I’ve written about this in previous blog posts, but it bears repeating: the heroes, or protagonists, of children’s books must be characters that young readers can identify with and relate to.  Jane takes this notion one step further.  She says that children’s books must have “emotional resonance” for young readers, and adds that the way to achieve this is by focusing on “The Three F’s,” or thee key areas of concern for children, which are:

1) Family

2) Friendship

3) Frustration

Most – if not all – children’s books have at their heart one of these elements, giving the book that essential child-centeredness with which the young reader can relate to, and be drawn in by, the story. Some have more than one, others a combination of all three.

Here’s one dictionary definition of child centeredness:

“Designed to promote a child’s personal qualities rather than to provide training or information. Humane - marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering.”

This, I think, ties in well with what Jane is getting at when she talks about writing with emotional resonance.  Writing children’s books well requires more than just writing skill.  It requires compassion for children, and a keen understanding of the frustrations, challenges and concerns they face on a daily basis in the struggle to grow up. Our work needn’t be steeped in pathos – in fact, kids usually prefer humor – but we also shouldn’t get preachy or didactic or try to educate or problem-solve. We need only maintain a compassionate heart and a child-like sensibility, something perhaps best achieved by remembering what it was like to be a child ourselves.

* Books are evergreen – they keep on giving, well beyond the day they are received. They give with each read, and if they are subsequently shared or passed down, they keep on giving. They are like presents that can be opened over and over again.

* Books send a message to the recipient beyond that of the book itself. They tell the reader, “I care about you. I think of you as this sort of person, and therefore I think you would enjoy this book.”

* Books educate, inform and inspire. They broaden consciousness and perspective. They also cultivate curiosity, nurture the imagination, and promote a sense of wonder.

* Books provide outstanding long-term value for a relatively low cost.

* Giving young people books as gifts subliminally underscores the connection between reading and the joy of receiving, thus strengthening the association between books and pleasure.

* There are countless types, genres, styles, subjects and authors to choose from, maximizing your opportunity to find something uniquely suited to each recipient.

* If you are overwhelmed by options, or not sure where to begin to find the right book for a loved one, there are myriad resources to help. Your local bookseller is trained to help match the right book to the right person. You can also explore Amazon.com’s “listmania” lists and “Customers who bought this book also explored…” feature. You can pick up a copy of the New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, American Libraries magazine or any number of other publications dedicated to reviewing books. There are even websites geared to helping people find books they love – one to explore is www.goodreads.com.

Plus, I’ll be posting next on great books to buy (or give) about reading and writing.

So give the best gift of all this year. Give books!

Our teenage son Sam has always been Mr. Non-Fiction. When he was very young, he was passionate about trucks. We read everything we could get our hands on in the “truck” genre, from You Can Name 1000 Trucks to I Stink! These days, he’s into humor, baseball, and classic rock.  We offer up a lot of baseball and musician memoirs, and point him towards authors like Gary Paulsen, Gerald Durrell, Mike Lupica and Matt Christopher.  As long as he’s reading for pleasure, we’re happy.

Our seven year-old daughter Hope is all about fantasy. Her heroes are princesses, fairies, ponies and ballerinas, along with girl rock stars, fashionistas and just plain gutsy girls. (What can I say? No matter how hard we tried to be gender-neutral parents, we ended up with two gender-stereotype kids.)  She loves series books, including the Pony Pals, Rainbow Magic and Magic Treehouse series, as well as the Allie Finkle, Just Grace and Clarice Bean books.  As long as the protagonist is female!

The question I was asked was: What are the particular challenges you think we (meaning children’s book authors, editors, educators, advocates, lovers of children’s literature) face?

This was my response:

“I think one of the challenges is keeping young people’s skill and interest in reading high enough to take advantage of the opportunities that will be waiting for them.

In my book Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment (Beech Tree Books, 2008), I talk about how much reading skills correspond to our ability to be confident, engaged, informed citizens. They affect how well we communicate, succeed in school and in our chosen careers, and ultimately our level of personal fulfillment. In fact, order to participate fully in society and the workplace in 2020 and beyond, we will all need powerful literacy abilities. But with all that competes for our attention these days, from television to the internet to electronic games and social networking, we face the possibility of a serious decline in the reading and writing skills of the next generation.

Our strength as readers and writers is profoundly influenced by how much of it we do – the more we read, the easier it gets. The easier it gets, the more we enjoy it, so the more we read. But we have to start by actually reading – and the key lies in making that activity as attractive as all the other temptations out there. We achieve that by focusing on activities that support the joy in reading (as opposed to reading as chore, or duty)…and by ensuring that what is being read is so good that the reader gets hooked and comes back for more.

That’s why I’m dedicated to supporting children’s book authors in the continued development of their craft. We have a huge responsibility on our hands. It only takes one great book to turn someone on to reading… but those great books need to keep being written and gotten into the hands of children!”

This is why you must write that book. If you have ever felt that nudge… that gentle (or perhaps, at this point, nagging) whisper in your ear to get that idea down on paper, I am here to hold you accountable. We can only keep the next generation (and those after that) reading, and writing – and using creative expression to solve problems and promote awareness, and cultivate compassion, and address the issues before them with artfulness and thought – if we continue to provide them with the tools to do so.  And the first (and best, in my view) is a good book.

So, get writing. Who knows? You may be the next Madeleine L’Engle… but even if your story touches just one child, one heart, that’s reason enough for it to exist.  One might even say you have a responsibility to put it out there.

Hope just turned six, so it’s age appropriate, but I’m still overcome with emotion and pride every time she picks up a book (which is almost hourly at the moment) and says “Let ME read it to YOU!”

And I continue to be awed by the beauty of the process. Often she sounds out the letters and words – but mostly she breezes right across the page, including words that I can’t believe she is reading, like “actually” or “ice-skating” or “peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”  In these cases, it’s all about association – from the other surrounding words in the sentence, from the pictures (if there are any), or from her innate sense of the direction the story is taking. Occasionally, she will look to me to help her decode a word, and I quickly comply.  I might invite her to sound it out, if I think it’s a word she knows or can easily decipher – but more often than not I’ll just give it to her, since my goal is for the process to continue to unfold as joyfully as possible.  I know that the moment it shifts from being fun to being pressured will be the moment she turns away from it.

Yesterday, Hope received a thank you note in the mail from one of her classmates, and she tore it open and read it to me with palpable excitement.  It reminded me that I must take care to make my lunchbox notes to her as legible as possible now, since I imagine she is reading them herself instead of asking the teacher to do so (no easy task, since my handwriting skills have deteriorated at the same rate as my computer skills have improved over the years.)

These are among the golden moments of parenthood, the moments in which I can either help my daughter build the foundation for a life-long love of reading, or squelch it.   My most challenging job in the days ahead will balancing my own enthusiasm and support of her independent reading skills with a continued commitment to reading aloud to her.  I know that no matter how well she may be reading herself, her listening and reading skills won’t converge until around 8th grade, and that there is tremendous value in reading to children well beyond the years when they learn to read for themselves.

By continuing to read to her, I invite her to stretch gently up to material she isn’t yet reading for herself.  I help her continue to grow her vocabulary, provide diversity in her reading experiences and encourage her to discover which books, authors, subjects and styles she likes best.  I can model reading techniques, and convey nuance, character, style and tone – elements of reading that often get lost when the main focus is on decoding.  But most importantly, every time we snuggle up and  read together, whether she is reading to me or I am reading to her, I am helping to strengthen her continued associate between reading and pleasure.  Not to mention my own!

I’d love to hear about your experiences with your children learning to read!  Tell me your story in the comments below!