Children's Literature

The last time I really read children’s books was when I was about 7 years old, and since then I have forgotten how simplistic the language is, but I never noticed how in tune with our senses and how political they can be.

The first of the stories played on the readers’ sense of sound mentioning the noises that even the sand makes. The narrator even said that his name became music in the symphony of sound that is his city. The narrator also played on the ideas of color. Using sounds and colors definitely adheres to a child when they are learning to read. This book though the actions of the characters are specific to Arabic culture the ideas about wanting to grow strong, being excited about a secret, and proud of learning to write our names in entirely universal.

The second story we were told to read was definitely more political than any of the children’s books I read as a child; but perhaps that is just due to the culture I live in, a culture where censorship is extreme, especially towards children. The books I read were ones like the orange cat put on a red hat and the dog wants to play. I did however read one book that was sort of political called Tiki Tiki Tembo by Arlene Mosel, but that was merely about how parents name their children in China. The way this second book was written seemed like it was targeted for a slightly older child perhaps third or fourth grade, but even still the narrator seemed so young to have been so comfortable with the danger he lived in. Furthermore, it seemed like the children were being used as political bait, when they were sent to march against the violence. Even beneath the political aspect of this story it still played on senses and the idea of growing strong.

Reading these books makes me think that perhaps I should re-look at some of my favorite childhood stories.