What this project is about

From 2001 to 2003 I was lucky enough to study part time for a Masters degree in children's literature with the University of Reading (UK). For my dissertation I was going to write about Philip Pullman and C S Lewis, but I became increasingly fascinated by what people wrote about Pullman. He was credited with an awful lot of power to impact children's lives - negatively! I found myself wondering if some of the critics realised that they appeared to be attributing more power to Pullman to influence child development than the Bible or other religious teachings.

At a similar time, I found myself reading Spufford's The child that books built. I was excited by the idea his title represented. But, the more I read, the more I felt the book was mis-titled. A much more appropriate title seemed like it might be something like The books the child built. The more Spufford talked about the ways in which he changed as a result of his reading, the more it seemed to me that he was describing the ways in which he targeted the books that interested him and the aspects of those books on which he chose to focus his attention. The child, it seemed, in Spufford's narrative, was an active shaper of his own destiny.

So now, ten years later, I've decided to revisit my fascination with children's literature and its perceived capacity to contribute to the adult the child reader becomes. I hope to read about children's literature, child development, censorship, bibliotherapy and anything else that seems like it might be fascinating and / or illuminating. But I'm no academic. So I will also be exploring my own memories and feelings and seeking the memories and attitudes of others.

So, does the book shape the reader? Or does the reader shape the book? Shall we find out?

Friday, 11 October 2013

What is safe?

By pure chance I happened to catch the end of a news item on TV tonight. Parents were expressing concern over the content of stories being read to their preschool children, such as A tale of two daddies. One mother stated that she does not send her child to preschool to learn about homosexuality or sexuality. I must admit, I never have been able to understand this perspective. For that matter, I don’t even understand what it has to do with sex. What’s the difference between referring to “Daddy and Daddy” and referring to “Daddy and Mummy”? And how is the one somehow about sex while the other, presumably, is not? I don’t remember ever hearing of a book being challenged on the grounds that it mentions a child’s mother and father, thereby implying a sexual relationship. Why are two fathers lucky enough to be about sex while a mother and a father are labelled only as parents?

I seriously, seriously, just don’t get it. I never have, since I was a child, and my father first tried to explain the concept of homosexuality to me (it was a storyline in Cop Shop) and why it might be considered a problem (I wonder what he’d say to me now?!). I mean, who cares who the parents are? Whether they be mothers, fathers, gender-queer parents or whatever label; whether they be one, two, three or more? Personally I’d rather know that the child feels loved, safe, curious about life and able to learn, explore and develop with a sense that it is safe to be itself.


In order to understand why people feel so strongly about censorship, I am therefore trying to challenge myself by use of an extreme example: child pornography. I’ll admit that it has never occurred to me to feel indignant at the censorship of child pornography. Why? Because I accept the extraordinarily high likelihood of harm to children from engagement in adult-level sexual activity. I must therefore admit to an instinct to ban self expression if it is likely to result in / promote activities that are harmful to someone. The sobering extrapolation is, of course, that many people genuinely believe that certain ideas, and certain people, are harmful by their very nature. And that makes me feel very uncomfortable. Not to mention immensely sad. How shall we decide what is or is not okay? Is it even possible? And who will suffer the consequences of our choices?
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