Hermenuetics

« A Walk to Beautiful: A Must-See Film | Main | When to Leave if You Can't Cleave »

February 2, 2010

Reading to Enrich a Child's Soul

In Read for the Heart, Sarah Clarkson wants to introduce families to good, true, and beautiful books.

interview by Ruth Moon

While American children and young adults might be reading more than in years past (says a 2009 study from the National Endowment for the Arts), they also are on the whole spending more time lost in a media blitz. The Kaiser Family Foundation reported last week that kids ages 8–18 spend an average of 7.5 hours a day consuming TV, movies, and music.

In a media-saturated and -distracted age, Sarah Clarkson hopes to reignite a love of reading books among families and children. Read for the Heart: Whole Books for Wholehearted Families (Apologia, December 2009) is Clarkson’s roadmap to books worthy of family reading and study. Her lists are substantial — the chapter on children’s fiction lists 51 authors, many with more than one book — so for families looking to add more reading into their routines, or for lovers of lists and of reading, Read for the Heart is a valuable resource.

Clarkson, based in Colorado and currently writing a children’s novel, spoke with Ruth Moon about the delight of children’s books and her philosophy of choosing good books.

What’s the value of adults reading children’s books?
Children’s stories distill big concepts down to the level of the simply true and beautiful. Some beautiful children’s books — the Chronicles of Narnia or At the Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald — have some of the deepest ideas in the world distilled into the simplicity of what you can tell a child. Children’s books can say true things about the world in a way that all the adult thinking and introspection and description can’t capture.

Why is it important to read to children?
It is astounding what words do for children’s brains. Reading helps them to make sense of information, and vocabulary is key to succeeding in any area of school. If a child isn’t read to or spoken to often, they won’t be able to proceed in math or science. Reading is constantly enriching the mind to be able to think more broadly and deeply. Everybody should be reading on a regular basis, but especially children during the years they are being educated.

What gave you the idea for the book?
I went to England for a C. S. Lewis Foundation conference and heard Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), speak. He was speaking on poetry for the conference, but he mentioned a report on reading. In his work at the NEA, he had been part of one of the largest surveys ever done on literacy in America.
When I got home I ordered the reports, and it was shocking. Reading had declined in every area and across every age group. [Editor’s note: 2009 was the first time in 25 years that the NEA saw an uptick in literary reading.] I had been writing book lists for people for years, and people had been asking me what I loved about books. Reading the reports made me realize, I want to write a book about this.

How did you compile your lists of recommended books?
I compiled all the lists I remembered reading, went to three or four really bookish friends, and did some research on Newbery Award winners. I chose the books that I felt had high literary quality, clear pictures of what it meant to be brave or heroic or good, and were beautiful and fun — books to enrich a child's soul.

How does new technology affect the way we read?
It removes the space of contemplation and puts everything you do at a higher speed. The Internet is an endless chain of small bits of information, so you’re never going to the deep places of communication; you’re swimming on the surface of ideas. The experience of reading a book is a slower process, because you’re holding the book in your hand and going page by page. It gives you more time to integrate ideas into processes and the way you think, whereas reading things on the Internet is more transitory.

What is your philosophy of reading children’s novels?
It’s important that a book portrays true things about the world, especially about childhood. A good example would be E. Nesbit. Her books, like The Railway Children and The Story of the Treasure-Seekers, are fun and beautiful stories about families and kids. Nesbit was anything but orthodox in many of her views — a member of the Fabian Society among other things — but she was still able to picture good and beautiful things about childhood and the world.

A second consideration is what a book portrays about the world: Does it portray good as good and evil as evil? Does it portray the consequences of actions? Does it reward virtue, and does the good guy come out on top in the end? Every book a child reads is building their expectation of how they see the world and what’s expected of them in life. Every book should have those clear moral pictures in them.

Posted by Katelyn Beaty on February 2, 2010 9:12 AM

recent posts

Archives

February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009

February 2012

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29