Books for Babies & Toddlers

I'm a control freak. I know this. I've accepted it. My husband Andrew is a control freak. The good part of this is that we are controlling of the same things in the same way a vast majority of the time. Some things I can just let slide, because not everything needs to be controlled. But when it matters, it really matters.

What does this have to do with "Books for Babies & Toddlers"?, you ask.

Simply, the issue is that there are a LOT of AWFUL books out there for young children. The same is true for older children as well, but since my current focus is on books for the younger years, due to my small person being in that age bracket, my controlling nature is being unleashed upon the awful books for toddlers and babies.

Some books I absolutely love. For example, a classic book from my own childhood that Jackson adores is Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton. I have less than charitable feelings for a great many other books I've perused at the local bookstores, as well as others I've heard read aloud at various story time sessions held for children.

Typically the issue I take with most books I find unacceptable is that the lessons taught by the story are not ones I want my child to adopt. For example, I am quite content with Found You, Little Wombat by Angela McAllister and illustrated by Charles Fuge. The lesson taught (however implicitly) in that book about staying put when lost is a good one. On the other hand, when the illustrator of this book branched off to do Where To, Little Wombat?, I found Mr. Fuge's writing sub-par. The young wombat is whiny, willful, and irritating to his mother, so she tells him to see if he can find somewhere better to live, since he's "bored of living in burrows." He proceeds to effectively run away with permission and gets constantly abused by his environment, only to come home like the prodigal son with the house all clean now (thanks to his mother) and be rewarded by having a sleepover. Say what? According to one product review I found, Little Wombat's "search and final discovery that his own home is ideal with resonate with readers." I'm sure some people would find this book completely acceptable. But to a toddler who has never been bored, I'm loathe to introduce the notion of ennui into his life, let alone the idea that it's okay to try to run away and live on a lily pad with his frog friend.

I admit that I've been too quick to judge some books that we have. One book we have (It's Raining, It's Pouring, by Kin Eagle) still chafes at my nerves when I get to the line, "With ants in their pants, they started to dance, and ended up doing the Lindy." Exactly how these people accidentally managed to perform a dance I've never managed successfully (despite a fair bit of trying) escapes me. I know that it's meant to be silly. But it irritates me every time I read it, so for a long while I refused to do so. And I can only imagine what my son will think when he's old enough to think of other connotations for the line, "He ate so much one day for lunch, every part of him was showing." How does this stuff ever make it to print?

When I read a book of fiction for myself, I expect a certain level of quality. I prefer to have some semblance of realism so that I can buy into the story but without going out the other side into the realm of cliche. Believability is high ranking just as much as the intent of the story. If I cannot keep from saying, "No one would DO that!" then I'm disinclined to continue reading. So why should my standards for what I read to my child be held to any less of a degree of scrutiny?

By now you may be thinking, "Man, she's being all whiny. Why doesn't she do something about it instead of complaining?" I will have you know that i have been doing just that. Lately I've been trying to learn how to draw at least well enough that my not-quite-2 year old son Jackson will be able to interpret. (Luckily for me, he's pretty sharp at identifying things in poorly crafted drawings.) So, to finish out the year, the next couple of posts I make will be scans of the two books I have created so far.

The general idea behind posting them isn't so much that I enjoy embarrassing myself by demonstrating my mediocrity as an artist. The real goal is to show that it's fairly simple to write a children's book that is geared specifically toward introducing a particular idea to your child in a way that is best suited to your own family. The two that I have created thus far (and yes, I do intend to write/draw more) are informational stories. The first one I did was on the subject of toilet training, which has really seemed to help clarify what's expected in the bathroom for Jackson. The second one I recently completed is to help Jackson to understand what will occur next week when I fly out of town for a few days to visit some friends. He's never had a day without Mommy, so to help quell my over nervousness over the matter, I drafted and bound the book to read to him. So far, he's mainly focused on the pictures I drew of airplanes--but I can't really blame him, because airplanes are pretty awesome.

{Also, apologies for those of you who showed up looking for a post last week. I have been reading MLIA way too much lately and lost track of the time.}