"The girl with the brown crayon"

Paley, V. G. (1997). The girl with the brown crayon / Vivian Gussin Paley, Harvard University Press.

[image reproduced from Amazon]

I cannot be in the least objective about this delight of a book, so I won’t even try. It was Zipes who referred to Paley’s work, of which I had never previously heard, and I owe him a great debt of gratitude. Reading this book was pure joy for me from beginning to end.

I am reminded most of Winnicott’s The piggle, with its emphasis on constantly negotiated meanings and understandings. Only in this case it is not simply a matter of respectfully learning about the other; Paley admits that it is herself that she is constantly defining and refining through her interactions with and observations of the children in her class.

Throughout the book, Paley illustrates the complex level of thinking of which the children are capable, describing the ways in which they use books to test, explore and expand their own world view:

In the course of a morning, the children have taken up such matters as the artist's role in society, the conditions necessary for thinking, and the influence of music and art on the emotions. From Reeny's simple assertion 'That brown mouse seem to be just like me' has come a preview of the introspective life.

She also believes this engagement to be continually compounded by intertextuality, with each new discovery adding layers to existing ideas, while characters, both fictional and literal, flow seamlessly in and between books:

We've done - what, five of Leo Lionni's books already? With each new one, plus all the activities that go with it, there is an unfolding of layers of meaning that extends to all the previous characters.

And, in the end, I am reminded of Francis Spufford. The sub-title proclaims:

How children use stories to shape their lives

But, by the end of the book, Paley queries the relationship between child and book. To what extent does the book shape the child’s thinking, and to what extent does the child approach the book complete with his or her own agenda?

I can't help wondering if Reeny's ability to use the easy tree as metaphor is due in part to the practice we've had in analyzing Leo Lionni. Yet isn't it more likely the other way around? That is, the Leo Lionni stories and the easy-tree stories work so well because the children come to school knowing how to think about such matters.

For Paley, it appears that children shape and create their own world, using the world to continually test or reinforce their understanding.