Welcome to Ask The Book Doctor, a recurring series about books and reading them.
I have a terrible memory, but I remember every word of Margaret Wise Brown's iconic 1947 children's book Goodnight Moon. It is perfect because, perhaps more than any other literary genre, children's book must understand their readers. Children love the moon. Children love to say goodnight. But there's also something kind of haunted about Goodnight Moon, and children also love that. Or at least I did.
These books are formative—they help children grow both linguistically and emotionally. In a beautiful article for the London Review of Books, children's author Katherine Rundell wrote, "In being written for those to whom the world is new and strange, for those who are without economic power, and for those who need short, sharp, bold stories, children’s literature can be a form of distillation: of what it means to hope, to fear, to yearn, distilled down and down into a piece of concentrated meaning."
People joke online a lot about how The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister bred a whole generation of Democratic Socialists, but there's some truth there. When you grow up reading a book about how sharing the gifts that you have been given makes the world a better place, that lesson lodges itself somewhere inside you. Or at least, that's the hope.
And children's books are nothing if not an act of hope: that the future will be better than the past, that a child's introduction to the world can be made sweeter through the telling of stories, that your kid will grow up to be literate instead of connected to an LLM that destroys their life. For me, it will always be Goodnight Moon, for you, maybe it's The Snowy Day, and for your child, maybe it will be Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back. For every adult reader of fiction, there will be an answer that comes to mind. Today's patient comes in search of such books, and I will do my best to help.
The Case:
Today's patients are Zach and his wife Kristen. Zach emailed me with some great news: They will have a baby in November! Congratulations to the new family! People put a lot of emphasis on "getting emotionally prepared for your family to expand" and "having diapers" but it is important to also think about fun things like what kind of books you are going to buy for the baby. Luckily, that is what Zach and Kristen are here to discuss, which is the only part of child-rearing I am even somewhat qualified to help with.
"I'm a lifelong reader and have a home office library with hundreds of books and comics of all genres. I've taken to reading The Hobbit to our son in utero before my wife and I lay down to sleep, and I try my best to do different voices," Zach writes. This is so tender to me, I could cry! But Zach knows that his baby will want baby books. And he doesn't know what those are.
He says they already bought Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and a couple more board books. Zach is white and Kristen is black, so they also want books with diverse characters, and note that they "love whimsy in this household." Same! Let's see what we can prescribe Zach and Kristen for their future baby.
The Prescription:
Despite having no children and no plans to change that, I love children's books. They combine two of my favorite things: stories and pictures. A great children's book captivates the eye long before you have learned to read the words on the page. They read aloud well, offering ample opportunities for Zach to do more voices. They're funny. They usually have some ridiculous three-syllable word that the child will learn and retain, perhaps forever. I learned "pandemonium" from a book called Bently & Egg. The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses could give a child "evermore."
Whenever one of my friends has a baby, I send a stack of 12 books that I think are important. Every child deserves to start off with a nice little library. Dolly Parton and I agree on this.
There are tons of resources for great books for kids, and I'm sure Zach and Kristen will get dozens of other recs, so I am going to recommend three books that have been published in the last ten years. When adults without children recommend books, they tend to default to memories of what they cherished their own parents having read to them. Those with grown-up kids will often recommend what they recall their children enjoying. This is lovely, but means it's easy to miss out on the many wonderful books that continue to hit shelves every year. All three are delightful and exciting, and have found great success in my book bundle for parents and children alike.
My three picks:
- Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall: Jabari is afraid of the big diving board! It's so tall! And in this book, his very attentive and supportive father encourages him to try. Cornwall's illustrations are soft and lovely, and the ending feels so satisfying.
- Square by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen: I am a Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen stan. If they have no fans, I am dead. I love that they both give children real plots that don't shy away from bad feelings. Square is my favorite of the shapes trilogy because Square accidentally becomes a sculptor, which I think is fun.
- The Fate of Fausto by Oliver Jeffers: Many children's books teach children morals. An important moral to learn, in my opinion (and in the opinion of this fable), is that being greedy will cause you to be eaten by the sea!! Also the illustrations are gorgeous and enchanting.
There are thousands of great children's books, and probably (like all literature), the best one is always going to be the one you like to read and your child likes to hear. But I think any library could benefit from these three, and I hope the commenters will share their favorite children's books with Zach and Kristen too! No library is too big for a child!
If you need a consult from the Book Doctor for any of your book dilemmas, please email bookdoctor@defector.com.
