It’s not just that current childrens’ books topics are slanting towards propaganda, it’s that the contents are just plain preachy. As a reading teacher I am reverting more and more to the classics because contemporary children’s books lack figurative language, creative literary elements, and great plots; things you can use to teach higher level thinking. Raising a generation that regurgitates authors’ opinions on faddish topics is just revolting. I can’t wait for creativity and craft to, once again, be the criteria for publishing.
Well put! Children’s literature should inspire imagination, including the moral imagination. Preaching to readers requires much less creativity and craft than does inspiring their imaginations.
paul ed
3 years ago
would it be possible these days to get a non-woke children’s book published?
Fraser Bailey
4 years ago
Christ, the horror of it all. It was worth not having kids even if only to have avoided having to read Harry sodding Potter to them.
Jonathan Bagley
4 years ago
I don’t have children, so I didn’t know it had got that bad. If I did have children it would be Jim Starling books https://www.histclo.com/lit… for the boy. Fifty five years on I still remember Jim Starling and the Colonel, which my mother brought back from the library one day. My sisters, who seem OK people, read all 64 of the Chalet School books, by Eleanor M Brent-Dyer. Here is one excerpt from an entertaining review in the Independent.
“The innocent, PC-free tone is refreshing, if startling: the teachers all smoke furiously, and Daisy Venables, an otherwise admirable girl, announces she will “work like a n****r” to get into the Royal College of Needlework.”
It’s not just that current childrens’ books topics are slanting towards propaganda, it’s that the contents are just plain preachy. As a reading teacher I am reverting more and more to the classics because contemporary children’s books lack figurative language, creative literary elements, and great plots; things you can use to teach higher level thinking. Raising a generation that regurgitates authors’ opinions on faddish topics is just revolting. I can’t wait for creativity and craft to, once again, be the criteria for publishing.
Well put! Children’s literature should inspire imagination, including the moral imagination. Preaching to readers requires much less creativity and craft than does inspiring their imaginations.
would it be possible these days to get a non-woke children’s book published?
Christ, the horror of it all. It was worth not having kids even if only to have avoided having to read Harry sodding Potter to them.
I don’t have children, so I didn’t know it had got that bad. If I did have children it would be Jim Starling books https://www.histclo.com/lit… for the boy. Fifty five years on I still remember Jim Starling and the Colonel, which my mother brought back from the library one day. My sisters, who seem OK people, read all 64 of the Chalet School books, by Eleanor M Brent-Dyer. Here is one excerpt from an entertaining review in the Independent.
“The innocent, PC-free tone is refreshing, if startling: the teachers all smoke furiously, and Daisy Venables, an otherwise admirable girl, announces she will “work like a n****r” to get into the Royal College of Needlework.”
https://www.independent.co….
They would be my choice for the girl. Some advice on language possibly necessary.