I recently cleared out my bookshelf of any middle school leveled books to make room for my high school novels and stumbled on a book that probably haven't left my shelf since I was 7. One of my favorite childhood books: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
It may seem silly to be blogging about a book I read like what 8 years ago? These blog posts are high school assignments after all. Well I'm going to do it anyways.
As nerdy as it sounds I really enjoy re-reading old books. It gives me the chance to realize things I missed; in this case it was the entire concept.
My interpretation of the book when I read it 8 years ago was probably this: Oh the pictures are so pretty! The characters talk really fancy. Its about a rabbit how cute! Awwwwwww what a beautiful ending.
In other words, I was attracted to the beautiful diction, the gorgeous illustrations, and the happy ending.
Now that I've gotten older I realize this book isn't all about a cute rabbit going on an adventure. It's a lot more than that and is probably one of the saddest books I've read in my lifetime. I found this time around it is no children's book. Within the 224 pages you can find unfortunate event after unfortunate event: A drunk abusive father, dying in the arms of someone you love, tuberculosis, suicide, helplessness, neglect, the list goes on.
The theme of the book was: life is tough, may you have the best of luck.
Many would find it unbelievable and baffling this book is marketed as a children book. Call me crazy but I think its okay to give this to a child as long as they are smart and strong enough to screen through the material.
Knowledge like this should not be hidden away, let kids experience all they can so that they can fully filter what is wrong and right to develop their minds. Sensitive children need to be slowly exposed to negative text to better prepare themselves for the real world.
I really like how you clearly state your opinion about the use of these hard subjects in children's books. I totally agree that even though it might be hard to think about it is important that we put it into writing.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy re-reading books too expeically from when I was little!I agree. That book seems like it teachers children the reality and how to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that re-reading books is a very good idea. I also re-read books because I normally miss a lot of details the first time through, so then I read it again and learn more details about the book.
ReplyDeleteI think to want to re-read a book means that it's really REALLY good, because i personally never re-read books, ive only ever re-read i think 1 or 2 books, also 224 pages doesnt seem like a kid book to me.
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