Need To Wean Children From Comics To Books

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30396, 21 March 1964, Page 2

Need To Wean Children From Comics To Books

Leading a child from comics to good books is like weaning a baby—a matter of arousing its interest in a new flavour and offering it something to tempt its appetite, says Miss Kaye Webb, editor of the Puffin and Peacock books, London.

; “Weaning is the word. You must help a child by first whetting its appetite, not by ramming a whole meal down its throat at once,” she said in Christchurch yesterday.

AU children wanted to read comics, she added. Reading was difficult for them and they would go for what was easy. They had to be helped to read progressively and this was a case for co-operation between parents and librarians. Children would never progress from comics unless someone helped them. “Many parents think that if children learn to read they will look after themselves, but this is not true. “If parents do not know what to choose for children, librarians will. The role of the librarian is tremendously important today,” she said. Own Taste Miss Webb said it was the aim of Puffin books to provide the best reading available for young children at prices they could afford themselves, so that they could build up their own libraries. As they wanted to move from the adventures of childhood to explore the more adult world, they graduated to Peacock books, she said. Miss Webb, who is the wife of the British humorous artist, Ronald Searle, is a journalist and broadcaster as well as children’s book editor. Their twins, Kate and John, are now nearly 17.

“I came to AustraUa and New Zealand to let people know what we are trying to do with children’s paperbacks,” she said. “I was invited to speak at the conference of the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand at Hamner and this seemed a good way of kicking off, with all those booksellers under one roof,” she said. Conference Attitude Miss Webb said she had been most impressed by the conference, by the seriousness and deep feeling with which delegates talked about selling books and about censorship.

“They were not like men out to make money, but men

who really cared about literature,” she said. While away from London, Miss Webb will send taped talks on Australia and New Zealand to the 8.8. C. for “Women’s Hour.” “I shall also write an article on my round-the-world trip for the magazine, ‘Young Elizabethans’,” she added. “Lddy Fergusson was editor of this magazine before I took over from her.” Miss Webb is looking forward to meeting Lady Fergusson again, whdm she has known for 10 years, while visiting New Zealand. Dunedin Contacts In Dunedin this week-end, Miss Webb will visit Mrs F. A. de Hamel, wife of the District Medical Officer of Health, who taught her daughter, Kate, at Queen’s College, London. - . Another link with Dunedin comes through her friendship with the celebrated writer of children’s books, 82-year-old Eleanor Farjeon. Miss Farjeon’s father, Benjamin Leopold Farjeon, was associated with the founding of the “Otago Daily Times” and Miss Webb wants to see the Farjeon Collection at the Dune, din Public Library and report back to her friend. .