Oh this was a joy to read. I was a precocious reader and lover of words from the start, usually keeping my giant red dictionary companionably nearby for those moments when I'd need to look up a juicy new word (which I often wrote down and taped up on my bedroom wall). This brought back happy memories of those days.
Now I'm in the thick of teaching my own kids to read and hopefully to love reading. I'm reading aloud Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy to them currently and Sutcliff wields good plain words marvelously: "Menelaus' queen was fairer even than the stories told, golden as a corn-stalk and sweet as wild honey." And this one gave me chills: "So Paris had the bride that Aphrodite had promised him, and from that came all the sorrows that followed."
Thank you so much. I love those Helen-ic similes in your Sutcliff sampling. I wouldn't be the same person if I hadn't been read to early and often. It's a great gift you're giving!
Doing the reading aloud is such an aid to both appreciation and writing. Back when I taught I would half forget how to do it and would have to warm up. I had never done *Othello* until my very last term and had to work hard to make Iago as reptilian as he needed to be--and Emilia as brave and vivid as she deserved.
I can imagine it would be a challenge to make Iago sound as truly diabolical as he is rather than like a cartoonish villain. I let the recording do the job for me when I taught it. However, I do love reading aloud to my kids in overly dramatic voices. It's time for the dormant high school theater kid in me to shine haha :)
I imagine that those curtailed dictionaries are remarkably unworn. Children who are likely to look up a word are unlikely to need such a dictionary because they already know the simple words in it, and children who are unlikely to look up a word are unlikely to *use* such a dictionary even if they need it. What crisp pages they must have! You were steering parents well.
As a former kindergarten teacher and current picture book enthusiast, thank you for this piece.
The censorship of complex language is not serving children's literature well. Those of us who feasted on "inappropriate" vocabulary as children turned out just fine—possibly better than fine. We became the insufferable bookworms who understand the sublime pleasure of a perfectly constructed paragraph, and I wouldn't trade that inheritance for anything.
Reading attentively, and looking attentively, are as valuable as ever now when the world seems to move so fast and talk so loud. The digitization of everything affects me even though I'm not as embedded in it as many people are, and taking the time to read well can be so very helpful even as our environment makes it harder to do.
When I finally got around to reading Anne of Green Gables I sorely wished I had read it as a girl. I felt sorry that she missed out on the richness and playfulness of Montgomery's writing. But I can happily revisit the book now and still have others stories from Avonlea to explore.
It's almost funny, if also sad, how clueless I was about the book until adulthood. At times I think I might have thought there was a book called *Anne of the House of the Seven Gables*. Later I got Anne confused with Pollyanna, which was another mistake given Anne's emotional range. Montgomery created a dynamo and found just the right words for her.
I want to track down the miniseries from 1985, which I've heard good things about. Much to do!
It is the best adaptation I have seen and I believe it may be streaming on some platforms. It is one I revisit often and think it is as good an adaptation as the 1995 Pride and Prejudice.
Great essay. The “reading wars” have not only held back kids’ ability to actually read, but have also deprived them of anything remotely challenging or enjoyable. Far too much “children’s literature” is like “content” on Netflix, churned out without love or care.
Thank you! We are so awash in "content," and I shudder when I hear someone who is an enthusiast for it wax prosaic about how much more productive new tech is going to make content creation. Oof.
This is why when I worked in a bookstore I steered parents to also buy their children a paperback copy of the dictionary proper instead of the hardcover, illustrated grade-specific expensive dictionary.
That opening paragraph is so sly and funny and lyrical all at once that I thought I might be in for something extraordinary. And then Anne just leaps off the page after being offstage at first and then barely noticed on the railway platform. I regret getting to Montgomery late but am so glad I so glad I didn't wait longer!
This, this, THIS! I attribute my above-average vocab to voracious reading as a child. I’m very thankful to my parents for getting me a library card as soon as I could sign my name in cursive. Having full, unfettered access to all those books on the shelves was so exciting to me. I soon worked my way from Boxcar Children to Anne of Green Gables to Little Women to Pride and Prejudice to Anna Karenina.
I remember once a family friend gave me an abridged version of a classic as a gift, and I was so offended! I insisted on getting the unabridged version to read instead. 🤣
What a wonderful way to remember your first library card. My handwriting was, and is, unlovely, but I remember doing my trembly sign-out duty when I had a stack of books to take home. I also remember feeling some connection to the other people who had checked the book out--or to the lonesome book itself if there were only one or two other people who had read it.
I read *Anna Karenina* in my first semester of college after my Russian professor recommended it. It was at least half my education that semester, extracurricular though it was.
This is wonderful, and very much reflects my experience too. I got a good grounding in phonics, sounding out my C-A-T at a pre-kindergarten age, but by my preteens I was wading through "David Copperfield," not really sure what was going on half the time but thoroughly enjoying it. And it is so true about the richness of language in older books for young readers, which were my main fare throughout childhood. Even picking up a middle-grade book from the 1940s or '50s (e.g. Elizabeth Enright or Carol Ryrie Brink) is astonishing now when you see the vocabulary that was being used and the elegance (even if simple) of the sentences.
Absolutely love and agree with this article! I have my M.A. in Education and one of the concepts I learned was the Zone of Proximal Development. It (and cellphones/Chromebooks being used through the school day) answer a lot of the questions people have as to why education/reading in the US isn’t at the standard as the rest of the world.
We want to instill confidence in our children with reading through what they can confidently read AND through demonstrating that they can learn to read things that they didn’t know.
I have three children (7 and under) that spend hours a day happily reading or listening to audiobooks using this approach. It works.
Thank you so much! That mix of being supportive and encouraging exploration is so important. This reminds me of the satisfaction that can come from occasionally going backwards in difficulty--revisiting what was once challenging but now isn't to see how far you've come--and then turning back to new challenges and wordscapes to explore.
I remember rereading *Bears in the Night* when I was "too old" for it and thinking that it was enjoyably easy but also a lot of fun. Authors for children would benefit from giving it a closer look. It's a lesson in prepositional phrases, linguistic extension, and logic that feels like play more than it feels like a lesson.
I love the mix of reading, being read to, and audiobooks. Listening to a reader who appreciates language can deepen both appreciation and understanding.
Love this! I’m Harrison, an ex fine dining line cook. My stack "The Secret Ingredient" adapts hit restaurant recipes (mostly NYC and L.A.) for easy home cooking.
Oh this was a joy to read. I was a precocious reader and lover of words from the start, usually keeping my giant red dictionary companionably nearby for those moments when I'd need to look up a juicy new word (which I often wrote down and taped up on my bedroom wall). This brought back happy memories of those days.
Now I'm in the thick of teaching my own kids to read and hopefully to love reading. I'm reading aloud Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy to them currently and Sutcliff wields good plain words marvelously: "Menelaus' queen was fairer even than the stories told, golden as a corn-stalk and sweet as wild honey." And this one gave me chills: "So Paris had the bride that Aphrodite had promised him, and from that came all the sorrows that followed."
Thank you so much. I love those Helen-ic similes in your Sutcliff sampling. I wouldn't be the same person if I hadn't been read to early and often. It's a great gift you're giving!
Doing the reading aloud is such an aid to both appreciation and writing. Back when I taught I would half forget how to do it and would have to warm up. I had never done *Othello* until my very last term and had to work hard to make Iago as reptilian as he needed to be--and Emilia as brave and vivid as she deserved.
I can imagine it would be a challenge to make Iago sound as truly diabolical as he is rather than like a cartoonish villain. I let the recording do the job for me when I taught it. However, I do love reading aloud to my kids in overly dramatic voices. It's time for the dormant high school theater kid in me to shine haha :)
Also this made me laugh: "W. W. Denslow got things off to a terrible start." It's true.
I imagine that those curtailed dictionaries are remarkably unworn. Children who are likely to look up a word are unlikely to need such a dictionary because they already know the simple words in it, and children who are unlikely to look up a word are unlikely to *use* such a dictionary even if they need it. What crisp pages they must have! You were steering parents well.
As a former kindergarten teacher and current picture book enthusiast, thank you for this piece.
The censorship of complex language is not serving children's literature well. Those of us who feasted on "inappropriate" vocabulary as children turned out just fine—possibly better than fine. We became the insufferable bookworms who understand the sublime pleasure of a perfectly constructed paragraph, and I wouldn't trade that inheritance for anything.
Reading attentively, and looking attentively, are as valuable as ever now when the world seems to move so fast and talk so loud. The digitization of everything affects me even though I'm not as embedded in it as many people are, and taking the time to read well can be so very helpful even as our environment makes it harder to do.
When I finally got around to reading Anne of Green Gables I sorely wished I had read it as a girl. I felt sorry that she missed out on the richness and playfulness of Montgomery's writing. But I can happily revisit the book now and still have others stories from Avonlea to explore.
It's almost funny, if also sad, how clueless I was about the book until adulthood. At times I think I might have thought there was a book called *Anne of the House of the Seven Gables*. Later I got Anne confused with Pollyanna, which was another mistake given Anne's emotional range. Montgomery created a dynamo and found just the right words for her.
I want to track down the miniseries from 1985, which I've heard good things about. Much to do!
It is the best adaptation I have seen and I believe it may be streaming on some platforms. It is one I revisit often and think it is as good an adaptation as the 1995 Pride and Prejudice.
Great essay. The “reading wars” have not only held back kids’ ability to actually read, but have also deprived them of anything remotely challenging or enjoyable. Far too much “children’s literature” is like “content” on Netflix, churned out without love or care.
Thank you! We are so awash in "content," and I shudder when I hear someone who is an enthusiast for it wax prosaic about how much more productive new tech is going to make content creation. Oof.
This is why when I worked in a bookstore I steered parents to also buy their children a paperback copy of the dictionary proper instead of the hardcover, illustrated grade-specific expensive dictionary.
Now I understand why I loved Anne of Green Gables so much! It was LM Montgomery’s wonderful writing.
That opening paragraph is so sly and funny and lyrical all at once that I thought I might be in for something extraordinary. And then Anne just leaps off the page after being offstage at first and then barely noticed on the railway platform. I regret getting to Montgomery late but am so glad I so glad I didn't wait longer!
This, this, THIS! I attribute my above-average vocab to voracious reading as a child. I’m very thankful to my parents for getting me a library card as soon as I could sign my name in cursive. Having full, unfettered access to all those books on the shelves was so exciting to me. I soon worked my way from Boxcar Children to Anne of Green Gables to Little Women to Pride and Prejudice to Anna Karenina.
I remember once a family friend gave me an abridged version of a classic as a gift, and I was so offended! I insisted on getting the unabridged version to read instead. 🤣
What a wonderful way to remember your first library card. My handwriting was, and is, unlovely, but I remember doing my trembly sign-out duty when I had a stack of books to take home. I also remember feeling some connection to the other people who had checked the book out--or to the lonesome book itself if there were only one or two other people who had read it.
I read *Anna Karenina* in my first semester of college after my Russian professor recommended it. It was at least half my education that semester, extracurricular though it was.
This is wonderful, and very much reflects my experience too. I got a good grounding in phonics, sounding out my C-A-T at a pre-kindergarten age, but by my preteens I was wading through "David Copperfield," not really sure what was going on half the time but thoroughly enjoying it. And it is so true about the richness of language in older books for young readers, which were my main fare throughout childhood. Even picking up a middle-grade book from the 1940s or '50s (e.g. Elizabeth Enright or Carol Ryrie Brink) is astonishing now when you see the vocabulary that was being used and the elegance (even if simple) of the sentences.
Absolutely love and agree with this article! I have my M.A. in Education and one of the concepts I learned was the Zone of Proximal Development. It (and cellphones/Chromebooks being used through the school day) answer a lot of the questions people have as to why education/reading in the US isn’t at the standard as the rest of the world.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development
We want to instill confidence in our children with reading through what they can confidently read AND through demonstrating that they can learn to read things that they didn’t know.
I have three children (7 and under) that spend hours a day happily reading or listening to audiobooks using this approach. It works.
Thank you so much! That mix of being supportive and encouraging exploration is so important. This reminds me of the satisfaction that can come from occasionally going backwards in difficulty--revisiting what was once challenging but now isn't to see how far you've come--and then turning back to new challenges and wordscapes to explore.
I remember rereading *Bears in the Night* when I was "too old" for it and thinking that it was enjoyably easy but also a lot of fun. Authors for children would benefit from giving it a closer look. It's a lesson in prepositional phrases, linguistic extension, and logic that feels like play more than it feels like a lesson.
I love the mix of reading, being read to, and audiobooks. Listening to a reader who appreciates language can deepen both appreciation and understanding.
Love this! I’m Harrison, an ex fine dining line cook. My stack "The Secret Ingredient" adapts hit restaurant recipes (mostly NYC and L.A.) for easy home cooking.
check us out:
https://thesecretingredient.substack.com