Living Books

I love books. I love to read. When I remember summers growing up (when I was too old to ride my bike all over the neighborhood or play dress-up) I remember taking a pillow and a book out onto the glider on our front porch and reading in the sun for as long as I could stand sitting in one place. Immersing myself in a good book is still a wonderful indulgence for me, although I am not able to do it as often as I wish now that I have these little ones. Fortunately I am able to surround myself with children's literature, so Elinore and I can indulge together. There are thousands and thousands of books out there waiting to be read, but I have found that many of the children's books on our library shelves to be a ridiculous waste of time. I have no idea what publishers are looking for these days but I am shocked by some of the books I find. In order to preserve the "sacredness" I feel about books and reading, and to guide my children in the moral character I hope them to grow into, I've become a bit of a book snob. I am very selective about what we are reading, but I feel like there is more than a lifetime's worth of wonderful books out there that it is worth weeding out the bad ones in order to have time for all of the good ones.

Charlotte Mason (my inspiration at the moment), an educator in the 19th century, talks about the "living books" in which you can feel the author's enthusiasm and enjoyment of the subject that you can't help being carried along as well. Characters become "friends," and you develop a relationship with the book. She talks about the impact books can have on children. This is something I have seen in my own child. Elinore remembers everything, and she uses the characters we read about as a reference for her own behavior (which is why I want her reading only the best).

Yesterday at the library we checked out Mary Poppins by: PL Travers (yes, it was a book long before it was a movie). It is a little above her (the real problem is the lack of illustrations), but she was so excited at the prospect of reading it that we decided to give it a try. She carried it all through the library, all the way home, and had thumbed through it to look at all the illustrations about five times before I could get lunch on the table. Mary Poppins is ridiculously vain, and quite stern, but she blends the fantastic into the ordinary lives of Jane and Michael in a way that makes you wonder what is real and what is imagined! She and Kevin read chapter 2 together before bed last night. Chapter 2 is about Mary's day off. Bert takes her into one of the pavement drawings for tea (in the movie they do this with Jane and Michael). Then they ride the merry-go-round before going home. The end of the chapter goes like this:

"When she came back from her Day Out, Jane and Michael came running to meet her.
'Where have you been?' they asked her.
'In Fairyland,' said Mary Poppins.
'Did you see Cinderella?' said Jane.
'Huh, Cinderella? Not me,' said Mary Poppins, contemptuously. 'Cinderella, indeed!'
'Or Robinson Crusoe?' asked Michael.
'Robinson Crusoe-pooh!' said Mary Poppins rudely.
'Then how could you have been there? It couldn't have been our Fairyland!'
Mary Poppins gave a superior sniff.
'Don't you know,' she said pityingly, 'that everybody's got a Fairyland of their own?'
And with another sniff she went upstairs to take off her white gloves and put the umbrella away."

In the morning I asked her all about it. She told me (with a little prompting from Daddy) about Mary Poppins having tea with Bert and "jumping right into the picture". She told me that Mary Poppins had been in Fairyland and that Fairyland was "blooming with fairies." That line came from another book which she adapted to fit what she wanted to say. This reminds me to choose books with well-written adult style phrases and not to read down to her. Although more often I have to remind myself that she's not quite ready for the books that I am so excited to read with her. Another year or two and then we can dive into more of the classics (Charlotte's Web, Laura Ingalls, The Secret Garden,...)

So how do I go about choosing our books, you might ask. Honey for a Child's Heart has been an asset for us. The first half of the book talks about the value of reading, of reading good books, and of reading together. The second half is a delightful list (divided by age) that I use to make a library list every time I go to the library. What would we do without this book!! If all else fails, I go for a classic. After all, they are classics for a reason.