The Problem of the Real Child['s Parent]

Children's literature traditionally divides into two camps: the child camp and the book camp. I generally fall into the book camp. I am more concerned with what the book says and what that means for the literature and the world (when I'm feeling ambitious), less concerned with how the child benefits from and/or is affected by these books. However, my undergraduate degree is in Elementary Education, and I have recently begun tutoring "on the side." This has brought the real child into focus. All of the bias against children's books that I have conveniently forgotten exists has come to the forefront, not because these children refuse to read picturebooks or beginner chapter books, but because the parents refuse on behalf of the child!

This is not an uncommon position in the adult world. When a child says that "picturebooks are for babies," often they are parroting a parent or teacher. This declaration is not news, I recognize. But I suppose the question I have as a researcher and an advocate of children's literature is how do we reconcile what we know with the opinions around us? 

Picturebooks teach visual literacy in addition to "traditional" literacy. They encourage children to make connections, to "fill in the gaps" as so many researchers (Styles and Watson, 1996; Beauvais, 2015) have pointed out. They are valuable as a teaching tool, and frankly, they are enjoyable. Adults have recently come to the conclusion that they can benefit from coloring books, which was once labeled "babyish," but god-forbid a ten-year-old read Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Why?

I tried gently explaining to the parent that there are benefits to reading a picturebook, but the parent was unmoved. Her understanding of how to improve a child's reading was to give worksheets to prepare for an upcoming standardized test. Needless to say, I did not get the job, and we're probably both better off for it. But what about the child? What is his experience of reading? Would he like reading if picturebooks were a normal part of his diet?

I am not sure how to reconcile the ivory tower with the life of the real child (or parent). Really, this blog post has turned into a rant of how frustrating it is to know something that could help and feel silenced. I am not a parent. I do not have to worry about a child passing a standardized test. But I do love reading and am an advocate of others getting the opportunity to feel the same way. Reading picturebooks, or frankly, whatever interests you, is a key way to achieving that goal. 

Here is what I've learned: the book camp is way less complicated.