Get thee to a nursery! Why I like children's books
Admittedly it can look odd when you're a grown woman poking around the children's section of a bookstore. Sometimes I find myself sidling past and snatching a carefully nonchalant glance at the colourful spines. Unfortunately, the discomfort shows.
But was there ever such a gorgeous, whimsical place as the children's section? The literature shelves are great, albeit lined with self-consciously clever titles in minimalist print. Sure, the design section is glossy, but oddly soulless. And politics - stop right there. I do love a bookstore - every part of it - but all I'm saying is that sometimes, picture books are exactly my cup of tea.
Just have a flip through Rules of Summer next time you're at a bookstore, and tell me there's no skill involved in producing each of the exquisite oil paintings that lives between its covers. Crack open The Eleventh Hour and you'll see that Graeme Base writes a mystery as meticulous as Arthur Conan Doyle does. And how about our classics, Possum Magic and The Very Hungry Caterpillar? That's got to be the most creative use of cut-outs in any book! Even the least prestigious picture book on my shelf integrates a sophisticated parallel structure with a deceptively simple story about self-acceptance. Seriously guys, How Emily Blair Got Her Fabulous Hair is masterful compared to an unfortunate number of "age-appropriate" books I've read.
It's easy to love picture books simply on account of their beautiful illustrations, but children's novels have a special place in my heart. These books have such lush imagery, probably because their audience has the imagination to support it. Language is used in a painterly way - to sketch outlines and add colour for impression, but never to produce dry perfection. At the same time, the best children's authors write with incredible lucidity. Odo Hirsch is one of my favourites; when he writes about custard tarts, I taste those custard tarts. And there are a good few pastries mentioned in his Hazel Green books, so you can see why I'm a fan. Antonio S and the Mystery of Theodore Guzman was a book I enjoyed more as an adult than as a child, because the first time I read it, I didn't know what Hamlet was - that was a bit of a downer. And there's absolutely no book that could make me fall in love with Venice as many times as Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord did.
I'm not telling you to fill your shelves with children's books, but give them a go - it's more important that we open our minds than our purses. Let your eye linger over that scarlet binding. Let yourself sink into the bliss of those pages just for an afternoon.
A mug of something hot with that?
Just divine.
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