As I was saying...

One of the regular, if intermittent (hmmm...) features of this blog before the whirlwind of news precipitated by Terri Schiavo/John Paul II and Benedict XVI was a look a children's books. I'm not an expert by any means, but for some reason people ask me  to talk about children's books from time to time. So I like to just tell you about the good stuff Joseph's been reading. This isn't about the classics - it's about new stuff that your children might enjoy.

One of my rules of thumb regarding any kind of children's literature is We Hate Messages. I call it "prescriptive literature" - books as medicine to fix what's wrong with you. Of course literature teaches and heals, but books that expressly set out to do so usually fail, especially as literature.

Over the past fifteen years or so, children's literature has, of course, been intent of fixing the ill of "intolerance" by pushing "diversity" in children's stories. And I don't mean simply presenting the world as it is (which is, by definition and experience, diverse) by by telling us all What a Good Thing It Is To Be Diverse, etc.

Those books are lame.

However - I'm always on the lookout for good stories from different cultures, and that present little Farmer Joe from Indiana with a wider vision of life (although I must say, down at the playground on Sunday afternoons, he's usually the whitest boy there by a long shot), and here are a couple of recent finds:

Papa, Do You Love Me? really grabbed me - set in the Maasi culture, it's this absolutely wonderful conversation between father and son - far better than most of those "I love you thiiiiiis much" books - in which the father explains his love for his son completely within the context of their culture, but still totally understandable by Farmer Joe. It's a sequel to Mama, Do You Love Me (linked on that page), set in Alaksa.

Let's Eat covers a week in the life of a family in a Spanish village. Every day, the mother tells her son to gather up the extended family for dinner, and every time one can't make it. On the next-to-last day, Mama herself isn't there - because she's off having a baby, but on the next Sunday, everyone is there together. It's a warm portrayal of a lively, energetic family, casual descriptions of their food, from empanadas to sardinas, all focused in on how good it is for us to all be together. Charming.

Not on the diversity front (unless you're an amphibian), I have to mention this new one we read tonight, Tadpole's Promise which currently has two terrible reviews from Amazon reviewers, but I thought it was hysterical. It starts out being, you think, all about change, etc...and it threatens to be prescriptive, although it's so well told, you can forgive it. And then there's this...twist at the end. That one reviewer found inappropriate for the young 'uns, but, as I said, I found quite funny. And almost a purposeful snipe at Good For You books.

Comments

[Mike]

I'm interested in any children's books that are available on CD. My kids like to listen as they are falling asleep at night (I know they should be reading the stories, but better that they listen than not experience the stories at all). They're especially fond of the Rabbit Ears series, which has classic stories and original music adapted for the story. Any recommendations out there?

[Meggan]

Regarding diversity in children's picture books... I would love to see more books where the characters "just happen" to be non-white. So many of the books featuring people of other colors or cultures are, as you say, message driven. As one who looks for books to read to the mostly black and brown children who come to my storytimes, I have a hard time. As my co-worker always says, "Why can't there be a Mr. Gumpy's Outing where Mr. Gumpy is black?

But things are changing a bit.

One of my favorite relatively recent books is "Let's Get a Pup!" Said Kate by Bob Graham. It's diversity is not racial - the family is white. But, Mom has a tatoo and a nose ring and Dad has earrings. It's sort of a punkish family, but not disturbingly so. I just thought it was surprising to see a different sort of family portrayed. And, it has nothing to do with the story. The characters could have been any sort of person or animal.

One of my favorite "diversity" books of the past is The Spoon Necklace by Opal Dean Young. It's one of those cheapy supermarket books - a subgroup of the Little Golden Books.
The story is something about a little rabbit's troubles at dinner time. It was published in 1986, which seems like yesterday, but was a lifetime ago in the world of children's lit.
The surprising thing is that the family consists of a Daddy rabbit, his five or so kids and their housekeeper. No mom. This single parent family doesn't figure into the story's plot at all. It "just happens" to be a single parent family. In 1986 that was old hat for TV or the movies, but it wasn't something that you'd see in children's books.

[Danielle]

Mike,

We love Jim Weiss at our house. Soothing music and classic stories, all told in a wonderful bed-timey way...

The CDs are each about 60 minutes which makes them great for kids to listen to in their beds.

[Ellen]

I teach children's literature. All this heavy handed emphasis on "diversity" is our generation's didacticism. The Puritans and the Victorian were just as preachy in different areas.

I love Doreen Cronin's books, Click, Clack Moo (which one of my students described as Animal Farm for kids), Duck For President and Diary of a Worm. Kids love them, and so do adults.

[Matthew]

I have to say I am not a big fan of Diary of a Worm. My (3 yr old) son wanted to read it every night for about a week, but other than that it has sat on the bookshelf untouched. There are a few clever jokes, but nothing that he understands. I must admit, though, to being amused by the insult he throws at his mirror gazing sister, that try as she might, her face will always look like her rear end.

[Mike]

Danielle-

Thanks for the tip. I actually discovered Jim Weiss a couple of weeks ago.

Have you ever listened to the Rabbit Ears stuff? It's really well done. Classic stories are narrated by Hollywood actors and well known musicians craft original scores to accompany them. This is an area in which Hollywood has really done a fine job. My favorites: Paul Bunyan (narrated by Jonathan Winters, with music by Leo Kottke), Tailor of Gloucester (narrated by Meryl Streep with music by the Chieftains), Fool and the Flying Ship (narrated by Robin Williams with music by Los Lobos), Annie Oakley (narrated by Keith Carradine with music by ?) and Mose the Fireman (narrated by ? with music by Steely Dan). Last night my son was listening to 3 Billy Goats Gruff, which is narrated by Holly Hunter, and he exclaimed, upon hearing it: "Hey, that's Mrs. Incredible!" There are a bunch of others. These were all done in the late 80s/early 90s apparently. They are really wonderful, and I'm looking for more of something similar. You can get them at your local library.

[Anne-Marie]

The older kids' version of what Amy calls "prescriprtive literature" is what our family calls "problem books"--as in, "In this tender and bittersweet novel, the author sensitively portrays the problem of anorexia among adolescent girls...." It seems to be almost all that's published for the 13- to 16-year-old set.

If you like Tadpole's promise, you'll like "Donald and the..." by Peter Neumeyer, illustrated by Edward Gorey. Donald finds a worm, which his wose and beautiful mother allows him to keep, and it turns into a

six-legged
big-eyed
shiny-winged

[Anne-Marie]

...housefly.

[Ronyell Coaxum]

I love the Rabbit Ears series too!!! My most favorite ones have to be:
"The Fool and the Flying Ship" by Robin Williams
"John Henry" by Denzel Washington
"Princess Scargo and the Birthday Pumpkin" by Geena Davis
"Pecos Bill" by Robin Williams
"The Tiger and the Brahmin" by Ben Kingsley
"East of the Sun West of the Moon" by Max Von Sydow
"The Emperor and the Nightingale" by Glenn Close
"The Fisherman and his Wife" by Jodie Foster
"Peter Rabbit and Jeremy Fisher" by Meryl Streep
and so much more!!!
This fantastic series should be cherished by all children!!!