Trend To Realism In Children’s Books

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30836, 23 August 1965, Page 12

Trend To Realism In Children’s Books

Children’s Book Week is now a well-established and pleasant part of the August school holidays for children, parents, teachers, and others interested. For the displays and talks which have been arranged, they are indebted to the interest, imagination, and industry of libraries, booksellers, publishers, and special committees. The theme of one display in Christchurch is, appropriately, the 100 years since the publication of “ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland No generation of youngsters has been as well served with reading matter as the present, however much parents may deplore neglect by their children of the cherished books of their youth. Tastes have changed among young readers as well as old. At the beginning of *• Teach Your Baby to Read ”, Glenn Doman quotes a story about two five-year-old kindergarten boys standing in the school playground as an aeroplane flashes by overhead. One says the aeroplane is supersonic and the other asserts that the wings are not swept back enough. As the school bell rings and interrupts their discussion, one child says: “ We’ve got to stop “ now and go back to stringing those damn beads ”. Apocryphal or not, the story illustrates the problems of writers and publishers in meeting the reading tastes of the children of today. Technological marvels are part of their daily life; and this no doubt accounts for the emphasis on “ real-life stories ” in so much of today’s literature for children. Science fiction is the fairy-tale of the times for young and old alike. Few adults would now care to draw a line between the improbable and the impossible; and the young see no need to attempt the distinction. Social problems are faced realistically by presentday writers and publishers of books for the young. “Young Mother”, a story for older girls recently published in England, is a good example. It deals with the problem of the unmarried mother sincerely and straightforwardly—a healthy antidote to the whispers and sniggers which unfortunately often accompany the process of “ natural enlightenment ” in the playground and elsewhere. The greater realism of present literature for youngsters is perhaps an acknowledgement that children cannot today be kept isolated from the adult world. And children, like adults, want their reading to deal with things that are relevant to themselves.