Books Ahead: Slow Down

This year the Children’s Book Council of Australia celebrates 80 years of recommending the best in books for young Australian readers. Like the United Nations and the Declaration of Human Rights, the Children’s Book Council was one of many attempts to put the world back together again, after the devastation of yet another world war, and to make a fresh start. A group of teachers and librarians met and chose a single winning Book of the Year, and then every year after that. There was no prize money in the early days: if a woman won it, she was presented with a camellia; if a man won it, he got a handshake. But these days there are many categories, with the winner in each one declared a ‘Book of the Year’, there is a national panel of judges and, thanks to many years of fundraising by readers of all ages, there are prizes for the winning writers, who would otherwise earn a pittance. 

As one of the judges for this year’s Picture Book of the Year and New Illustrator categories, I’ve read and reported on nearly 300 picture books for readers across the age range from newborns to young adults, and I’ve been sharing some of my observations with our staff and students. I’ve noticed two features that might interest you in terms of our theme this year: ‘Listen In; Lean In…as the Way Opens'.

The first is that an extraordinary number of picture books are encouraging young readers to ‘Slow Down’. I watch my grandchildren hyped up on the excitement of the video games they’re occasionally allowed to play, and I understand why. It seems as if our society is urging them to live on a continuous sugar high. I hear adults say repeatedly that young people are ‘fragile’ at the moment. Under the surface, these books might be addressing one of the main reasons for that fragility.

Despite the concerns of some parents that children are being forced to read books they judge unsuitable, book reading actually gives young people a lot of control. If they don’t like a book, for whatever reason, they simply stop reading and close it. It’s quite difficult to ‘make’ someone read a book. We’ve tried, in literary studies - it’s called the set text list and exam system. And it doesn’t work. If someone doesn’t want to read a book, they don’t. The good news is that reading a book at their own pace helps young people to manage their emotions - and that’s a big concern in education and home life today. One picture book after another in this year’s Book of the Year Awards is urging young readers to take it easy. To listen in.

The other feature I noticed is the number of story books about insects. I know children are fascinated by them from a scientific point of view, but there’s a different emphasis in a picture book such as One Day by Shirley Marr and Michael Speechley. It’s about a Mayfly who wants to go out and see the world, and the frog says the world will eat her up - but she might as well do it, because she’s only going to be alive for a single day. So off the Mayfly goes to see the world. You’ll be relieved to know that she doesn’t get eaten up - despite the frog’s best efforts. But in one book after another this year, insects seem to represent the smallness that children feel, as they search for agency and significance. Somebody wise once said that we don’t read books; books read us. Plenty of thoughts for us all to ‘Listen in’ to and to reflect on in the books young people are bringing home from our wonderful school libraries.

Mark Macleod - Quaker Advisor