Saturday 3 October 2009

Is That What The Post Of 'Children's Laureate' Is For..?

Anthony Browne, in the 'Telegraph':
Anthony Browne, the Children’s Laureate, said there was an increasing focus on more serious novels at a young age as parents and teachers attempt to boost children’s reading skills.

He said it risked “devaluing” a number of books – such as Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Julia Donaldson's Gruffalo – which children find “hugely enjoyable”.
Hmm, what sort of books does Anthony Browne write again?

Oh yes!
He said the trend was fuelled by the Harry Potter series which has made longer books increasingly popular among young children.

“I get the feeling that children stop reading picture books earlier and earlier. By the age of six there seems to be a cut off,” he said. “It is reinforced a little bit by the Harry Potter phenomenon where children were encouraged to read longer and longer books.

“I think it is a real danger to just concentrate on the mechanical aspects of learning to read. Maybe a school will get better results in the short term, but there is a danger children will not get the same enojoyment out of reading.”
Translation: "Oh my god! I need to eat, people!"

I realise that these positions are just opportunities for authors to plug their work, but I didn't think it was meant to be quite that blatant...

10 comments:

Quiet_Man said...

Heh, a phrase containing hoist and petard springs to mind concerning the self promoting Anthony Browne. Don't like what kids are reading? Then change the kids, not what you write.

Anonymous said...

In dire risk of further repetition, can we be clear that you speak of the same Anthony Browne and children's stories 'what he has written'?

BTW Julia, the rude police commenter on IG's blog, was a Gadget sock puppet.

JuliaM said...

"Heh, a phrase containing hoist and petard springs to mind..."

Indeed. He's the one recently in the news pooh-poohing the fears of the other authors over the ISA safeguards, so it was nice to see him in so blatent a move to secure his readers' affections...

"In dire risk of further repetition, can we be clear that you speak of the same Anthony Browne and children's stories 'what he has written'?"

?

"BTW Julia, the rude police commenter on IG's blog, was a Gadget sock puppet."

Was it? There's been a LOT of trolling there lately. Almost made it unreadable, but I thought the owner was trying to resolve that...

Anonymous said...

Excuse me madam.

Angry Exile said...

"Oh my god! I need to eat, people!"

Just remember to serve white wine with people, and it's social death to pick the shirt buttons out of your sabre-teeth at the table. Oh, just re-read that.... my bad :-D

Mark Wadsworth said...

Ta for link over at Inspector Gadget, it's all good.

Rob said...

Kids aren't going to read the Iliad straight off; they need to get into the habit of reading first. I have no problem with them reading Harry Potter; at least they aren't reading Leftist propaganda about gay penguins.

ivan said...

What exactly is wrong with children reading non picture books may I ask.

Both of my children were reading non picture books before they went to school - maybe the fact there were over 4000 books in the house at the time had something to do with it.

It appears that Browne is one of those that subscribes to the dumbing down of education therefore he should be allowed to starve.

Anonymous said...

Don't you know that looking at pictures is more valuable than reading? For goodness' sake, if they actually read, they might start asking questions. Like, "Why do we need a Children's Laureate?"

JuliaM said...

"Just remember to serve white wine with people, and it's social death to pick the shirt buttons out of your sabre-teeth at the table."

Lol! :)

"What exactly is wrong with children reading non picture books may I ask."

That it doesn't put food on Browne's table...?

"Don't you know that looking at pictures is more valuable than reading? For goodness' sake, if they actually read, they might start asking questions. Like, "Why do we need a Children's Laureate?""

Good question. Why do we? Can't he just buy advertising like everyone else?