Salon.com > Andrea Gollin

Wild Things

Thu, 18 Sep 1997 18:58:00 +0000

OK, so maybe you've never heard a spider speak. Maybe your children
haven't either. But aside from that one small technicality, Charlotte is
all-arachnid, and that's got to be a big part of why E.B. White's
Charlotte's Web is the bestselling children's paperback book of all
time. Here's a tidbit you already know: Kids love bugs.

Charlotte is the real thing, the web-weaving, egg-laying,
creepy-crawling, dying deal. And that's the way White wanted it. He sent
his illustrator back to the drawing board after seeing the preliminary
sketches of a spider with a woman's face. "You better just draw a spider
and forget about a countenance," he wrote to Garth Williams (who also
drew everyone's favorite mouse, Stuart Little). Charlotte with a woman's
face? We don't think so. Neither, of course, did White, who spent a year
studying spiders before he even began the story. "My feelings about
animals is just the opposite of Disney's," White wrote. "He made them
dance to his tune and came up with some great creations, like Donald
Duck. I preferred to dance to their tune, and came up with Charlotte
and Wilbur." ($4.95 paperback; for ages 8 and up, HarperCollins)

Wild Things

Thu, 04 Sep 1997 19:42:00 +0000

quick -- which U.S. zoo has the most species? What year was
the electric battery invented? What's the longest bridge in the world?
Facts are relatively easy to come by. But packaging them in a form that's
kid-friendly and interesting is a different story. There's certainly
no shortage of children's reference books. Bookstores are bursting with
these fact-filled, heavily illustrated tomes that range in subject from general
reference -- such as encyclopedias -- to specific interests, like cars or insects.

It used to be "reference" meant boring. Today's picture-filled volumes are
often light on text and look like fun -- but that doesn't mean they're missing the facts.
The graphics aren't mere decoration -- instead, they're part of the information
being conveyed. In the most successful volumes, the text and pictures work together
to convey knowledge.

Wild Things

Thu, 21 Aug 1997 19:52:00 +0000

no parent wants to be like that evil, creativity-squelching teacher in
the Harry Chapin song "Flowers Are Red" who reprimands a boy for making a
picture when "it's not the time for art" and then tells him that his
picture is wrong because flowers can't be any color, the way he's drawn
them. No, "flowers are red ... green leaves are green." The teacher, as we
enlightened folk know, should be tarred and feathered for the injury she's
inflicted on this budding Picasso, who will now instead become an
investment banker and thus be able to afford all the therapy he's going to
need.

By the time the boy in the song encounters a smiling teacher who
recognizes that there are more than two colors in the world, it's too
late for him. He's morphed into a dutiful, red-and-green-flower-drawing
robot. Over-earnest as the Chapin song is (and it's so didactic that it
almost makes you want to draw a couple of red flowers), he does have a
point. Of course, everyone knows that children's creativity should be
encouraged, that self-expression through art is healthy and that you
should give your kids plenty of crayons, even if they eat most of them.

Casting a spell

Thu, 31 Jul 1997 09:37:00 +0000

Great children's books -- great books, for that matter -- are those
that "cast a spell so subtle and overwhelming that it has overpowered the
reader's imagination, carried him outside all the rules, before he has
noticed what is happening." Those are the words of author Susan
Cooper, and she should know, because it's a feat she has accomplished
again and again in more than 15 books for children.

If someone were to ask me to list the best contemporary writers of
children's literature, Susan Cooper's name would appear on that list. And
if someone -- a parent, for example -- were to ask me what books to give to
an 8- to 12-year-old child of either gender to keep him or her engrossed
for the rest of the summer, I would tell them to choose anything and
everything by Susan Cooper.

show me the pictures

Fri, 25 Jul 1997 11:44:00 +0000

in the big white room there's a telephone and a blue desk and a beige
keyboard and an empty computer screen and a large pile of new
children's picture books and a small pile of classic children's picture
books, including one about a great green room with a red balloon and a
picture of the cow jumping over the moon. And children have been read to
sleep by that classic, Goodnight Moon, millions of times during the
past 50 years, ever since Margaret Wise Brown wrote it and Clement Hurd
illustrated it.

My parents never read "Goodnight Moon" to me and until yesterday, when,
at the urging of my therapist and with the help of my support group, I
telephoned to confront them about this, neither of them had heard of
the book. "Goodnight Spoon"? my mother asked. "Why would you tell a
spoon goodnight?" "Honey, just tell her we DID read it to her. She
doesn't remember," I heard my father whispering in the background. "I DO
remember," I said sorrowfully. "I wanted you to read 'Goodnight Moon' to
me and you DIDN'T. And now it's TOO LATE."

Show me the pictures

Fri, 25 Jul 1997 08:36:00 +0000

The ocean blue

Thu, 17 Jul 1997 08:47:00 +0000

if it weren't for a few small details, such as barracudas and their
teeth, jellyfish and their tentacles, crabs and their claws, it would be
an extremely cool thing to live under the sea. It would be quiet and
calm, sort of like being surrounded by a soothing New Age tape at all
times. You could find Atlantis, locate buried treasure, hang out with
mermaids, eat a lot of lobster -- what could be so terrible?

Now that summer's well under way, we all have thoughts of water dancing
in our heads. Sea, river, pool, sprinkler, you name it. So, what
better time than now to get educational about the ocean? And after all, the
ocean is very important. It covers more than two-thirds of the globe, and
contains about 97 percent of all the water on earth. The ocean floor, after
learning a bit about it, is probably not a place where anyone would want to
spend a whole lot of time.

Below 3,280 feet, it's permanently dark, since
it's too deep for sunlight to reach. And some of the stuff that lives down
there ... take the abyssopelagic animals, for example. They're usually
black, and they have huge mouths and stomachs that can stretch to
accommodate food that's three times larger than they are. We're talking
about animals like the gulper eel, which can unhinge its jaws. Not exactly
Mr. Rogers' neighborhood.

How does your garden grow?

Thu, 03 Jul 1997 08:54:00 +0000

it's not often that one is saved by crocuses, even in literature. But
that's what happens in Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic children's
novel, "The Secret Garden." Mary is "as tyrannical and selfish a little
pig as ever lived," and Colin is a spoiled semi-invalid who's fretting
himself to death. Both are miserably unhappy children until they start
hanging out in the garden, digging and weeding and breathing the fresh air.
As the garden grows, so do the children, until both the neglected garden
and the lonely children are blooming with health and vigor. "There is
Magic in there -- good Magic," Colin says of the garden. And he's right,
as any child who reads the book will surely conclude.

And readers inspired to claim their own patch of earth
and watch the flowers grow can begin by taking a look at The
Secret Garden Notebook, illustrated by Graham Rust, whose Victorian-style
illustrations also grace a reprint of the novel. The notebook is a
seasonally organized introduction to gardening, complete with instructions
and a log to keep track of what grows when. ($18.95 for "The Secret
Garden"; $12.95 for "The Secret Garden Notebook"; both for ages 10 and up,
from David R. Godine, 800-344-4771)

Are we there yet?

Thu, 26 Jun 1997 09:03:00 +0000

Traveling with children can make you ponder certain topics, such as: Why
aren't you a Trappist nun? Why are rest areas so many miles apart? Why
hasn't natural selection eliminated whining from the species? Of course,
none of these questions will even flicker across your mind if you have a
TV/VCR in your minivan, in which case you can stop reading this right now.
Although I have nothing against multimedia on wheels, it lacks the
challenge and suspense of keeping kids entertained on family vacations. For
those willing to go the distance, I've worked out a step-by step strategy.

Step One: A selection of good books is your first requirement for
any family vacation. Don't even question this step. If you don't know which
books your kids will like, or don't have the time to choose, help is just a
phone call away. The Travel Pack is a nifty assortment of at least
five books and book-type things, such as activity books and stickers, that
are geared to a kid's age, sex and reading ability. It can even be
customized to reflect special interests or vacation destinations, and the
version for kids under 7 comes in a backpack. ($24.99; for all ages,
from Children's
Literature; 800-469-2070)

Wild Things

Thu, 19 Jun 1997 09:10:00 +0000

A hundred years ago, when Toys 'R' Us was still a glint in God's eye, a
boy might have kicked off the summer by making a squirt gun from a piece
of an old cane fishing pole, with a quill for a nozzle and a plunger
carved from cedar. By mid-July, he'd be hard at work, building a
scow-shaped rowboat. Come August, he'd have to guard his rowboat from
his sister, who, having wearied of applying dried starfish to brown
flannel to make curtains, would be eager to transform the rowboat into a
set of bookshelves for the family's seaside cottage.

Our vast knowledge of children's toys, games and activities of yore comes not from a past life (that's another story), but from "The American Boys Handy Book" and "The American Girls Handy Book." These books give kids a unique and fascinating glimpse of history, with their step-by-step instructions on a myriad of projects. Originally published in the 1880s and reprinted, the books are organized seasonally and devote large chunks to summer fun. ($12.95; for ages 10 and up, from David R. Godine)