Booking Through Thursday Archives
With J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince making its sensational debut last weekend I started thinking about children’s books. There have been a lot of wonderful ones over the years, The Cat in the Hat, Where the Wild Things Are, Bambi, the Mother Westwind stories, the Chronicles of Narnia, the Chronicles of Prydain, Nancy Drew, and on and on.
1. As an adult, do you own children’s books?
2. If you do, do you still read them even when there are no children around?
3. What were your favorites as a child? Now?
It depends where the line between young adult and children’s books is drawn, really. I have a couple books for about eight year olds and beyond. I do own quite a few that tread lines between young adult and adult.
Oh, but I do own a few younger books, having just looked at my shelves. My favourites from childhood.
I still read them now, yes, for many reasons. I still gain pleasure from them and they remind me to enjoy the simple things in life. However, they also serve a purpose in that they are the basics in storytelling. Basic themes, wants, problems, solutions… If you’re a beginning writer, it’s good to start from the basics.
My favourites were The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, The Lorax by Dr. Suess, The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein, and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. There were, of course, many many more, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.
Even now I still love those books because they teach bigger lessons for life than most of realize when we read them as children. We learn about unconditional love, taking care of the environment, fighting for what we love…
Does it get any better?
Prompt brought to you by the Booking Through Thursday archives
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