Picture books as a second language

In which I ask you to remember ninth grade Spanish class, and then I go off a little.

I used to speak French fluently. At various times in my life, I have also been able to speak Italian pretty well, to teach a class of mostly Spanish-speaking first graders, and to read and write Japanese at the first grade level. But French is the only language besides English in which I've dreamt, and in which I've read extensively.

I can't do it now. I probably can't do any of it now and it KILLS me. I was looking through all my wonderful French novels and plays today (because I have so much time to kill and it was IMPERATIVE that instead of emptying the dead squirrel* out of the trap in my attic, I make sure every single book I own was catalogued in LibraryThing).

I picked up L'Etranger, by Camus, and thought, "I should read this." Then I thought, "But it will be so HARD" and I pictured myself not understanding and getting all tense and then it hit me. This is how first graders feel. This is how a child just learning to read feels about every single book. Can you remember it? Trying to read in ninth grade Spanish, maybe?

Reading is not easy when you are just learning. We adults can pick up a book and skim it or read a few pages and if it stinks or is mediocre, well, it's just a bit of our time. But when you are just learning to read, reading is an EFFORT. Every word takes determination.

All of which is to say: if you are writing for first graders, you'd better make it worth it. Every word had better be important. Your story must be satisfying, your language precise, your characters easily cheered for, and your whole book had better not be in service of a ridiculous "moral" that you think kids ought to hear. And for goodness sake, if you write in rhyme, don't be lazy. It is so hard to see kids struggle to the end of a rhymed couplet only to get to the last word and have it not rhyme, or not fit, or be archaic and useless just because it rhymes and fits.

So, what books do I think deliver? There are so many, but my two favorites -- for their language and carefulness and satisfying pay-offs.


1. Close Your Eyes, by Kate Banks, illus. Georg Hallensleben
A mother tiger reassures her little tiger as he goes to sleep.
This book is pure poetry, the little tiger is infinitely lovable, and Tink still uses the line "light is just the other side of dark" to reassure herself at night. Good to read aloud or to read to yourself at night after Mom and Dad go downstairs.

2. Is it cliché to say Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnston?
If you haven't read it for a while, read it. Harold is adorable, he has adventures that get my kids' pulses up, there is not a wasted word in the text, and Tink laughs at "draw up the covers" every time.



* yes, he died. Somehow, in the humane trap, he died. Live-blogging of my war on Squirreldom will continue later this week...