Thursday, October 16, 2008
Kiddie Lit
Last night, as I was reading some books to the kids, I had a revelation. I finally figured out what bothers me about modern children’s literature.
There’s no story to most of these books.
No protagonist, no antagonist, no dramatic tension, no conflict, no resolution, no climax… nothing at all. Typically just animals talking to each other, doing cute yet utterly pointless things.
Maybe that’s why Harry Potter is so popular. It has a story, and an interesting compelling one at that.
This all let to a discussion with my son about what defines a classic. It’s interesting walking through different sections of the library. The kid’s section is packed with books, most of them garbage. Then there are other sections with books fifty or a hundred years old. There was plenty of junk published back then too, but over time, the junk is forgotten and the quality endures. Unfortunately, the librarians and presumably the patrons as well don’t seem to insist on quality for new books. Just throw everything on the shelves, and every twenty years we’ll throw out the stuff that no one has read in ten years.
Then what’s left after a couple iterations is the classics.
I’m glad this filtering mechanism exists, it makes it a lot easier to pick books. It’s also why I tend to look at the copyright date of kid’s books before anything else.
New - *toss*
New - *toss*
New - *toss*
Old - ahhh, now this we need to look at more closely
It’s not a sure thing, of course, but it works pretty well. And it filters out all of the multicultural and environmentalist garbage out, right off the bat.
Another thing I’m finding interesting is how much classic literature is actually ancient mythology repackaged for modern audiences. Last night, Thumbelina was going to be forced to marry the rich mole. Persephone and Hades, anyone?
Good stories never die. Bad stories only clutter up the shelves and make the good ones harder to find.
Comments
-
“There’s no story to most of these books.
No protagonist, no antagonist, no dramatic tension, no conflict, no resolution, no climax… nothing at all. Typically just animals talking to each other, doing cute yet utterly pointless things.”
Yep, political correctness is insideously creeping into everything. Can’t have anyone being offended, after all.
Morris | 10/16/2008 10:14 PM CDT -
I’ve found that stories that I enjoyed as a child frequently hold up well today. I convinced my girls to start reading the “Freddy the Pig” series and “My Side of the Mountain”. Even when it’s not great literature it is frequently better than the stuff coming out today.
Papapete | 10/17/2008 08:48 PM CDT -
Can’t have the little ones exposed to morality/good/evil before the education system gets ahold of them. To hard to program them if their eyes are open.
emdfl | 10/18/2008 01:01 AM CDT -
My kids love the Narnia series even more than I did.... ‘course, they are smarter than I was at that age.....
jimbob86 | 10/18/2008 01:10 AM CDT -
Wandered over this way from Kim DuToits’ site. If you are looking for something to read to kids I highly recommend “The Just So Stories” by Rudyard Kipling. My kids are in their 20s but still enjoy those. And for reading out loud to a slightly older than grade school age group, some of the poetry of Robert Service is always fun.
Rey B | 10/29/2008 01:29 PM CDT -
I agree with you! No dramatic tension, no conflict, no resolution, no climax… nothing at all. Typically just animals talking to each other, doing cute yet utterly pointless things.”
literature racksliterature racks | 11/1/2008 04:11 AM CDT -
Swallows and Amazons series was/is amazing and every child/young adult should read them. They rank with C.S. Lewis but there was no fantasy.
and, to plug my little sister’s books, The Thief, Instead of 3 Wishes, etc, are also quite good.
Curtis | 11/25/2008 03:14 AM CDT -
“No protagonist, no antagonist, no dramatic tension, no conflict, no resolution, no climax… nothing at all. Typically just animals talking to each other, doing cute yet utterly pointless things.”—This could describe a great deal of current “grown up” literature, not just children’s literature. Like any genre, there is good and bad, hideous and sublime.
We are lucky right now, to be experiencing a “golden age” of literature for young people, thanks VERY MUCH to Harry Potter. I would encourage you, as a blogger to check in with the thriving Kidlitosphere to find out about some of the splendid new fiction that is available to kids today.
One glorious benefit of the Harry Potter effect has bee a renewed interest in classic children’s fiction as well as a hunt for new, exciting storytellers.
BookMoot | 11/26/2008 11:49 AM CDT -
There was a series of books written in the late 19th century, the author of which I can’t bring to mind off hand (and apparently I didn’t buy it from Amazon), but it placed a boy in various historical situations and then over time maneuvered him into a position to meet and apparently work with or for a major historical figure.
I bought one of these for my nephew, the title of which escapes me but I think has something like “With Hannibal” in it, and it was a fine read for a young mind, always showing the boy behaving admirably.
Though I must admit I hadn’t read any fiction in quite a few years when I bought that book (and read it to screen it, being dubious about anything published for children in recent generations), I can observe that a description of the threat from wolves in Spain surprised me at how quickly it pulled me in and built worry over the protagonist.
TraitorHater | 4/16/2009 03:54 AM CDT
