On the decline of children's picture books...

This often happens to me. I go about my daily life, I see/hear things, I observe and listen, when needed, I read up on the topic, and then I form my opinion. Oftentimes, this happens so subtly and I do it so swiftly and subconsciously that sometimes I don't notice it. These opinions often get formed in my head, and I kind of mentally file them away. Afterall, I'm not a columnist and commentator. I don't find the need to air out every single thought in my head, in twitter and some such, for example. That would be too crass. When need be, I'll speak.

So then, today I read this article in New York Times about the decline of children's picture books. Memories and emotions flood back to me, like the filing system inside my head is about to burst. That's in large part due to the many observations and own experience, in all these years while bringing up my kids, and books are an integral part of it. Life can be too busy for one to reflect on things. But this is one of those times.

I didn't read much at all when I was a kid. In those days, resources were simply too scarce. We didn't even get to go to public libraries which seemed like a luxury to us. All we read were textbooks, and we did well in schools. It's no surprise since, growing up in Asia, everything is about standardized tests since the feudal days in imperial China. The British colonial rule kept up with that system very well too. No one feels bad about not reading any other materials. If you do well in school, you're golden.

You won't know how I felt when I went to the public library the first time in my teens. The public library was obviously much bigger than our school library. I wandered from aisle to aisle, touching and smelling the books, picking them up at random, and reading them. I was lost in space and time. Since then, I've been going to the library on my own; and my friends would think that I've gone mental, for wanting to dig the books rather than watching TV or movies. Granted that I literally grew up with the TV, I've found a new friend in books. This might sound strange in US, but this was back then a few decades in Asia.

I still keep up that habit in reading on my own. I'm secretly wishing to make up for all the lost grounds. How I wish I have found the interests in books at a younger age. I have no doubts that I would have read much more interesting books. And I would learn to become a faster reader too. As it is now, I read surely, though rather slowly. I have my regrets.

My husband is a different animal. He's a prolific reader. He would finish a book in two days, that would have taken me more than a week. These days, in between the busy life, I can only find time to read maybe 2-3 books a month. I always secretly harbor the envy to those people who can keep at reading at least a book a week. That would have made me very happy, to cover all the books that I have wanted to read. For now, they would have to wait.

For the most obvious reasons then, I never have to chance to experience picture books as a child. Still, I enjoy them all the same. After my kids were born, we used to go to bookstores often, and we bought alot of picture books for the kids. I'd say, they enjoy them, particularly the classics like Goodnight Moon and Dr Seuss, but not the kind of head-over-heels type of ecstasy that I have expected from them. As a matter of fact, I think they love them, not only because of how interesting the book is, but mainly on the quality time that we read them together, as parents and children. I have no doubts about their usefulness, in easing the kids into lifelong reading habit, as my husband does, in seeking out books for both research, interests and comfort.

So, with the ever-increasing competition, both locally but in an ever-expanding globalized world. As the article has pointed out, parents are urging kids to skip over picture books, and jump right into chapter books at a younger and younger age. Can a 4-year-old truly enjoy Charlotte's Web or Stuart Little on their own? Honestly, I'd say, without the guidance and encouragement from an adult, they can't...not unless you have a child prodigy, I suppose. But you shouldn't be surprised to find that alot of parents consider their child to be a prodigy on some level. Afterall, if the parents can nudge them into reading the chapter books at 4-5 years old, that's quite something....right?

For me, I don't really nudge my kids, one way or the other. My husband, on the other hand, has quite strong views on what they should do at what age, guided by his own experience. Afterall, he starts learning his phonics when he was 3, and he starts reading Greek mythology when he's 5. I must admit, there're times when I'm ambivalent about pushing the kids to start at too young an age. I don't want to kill their natural curiosity.

Somehow, my husband proves to me that my ambivalence is misguided. Our kids can indeed master both phonics and the basic of mathematics around 3-4. Once they master the basics, my husband lets them choose. They would choose a topic of interests, and read up on the topics like crazy. My son would get to know everything about sharks, dinosaurs, soccer (his passion), and more. My daughter would find interests in arts and crafts, minerals, history, architecture, and more. It's quite amazing.

One thing that I've learnt from the kids and all these years is that, one should not look at the simple guidelines of whether there are pictures in the book or not. That rule is just too simplistic. There are indeed chapter books that cater for both, like the Geronimo Stilton series, and the Magic Tree House series, with text inter-parsed with illustrations.

My husband also grew up with comic books too. He loves Calvin and Hobbes, and Tin Tin. He's the one who introduces comic books to the kids. But they love it so much, and they've graduated to the Marvel series and others which are not always appropriate for their young age, given the amount of violence in it, to say the least. So, now, my husband is giving the kids marching orders to curb on the amount of time they spend on comic books.

But does all these mean that there's no place of picture books? I don't think so. There is a space and time in the kids' life for that. I don't think picture books and full-length text have to be mutually exclusive. If I were the parent who takes all the fun out of my kid's childhood, because I want him/her to get in Harvard, 18 years down the line, I think I'm doing them a disservice. Sure, Harvard is nice, and it's not that I don't want them to get the best. Somehow, there should be a balance.