what shall I read to my child?

RPH #3

read, read what shall I read to my child

I love selling books. It fulfills the two great desires in my black heart: to advise and to help. Although connected these are separate impulses. When my customers accept advice, it suggests that they think I might know something. When I can help them, it implies power. Guidance and power are a wonderful combination. But there is one more element that entices me to life as a bookseller: picture books.

Adult books, fiction in especial, don’t have pictures. Neither do the young adult novels, filled as they are with swooning teen vampire hunters. But when the reading life begins, illustration is the support of story. Beautifully drawn images draw the eye and through the eye, the mind. Not, mind you, the edgy monochromes that some publishers use to attract young hip parents; yes, the parents have to read the books, but they are not the audience. The person in the lap is the audience, and that person wants clear images with bright, contrasting colors, you know, like, Disney, Berenstain Bears or Dora.

Scooby Doo, Spider Man, Fancy Nancy and all the other character-driven 8”x8” tomes rule your life. You read them in the store and, when you buy them, you read them at home. You buy them because you ask your beautiful and brilliant 2–5 year olds what they want. Please forgive me if I sound shrill, but WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? You don’t ask that brilliant child if she wants to eat or if he wants a sweater or to go to the doctor. You don’t even ask your child if she wants to go to bed. No, you are the parent and, in all other ways, you take excellent care of your perfect child. It is only literature where you hand your adult wisdom over to the wild and easily influenced whims of your small, illiterate child. Dear Folks, they don’t know what they want. Why do this to yourselves?

I have not come here to berate you but to put you in your proper place. You are the mommie/daddie, you alone know what is best for your small folk. They will like what you like and, even if they don’t right now, they will soon. You are the source of all that is good and true; whatever you read to them will be what they want. So, you get to decide what is read at bedtime. It might be old stories like Blueberries for Sal or new wonders like The Library Lion and Niccolini’s Song. These and hundreds like them will make for deeply desired bedtime reading and they won’t rot your parental brain when you read them for the 100th time. But, asks the reasonable parent, how do I know what’s good and what ain’t? Well . . .

That’s me, that short, ball shaped grey haired woman, sitting on a step stool and sorting the 8”x8”s. I read the catalogues and the reviews because you don’t have time. The publishers send me galleys so I’ll flog their latest book. In other stores and other towns, I look different but, at heart, I’m a kids’ bookseller. Take advantage of my knowledge of children’s liturature and I’ll tell you the truth. Although I will sell you any book you ask for, I will never lie to you. And I am dedicated to your child wanting to read, almost as much as you are. Just ask me what you want and I’ll give you what you need.