Be honest. When was the last time you read a children’s book…minus the audience of a child nearby? It’s been a while for me, but I can easily remember some of my favorites: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Where the Wild Things Are, George’s Marvelous Medicine, The Twits, and Where the Sidewalk Ends. True classics. My third grade teacher read the Roald Dahl books (Medicine and Twits) to us in class, and I still remember the colorful descriptions painted in words.
Jen Robinson has a pretty cool blog promoting “the love of books by children and the continued reading of children’s books by adults.” I was particularly struck by a post entitled, “Why You Should Read Children’s Books as an Adult.” She outlines some really great points. Here’s my favorite:
If you read as a child, and loved it, then re-reading those books is like entering a time machine that takes you back to the child you once were. It’s amazing, because the books are still available — you can read them any time. It doesn’t cost much, you don’t have to travel, you don’t need anyone to help you. You can just time travel at will.
Sometimes life can get a tad overwhelming, and the welcome relief that can come from spending a few moments with a children’s book should not be taken lightly. The whimsy, hope, and imagination they contain are good for the soul. When the world seems to be out of control, children’s books have the remarkable ability to strip away the superfluous and make it easy to regain perspective on the important things in life.
Make it a point to dig out one of your old favorites. If you’re not already convinced, check out Jen’s Top 10 list. And if you’re taking The Escape Plan challenge, this might be the perfect solution to #3.
Jason –
Too funny that your blog is about children’s books….I totally thought of you when I bought my “new” 39 cent stamps a few weeks ago….they are favorite children’s book animals….the hungry caterpillar, the wild thing, curious george, wilbur the big, maisy the mouse, fox in socks etc. You may like to order some online….I’m enjoying putting a little childhood on my snail mail! :)
correction – wilbur the pig
Here’s two excellent children’s books to read as an adult. They’ll both have you laughing out loud and you’ll want to read them over and over.
1) The Pigeon Finds A Hot Dog (by Mo Willems)
2) Diary of a Worm (by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss)
I read children’s books all the time. I love Harry Potter. Right now I’m reading Peter and the Secret of Rundoon.
Would you believe I have yet to pick up a Harry Potter book? Nothing against it, it just hasn’t happened. Might be about time….
When I was in college, our dorm had a tradition called “roomies”, where we had to find a date for our roommate and we all went out somewhere. I only participated once, but I had a blast. Wherever we were planning to go didn’t work out, so we all split up and went different places around the city. The girl I found for my roommate had to pull out at the last minute, but she found someone else to go with him. When the substitute date showed up, she had brought a friend who was inseparable from her, so we found a date from a different dorm for her (he had been on our floor the previous year, so we knew him pretty well). So off the 6 of us went on the town. We stopped at a coffee shop somewhere (I think it was Starbucks), and they had a bunch of children’s books set out. Most of us got really excited and started reading them aloud. My roommate, on the other hand, had a case of adultitis and was (in my opinion) a slave to “sophistication”…and he was not pleased with our excitement over children’s books. Which made it all the more fun to read the books aloud, partly because it was fun in general, and partly to bug my roommate. As we walked back to the car, I was yelling, “Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats!”
That was so fun!!