CMIS Evaluation Primary Focus

Used with permission HarperCollins (ABC Books)

Recently published is a must-have resource for all school libraries and parents’ bookshelves.  Entitled 1001 Children’s Books you must read before you grow up, it includes one page reviews (many by well-known authors) of the best of children’s and adolescents’ books from different countries and from different periods of history.  These are grouped into broad age bands: 0-3, 3+, 5+, 8+ and 12+, and most are illustrated with the original cover art.

The preface, written by Quentin Blake, and the introduction, written by the general editor, Julia Eccleshare, are well worth reading.  Blake takes us inside the illustrator’s head and gives a valuable insight into how he dialogues with the text, with the prospective reader in mind, to produce his pictures. He also spotlights the professional concerns which authors face in writing children’s books. Eccleshare writes about the selection as being “a lesson in history and cultural change as much as it is a journey of literary discovery.  Snapshots of attitudes to children, expectations of them, and messages thought suitable for them are all held within the pages of these stories.” (p.11)

With the release in the US and Canada last week of the movie Where the Wild Things Are (although made in Australia, we won’t see it until 3 December), the mainstream media seems to have rediscovered children’s literature. Or more specifically, children’s picture books.  And they don’t always like what they see.

In the New Yorker today, critic Daniel Zalewski has penned a lengthy essay entitled ‘The Defiant Ones’ in which he cites changes in the tone and messages of  picture books over the past 40 or so years. Parents no longer rule, it seems:

Many recent picture books offer inventive variations on the theme of parental subjection. Consider a recent entry in the “Knuffle Bunny” series (Hyperion), by Mo Willems, which revolves around the obsessive relationship between Trixie, a Brooklyn girl, and her plush bunny. Trixie, beginning school in Park Slope, discovers that another girl owns the same toy. They accidentally switch bunnies. That night, Trixie wakes up and realizes that her comfort object is an alien impostor. She flips out—she wants Knuffle Bunny, now! Her dad sheepishly requests a reprieve: “Trixie’s daddy tried to explain what ‘2:30 A.M.’ means. He asked, ‘Can we deal with this in the morning?’ ” Trixie’s fixed stare makes clear that the answer is no. Salvation comes in the form of a ringing phone: the other girl’s father, equally cowed, has called to propose a handoff in Prospect Park. There’s an element of satire here, but the idea that children have executive authority is now so entrenched that many readers, old and young, are likely to consider a moonlit stuffed-animal exchange an ordinary turn of events.

The parents in picture books used to be tougher. In “Bedtime for Frances” (1960), a little badger—as clever as Olivia, but less snotty—devises various schemes for staying up late. (“I forgot to brush my teeth”; “There is a tiger in my room.”) The author, Russell Hoban, lets young readers root for Frances but makes clear that it’s not a game that the badger can win. Frances’s father—after reminding her that he needs sleep so that he can be ready for his job the next morning—calmly issues the threat of a spanking. Implied violence is probably not the ideal means of maintaining control. Yet, a few pages later, Frances is fast asleep.

The whole essay is worth a read, and maybe a comment. Is Zalewski right?

A School Library Journal survey of favourite picture books is now complete and the results can be viewed on their blog.

Top of the pops: Where the Wild Things Are (could the film possibly have influenced this?) but there are 100 other great titles to peruse and become acquainted with if you aren’t already.

If you look carefully (towards the end of the list, alas, but at least they are there) are two Mem Fox much-loved Aussie titles.

Our blogs are always happy to let readers know about anything to do with Neil Gaiman. Those who saw him at the 2008 CBCA Conference in Melbourne just over a year ago will be hoping that it’s not too long before he makes a return visit, although since his Newbery win he is in much demand in the northern hemisphere and has hardly stopped for breath.

Until we can see him again in person, here’s the next best thing. Neil reading his latest picture book, Blueberry Girl. One for all ages, with delightful illustrations. Thanks to the Things Mean A Lot blog that alerted us to this one.

And you do know about his video tour and reading of The Graveyard Book, don’t you?

They may not all have reached Australia, but it’s always nice to look. The New York Times has declared its selection of the best illustrated children’s books for 2008 with a slideshow. Here.