Call me an Anglophile but I have an abiding interest in English, my mother tongue, and the literature that flowed—and still flows—from it. Which is why I read a book titled English Literature; A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University press, 2010). It was written by Jonathan Bates, a Shakespeare scholar at the University of Warwick.
It is indeed, a short, but extremely lucid, survey of the vast range of English literature, full of interesting ideas and anecdotes touching, for the most part, on well-known writers, but quite a few about whom I did not know. I learned a lot.
The most unusual part of the book is its first chapter, which is about children’s literature. Bate’s premise is perfectly logical; the books we read as children are the books that shape our own literary culture. I have never read a survey of English literature that begins this way.
In my experience, university English professors have not the slightest interest in books for young people. More often than not they have quite forgotten, even deny, they read children’s books. Of course, they did read them—or they would not have become immersed in English literature, which is Bate’s point.
I once worked as a librarian at a college in New Jersey. One day an English professor came to me with much excitement. “We just got the state to approve two reading methods courses as a requirement for elementary teachers!”
“That’s good,” I said. “Did you have to drop anything from the requirements?”
“Just the course in kiddie lit.”
Oh, if every school teacher were exposed, in range and depth, to the world of children’s literature—came to know it, love it, and, most of all, to share it—how much richer would our children’s lives become!
6 thoughts on “Kiddie Lit”
Ah, yes, so much richness there …
Your last sentence sums it all up. I can’t imagine where my life would be now without an early exposure to stories that opened up the world for me. Thanks, Avi, for your contributions–keep taking us on adventures.
how sad! “kiddie lit” is what inspired me to a 34 year career as a school librarian–required course!
I’m sure you cringed hearing the English professor’s comment. I just did!
Fascinating that he starts the book with children’s literature! I’m can’t wait to read it. The same series has a book dedicated to entirely to children’s literature which is quite well done. (Children’s Literature: A Very Short Introduction).
Yes, yes, yes to getting more books in the hands of teachers — not only to enrich the lives of the children but also of them! I’m grateful to teach in a college of education where children’s literature is a required course.
I’m thankful that we homeschool. We are not subject to the whims of such English professors and administrators.