Read me a life: December 2013

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?

Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Formative child, finished adult?

Stories like Narnia deserve to be taken very seriously because what we read as children is perhaps the most important literature we ever encounter. We're then at a formative stage of life. "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world" goes the saying. And if that's true, what about the hand that holds the bedtime fairy-tale? For that matter, what about the hand that writes the bedtime fairy-tale?

Michael Ward, The Narnia Code

Books I hope to look at