I'm consistently surprised at how flat I find most kids' books to be. I go into them expecting some extra childlike whimsy or humor in the writing, but the prose is usually as prosaic as it comes, and it's merely the story's events that cater to a younger audience.
I find this really underwhelming. When you watch a movie or tv show for kids, it often has a more manic energy, or colourful animation, giving them their own spirit separate from more mature media, but when it comes to childrens' literature, at least as I've mostly seen, it doesn't feel like they add any zest in the telling at all.
Because they're usually more short-form and have less space for extensive narration and internalization, I keep expecting them to make up the difference with sentence-by-sentence charm, to read like how I remember Roald Dahl books did. Those felt like a giddy grandpa was almost tripping over himself to tell you a story full of goofy words and anecdotes. But kids' books I've found since getting older have the most plain, white-bread prose possible, and the only "all-ages" whimsy they have is in the plot.
Maybe I'm just unlucky, and keep picking up the wrong material?
by -Sawnderz-
13 Comments
honestly i think roald dahl permanently ruined expectations for children’s books because that man wrote like a caffeinated goblin telling you secrets at a sleepover. a lot of modern kids books feel weirdly sanitized and educational first whimsical second
Well, I mean, they’re not exactly meant for you. They’re meant for children who are learning to read, so they have to be simple in order for them to read and comprehend them.
maybe you’re… not the target audience, man.
Check out “The Phantom Tollbooth”. One of these most imaginative and deep “kids” books I’ve ever read.
>kids books
>am I picking up the wrong material?
I don’t know, I mean…probably.
I usually mix in some Steinbeck and Hemingway between my Seuss and Sendak.
Most of them are to teach kids how to read. They need basic words for this.
I’m afraid you just outgrew the whimsy, man
It depends on the book and author. There is some brilliant children’s literature and there a lot of mass-produced slop.
Are you talking about contemporary kids’ books or just the genre in general?
Are you reading Julia Donaldson books? I consider hers the gold standard of 0-3 lit.
What do you mean by “children’s books?”
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is leagues away from Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Read Animorphs maybe. They go into a strange amount of existential dread type topics for a kids book. Maybe that’ll scratch your itch.