During a recent visit with friends, we noticed their children were intently watching the movie version of a classic children's book about animals. Short on dialogue, the 'picture version' was big on the kind of imagery described in words throughout the original children's novel.
What was once translated on the page via author and each reader's mind—an intensely personal experience—was now adapted for a movie audience. This is a terrific thing! Yet, it's not the same kind of experience, and it's apparent that if there isn't a concerted effort on the part of adults to entertain young children with written stories, then they'll miss out on an important part of growing up well.
Our ability to read text and process it in an effective way rests on not only didactic education but on habit as well. Reading comprehension, understood by students far and wide as an irritating credit requirement, informs and molds our daily experiences. It is this largely unrecognized reality that encourages us today to begin a series dedicated to showcasing the best classic children's books.
Why "classic" titles? Because, we want to revel in the personal experience of highly appreciated stories that still make us feel today the way we did when we initially read them. We'll be highlighting stories that gripped us and took us along a meaningful journey with people and circumstances we'd otherwise never have known.
In doing so, we also want to introduce our favorite cultural stories that help growing readers understand different walks of life than that to which they're exposed on a daily basis in their own circles.
We hope you'll join us by checking out our first installment of:
. . .
Tell us, what were some of your favorite reads as a child?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments may be moderated, so there may be a delay before your comment posts.