Most of my job this summer was reading children’s books aloud. In doing so, I rediscovered the complexities and nuances of children’s literature, which is almost always strange, rarely simple, sometimes beautiful, and occasionally super dumb. Allow me to share some of said revelations in the form of brief reviews:
The Pencil, by Allan Ahlberg: This whimsical romp with an anthropomorphic pencil doubles as a creation myth in which the pencil-God lets an evil eraser destroy his first world and creates a second, identical one, except that none of the perfect clones remember their own deaths.
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak: It’s one of those books that’s so common that you forget how strange and beautiful it is until you sit down to read it again.
Double Trouble in Walla Walla by Andrew Clements: Written exclusively to screw with adults who make the bad decision to try and read it out loud.
The Little Mouse, the Ripe Red Strawberry, and the Hungry Bear by Don Wood: I used this one to teach first graders what an unreliable narrator is, and it actually worked (which, while satisfying, makes my English degree feel a little less valuable).
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton: I loved this one as a kid, so it was a real nostalgia trip reading it, but it was sort of dated in how it presented coal-powered shovels as the wave of the future and made destroying natural beauty to make way for highways seem like the noblest pursuit a man or machine could have.
The Remember Balloons by Jessie Oliveros: It handles Alzheimer’s in a complex way, but still focuses on emotions that children can understand and relate to. And even the abstract premise of memories represented by balloons, which is never explained, comes easily even to Kindergarteners.
Billy’s Bucket by Kes Gray: The rare children’s book where the moral, that you shouldn’t condescend kids’ interests and feelings, is actually directed at the adult reading it rather than the child. Kids still love it though, since everyone loves being right.
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