This week I took a trip to the library. Well, a couple of libraries, really. I wanted to do some reading. Firstly, I wanted a sampler of some of the stuff out there in the realm of children's literature. Secondly, I wanted to do some critical reading on the field.
I went to my local library and asked the children's reference librarian for some advice. She was really helpful and I got a lot of books from among the best of children's lit -- old stuff, new stuff, the whole gamut. It probably looked a bit odd to see a nineteen-year-old sitting on a child-sized stool in the children's section, poring over a stack of picture books, but I had a great time. I spent about an hour in the library, then checked out a small mountain of books. I've decided to make it a weekly pilgrimage. Every week I'll check out ten books. They're pretty small, so it doesn't take much time to read them, but I think it's the best thing for me. It always helps to build on the success of others' ideas.
After that, I stopped by Adams Library to hunt down some titles one of the children's lit professors here had recommended me. I'm still waiting for some of those to come in, but I picked up a few books that look critically at children's literature including the illustrations therein. So I've had fun reading up on that, too but still have a lot more to read.
Anyway, right now I'm re-devouring anything by Chris Van Allsburg and Brian Selznick. There are so many reasons to love their work, but one of the things that I really like is that, yes, they write for children, but they don't simplify things because their audience is young. Difficult issues are discussed and there's no "talking down to" the reader. A lot of children's lit does that. But life is complicated, even when you're young, and children understand that. I know I hated books that treated me like a child when I was younger, and I'm determined not to write like that. Is writing for children the same as writing for adults? Of course not. But you don't have to "dumb something down" or over-simplify because children are reading your work. Children are curious and they work hard to learn and understand things.
The other thing I love about Van Allsburg and Selznick is how beautifully integrated the artwork is with the text. The two mediums really work together and don't feel like separate parts, but rather one whole.
Anyway, I'm going to keep reading and keep learning. I'll keep you updated on my findings.
I think that it's great you have started reading books and collecting data! It seems like you are finding important trends that will certainly help you with your project. I agree that it is super important for an author not to talk down to their audience, even if it is for children!
ReplyDeleteGabe: OMG, I love those two authors, too! I think you're doing the perfect thing by reading and reading and reading children's books. You might check out The Arrival by Shaun Tan. It contains no words, and maybe it would be good to look at a book that doesn't need words to better understand how words may (or may not!) be necessary in all the stories you plan to tell. I think another activity that might be engaging for you, Gabe, is to begin to keep a notebook of story ideas, if you haven't started already. Story ideas are everywhere, and I bet a guy like you is looking at the world all day long, dreaming up stories to tell. So, write them down as they pop into your head. As you're immersing yourself in the stories of others, don't get stuck in their narratives...continue to spin your own along the way! Keep going!
ReplyDeleteAlso, something to note: Save the date...October 19th, 2013 is the next Rhode Island Festival of Children's Books and Authors!
I will certainly check that book out. And I did hear about that festival. I was mad I missed it last year; Chris Van Allsburg was actually there, as I understand. But I'll certainly make the trip this year.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have been gathering ideas, but I have yet to pen them yet. I like how science fiction writer Orson Scott Card describes it. He says that writers must go through life with an "idea net." A writer must trawl this net through every experience for ideas that may at some point become a story. So I've been casting that net around and you're right, I think I have enough ideas to start compiling and making something out of them.
I work at the Co-Op preschool on campus and I read books to the children. I must say that I learn things in those books that I have never heard of or learned before. I feel so silly but at the same time so impressed by these children books. The best part about reading children books, to me, are the illustrations. I love the illustrations and the different ways of art work I get to see in children's books; from water colors, to charcoal. I wish the books I read in college or even high school had illustrations.
ReplyDeleteI had this parent at my job who used a book at the preschool for children about the human body/skeleton to study for her anatomy exam!!!! I thought that was so funny and once again impressed of the knowledge that are in those children's books.
Thanks for reading. Yeah, I think a lot of people dismiss how much we can learn from "children's" literature. How different are adults from children really? We all read because we want to learn, we want to experience something.
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