I worked for a season in a barnbokhandel where it was sold more Pippi dolls, glittery stickers and fridge magnets than children’s books. A woman in their forties broke the norm by a day come stumbling towards the cashier with a tower of Lassemajaböcker in his arms. She declared that she ought to get a special discount because she went there from Finland once a year and made off with colossal amounts of money to update his home library, largely consisting of just Lassemajaböcker.
the Kids devour them, “she said,” it feels important that they can always read as much as they want.
have the ability to consume books that way, but the woman made me happy. I saw in front of me where the room of the home of them somewhere in Ostrobothnia: thick carpets, hyllvis of books, children on the floor, binders in place of the screens in their hands.
Even if Martin Widmarks and Helena Willis Lassemaja-series is not the kind of books that are regarded as fine children’s literature, they are read and loved by children all over Sweden (and, apparently, also beyond national borders).
And why would the desire to read ever be harmful? However, I can think of anything that is harmful to the corporation: lectures.
I have not hard to understand Per Nilsson’s criticism (DN 10/5) against the position that it would not be bad books, that all literature is good as long as the child is reading it. It is clear that there are big differences in quality and, of course, would children in the best of all worlds read the best of books (if we disregard the complex question of who makes the assessment). I can also miss more exciting content, especially for contemporary mellanåldersböcker. There is a tendency to portray the everyday dialogue as if someone had been sitting at a random dinner table and recorded the conversation – often realistic, rarely interesting. As you learn in creative writing: just because something happened in real life, it does not mean that it has a literary value.
the conversation around what constitutes just good children’s literature may stand aside for the high-priority vuxenlitteraturen, is something that most people who in one way or another work with children’s books think is unfortunate.
But anyway: to sneer at the promotion of reading efforts and encouragement to the reading, regardless of whether it bears a stamp that says nice or ugly, is just counterproductive. In addition, it is to focus on the wrong thing. The biggest challenge is not to change what children already reading, it is to get them to whatsoever read despite all the uppmärksamhetskonkurrens. That is to say: something that comes to everyone’s reading.
When it comes to picture books looks, Per Nilsson, artistic freedom, curiosity and skills. ”But then, when the little children grow up? Then waiting for readable, legible and easy to read. Deckarserier and superheroes, and a bit of horror.”
all from the Martha Sandwall-Bergström’s ”Kulla-Gulla” to Carolyn Keenes Kittyböcker and Francine Pascal’s ”the Twins at Sweet Valley High” to the easy-to-read, bloody murder mystery. Just now, I found that some books were worse, others better. It was good, I read more of, and maybe I became interested in something completely different when I visited the library. An acquaintance told me recently that she, as a child dreamed of becoming a critic and write about the Sweet Valley High series. We need not worry about that children will read something they don’t have the desire, but we can worry about us because they do not read at all. And why would the desire to read ever be harmful? However, I can think of anything that is harmful to the corporation: lectures.
