Children's Books

Last week's library trip included the first Magic Treehouse book; these are a popular series so I figured Molly would like it. No dice. She did read it -- I found it in the finished books basket -- but when we got to the library and I asked her if she'd enjoyed it, she said not really. The kids visit the time of the dinosaurs in the first book; Molly is not particularly interested in dinosaurs, so maybe that's why? Or maybe the problem is that it's fantasy? The problem is probably not that it's written in an incredibly bland and clunky style, though who knows. The Junie B. Jones books are written in a style I don't care for at all, but it's distinctive (distinctively ungrammatical), not bland. The viewpoint character seemed to be a boy, and she seems to have a strong preference for girl protagonists.

One thing that's a little frustrating to me, in finding books for her, is that she can't really articulate what she likes or doesn't like about a book. I have theorized that she likes the Junie books because they're about a girl who's five years old, like she is, whereas most chapter books are about kids who are much older.

I checked out the Kit series from the American Girls collection, and the first five Judy Moody books. Molly complained this week that the Junie B. Jones books are too short. They're still her favorites, but she wishes they were longer. I'm hoping the Judy Moody books will offer a slightly longer but comparable series. Well, comparable except for the fact that there are only six of them, whereas there are about 30 Junie books. Good grief, I just realized Molly is about 2/3rds through the Junie series. Also, once she's done with the books we have out, I think we've only got three American Girls left, at least until the company comes out with another one.

Molly is a voracious reader -- have I mentioned that?

For myself, I checked out blackholly's Spiderwick chronicles (books 1 through 5 -- I'm not sure how many there are in all). And oh my goodness, it is fabulous. I read the first one this evening, and I'm putting it down with Molly's pile for her to read, as well. What was particularly striking to me on the first page was how incredibly well-written it is.

There is so much dreck that is published for children. Seriously, I have always taken seriously what Jane Yolen and other respected children's authors say -- that you can't write dreck and expect kids to read it, that kids demand and deserve good writing, etc. Yet -- in comparison to some of the books that Molly picks up and willingly devours -- the American Girls books (which were written as sales tools for overpriced dolls) are literary masterpieces.

I mean, okay. Let's take the first page of the first Magic Treehouse book.

"Help! A monster!" said Annie.

"Yeah, sure," said Jack. "A real monster in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania."

"Run, Jack!" said Annie. She ran up the road.

Oh, brother.

This is what he got for spending time with his seven-year-old sister.

Annie loved pretend stuff. But Jack was eight and a half. He liked real things.

"Watch out, Jack! The monster's coming! Race you!"

"No, thanks," said Jack.

Annie raced alone into the woods.

Or The Boxcar Children, which I read as a child and LOVED.

One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery. No one knew them. No one knew where they had come from.

The baker's wife saw them first, as they stood looking in at the window of her store. The little boy was looking at the cakes, the big boy was looking at the loaves of bread, and the two girls were looking at the cookies.

Now the baker's wife did not like children. She did not like boys at all. So she came to the front of the bakery and listened, looking very cross.

"The cake is good, Jessie," the little boy said. He was about five years old.

"Yes, Benny," said the big girl. "But bread is better for you. Isn't it, Henry?"

"Oh, yes," said Henry. "We must have some bread, and cake is not good for Benny and Violet."

"I like bread best, anyway," said Violet. She was about ten years old, and she had pretty brown hair and brown eyes.

I'll pass on quoting Junie, as she's supposed to speak in the voice of a five-year-old and it would be unfair to simply say the books suck. They're not to my taste, and I don't think she sounds much like my five-year-old, but whatever.

Anyway, the point here was to quote those, and then Holly. From the beginning of The Field Guide:

If someone had asked Jared Grace what jobs his brother and sister would have when they grew up, he would have had no trouble replying. He would have said that his brother, Simon, would be either a veterinarian or a lion tamer. He would have said that his sister, Mallory, would either be an Olympic fencer or in jail for stabbing someone with a sword. But he couldn't say what job he would grow up to have. Not that anyone asked him. Not that anyone asked his opinion on anything at all.

The new house, for instance. Jared Grace looked up at it and squinted. Maybe it would look better blurry.

"It's a shack," Mallory said, getting out of the station wagon.

It wasn't really, though. It was more like a dozen shacks had been piled on top of one another. There were several chimneys, and the whole thing was topped off by a strip of iron fence sitting on the roof like a particularly garish hat.

Holly's writing is good no matter what you're comparing her to, but when the standard of comparison is children's series books? Holy cow. And what I find particularly fascinating is that here is evidence that you can write using simple language (important for Molly, who has trouble with long words and doesn't like books with too many of them) and short sentences, and still write a vivid, interesting story. There are a few words a kid might find unfamiliar (fencer, garish, shack) and the paragraphs are constructed from as many as six sentences, one right after the other. But it's readable at a very early level. And it's still good.

Of course, Molly may reject it because it's fantasy. We'll see.