For the First Time in Forever

     I have never stopped reading children's fiction, and never will. There is, of course, the practical side of checking up on a book before allowing your children to read it; but it's far more than that. If done well, children's stories simultaneously tell good tales with well-done characters and convey important truths about life - the basic purpose of any story. Children's stories, if done properly, convey these truths in a manner more suited to a younger audience, which may look slightly different depending on the age group at which a story is aimed. Why should adults read such stories on their own merits, whether they have children or not? A few reasons I personally still read them:

     1. To better understand certain concepts - As adults, we like to think we "have it all figured out"...I decidedly do NOT, but perhaps I'm the only one. It's good to go back and have something explained simply; it probably never was as complex as you thought in the first place. On the other side, going back and re-reading books you read long ago, you may discover more truths that passed you by as a young one. I especially love children’s historical fiction for its providing children an introduction to historical events and figures (as long as they realize it’s still fiction), and an opportunity to see these figures as living, relatable humans before some wellmeant textbook renders them flat, lifeless numbers to memorize for a test. As an adult, historical fiction works such as The Order of the Whyte Boar motivate me to learn more about the figures and period than any class or textbook ever did.

     2. To understand how the world looks from children's perspectives - one purpose of reading in general is to understand points-of-view different from one's own; with children's lit, it's more like remembering perspectives you once had but may have forgotten. 

     3. For pure enjoyment. No shame!! Not only are children's books often just as well-written as, or better than, adult novels, but the moment you decide certain kinds of books are somehow "beneath" you simply because they're aimed at children, you cut off your capacity to grow in a given area. We never stop growing or learning, and the world changes so rapidly now that it is crucial we never forget how the world looked when we were young, and we must learn and understand how the world looks to children now. I'm sure this quotation from CS Lewis can tend to be overused, but it bears repeating here: "A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."