Why You Should Read Children’s Books 1 ▲ Robin Rendle 1 hour ago · Writing · hide · Fediverse post Katherine Rundell’s Why You Should Read Children’s Books leapt towards me in the bookstore yesterday—it’s lovely—and in it, she quotes Frances Spufford in his memoir The Child That Books Built: We cannot be told ‘there once was a prince’ without also being told (on some level and in some part) that it was right that there was a prince. What knits together out of nothing, and yet is solid enough to declare that it is so, recommends itself to us...In this lies the power, and the danger, of stories. Katherine riffs on this: If stories have the power to do good, they can presumably also do the opposite. Cinderella is a fantastically strange and remarkable story, and if I had a child I would tell it to them. But the Disney Cinderella—the Cinderella who waits patiently to be seen, beautified, and chosen and made rich—not only lacks agency: she lacks hunger. Real fairytales are about hunger... I remember this feeling as a kid, of reading Animorphs books back to back without stopping, chasing… Commenting on Bubbles has been removed. Why? If you want to talk about this post, write to the author, use the comments on their blog if it has them, or reply with a "RE:" post on your own blog. Suggestions? feedback@bubbles.town
