CHILDREN NEED BOOKS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 477, 13 August 1948, Page 10

CHILDREN NEED BOOKS

HILDREN don’t mince matters. The parent who established the bedtime story tradition was probably told petulantly, as so many others have been told since, "I don’t want that book; I want .. ." which may fairly sum up the relationship of the reading guide and the child whose reading is guided. Left to themselves, children do not necessarily find the right kind of books -a newsagent told The Listener that he did "a huge business in comics, pirate, and gangster stuff with adults as well as

children’"’-yet the first book a child reads may be of the utmost importance in determining his later tastes. One of the objects of Children’s Book Week this year (from Sunday, August 15, to Saturday, August 21) will be to encourage adults to read more children’s books. Anyone who has been interested in the reading of a child knows that this reading guidance is a ticklish business, and that mere censorship doesn’t work. Reading with children may be the only answer in the early stages, and though the ee of reading aloud may lapse later, it is necessary that a teacher

should have read the book he recommends and that a parent should be able to discuss a book with his child in a comradely way. Parents Can Help ' Children’s Book Week is sponsored by the New Zealand Library Association 'and the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand. -Special displays of books for children will be made in shops, in the junior departments of libraries, and in schools, and the radio will assist the movement. The slogan this year will be Children Need Books. The aims of the Library Association during this period will be to encourage all schools to make fullest possible use of the expanding library facilities now available, to issue more subscribers’ cards to more children in the cities, and to make parents more library-conscious and more familiar with the range of books published for children to-day. Boeks ate expensive things, but the cheaper books tend also to be cheap in

matter, manner and illustration. The Library Association believes that if parents can be persuaded that it is better to spend 10/6 on a book of lasting value than 3/6 several times over on books whose appeal will be only for a day, Book Week will have been worthwhile. Demand for Better Standards It is not surprising that in a young country like New Zealand, comparatively few children’s books have been written and published locally. Overseas, children’s books never really interested educationists or publishers till the end of last century. In this century, especially in the U.S., publishers have realised the potential market which children provide. Both in America and England, and to a lesser degree in Europe, publishers have been influenced by the standards in book production achieved by such artists as Caldecott, Crane and Greenaway, and such authors as Lewis Carroll, Defoe and Kipling. Librarians, youth workers, teachers and some parents have also begun to demand from publishers better books for children. Most New Zealand writers of books which can be enjoyed by children have chosen to set their stories in New Zealand, and this is natural, for the country

offers. diverse material for the. writing of history, biography, romance and fantasy. Abroad, the publishing of children’s books leaped ahead about 1920, In the U.S. this growth was helped by a bookseller, Frederic Melcher, who gave an award for the best children’s book »of the year. The award was named after John Newbery, the 18th Century English publisher of children’s books and was first given in 1922 to H. W. Van Loon for his Story of Mankind, and the next year to Hugh Lofting for The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, on the advice of the Children’s Librarians section of the American Library Association. (continued on next page)

GOOD READING FOR CHILDREN

(continued from previous page) In 1937 Melcher gave an additional award, the Caldecott Medal, for the best children’s picture book of the year. ‘This way of encouraging the production of books with fine writing, illustrations and production was also followed in England where the Library Association in 1936 established a Carnegie Medal which has been given for such books as Pigeon Post, by Arthur Ransome, and The Circus is Coming, by Noel Streatfield. To encourage New Zealand children’s literature the New Zealand Library Association has, since 1945, offered annually when suitable material was produced, the Esther Glen Award for the best children’s book of the year, written ard published in New Zealand. For 1945 this award was given to Stella Morice for her The Book of Wiremu, and this year it went to A, W. Reed for his Myths and Legends of Maoriland. Because of the precautions against the spread of poliomyelitis, Children’s Book Week this year will be somewhat restricted, but the middle of August has been chosen as the most suitable time for its observance as the second term holiday comes almost immediately afterwards. The Broadcasts to Schools programmes for Book Week will contain special features. On Monday, August 16, at 147 p.m., there will be a talk on books., On Tuesday, August 17, at 1.30 p.m., children will hear a dramatization of Nicholas Nickleby; on Wednesday, August 18, at 140 pm, a dramatized: tale typical of stories for children, and on Thursday, August 19, at 1.30 p.m., a talk about books dealing with music for children. On Tuesday and Friday of the week the Correspondence School sessions will make special mention of books for children.