Children’s books: “Hey, I’m not alone!”

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International Children’s Book Day is celebrated on 2 April. To mark this event, we interview LMU’s. Dr. Mirjam Burkard, from the Chair of Didactics of German Language and Literature and of German as a Second Language. The senior lecturer in German didactics explains how reading and books help children in their development.

How does children’s literature influence how children discover the world?

Mirjam Burkard: Books offer children the opportunity to acquire knowledge about the world. In addition, they give children insights into social structures, which in turn affects their self-understanding: How do I conceive of myself in social space? How do I act and interact, and why? It’s about finding one’s place and coming to an understanding of the world.

Books allow children to see the world through the eyes of the characters they encounter in stories, to identify with them, but also perhaps to distance themselves from them. After all, literature has tremendous power in its capacity to help children deal with new or challenging situations: Is this character from a book going through the same thing I am? How does she solve the problem? Can I use her as a guide?

So reading aloud to children is not just about nurturing reading skills from an early age?

For subsequent independent reading, it’s important of course for children to come into contact with books, and the stories they contain, from a relatively early age. This exposure makes them realize that books open up new worlds. I can immerse myself, let my imagination run wild, get to know different things; I can laugh, shudder, experience exciting adventures, and build up knowledge of the world. Children need this experience to become engrossed in stories later on. If I have developed this inclination as a child, then I’m more likely to be motivated to learn reading at school, even though it’s often quite arduous. But reading literature can also foster respect for others, train empathy, and offer opportunities for identification.

Books should be a mirror and a window

How do children’s books reflect societal developments? Do you have any examples?

We’re currently seeing a surge in books that present social diversity as self-evident, as opposed to conveying the idea that there is the norm and people outside it. In this way, a child who might be experiencing discrimination can get the feeling: Hey, I’m not alone! In this story, there’s somebody like me, who shows me how I can deal with this.

In my view, books are at their best when issues are not bluntly addressed, potentially reinforcing the negative experience. Of course, we also need books about certain issues. This is important, so that children who are not in this situation can gain an understanding of them. It’s also important for children to see that their own social environment is not the only one. Stories can show them, for instance, that there are other forms of living together than the heteronormative family. This gives children the opportunity to expand their views and encounter others with openness and tolerance.

Are you saying that books can expand people’s worldviews beyond the limits of their own experience?

Precisely. An American scholar once said that books should be a mirror and a window. A mirror in which children see and find themselves. And a window that opens their minds to new things.

How well does current children’s literature accomplish this?

I’m rather ambivalent here. There are very fine examples, which combine the familiar with the new and expand horizons. On the other hand, some publishers prefer books that wrap their readers in cotton wool and tell stories in which nothing bad can happen. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying there shouldn’t be books in which everything is just great. We need them too. But real life, as we know, is often not like that.

I’m convinced that children need books which show them that everything is not always rosy, but that problems can be solved. If I give children idyllic books to read and nothing else, they will miss out on many things that are important for their development.

So one of the purposes of children’s literature should be to help children deal with the challenges of life?

Absolutely, and in all their variety too. Let’s take picture books on death – some people have said, and still maintain, that children must not be confronted with topics this dark. But what if, say, their grandparents die? Then the child is plunged into a new situation, in which the parents are suddenly different, perhaps not emotionally available, because they themselves are grieving. A picture book about this subject allows the child to realize: It’s not just happening to me. If I understand that it’s normal, then my world is not turned upside down.

The death of a pet is also part of the life experience of many children. It can overwhelm them, say, when a beloved dog is not there anymore. It’s useful for them to find characters in books who suffer the same misfortune, who grieve and find ways to cope with the loss.

Classics: quite different stories

There are many classics in bookshops, including ones that describe idyllic worlds.

We need both! Astrid Lindgren is a case in point. The Bullerby books couldn’t be more idyllic, where the children share an experience and then go back to their rustic homes. But Lindgren also wrote books like Mio, My Son and The Brothers Lionheart. In these works, she captures the harshness of life as a foster child and of the death of a brother by transporting the characters to a fantastical world.

A problem-focused story for children always requires a form of release and shouldn’t be thoroughly miserable.

Why do some books remain popular for decades, with generations of readers?

It’s often hard to pin down and depends on a wide variety of factors. If you look at the Harry Potter books, say, or Rico, Oskar and the Deeper Shadows by Andreas Steinhöfel, which at this stage can be counted as a modern classic – then they are quite different stories. In addition to the quality of the storytelling, I think the protagonists are vitally important. In Steinhöfel’s book, the heroes are two boys. The “highly gifted” Oskar strikes up a friendship with the “lowly gifted” Rico, who struggles to learn and find his bearings. As the two become sleuths in an adventure, the narrative shows that each needs the other, that they complement each other.

Or take Pippi Longstocking, a story people thought would never be much of a success. And then it becomes a children’s classic for the ages!

Children asking for more stories

Do certain trends develop once a book becomes successful?

Yes, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a good example. This is an illustrated novel that Jeff Kinney actually wrote for adults, but which children liked – and still like – reading. After its success, there was a spate of diaries in comic-strip format. When a book does well, others pop up and try to ride this wave of popularity. Often sequels appear, even though this was not originally the plan, and the book is filmed. A media franchise springs up pretty quickly in children’s literature today. Another example is the Ella series by Timo Parvela, which tells about the school life of the title character. But Ella’s classmate Pekka, who finds everything that much more of a struggle, became such a popular character in the Ella books that Parvela began writing other books from the perspective of Pekka.

So the readership has a certain influence on how an author continues a book series and its characters?

Sometimes, yes. This happened with Otfried Preußler’s The Robber Hotzenplotz. After the first volume, he actually had no intention of writing another. Then a second volume appeared seven years later, because children wrote him letters asking for more stories about Kasperl, Seppel, the grandmother, and of course Hotzenplotz. In the foreword to the third volume, he dedicated the new book to all the children who had begged him to write another. At the same time, he announced this volume would be the last in the series.

Does the enduring popularity of classics have something to do with parents remembering them from their own childhoods and wanting to read them again?

From the perspective of reading socialization, certainly: If I know a book from childhood, then in most cases I recall a situation of security and closeness, with my parents, grandparents, or siblings reading to me. I associate the book with positive feelings, which I would like to pass on to my own children. It’s important, however, especially for teachers, to have an eye on current children’s literature, which might be better at reflecting certain interests of children than classics from one’s own past.

Children should know the time-honored and the new if they are to develop an open and appropriate conception of the world. This also applies to illustrations, which in old editions are often stereotypical or cutesy, reflecting the time in which they were created. I think it’s important to get away from that and to show children other illustration styles, such as those by Nikolaus Heidelbach or Květa Pacovská. Children tend to be more open to these things in any case, and more curious than adults. They enjoy discovering new pictorial worlds.