/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.8673549]

What makes a good children's book?
I'm interested in writing stories that not only teaches the child something but also brings value to the parent reading it to the child.
What were some of your favorite childhood books. If you had a child, what would you read to them?

[Anonymous No.8673603]

>>8673549
Dr Seuss taught me to read and count more than the actual school did, then I stepped up to Beverly Cleary (does anyone still read her? Mine were all hand-me-downs), Hardy Boys books, and eventually the Hobbit. I'd give any of them to a kid, along with Brian Jacques who I didn't discover until I was too old, and Gaiman's younger-aimed work like Coraline.

[Anonymous No.8673619]

>>8673549

The Little Prince is in a weird limbo for me. I only read it as an adult after seeing it was apparently the highest grossing book of all time according to Wikipedia and because there was a French animated film adaptation that was getting good reviews.

The book is sad in ways that I'm not sure I'd want really little kids (my own if I had any) to read it, but it's also very clearly a children's book that isn't quite a proper chapter book like Roald Dahl's books or the Harry Potter books.

I'm not sure what age group is most appropriate to read The Little Prince.

[Anonymous No.8673648]

>>8673549
The best children's books (in the realm of fiction) tend to do similar things:

>don't talk or dumb down material
>have engaging illustrations
>not too long or too short
>use loads of literary techniques

being a good kid's author is tough as hell

Louise Ehler is a great one.

My personal favorite kid's book right now though is Fox by Margaret Wilde. It packs an intensity that most adult books lack

t. high school teacher married to a preschool teacher

[Anonymous No.8673781]

“The Little Prince” isn't meant to be read by children, it's an excuse to streamline his prose—compare with “Citadel”, which was left unachieved, and its dense, grave biblical tone—and address the adult audience through a sheer, allegorical tale. The baobabs represent the three axis powers. It carries on the same humanist, heroic vibe he expressed in “Wind, Sand and Stars”.

[Anonymous No.8673849]

>>8673549
>If you had a child, what would you read to them?

Probably the classics to start and then see what types they really like from there.

For me, when I was a kid, it was all about the bright pretty pictures and the fun the characters where having. Like, The Poky Little Puppy and Winnie The Pooh always managed to carry me off to far away places that made me really happy.

The Little Red Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings was also another one of my favourites. To an adult, the illustration of the rabbit is almost a bit creepy around the eyes, but when I was a kid all I thought about was how cool that rabbit looked when he got those red wings. And then later when everyone rejects him, I honestly really felt for him and even cried once when he finally got taken in. It didn't hold emotions back from the audience, and I really enjoyed that.

[Anonymous No.8673881]

>>8673549
Innocence.

[Anonymous No.8673909]

I would read them Dr. Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare, of course.

That praises are without reason lavished on the dead, and that the honours due only to excellence are paid to antiquity, is a complaint likely to be always continued by those, who, being able to add nothing to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox; or those, who, being forced by disappointment upon consolatory expedients, are willing to hope from posterity what the present age refuses, and flatter themselves that the regard which is yet denied by envy, will be at last bestowed by time.

Antiquity, like every other quality that attracts the notice of mankind, has undoubtedly votaries that reverence it, not from reason, but from prejudice. Some seem to admire indiscriminately whatever has been long preserved, without considering that time has sometimes co-operated with chance; all perhaps are more willing to honour past than present excellence; and the mind contemplates genius through the shades of age, as the eye surveys the sun through artificial opacity. The great contention of criticism is to find the faults of the moderns, and the beauties of the ancients. While an authour is yet living we estimate his powers by his worst performance, and when he is dead we rate them by his best.

*

These paragraph-sentences are like exploding volcanos.

[Anonymous No.8673972]

>>8673549
>books for children
>not songs

[Anonymous No.8674509]

>>8673972
>not songs and gymnastics

[Anonymous No.8674517]

>>8673549
>If you had a child, what would you read to them?
definitely:
Alice in Wonderland
Roald Dahl
The Hobbit
Classic myths and tales in kid-friendly forms

probably:
Chronicles of Narnia
Redwall series

maybe:
Inkheart/spell/death
Series of Unfortunate Events

[Anonymous No.8674576]

>>8673549
It's not a book per se, but if I ever have kids, I'm going to read Gunnerkrigg Court to them. I think it's the most kid-friendly story in all and any medium, *without* sacrificing all the "bad sides" of life. For instance there's murder and a character considered irredeemable. It also criticizes adults as much as it does the kid/ teenage/ young adult (they grow over the course of the story) protagonists and supporting characters. It's like what Harry Potter was supposed to be, but J.K. failed beyond the kids part, imo.
I was never that impressed with The Little Prince, both as a kid, and as an adult. As an adult I thought its points fairly obvious and a bit too idealistic with no constructive criticism for my taste. It's not bad, it's just above average. Unlike, for instance, Harriet the Spy which I found abysmally bad.
I'd also go with The Books of Magic by Gailman, Coraline too, Locke and Key (Joe Hill) and How to Train Your Dragon (Cressida Cowell) and Adrian Mole (Sue Townsend) and maybe certain Discworld books (Small Gods, the first two with Rincewind...)

[Anonymous No.8675041]

>>8674509
My dialectician

[Anonymous No.8675128]

>>8674576