Bottom Shelf Books: Be Still My Nerdy Heart

Why Picture Books?

As the old saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words... and weighs significantly less." I love reading as much as the next person, but there are only so many hours in the day. For example, why spend weeks (or months) reading David Foster Wallace's indulgently long Infinite Jest when you could spend minutes reading Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon which is basically the same story? (minus the prescription drug addiction.) It's really just a matter of efficient time management.

Picture Books and Intellectual Growth

While it is great to invoke the heart and spirit of your childhood when reading a picture book, that doesn't mean that you have to revert to the mentality of a child. Like all books, picture books have layers of meaning that only the individual reader can peel away. What makes picture books unique is that you can use them to chart your intellectual growth. As an exercise, pick a favorite picture book that you read as a child and read it again every couple years to see how your experience in the world has altered your reading. You will probably find that you've gotten dumber with time. But the sooner you realize this, the better.

more reading on picture books

Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature (Alison Lurie)
Drawn to Enchant (Timothy Young)
Guys Write for Guys Read (John Sczieska, editor)
Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale (Catherine Orenstein)
Should We Burn Babar? Essays on Children's Literature and the Power of Stories (Herbert Kohl)
The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators (Anita Silvey, editor)
The Girl with the Brown Crayon: How Children Use Stories to Shape Their Lives (Vivian Gussin Paley)
The Pooh Perplex and Postmodern Pooh (Frederick Crews)
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (Bruno Bettelheim)
Understanding Children's Literature (Peter Hunt)

Thanks to author/illustrator Barbara Johansen Newman for hitting me with a Thinking Blogger Award. It's an honor and the first award I've gotten since I won the dubious "Looks Surprisingly Hot in a Skirt" Award from my ultimate frisbee team (an award that I definitely deserved, but it was a dubious distinction nonetheless).

I'm not sure what to make of the logo, which looks like some kind of baby alien with a tattoo of the recycling symbol on its forehead. Which I guess is appropriate. It is very thoughtful of this alien life form from a distant galaxy to concern itself with our humble planet's environmental needs.

Thank you Barbara, and thank you tattooed alien baby!

Bottom Shelf Books

10 September 2012

Be Still My Nerdy Heart

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