Leith takes us on a journey through childhood reading, and by association, attitudes to childhood, from Aesop to Philip Pullman with many a firm favourite in between. This isn’t a small book at just shy of six hundred pages, but it is very easy to read and will fill you with the magic and joy of childhood reading. The idea of children’s publishing didn’t really come into existence until the Edwardian period, so many of the books we think of as children’s literature before then wouldn’t have been considered as such at the time, but it has absolutely thrived since. Although initially children’s books were designed to morally guide the reader, as children increasingly played a role in choosing their reading material it has shifted into focussing more on entertainment for them, often with a good dose of naughtiness involved.
In taking us through some of the best beloved British children’s stories (with some American publications thrown in for their undeniable impact on the genre) we also learn much of their authors. Leith points to the fact children’s books are often nostalgic, being rooted in the time their authors remember from their own youth, even if they update the setting with modern touches such as computers and smart phones. In exploring the lives of the authors we see how often they suffered trauma in their childhoods or young adult lives. Often those traumas are steadfastly absent from their books, instead choosing to create a comforting world where the darkness doesn’t enter, or in which evil is always overcome by the final pages. He tackles the less savoury aspects of some beloved authors’ personalities, a difficult thing to come to terms with sometimes when their creations were so central to your imaginative life as a child. And yes, he does also address the controversy around JK Rowling, offering the kinder suggestion that perhaps the reason her readers have turned so vehemently against her because of her views is that they learnt great empathy in reading her books in their youth.
At the heart of the book is the magic of children’s literature which stirs up nostalgic feelings of wonder in the reader. Leith examines some books in more detail and it’s interesting to consider books I loved as a child in more depth, placing them in the great traditions of children’s writing, exploring ways they challenge ideas and offer children insights into other lives, helping them develop empathy. It was quite delightful to return to favourite books and authors, but also to discover ones that passed me by and which I’m keen to read in the future.
A great read which makes you question things you took at face value as a child reader (why do the animals in Beatrix Potter’s books sometimes act as if they were humans, at others as animals, while varying greatly in realistic size to ones more akin to humans?). The mini biographies of the authors are fascinating and reveal much about the origins of some of our longest surviving tales, as well as discussing the power of more recent authors such as Malorie Blackman and Jacqueline Wilson doing a huge amount to increase representation in children’s books and the life-changing impact this has on readers. A warm hug of a book, I’ll leave you with a quote from toward the end, which is a reminder of why reading may just be the cure to some of the world’s current problems. ‘The paradox of social media is that it places you in a crowd of millions and makes you feel alone. Storybooks are paradoxical in the opposite way: you consume them alone, but the act of consuming them makes you feel less alone.’
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