Good Children's Books

Park makes a good point about the need for quality children's books when these works have the opportunity to make such an impression on the mind of a young person. I found the idea that poorly written books may actually hinder a child's ability to learn to be interesting. I think that by reading books, a child learns much more than he/she would by not reading books, whether their choice of literature is of particular merit or not. If a child likes reading the books made from a cookie-cutter by the so called "celebrity" authors than I have no problem with letting them read those works. In my mind, the larger problem is the lack of exposure children get to a variety of book styles, authors, genres, etc. This is where the system has failed. It is not the fact that the most popular books are worse in a literary sense, it is that these books get all the focus and attention of readers young and old. Park points out that publishing is a business in this article, but she fails to address the fact that writing is part of that same business. Authors ultimately write books to make money. Every choice made in writing a book is the choice of the author and his/her publishers, editors, etc., who are all in business together.
In class we have read from both ends of the spectrum. We have studied books from the "celebrity" authors as well as from your everyday normal book writer. The distinction, at least to me, in reading these books is that I find the works from the "celebrity" authors are more enjoyable. I am partial to the more adventurous type books and from my experience these are the books that some criticize for literary reasons. Isn't reading books supposed to be fun and enjoyable? So what is so wrong about a book that can captivate a reader? Anyhow, the other less enjoyable books we have read like Copper Sun and Esperanza Rising may have more merit or be more acceptable to critics like Park but do not spark my interest in the same way. These books are more devoted to character development illustrating cultural and social messages than they are to entertaining an audience. Granted, these books are great for the classroom setting and can offer a learning experience, they are just not something that I would read on my own.