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:

The Tooth Fairy by Peter Collington

Tuesday Treasure

Wordless, textless or silent books often contain very complex stories and if you take your time and quietly sit and 'read' them you are sure to enjoy the experience. The Tooth Fairy by Peter Collington is one of my favourites.

A young girl has lost her tooth. She places it in a tooth box beside her pillow. Outside the house we see a tiny fairy leaving her tree trunk home carrying a small, brightly glowing, lantern. The fairy lands on the forest floor where she lifts a huge stone door. The door reveals a long winding staircase heading down into an underground cavern.  In the cavern there is a trolley car on a track. It is filled with a pick-axe and spade. The tiny girl pushes the cart over to the walls of the cave and she begins to chip away at the rock. She places the rock fragments into her cart and heads back to the large equipment we saw earlier which turns out to be a smelter or furnace. The rock fragments are silver and, wearing protective gloves, the fairy melts the silver which she then pours into a mould in the shape of a coin.

The fairy retraces her steps back to the forest above. She flies across to the window in a human home. The fairy retrieves the tooth from the tooth box that we saw on the opening page and places the silver coin in the box. The fairy is so quiet the girl does not even stir in her sleep.

Now our tooth fairy has the tooth but what does she plan to do with it? We can see the fairy enter her tree trunk home. She places the tooth in a vice and she carefully cuts out an intricate shape. spoiler alert (this book is out of print) so I am going to tell you why she needed that tooth. Our beautiful fairy in her gossamer white dress has made a new key for her piano. The close up picture of the keyboard shows this is the final key and now she can sit down and play beautiful music.

Another book by Peter Collington that I adore is The Angel and the Solider Boy.  Take a look at this video with music by Clannad and narration by Tom Conti. Take a look here to see the full range of books by Peter Collington.  Here are some other wordless/textless books you could explore:

The Secret Sky Garden by Linda Sarah illustrated by Fiona Lumbers

I am going to quote some of the text first off because I just felt these words wrap around me when I read this utterly beautiful book:

"Funni liked the old airport car park.
It hadn't been use for year and was greyer than a Monday sky.
But Funni loved being there, 
hearing the planes take off and touch down,
while the blur rooftops stretched for miles like a calm still sea."

Funni spends her Saturdays at the old car park. She brings her kite and her recorder but it feels as though something is missing. She uses her recorder to imitate the sounds she hears - the tannoy, the whine of the planes and the bells of city square but it still feels as though something is missing.

Things need to change and so Funni hatches a plan. She decides to clean up the old car park and plant flowers. She picks up all the litter, squished cans and "other left behinds." After three Saturdays of hard work she plants her first seeds into the soil she has lugged in a sack.  Up in the sky a young boy, called Zoo, looks out the window of an aeroplane. He sees the flowers that now cover the old car park and he knows he must go there.

" (it's) a garden, there, in the air. full of flowers, bright like an emperor's blanket, nodding and waving - hello!"

Funni continues to play music, fly her kite and water her garden but something is still missing. It feels like a hole. Then Zoo arrives. What a beautiful page filled with flowers and cleverly designed to take the whole double spread as you turn the book longways. Zoo has bought his kite and his harmonica!  Take a minute now to compare the opening end papers and the final end papers. That's the best way to appreciate the miracle of this transformation. Yes the old concrete space is transformed but so are Funni and Zoo.

Urban renewal, friendship, determination and perseverance, creating an enriched environment and the search for happiness are the themes of this beautiful and seemingly simple picture book. But these themes are done with such a light touch - like a butterfly landing on your hand - you don't realise the magic of the moment straight away but if you stop and think about it you do. In one review I read of this book I saw words like uplifting, enchanting, 'make your heart sing.'

I learnt a new word reading this book. I love it when that happens - "tannoy". It means a loud speaker making announcements.

Take a look here to see the illustrations in this book by Fiona Lumbers. What a brilliant team - Linda Sarah and Fiona Lumbers. I hope they have plans to collaborate on another book soon.

After you read The Secret Sky Garden try to find these books which are also gentle tales of urban renewal (and in some cases friendship too):

 Read this review of The Curious Garden by Betsy Bird. I found myself applying so many of her comments about The Curious Garden to The Secret Sky Garden.

Linda Sarah is also the author of On Sudden Hill - another picture book I adored.

Carl and the Meaning of Life by Deborah Freedman

Watch this book talk by Colby Sharp. He uses the word - Breathtaking - I agree!

Carl and the Meaning of Life is a book about the interconnections of life on earth. Beneath the surface (yes Carl lives beneath the surface) you get a sense that a huge amount of scientific research went into the writing of this book but it is presented with such a light touch that it is only after reading about the role of Carl in our ecosystems that you marvel at what you have just learnt or discovered. This is a book that seems so simple but the meaning is so big. Carl is also a book about discovering yourself and your purpose.

Carl is not a bird, or a bear, or a beaver - he is an earthworm. He is happy with his life of burrowing, tunneling, digesting, feasting and casting turning hard dirt into fluffy soil until one day a field mouse asks a question. This question sounds innocent enough - why?

"Why?
Carl did not know why.
But now he needed to find out.
So Carl stopped making fluffy soil."

Do you remember Tenrec?

Carl, like Tenrec, sets off to find an answer. He asks every animal he meets:

"Why do I do what I do?"

He asks a rabbit, a fox, a squirrel and many others. His journey takes many days and the days turn into months. The ground becomes hard and barren. Nothing will grow. The birds fly away and the animals move on. Wandering through this now desolate land Carl meets a ground beetle. The ground beetle cannot find any grubs. That is when Carl notices the land is hard - there is no fluffy soil. Carl sets to work again munching, digesting, casting and tunneling to make the soil fluffy again. Over time the landscape is transformed above and below the surface. Balance has been restored.

The final page of this book has a quote about worms from Charles Darwin:
"It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organised creatures."

I would link Carl and the Meaning of Life with Leaf, Stone, Beetle by Ursula Dubosarsky. I would also compare this book with The Tin Forest by Helen Ward, Joseph's Yard by Charles Keeping and Cat on the Island by Gary Crew. If you want to extend your study of worms take a look at The Worm by Elise Gravel.

I was interested to read an interview with Deborah Freedman by The Children's Book Review. In this interview Deborah was asked about her own favourite illustrators and so I went off to explore her list. There are so many international names here. I read a review by Betsy Bird (Mr Noggibody gets a hammer by David Shannon) just today where she said US parents are not keen to buy books with different illustration styles. Looking at the list of illustrators mentioned by Deborah Freedman, who comes from Connecticut, I have some hope that books from around the world are reaching the US. In addition to the illustrators I have put here (one book cover from each) Deborah also mentioned John Burningham and Lizbeth Zwerger whose books you may already know.

 Anne Herbauts from Belguim

 Ayano Imai from Japan

 Beatrice Alemagna from Italy now lives in Paris

On my blog: What is a child?

 Byran Collier from USA

 Kveta Pacovska Czech Artist

 Maira Kalman born in Israel lives in USA

Marije Tolman Dutch illustrator

On my blog: Wolf and Dog

Nasrin Khosravi from Iran

On my blog another book by Uma Krishnaswami The Book Uncle and Me

You can listen to an with Deborah interview at The Yarn with Colby Sharp. Huge thanks to the library staff who alerted me to this wonderful book. Carl and the Meaning of Life was published in April 2019.

Here are two review comments about Carl and the Meaning of Life:

Freedman wraps up her story with a light touch, leaving it to readers to deduce the role of an earthworm in maintaining ecological balance. Horn Book

Freedman takes one worm’s curiosity about why he does things and cleverly transforms it into a look at the interconnected roles of animals and worms on the habitat they live in. Waking Brain Cells

Hug Me, Please! by Przemystaw Wechterowicz and Emilia Dziubak

"They gave each other the strongest, hardest, longest, 

largest and most loving hug of all."

If you have been reading this blog you will know I love finding books that have come from elsewhere in the world and have been translated into English. Hug me, Please! was originally written in Polish with the title Berenknuffels.  You met Przemystaw Wechterowicz when I talked about The Secret Life of a Tiger.

Hug me, Please is an utterly perfect book for a young child. Little Bear and Daddy Bear set off for a stroll. The enjoy some honey together and then decide to visit all their forest friends and offer each of them a hug. Why?  To brighten your day; to calm you down; to distract (the Big Bad Wolf so the little girl in red can skip away) and to make you feel good. They even hug the hunter!

"They were almost home when suddenly Little Bear sat down. 
'Dad, haven't we forgotten someone?'
Daddy Bear stopped. He counted everyone who lived in the forest.
'I'm pretty sure we've hugged everyone.'
'But Dad - think!'
Daddy Bear counted again. 'I give up, son. Who have we missed?"

Here is the trailer for the Polish animated television series based on this book - it looks delightful. Here is a different trailer in English with a very catchy song.

From front to back this book is a treasure. The copy in Australia has a different cover (paperback and hardback). Even in hardback this is not an expensive book. This book would be the perfect gift for a new baby or very young child.

A Wolf called Wander by Rosanne Parry illustrated by Monica Armino

"I begin in darkness and my nose tells me everything I know. 
I have a brother Sharp. Bigger than me, and all growl. I have sisters. Pounce, who loves to wrestle, and Wag, who talks with her tail. And best of all my brother Warm, who likes to curl up under my chin, the only pup small than me."

This is a quote from the beginning of A Wolf called Wander and I think it gives you an idea about the tone and style of this writing.

Over the course of the story we follow Swift as he wanders alone after his pack are attacked by a larger and more ferocious enemy wolf pack. He travels a huge distance through forests and plains searching all the time for a companion. Every day is about survival - food, water and a safe place to sleep. Luckily Swift does have one unlikely helper/companion - a raven. "Ravens do things for a reason. She is talking to me. She knows where to find meat. But for all their savvy, ravens have the wrong beak for opening a hide. They need someone with teeth to get at the meat." Swift also has to navigate past humans with their guns and their black rivers (roads) which seem impossible to pass safely.

I have a fascination with books about wolves and books written from their point of view. Perhaps this goes back to my reading of White Fang by Jack London when I was in Grade Six.  A Wolf called Wander is not for the feint hearted. As a part of his survival Swift (his name is changed to Wander at the end of the book) must kill and dismember animals such as elk. These scenes may distress a young reader.

The best scenes are when Swift is reunited with Warm, when he witnesses the birth of a wild horse foal and the final scenes when he meets his mate called Night and their pups are born. Reading this book you will feel as though you are inside the true thoughts of a wolf - his instinct and emotions. Rosanne Parry often says Swift has to "sit on his wag" when he is excited about something. I just love those words.

Listen to this audio sample from page 3. A Wolf Called wonder is an illustrated novel. The line drawings by Monica Armino are fabulous.


The book is from Swift’s perspective but I should be clear that this is not an attempt to anthropomorphise wolves – their behaviour and communication is in keeping with the animal. It’s almost like Parry has translated the behaviour for our benefit and understanding. Roachie's Review

Other books I have read and enjoyed about wolves include The Wolf Wilder; First Born and Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver.

Somebody and the three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst illustrated by Simone Abel

 Tuesday Treasure

I am smiling a huge smile just like Somebody, the little bear, you can see above. I adore this book and so after a couple of false starts I have finally tracked down a used copy and it arrived today! Yes, very sadly, this book is long out of print. It was first published in 1990.  Even though today is not Tuesday I just couldn't wait to share this treasure with you.

Begin with the title - Somebody - who is this somebody? Can you see a bear on the front cover? There are also three chairs and one is broken. Tap out a pattern of sounds - Gold-i-locks and the three bears versus Some-bod-y and the three Blairs.

Now open to the first page:

"One Sunday morning, in a small house on the edge of town, a family was sitting down to breakfast.
There was Mr Blair, Mrs Blair and Baby Blair."

The family decide to take a walk to the park and Baby Bear suggests they should "Feeda ducks."

"While they were gone, Somebody came to the door. Somebody knocked and, when no one answered, Somebody tiptoed in."

Notice all those capital letters - Somebody!  At this point your audience of young listeners will be laughing in anticipation. Clearly Somebody is going to taste the breakfast. It is not porridge in this modern house. Somebody finds a box and dips in his paw but it is too dry (cereal from the box), Somebody finds a bowl with milk but it is too noisy (rice bubbles). Of course one food is just right (a jar of honey). Now Somebody moves into  the lounge room to try out those chairs. One is hard, one is wobbly (a rocking chair) and one is just right - the baby high chair.

Somebody is keen to play a game so he heads into the kitchen. The tins of food are too noisy, the inside of the 'fridge is too cold but a game with flour, eggs and sugar is just right.

It is time to head upstairs to the bathroom. This rain is too hot (the showers), this pond is too small (see below for the illustration) but this stream (the sink) is just right.

Oh and notice the tap is still running. Somebody is tired so he heads into the bedroom to try out all the beds and of course falls fast asleep.

The Blairs arrive home.  You will love the voice of Baby Bear:
Honey jar "all gone".
His chair "bust".
Cake making in the kitchen "Naughty!"

"Somebody phone the police!' said Mr Blair.
'Somebody call the Fire Brigade!' said Mrs Blair.
'Somebody gone home,' said Baby Bear.
'Bye, bye. Come and play tomorrow."

Somebody and the Three Blairs works really well as a read aloud. I do hope you can track down a copy somewhere. I did find this video of the whole book. I think if I was using this I would turn off the sound and read the book myself with the images on a large screen. Read the Kirkus Star review.

The up-to-date details will provoke chuckles, as when Somebody holds a flexible shower nozzle over his head and realizes, ``This rain is too hot.'' This book, however, is just right. Publishers Weekly

You could compare Somebody and the Three Blairs with Goldilocks and just one Bear. Now take a look at this Pinterest with many other versions of this famous fairy tale. Reading a number of these versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears would be a brilliant mini unit with a young class.

With an older group you might like to also look at Me and You by Anthony Browne which gives another perspective on this famous tale.