A Children’s Place

Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak (1981)

I am obsessed with the place of “childhood”. Being a parent now I feel privileged to get to know another human being so intimately as a child. I watch him wonder and cope and grow with unparalleled closeness. He stops me often to see the world from his eyes, walking on his hands on a public staircase, checking if a mannequin is real, what is that sound? Where are the ghosts? I see him overcome, without conscious reasoning, by emotions that seem to overtake and I try to trace the invisible strings that pull those emotions throughout the day. If I can connect the days events to a story I will try. We read many books. Because of my job, I spend a lot of time reading about books. As an artist I feel the enduring affects of the emotional landscapes of childhood, their legacies live on and I acutely remember this time of fear, wonder, and complexity. Many books today focus on the ideas of childhood, rather than the experience of actual children.  

Actual children are naturally poetic.

Actual children are naturally rebellious

And yet so many childrens books pride themselves on rationality. Even when they are trying to be silly, they seem like they are authored by sad lost adults.

As a parent reading these books to my child, I find them disappointing and difficult to read aloud. Many new children's books are plagued by accidental or thoughtless repetition, mixed and failed metaphors, telling not showing, redundant, clunky, muddled flow and moralistic or ideological overtones. While they often feature clean, simple styles with minimal text and bright colors, they can feel shallow, condescending, and disconnected from a child's imagination. Books that try too hard to be "child-like" often miss the mark, offering predictable stories that fail to spark curiosity or critical thinking. Real children think and dream in complex, unpredictable ways and are drawn to stories that challenge them, stretch their imaginations, and take them on adventurous, strange, and exciting journeys. Children want books that are weird and imaginative, not just simple, surface-level tales.

Also,

Children are spontaneously poetic, and real children's poets and writers try to achieve this with a masterful scaffolding of word and image. When its good it comes very close to the irrational unfettered imagination of children. I think a lot of childrens books NOW are made by designers and illustrators, instead of childrens authors and poets. They lack the sensitivity to reflect the experience of childhood. a dreamlike and sometimes wordless level of the unconscious that really good childrens authors connect to and therefore speak to us all on a very deep level.

But not all hope is lost. I do come across books that achieve the imagination, dream and fantasy of childhood, a place that is fun and complex, and capable of holding both fear and joy.

I need a place to share books and art that I feel express and understand the complex emotions of childhood, ideas that matter to the wild and unpredictable inner worlds of children. This diary is part record keeping, part world-building and dedicated to that place of “childhood”.