BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS for children j. c. sturm some people read books and some people don't. That is a fact the world over, and it makes no difference what country, nation, or “racial group” you think of, providing, of course that written material is available to them. Those who read can hardly imagine life without books, and those who don't read find it difficult to understand the person who can put his nose in a book and keep it there for two or three hours without dying of sheer boredom. But this doesn't mean that some people are born to be readers and some are not. Reading books is rather like eating oysters—it's an acquired taste, and you can't really say that you don't like oysters until you've tried them once or twice and given your palate a chance to make up its mind. Most of us can't afford to develop a passion for oysters in our children, but giving them the opportunity to form the reading habit is a different matter. You might counter this by saying that school gives the child a chance to become fond of books. Not always. Reading in schools is usually reading for a purpose: it is something the child is expected to learn, but not necessarily to enjoy. A friend of mine once told me about a little boy (he went to school and had learnt to read) who used to come and play with her children. Often she would find him sitting beside the bookcase looking with a kind of suspicious awe at the books, but he never made any attempt to take one off the shelf, and when asked if he would like to take one home he said that his mother wouldn't let him because it might get torn or dirty. A pretty feeble reason for denying her child a harmless pastime that would cost her less than sending him to the pictures every wet Saturday afternoon, creates less “mess” than most other things a normal child wants to do, and would help him indirectly with almost every branch of his school-work. Most teachers would agree that a child who does some reading in his spare time can cope with his schoolwork more easily than a child who does not. But I think, for the primary school child anyway, that the pleasure of reading, rather than its educational value, should be stressed. If the book is enjoyed, any information it contains will be absorbed effortlessly. For those of you who allow your children to have books, if and when they want them, either their own or library copies, all this will seem so elementary as to be a waste of printers' ink, but the following list of titles and authors may be of some help in choosing Christmas presents or when looking for something in the junior library. All the books mentioned should be available in libraries and on sale in good book-shops. For the sake of my own convenience I have divided the books roughly into four age-groups but it must be understood at the outset that this division is purely arbitrary and that children differ greatly in their reading ability. For instance, some of the books listed for the oldest group might in fact be too difficult for some children in standards five and six and on the other hand might be appreciated immediately by some children in the younger groups. Another point worth mentioning is that most children can understand and enjoy books which they couldn't possibly cope with by themselves if an older person will read them aloud. Picture Books I've yet to meet a young child who doesn't like looking at pictures. This is one of the main reasons for the popularity of comics. (Incidentally, a child who enjoys a good comic, that is, one with some body to it, will usually enjoy a well-illustrated book with a fast moving story.) I must admit that of all the books I read when preparing this page I enjoyed the pre-school and primers group the most. The best of these have gay cover designs (the cover is most important to the young child who cannot read, because it takes the place of the title), are delightfully illustrated, and the language is clear, straight-forward and forceful. Some of the stories are little more than explanations of the illustrations. Good examples of the picture book are The Sleepy Little Lion by Margaret Wise Brown, which is illustrated with large close-up photographs of a baby lion, and Watch the Pony Grow by William Hall, where each paged illustration is just a little larger than the previous one, till on the last page the pony is found fully grown. Children love this kind of device, also pop-up pictures, and if I were trying to interest a young non-reader in books I think I would start off with this one. Moving on to picture-books with longer stories there is a range of subjects to suit