The Magic of Childrens' Books

Put simply, I'm glad we read House of Danger for this course. But quite honestly, more because I think it was a nice break to just have a grand old time reading something without over-analyzing it. I felt like I was taking a break from my homework, but I was also doing my homework- the best! I talked today in class about how I wasn't sure why we would pick to rebel against benign forms of "manipulation" like reading a children's book in a child's class or arranging all the furniture in the room strangely. To me, these offer a nice change of pace. Conversely, I think the part of the structured education environment that bothers me the most is the monotony, or lack of surprises. In a course "comparing literature" it makes total sense to me to read a children's book, because it is, in fact literature, no matter how well crafted or whom the audience is. Every author, every reader, has been a child and so this literature is an essential part of our relationship with stories. That being said, I'm not sure we would have to read this particular book. Although I see where the idea of a 'choose your own adventure' compliments the course, I can think of other children's books that could maybe offer a bit more to talk about regarding literature. The first books that popped into my mind, and probably just because I was so obsessed with them as a kid, were the Magic Tree House books.  They have the meta-fiction element because of the fact that the whole premise is that Jack and Annie strive to become master librarians and save ancient stories. They also mess with the passage of time (not that we haven't covered that enough) but it's interesting to me how so many of the themes we keep circling around are covered in this book. Plus they're awesome. I also think this would be a great series to add a chapter to, in fact I used to do that as well as a little kid. But all in all, I'm glad we read a children's book, although I'm not sure I got anything in particular out of this one besides a fun class discussion.