Saturday, January 28, 2012

Reading Children's Books

While reading books to Henley each day, I find myself evaluating how well the books are written.  Nearly all of the Dr. Seuss books that we have are of high quality (even though I think that The Foot Book: Dr. Seuss's Wacky Book of Opposites could be a bit wackier and does not always stick to the "opposites" theme).  I also think that the author of the Gerald and Piggie books does a great job.  There are some books, however, that would have benefited from additional editing.  For example, Pooh's Party is one of the books in Disney's Classic Pooh category.  Overall, I like the book, but the last page always bothers me.  Here's what is written, "At last it is undone.  Inside is a Special Pencil Case with pencils inside.  'Thank you,' says Pooh happily.  What a Lucky Bear!"  Why did the author use "inside" twice in the same sentence?  The author could have said something like, "At last it is undone.  Pooh's gift is a Special Case with pencils inside."  We also have a book about Christmas that uses the word "okay" twice on the same page, which seems unnecessary.  Given that children's books are not very long and often are read more than once a day by caregivers to children, it seems like the authors would carefully select each word.  Of course, I'm sure that children do not evaluate the quality of books in the same way that adults do, and the books are written for the children not the adults.

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