Why Kids Read
In An American Childhood, Annie Dillard lays bare what it means to read as a child and as an adolescent. It’s not necessarily what adults, particularly parents and teachers, think.
Read MoreIt was clear the adults, including our parents, approved of children who read books, but it was not at all clear why this was so. Our reading was subversive, and we knew it. Did they think we read to improve our vocabularies? Did they want us to read and not pay the least bit of heed to what we read, as they wanted us to go to Sunday school and ignore what we heard?
I was now believing books more than I believed what I saw and heard. I was reading books about the actual, historical, moral world–in which somehow I felt I was not living.
What I sought in books was imagination. It was depth, depth of thought and feeling; some sort of extreme of subject matter; some nearness to death; some call to courage. I myself was getting wild; I wanted wildness, originality, genius, rapture, hope. I wanted strength, not tea parties. What I sought in books was a world whose surfaces, whose people and events and days lived, actually matched the exaltation of the interior life. There you could live.
Those of us who read carried around with us like martyrs a secret knowledge, a secret joy, and a secret hope. There is a life worth living where history is still taking place; there are ideas worth dying for, and circumstances where courage is still prized. This life could be found and joined, like the Resistance. I kept this exhilarating faith alive in myself, concealed under my uniform shirt like an oblate’s ribbon; I would not be parted from it.
The Man, His Work, and Its Impact–The Dr. Seuss Controversy
Not one of Dr. Seuss’s finer moments. He did get better.
Maybe you’re not up on what’s going on with Dr. Seuss? For details of the current controversy, check out this and this.
I was going to post my thoughts, but I have to take a back seat to Grace Lin here: she says everything that needs to be said, thoughtfully and wisely and eloquently.
A few highlights:
We know that Dr. Seuss’s early career is filled with creations of racist propaganda. He drew horrible stereotypes against Jews, African-Americans–you name it…. However, as time passed, Geisel began to regret his earlier images. It is widely accepted that his beloved book, “Horton Hears a Who!” was his way of apologizing for his earlier art….That is what makes Geisel a good man and artist. Because he was willing to grow from his original mindset, realize the harm the his work could do and get better.
No artist deserves to be judged and dismissed on the basis of one work or one image. No artist gets to be judged and idolized only on the works he or she would prefer to be selected.
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What To Read When
Pam Allyn’s What to Read When is a great resource for parents and teachers trying to find that just-right book for a certain age or interest. What a thrill to find one of my own books included! Amazing Snakes is listed under “Research Books” for five-year olds. I love the idea of my books helping to inspire a love for science and a fascination with the natural world.
Allyn says, “What better way to introduce our kids to the value of exploration and research than to seize their interests and passions early on and and introduce them to books that will help them puzzle out the answers to their most fervent wonderings.” I couldn’t agree more!
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews