Children's Books
Written by Michael Babienco on Sunday, February 18, 2018
Children's books. If you know me, you know that I really enjoy kid's books. Several hundred people (not an exaggeration) were able to hear me read I Want My Hat Back, by Jon Klassen (including Gordon Bietz, then-president of Southern Adventist University!), and I've enjoyed reading kid's books to people ever since that time. Some of my favorite to read to others include I Yam a Donkey, by Cece Bell, and Tacky the Penguin, by Helen Lester. I even keep a stack of kid's books on my office desk in case others want to come and read some stories during an otherwise stressful day! Since I enjoy children's books so much, I thought that I would share some of the reasons, in no particular order, why I enjoy the books (for reading myself and to others) so that other people can grow in their appreciation of kid's books and enjoy them just a little bit more.
1. Book Length
People seem to be busy all the time nowadays. Everyone's always running around doing this, that, and the other thing. I often can find it difficult to sit down and read a longer book or passage, and if I do get the chance, it is not often when I can sit down and read any significant portion of my book or other reading materials. Children's books are often short, to the point, and easily digestible in a small window of time. If you're in a rush, grab a kid's book, sit down, and just relax for a minute! Your other things can wait for five minutes. As a side benefit, you'll probably be more productive after taking a five minute break than without one!
2. Humor
As long as you read the right kid's book, you should be in for a good laugh, or, at the very least, a nice smile on your face that leaves you feeling a bit better after reading. Kid's books can be funny for a variety of reasons: the art, the story, or just the absolute absurdity of reading a book about a unicorn that lives under the ocean, a private eye investigator searching into the mystery of 7 ate 9, or a pug named Pig who is horribly selfish. It's OK to "be a kid" and simply enjoy a good book or laugh at something silly. Remember that adults are really just grown-up kids, and there's no reason why we all can't enjoy a good laugh!
3. Fun to read
Let's face it: kid's books are just plain fun to read. Whether this fact is because they have clever rhymes, because Amelia Bedelia just made a sponge cake out of real sponges, or because the story is simply an enjoyable, feel-good story about a man and his steam shovel, we can all sit down and enjoy a good kid's book every now and again. This is not to say that informative books and books that are not written to be "fun" are wrong, out of place, or worse than kid's books. Those kind of books simply have a different purpose. A kid's book is made for enjoyment with other human beings, regardless of whether you actually have kids or not! And again, I'm not saying that kid's books are supposed to be consumed all the time -- moderation is key in most things.
4. Clever moral learning
Not every kid's book needs to have a moral at the end, but those that do are often more short, to the point, and easily understood than some adult books that attempt to explain a perhaps-easy topic in a long, exasperating manner. After all, Jesus told parables, and some of those were only a sentence or two in length -- yet every one had a lesson for us humans to learn. Jesus stated that the entire law and prophets hung on two commands: love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-40). Even though this lesson takes just a few words to speak, how difficult this lesson can be and how much we can learn and change just by applying these "simple" principles! Especially for the younger audience, a good story with a helpful moral at the end can be more conducive to a change in behavior or thought than an hour lecture by an esteemed scholar.
5. Made to read out loud
Maybe I'm the odd one out here, but reading books to others brings so much more enjoyment out of a book than reading it silently to yourself. After all, that's how a good chunk of us learned to read and heard stories growing up: we were read to! It's not so much that hearing someone read out of a book on a complex scientific topic cannot be fascinating (because it can be wonderful), but there's something to be said for hearing someone read a book aloud while having a different voice for every character and simultaneously acting out the book via the expressions in their face. Much like an orchestra, the art form of a children's book can be enjoyed a whole lot more by watching the one(s) giving voice to the art form.
Convinced? Go visit your local bookstore, go over to the kid's section, and have a read!