October 22, 2005
reading
I might be illustrating a children's book, but I am a serious children's literature skeptic. My kids never used to read, didn't like it, weren't good at it. School teachers have always wanted to label them dyslectic. For lots of reasons, I never believed them. One of those reasons being that kid's books are just plain boring. Talking bears, that sort of stuff. As they get older, their reading (and writing) problems gradually vanish. Piffin is a now great Nabokov and Dostojevski fan, so I don't think she's very dyslectic. Otger is at a turning point. The Hobbit and Harry Potter. Then what? But now The Great Discovery. Maybe everybody but us has known about this for ever, but we haven't. Pendragon has got him reading! And how! Day and night, night and day. And even the website of the book cover illustrator!! Otger has been designing his things in Maya all afternoon, totally inspired. Ha!!!
Posted by eliane at October 22, 2005 08:00 PMConclusion?: Your kids did not like children's books? I see so much joy with children in reading and listening books, may it be with talking bears or the whole range of different childrenbooks that are to be found,(forgotten by you and swept in the corner of the talking bears kind, like your kids were swept in the dyslectic corner) boring and exciting. We're your children too serious and or mature to like them? As it seems they were not touched. Any way you sound happy and satisfied that they are touched now. it's always a great joy ofcourse to see your kids develop passions, especially if it's a passion you agree on. I see a lot of parents who are troubled by their kids passion for gaming, for instance.
Greetings
They have always enjoyed the books we read to them. But the books they could read for themselves were so often so so much too childish that they lost all enthusiasm.
Posted by: eliane at October 23, 2005 12:29 PMForgotten something.
I can imagine it must be terrible to listen as a little boy or girl to a mother who is reading the book skeptic to them. I certainly would start hating children's books. I should postpone my reading passion till the books I can handle would start to be "interesting".
If my comments give away some kind cutting feeling, you are probably right.
But nevertheless with the warmest feelings, Lex
Posted by: Lex vd Oudeweetering at October 23, 2005 12:35 PMI am not at all skeptic about reading to children. It was the books they were supposed to read by themselves that were a problem. I did not invent this problem, it occurred. And to both of them. I was a very different child myself, I read the complete Enid Blyton oeuvre for example. But neither of my children could read fluently before grade three or four, believe it or not. Just imagine being 8 years old and still being confined to first reader's stuff. Boooooooooooooooooring.
Posted by: eliane at October 23, 2005 12:41 PMOK, now I see what you mean. I didn't quite get it from just reading the post. It's an interesting problem. I heard the reading method that's used these days in grade 3 ('eerste klas') traded in the talking bears for a truly scary monster. Now children have nightmares from their reading classes. Certainly not boring!
As an aside, I would not label any of those early reading books 'children's literature'. For me, that comes later, with Schmidt (forgive her the talking bear), Lindgren, Dahl, and all the others.
Posted by: Bianca at October 23, 2005 10:41 PMGreat idea, the scary monster!! Otger was starting to get interested in words in kindergarten. Words like "boem, knal, vuur, auto". But then he was totally turned of by "maan, roos, vis". And unfortunately they were never good enough readers to master Lindgren or Dahl at the appropriate age. Strangely enough Piffin suddenly read Gaarder's Sophie's world, and Rushdie's Haroun and the sea of stories, she was 10 or 11 or so. And then she lived happily ever after. I can't explain it.
Posted by: eliane at October 24, 2005 07:08 AM