clippety-clop rhythm of “Ride a Cock Horse” he has a constant succession of these nonsensical rhymes to delight him. A fairly recent and very beautiful book of these rhymes is “Lavender’s Blue.” Leslie Brooke’s jingling Johnny Crow verses with his delightfully funny drawings reflecting character in every line are for an early age too. This also is the time to introduce Ludwig Bemelman’s incomparable “MadeThe parents* responsibility for the provision of books lor their

child does not end with his mastery of reading. We should perhaps examine just what reading means to us, so that we can appreciate its importance to the children and also because our own example will be the best possible precept for them. Complete illiteracy is now hardly possible as it was when instead of books one could have a shrewd and detailed interest in a small Community and its natural surroundings. Now we are committed to large political units and intricate communications to hold it together. Printing and general literacy are essential to the modern large state. Those who claim they can’t read an income tax form get caught eventually. Into this complex world with its strains and its stresses, our children will grow up. If they are to participate in its life they must be at home in its intricacy. Not only will a great deal of information be relevant to their lives, they will have to hold to their own identity and not become cogs in a great machine. Informational and scientific books will equip them for their work, "literary” books will help them to keep their

humanity intact. Along with music and the graphic arts, literature keeps a place for pleasure in life, and some such emotional relief seems' to be necessary for mental health in the modern world. If we are more interested in seeing our children grow up with learning to become cultivated men and women, then we shall continue to give our thoughful guidance in reading. Censorship

This raises the question of censorship. There are some who believe that it is desirable, even necessary, that children be exposed to vulgarity, so that they may establish their own standards of taste without the danger of developing a priggish insincerity. This is an attitude that holds its own horrors. A great deal of the second rate and trashy is bound to come to the child in any case. The real danger lies in missing what is best for him at any given time. When we see him deeply absorbed in the comics or the Biggies series we should see to it that there are other books of higher literary merit around too. The distinguishing feature of the second rate book is not necessarily its faulty grammar, construction and characterisation, though these

are all marks of mediocrity. Its effect is usually more insidious. In very many instances they play upon basic psychological weakness. The “in” group include those who conform to some given standard, the “hut” group are those others who are different—and therefore are to be feared and condemned. Such values planted early in childhood form the nucleus of a set of prejudices which now more than ever with the steady emergence of the Asian and African peoples is likely, in the mass, to create many difficulties in the way of mutual understading.

In order to be aware of what our children are reading throughout their childhood, we will have to come to know some of today’s books fo: children. It is . not enough to depend on one’s own knowledge of the classics though they of course must not be overlooked. One’s childhood is incomplete surely, without Winnie-the-Pooh, Alice, The Wind in the Willows, Dr. Dolittle, Treasure Island and the stories of Andersen and Grimm, to name only a few. Once a child is beyond the picture book stage and his reading interests are encouraged, there is a rapid extension and deepening of his range of interests through realistic and family stories, fairy tales, myths and legends, animal stories and the humorous and whimsical to adventure, historical fiction, biography and factual books. Hundreds of worthwhile books by authors of integrity have been published in these fields since we were children. Librarian’s Help This is where your librarian can help you. Besides the personal advice she can give you, there are books which are valuable guides to children’s reading and present day books. A few of these are ‘‘About books for children” by the New Zealand librarian Dorothy Neal White, who, on the publication of her book in 1946, became an international authority on children’s books; “Four to Fourteen” by Kathleen Lines, “Books for Boys and Girls” by Jean Thomson, and “Your Child’s Reading Today” by Josette Frank. There are also publications which deal with current books for children. The English “Junior Bookshelf” and the American “Horn Book” and the lists compiled by the New Zealand National Library Service are all valuable guides. There are many difficulties in the way of parents taking an active interest in what their children are reading of course. It is not at all easy for the busy mother with a young family to arrange for her children to visit the library regularly, particularly if there is no childen’s library in her suburb. The school, naturally, can do much to promote leisure reading but schools are closed for three months of the year. Perhaps we can look forward to a mobile service which will serve depots in the suburbs.

However, the first and major responsibility remains with the parents because it is from the home that the-initial stimulus to read comes. It is not necessary to stage pitched battles over what seems to us deplorable reading matter. At the same time, I certainly do not think we should adopt a laissez-faire attitude. We should ensure that there is easy access to good books—books that satisfy children's own personal interests as well as having literary merit