The More Things Change?

I have been thinking a lot about children's books these days, as they are increasingly at the forefront of my personal life and my professional one. More specifically, as I have already written plenty about how much I have always loved to read children's books, as a child and throughout the course of my life, I have been thinking about the ways in which books for children have changed and wondering if they have changed as much as I think they have or if I just can't get enough distance to see the similarities.

Even as a child, I was drawn to the children's books of the past. At first, this was because these were the books we had at home, were introduced to by our parents. Later, it was because these were the books I loved most. I have always had a particular weakness for the staunchly old-fashioned romantic books by L.M. Montgomery, for example, and have been known to reread the entire oeuvre every few years. It has never occurred to me, nor did it when I was the age for which the books were written, to be turned off or taken aback by the fusty language or lack of relatable technological references or any of the other reasons parents cite to me when explaining why their kids won't read, say, The Phantom Tollbooth or The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

Some of this is just me, I think. I have always been somewhat bizarrely disinterested in popular music from much after the 1970s and generally prefer old movies and even old television shows to their modern day counterparts. Maybe I just have fusty, old-fashioned taste? But no, a friend gave Lily an illustrated book written just recently as a birthday party favor, and we were both struck after the first read by how clever and appealing it is. I guess I just don't come across examples as often as I'd like.

And I wonder, too, if the books that were old-fashioned when I was enthralled by them, say the Betsy, Tacy and Tib books I also still regularly reread, are so old-fashioned for today's children as to actually be unrelatable. In other words, maybe when I was young, there was enough of Betsy's world still in the world to resonate with me. I think the problem is most jarring with realistic fiction, such as Little Women, as opposed to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which has the advantage of not requiring grounding signposts whatsoever. Candy never goes out of style; Pilgrim's Progress has. Many children love the Little House books, but they are really about another time and place, so the details are the point and not distracting or meaningless background noise.

I am going to try some experiments with Lily, with all this in mind. Don't worry; that sounds dramatic, but all I have in mind is reading. I am going to try Betsy-Tacy and one of my favorites, the little known No Flying in the House, which I have been wanting to read to somebody else (besides Alison) for about 30 years. Having so many legitimate reasons to read children's books is one of the great pleasures of my life these days. I am eagerly awaiting the day Annika, too, stops viewing books as food.