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I’m back! 
And over the next few weeks, I’ll fill you in on some of the changes in my life and work. To kick things off, though, I want to share a most memorable story for this Memorial Day–and kick off a new series of articles. Developmental Milestones will share stories and examples from the “real world” of how children grow. It will put some concrete flesh on the theoretical bones of developmentalists like Piaget, Erikson, Elkind, and others.
Let’s start off with a photo. It’s not mine to embed so click here to take a look. Yes, that’s a five year old boy, patting the President of the United States head. Yes, he asked to pat it, to touch the President’s hair. Why? To see if it was like his own.
What’s going on here developmentally? During ages 1-3, children begin to develop a sense of being separate from the people around them. During ages 3-6, they begin to develop an identity. They aren’t just a separate entity, a different “thing” from you or me; they are a separate being with a unique identity. Of course, a 3 year old doesn’t verbalize or even think about this but all the things that make us human are driving him or her to explore identity.
What makes me “me” and not you? (And yes, if this sounds familiar, you are right. This exploration gets re-visited in adolescence; some actually call the teenage years “the second adolescence.” ) At this age the exploration is on very basic levels–Am I a boy or a girl? How do I know that? Am I strong, smart, shorter, taller, brown like you or white like her? Can I be a knight, a princess, a fire fighter, a doctor, a chef, a mother, a father?
Do you see where this is leading? Can I be President?
“Who am I?” Jacob is asking. Am I like him? His skin color is like mine; is his hair like mine? Can I have fuzzy hair and be President? Can I be black with fuzzy hair and be President?
What do children see? Who do we allow them to see?
Don’t misunderstand. There’s nothing didactic here. We don’t have to “teach” or knock them over the head with a two by four about prejudice or gender issues. But we do have to be aware of how much they are learning. It is important that all children see that a black person can be President or that a woman can be a doctor or that a dad can change diapers. It is important that they see their faces in books (including on the covers) and movies and computer games.
No matter what strides we make as a society in overcoming prejudice and racism, we will always have to remember that children ages 3-5 will be exploring identity. We need to give them opportunities to explore all the possibilities.
Questions? Comments? Just click below the headline. Want to read more? Click here for “Obama and the Snowy Day.”
Have fun!
Babette
Like this:
“Anna Hibiscus lives in Africa. Amazing Africa. She lives in a big white house 
with many rooms and balconies.”
Thus begins each chapter in the Juvi novel, Anna Hibiscus, one of the most delightful books I’ve read over the last year. Four chapters tell four stories of Anna Hibiscus’ life with her very large family in a very large city in Africa. By the end of the book, I was ready to move to Africa and into that big, happy family.
Everything is not perfect but everything is manageable. A trip to the beach becomes overwhelming until the whole family arrives; “‘It is not good to be alone,’ Anna heard them whisper…’A husband and three children is too much for one woman alone.’” Anna learns compassion and hard work when she sells oranges instead of the street children. The family frets over a daughter returning from Canada for a visit; will she have forgotten the African ways? And Anna shows initiative and gets to visit Canada–and see snow!
Great elements in Anna Hisbiscus?
- Family is the central focus and what a great family they all are!
- Each story is written from a child’s point of view, expressing a child’s feelings and showing how children can grow and learn when supported by family.
- Each story shows a realistic view of modern Africa with a blend of the traditional and the modern.
- Each story just feels so natural even though the setting and culture will be so different for many children here in the US.
I can’t wait to add more in the series to my collection!
Hope you enjoy too!
Babette
I live in one of the poorest areas in Colorado. I do storytimes at the local 
Head Start programs. I see kids who come from homes that are struggling. And the kids from these homes experience the wear and tear of such a life on a daily basis.
So what kind of books do I choose for kids who probably haven’t grown up being read to? Who might not know what a book is or is for? Who might not care or be interested in books? Who might have even shorter than normal attention spans?
Do I choose books by famous authors? Books with award winning illustrations? Or do I choose the shortest books? Books with the fewest words on a page? Books with sounds and lights and gizmos and gimmicks?
Nope! I choose books with “good stories.”
Let me give you an example. The Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday (so already I have one stroke against me), I visit a Head Start classroom. Actually it’s two classrooms combined into a teeny tiny reading space (two more strikes against me). And I start to read Don’t Want to Go by Shirley Hughes.
I can see the teachers look wide-eyed at me as I open this book. It’s got LOTS of words in it. And there’s nothing snazzy, razzle dazzle about the pictures.
It’s the straight forward story of a preschooler whose mom wakes up one morning with the flu. So dad (who has to go to work) takes her to an adult friend’s house for the day. The little girl’s plaintive cry is, “Don’t want to go!”
Of course, she goes anyway. She really doesn’t have much say in it. But there she meets a smiling mom with a friendly baby. The dog licks her hand, she helps the mom glue pictures into a book, she plays peekaboo and holds the dog’s leash on the way to the older brother’s school and even gets to watch a little TV with him. At each transition her cry is, “Don’t want to go!”
And when dad comes to get her at the end of the day, once again she exclaims, “Dont’ want to go!” Adults love the ending–but kids? Kids love the in-between parts. These are situations and feelings they have experienced. They would want mom up in the morning. They would want to stay home, too, not go to a stranger’s house. They would lose their mittens on the way and pout under the table and say “don’t want to” but then with warmth and understanding and careful coaxing find themselves enjoying the new moments–just like Lily.
What’s this have to do with “good stories?” An essential element of any good children’s story (for children of any age up through teens) is that the story needs to meet the kid where the kid is at developmentally.
The books that hold kids’ attention with no gimmicks or gizmos are the ones that reflect their experiences, their perceptions, their learning edges, their developmental issues, their world. These are the books with staying power. These become the classics.
Shirley Hughes understands three and four year olds. You hear it in Lily’s reactions, whether in her cry, her pout, her laugh, or her saying no and then helping anyway. You see it in the illustrations–in the postures and faces of the characters. You hear it in the details she notices (“It was a yellow door, the color of the inside of Lily’s egg,” an egg which she remembers, btw, because she dropped it on the floor earlier). You see and hear it in the reassuring manner in which the adults react to her.
The book is clean and simple. It’s a “good story” for young children any time but perhaps especially right now during the holidays. There can be so many changes on a daily basis. And change is not easy when you are little and adults run the world.
So don’t let the number of words or the non-glamour of this book scare you away. My Head Starters were dead into it, all the way through! Yours can be too! It is a winner–for groups or for just one or two in the lap–cause it’s a “good story!”
Give it a whirl!
Babette
I’m not a big fan of interviews. They just don’t flip my switches. But I couldn’t resist this one with Beverly Cleary, author of the Ramona books (among many others).
I remember reading and loving Ramona when I was a kid. I remember even more vividly reading Ramona to both my boys. They are so different from one another, it’s amazing they are biologically from the same two parents (they are).
But both boys adored Ramona. 
So what is it about Ramona that elementary aged children, even boys, like so much? Cleary says it well and I’ll say it a bit differently–they identify with her.
Around age seven, kids head into a new stage of development with new interests and new tasks. Many of those involve becoming competent, in kid-like ways.
That might mean learning how to be friends or how to sit still for a little longer. It might mean learning how to keep up with their stuff, make things be it a pinewood derby car
or cookies. It might mean learning how to have a good fight and settle differences or how to play baseball or handle a paintbrush.
Ramona is a normal kid, going through normal kid stuff in this stage of growing competencies. It’s a struggle sometimes. It’s funny sometimes. Kids root for and identify with Ramona because that’s where they are at too.
It’s no magic formula. When stories meet kids where they are developmentally, kid and story go click–and said kid loves the story and the book and the reading. Beverly Cleary remembers and understands what it’s like to be six or eight or ten. And six or eight or ten year olds have loved her for a very long time because of it.
Thank you, Beverly, for Ramona and Henry and Ralph S. Mouse and all the other “kids” you’ve introduced us to!
Babette
I just received a terrific new board book! It’s Happy Baby, edited by Fiona 
Watts, and it would be great to add to your early literacy collection. Here’s why:
- Most of the rhymes are “new” ones that you probably don’t know.
- Each double page spread includes the words and directions for bouncing and playing with baby during the rhyme.
- There’s a CD included so no worries about the ones you don’t know.
- Each rhyme builds phonological awareness and fun times shared with this book will build print motivation as well.
- Babies and parents are multicultural–AND there’s a daddy included!
- The last two pages give a developmental guide to playing, dancing, and moving with baby.
This will check out well in any children’s collection, but it would also be a marvelous book to give to new parents and to parents who are not quite sure what to do with baby and how to play with them.
Happy Bouncing!
Babette
One hundred books makes for a really long list! Here’s the next twenty-five. And on the Fuse #8 blog, the countdown has made it to #13; click here to see more. But now, back to the “shopping list!”
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins by O’Dell
49. Frindle by Clements
48. The Penderwicks by Birdsall
47. Bud, Not Buddy by Curtis
46. Where the Red Fern Grows by Rawls
45. The Golden Compass by Pullman
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Blume
43. Ramona the Pest by Cleary
42. Little House on the Prairie by Wilder
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Speare
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Baum
39. When You Reach Me by Stead
38. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by Rowling
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Taylor
36. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Blume
35. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fired by Rowling
34. The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 by Curtis
33. James and the Giant Peach by Dahl
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by O’Brien
31. Half Magic by Eager
30. Winnie-the-Pooh by Milne
29. The Dark is Rising by Cooper
28. A Little Princess by Burnett
27. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Carroll
26. Hatchet by Paulsen
That’s all for now. I’ll add #1-25 after she finishes her countdown. And then I’ll tell you my favorites for the whole 100. 
Stay tuned,
Babette
Thomas Cahill has a marvelous piece in the NYTimes today about the Irish and how they saved Western Civilization after the fall of Rome. How did an 
obscure, ragtag bunch of folks in the early days of the Dark Ages manage such a feat? They copied books.
What’s an added bonus in his article is his mention of their sense of play in the midst of all the seriousness of the world dissolving around them and the rest of Europe. And of course, it being St. Patrick’s Day, Patrick gets his fair share of credit as well.
I wish Cahill had mentioned another saint, though, one equally as important to the preservation of books and thereby civilization. That is St. Columba. I learned about him through a fascinating children’s book, Across a Dark and Wild Sea by Don Brown.
As a boy St. Columba was known as Columcille, and he was son of a king. But the church taught him reading and writing, and he was forever hooked–to the point that he copied a book rather illegally and thereby started a war. Yes, a war over a book. (Boys eat this up, let me tell you!)
Devastated afterward by what his actions had wrought, he exiled himself to an island off the coast–and thus was born the religious community of Iona.
The book combines fact, some of the legends associated with Columba, watercolor illustrations that stir up the windswept coasts of Ireland, a calligraphic guide to the Uncial alphabet from Columba’s time, and a bibliography. There’s even a diagram of a coracle (no, I’m not going to tell you; you have to read the books! )
As you can tell, it’s one of my favorites.
Happy St. Paddy’s Day,
Babette
With no further adue, here’s the next batch!
75. Love That Dog by Creech
74. The Borrowers by Norton
73. My Side of the Mountain by George
72. My Father’s Dragon by Gannett
71. An Unfortunate Series of Events: The Bad Beginning by Snicket
70. Betsy-Tacy by Lovelace
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Stewart
68. Walk Two Moons by Creech
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Colville
66. Henry Huggins by Cleary
65. Ballet Shoes by Streatfeild
64. A Long Way from Chicago by Peck
63. Gone-Away Lake by Enright
62. The Secret of the Old Clock by Keene
61. Stargirl by Spinelli
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
59. Inkheart by Funke
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Aiken
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Cleary
56. Number the Stars by Lowry
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Paterson
54. The BFG by Dahl
53. The Wind in the Willows by Grahame
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Selznick
51. The Saturdays by Enright
I almost entirely cannot quibble with the selections–although I’d love to dicker on a few of the rankings. What a list though!
Read on!
Babette
The Best of my March book order goes to: 
Waiting Out the Storm by Macken: I don’t know which I like better, the writing or the illustrations. They are both lovely. A little girl is frightened of the storm blowing in. Her mother’s descriptions of what’s happening reframe and reassure without minimizing the child’s feelings.
“It’s too loud! I’m afraid!” the little girl cries. “Oh, it’s only a sound. Thunder stomps. Thunder stumbles and bumbles around,” her mother replies.
The vocabulary rhymes soothingly, the colors emphasize the spring-ness of the rain, and both fit together to build a cozy, if wet, wonder of a world.
Runner-up goes to Pink Me Up by Harper. I’m not a “girl book” kind of gal. I wasn’t much of one when I was a child and then I raised two boys. So I can name on just my two hands probably, the “girl books” that I am comfortable with and enjoy recommending (Princess Grace, Ladybug Girl, Fancy Nancy, and the Prydain Chronicles top my list).
Pink Me Up sounds silly to me. Mama and daughter’s “pink day” arrives but Mama is sick. So Daddy fills in–but he’s not pink enough! What to do?! Well, make him pinker, of course!
For me, silly or not, the book works because it captures the emotions of a disappointed preschooler so well. The spread where she falls flat on the floor (literally, face down) with the exclamation, “Today is the worst day EVER!” rings so very true. Then she goes through problem solving mode of who can take Mama’s place–but she never dreams of Dad. Why? “I tell Daddy something very important: Daddy! You’re a boy!…Boys are NOT pink!” Again, spot on for a preschooler’s mind (they are trying to sort out what is a boy, what is a girl–and things like clothes and colors and mommy- and daddy-ness are very important markers for figuring this out).
But Dad pulls out his pink tie and the wheels start spinning.
I won’t give the ending away but all ends well. I like that with a little encouragement from both parents, she becomes the problem solver and that, while she definitely associates pink with girls, it has nothing to do with being pretty. It’s just pink!
Have fun!
Babette
I’m loving reading Betsy Bird’s Fuse #8 Top 100 Children’s Novels. And the collection of covers after each review is fabulous.
But I also want to just see a list of them. The better to go shopping with, my dears. So if you are feeling somewhat frustrated with being list-less, here they are by nothing but title and author! (I’ll post twenty-five at a time and she is posting from number 100 down to number one.)
100. The Egypt Game by Snyder
99. The Indian in the Cupboard by Banks
98. Children of Green Knowe by Boston
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by DiCamillo
96. The Witches by Dahl
95. Pippi Longstocking by Lindgren
94. Swallows and Amazons by Ransome
93. Caddie Woodlawn by Brink
92. Ella Enchanted by Levine
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Sachar
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall by MacLachlan
89. Ramona and Her Father by Cleary
88. The High King by Alexander
87. The View from Saturday by Konigsburg
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by Rowling
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Wilder
84. The Little White Horse by Goudge
83. The Thief by Turner
82. The Book of Three by Alexander
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Lin
80. The Graveyard Book by Gaiman
79. All of a Kind Family by Taylor
78. Johnny Tremain by Forbes
77. The City of Ember by DuPrau
76. Out of the Dust by Hesse
Yeah, you read that right. Watch and listen to these cartoon bunnies reenact Harry Potter 1-5 in just 30 seconds! Pretty fun; click here for Harry Potter and many more choices at www.angryalien.com.
Have fun!
Babette
I have spent the last couple years looking for not too wordy versions of basic fairy tales to read aloud. And I could just kiss Lucy Cousins for putting 
together Yummy.
You’d think that fairy tales would be the most natural thing in the world to find in children’s books. But somehow most authors turn them into very wordy stories with terribly complicated illustrations. It’s like they don’t trust the stories to be enough on their own.
But Yummy is different. The illustrations are in Cousins’ signature style–bright, colorful, and simple. And the tellings give just the essentials and nothing more. Yummy includes eight tales from Little Red Riding Hood to the often overlooked Henny Penny. This will be a favorite with your kids for years to come.
Bonus points? Words and sentences that develop print awareness!
Enjoy!
Babette
My Usborne web order page
Your Words