Why you should read Children's books by Katherine Rundell

Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise is the full title. Notice all those wonderful CAPITAL LETTERS!

I need to carry multiple copies of this book with me at all times. I read children's books. I blog here about children's books. I visit libraries to borrow children's books. I browse the kids section in bookshops so I can keep up with new titles and buy children's books AND I don't think there is anything wrong with that BUT when I explain this is what I do, people are astounded. Do you read adult books they ask? Yes I say but very infrequently and mostly I am disappointed in them. I see it in their eyes, their opinion of me slumps. How can anyone enjoy reading (almost exclusively) hundreds of children's books?  Thank goodness for Katherine Rundell - she gives voice to the things I think but cannot express as eloquently.  Katherine talks about the myth of reading in one direction. Moving from Spot to the Wild Things, on to Narnia and Catcher in the Rye then finishing your life with Finnegans Wake and Jacques Derrida. She argues this is totally wrong. The human heart is not a linear train. Here are a couple of quotes from this essay by Katherine Rundell:

Children's books when "read with an adult eye, have a different kind of alchemy in them." page 9

"Children's fiction necessitates distillation: at its best, it render in their purest, most archetypal forms hope, hunger, joy, fear. Think of children's books as literary vodka." page 12

Children's novels say: "look, this is what bravery looks like. This is what generosity looks like. They tell me, through the medium of wizard, lions and talking spiders, that this world we live in is a world of people who tell jokes and work and endure. Children's books say the world is huge." page 47

"Children's book are not a hiding place, they are a seeking place." page 62

This is a tiny little book, only 15cm tall, with just over 60 pages. It costs around $13. The publisher has given this book a bright red cover so I can be seen on a shelf - perfect. I highly recommend this little gem for all children's literature fans who face my struggles explaining why "you should read children's books even though you are so old and wise." Buy one for yourself and an extra copy or two for your friends.

The book is also intended to fight against the “outrageous and absurd” idea that adults who read children’s fiction should feel some kind of cultural shame. “I’m not arguing that adults should only read children’s fiction, but I’m arguing, very passionately, that adults who read children’s fiction are offered something which perhaps other fiction cannot provide: a kind of hope and hunger. The Book Seller

Books by Katherine Rundell: