What children like to read, and toddlers like to listen to!:

Babies and Toddlers: Picture books:

Picture books are the stepping stones in the creation of new readers, and I am personally addicted to the artistic talents exhibited in these books; the artist’s creativity, and the versatility of picture books; the wonderful stories; a fascinating new world to be discovered and enjoyed! What toddlers like to listen to obviously depends on what parents, librarians, caretakers read to them, and the way in which these books are presented.

Judy Blume once said:

” I write popular books. It’s funny that if children like it, we think it can’t be good for them. I have a baby grandson. I want him to love books, and so I am going to get him books that he’ll giggle over, and then books that touch something inside him, and then let him explore and move in any direction, but let him read!”.

One needs to read simple stories to them; the whole idea is to introduce them to books with immense child appeal.

Margaret Mahy, H.C.Andersen winner of 2006, said: “ Children, like adults, also furnish their minds like their rooms, with words and pictures which simply appeal to them”.

In this category for example, children love touch-and-feel books, lift-the flaps, pop-ups; Where is the…? and any story where there is an element of suspense, eg. Run dog run….; or humour; or situations in which an animal or bird or mouse, for example almost form a subtext in there activities apart from the central story.

They are also very comfortable with realistic stories –photographs of children their age busy doing things they know in familiar surroundings like home, shopping, visiting, family and friends, books with babies as the main characters, eg. getting dressed, taking a bath, going to bed with favourite toys. Listening abilities differ greatly between children of the same age;one finds one child responding to questions and participating where another lacks behind. This is determined by many factors; even personality differences and emotional maturity.

The appearance of the books is very important to most children:

• The cover of the book can make or break its readership!

• The cover should be inviting, with interesting fonds used, lots of colour; an illustration that catches the eye; movement in the illus also helps; humour is always a plus; all these elements can contribute to the book being taken out by parents and children, or not. ( Some examples given…)
• The FEEL of the books is very important: and the FORMAT: Books that are difficult to handle; or with paper of a poor quality is off-putting. Among some locally produced books we come across extremely unattractive books with ugly illus, poor paper is used, and the format is difficult to handle.Be assured that children do not touch these books! I’ve noticed that toddlers do like to handle small formats; but in fact even bigger formats are acceptable as a challenge-it is amazing how persistent small children can be when they want to look and feel and touch a book; they struggle, but persevere! However, if the small format belongs to a book of strong literary merit, such a title is actually more suitable for personal collections,and will get lost among other more popular material.

When I do stories, one almost have to hide the books you are going to read, because the curious once immediately rush forward to get hold of these., to look at the books for themselves.

Looking in more detail at the illustrations, both on the cover and inside the book:

Even in the Afrikaans picture book category, where the selection is much smaller than for books in English, we find that some books will circulate continuously, while others get little support. Why? They do judge the book by its cover,and the illustrations inside the book must draw them to explore the book further.. As illustrators you do know how important your work is to each and every book produced for children.

Apart from picture books, the obvious vehicle, there are the beginner readers where wonderful work is done by illustrators, and even in books for older childen, the J category, the illustrations can make a huge contribution.Even if it is only the book jacket which can pull the title through for a readership. What I do not like is when some illus are scattered throughout the text, actually with little impact or relevance and sometimes destroying the atmosphere created by the good story. If it does not work, leave it out! Today’s child is visually so stimulated by the media, computer games, visuals on cell phones, etc., that inevitably they will expect great visuals from their books too. Maybe this is a reason why comic strip books like Asterix and Tintin remain hot favourites.

Maybe one should mention the few basic principles applicable to a well illustrated book:

• The illustrations must tell the story visually; as accurate and true to the text as possible; or preferably even add more dimensions and facets to the original text. Wendy Hartmann last Friday showed me her new three beginner readers with LAPA; simple stories, illustrated by Joan Rankin. Perfect examples of how the illus enriched the stories because of the illustrators insight into characters and their behaviour; and her sensitivity to what the author attempted to convey. It is most annoying when one starts to read a story, and the text describes the whole background in detail,so that one can visualize it clearly, but the illustrations on that page are inaccurate: the sky is for example supposed to be a deep blue, the illustrations show a orange sky!
• The Illus must give expression to the emotions of the characters in a convincing manner. Must have child-appeal: One thinks here of the continuous popularity of a character like the dog Spot; or Preller’s Babalela. Or many other endearing cuddly, non-threathening round- bodied or friendly faced characters, like Noddy, Maisy, Barney, Wibbly pig, Pookie the rabbit, Angelina, Babar the elephant and many more.
• For very small children the illustrations must not be too busy, or cluttered or zany; and not too bizarre. As they get older, however, they love the minute details, the text in different fonts; the illus running across pages; combinations of different types of illus. eg. The books by the brilliant Lauren Child, like her book I am too absolutely small for school.
• Illustrations must be reassuring and comforting for babies and toddlers. This is not the place for really scary stuff.

Although the age of the child plays a role here 4 year olds are quite comfortable already with more scary and way-out text and illus, and they will point out details in illus that you or I might have missed.

Because there is such a vast selection of English picture books on the market on almost every conceivable topic, I think it is vitally important that prospective writers look at the books that are available, before you attempt yet another bear; or dog ; or bedtime story. Except if you are convinced that your book is original, brings something fresh or different, and will make a significant contribution! Then go ahead by all means. The problem is that when , for example the Selectors at CCPL choose, that book has to compete with all the other titles on the market. And we still are very lenient when it comes to South African produced books, as we do want to support our local production.But so often we see yet another bear/duck/ story , with much better books already available covering that theme.

On the topic of SA produced picture books, there is an excellent paper by F.A. Fairer-Wessels and J.W. Wessels entitled: ‘A critical discussion of the art styles used by selected illustrators of SA. Children’s books since the 1950’s.”

I would like to read some comments and conclusions they arrived at:

“Art techniques used in our books have similarities to the techniques employed by illustrators worldwide, for example the use of mixed media, collage, dry brush and quilting, with mediums such as watercolour, oil, pen, pencil crayon, lead pencil, pastel, and oil are used. Styles most commonly found in S.A. Children’s books are Realism, Cartooning, and to a lesser degree, the Naïve style, which portrays reality in a primitive fashion without perspective. Other styles used are those of folk art; which portrays typical traditions, symbols and cultural forms using line and colour, such as the San rock art, as portrayed in Niki Daly’s The dancer. The themes used are universal themes such as love and fear in family relationships, grandmothers and fathers; the search for love and acceptance; the discovery of an own identity; the realisation of race-including the contrast between rural and urban life; social issues such as the less privileged. Themes making books uniquely South African are themes such as Our unique multicultural population Our uniques social problems that relate to multiculturalism Africa’s wild animals The diversity of geographic areas, such as the Kalahari,the Bushveld Indigenous folk tales- stories ranging from myth to legend, to stories about current events and daily life. Very often the illustrations in these books are simplistically realistic, requiring a basic level of visual literacy.”

Interesting enough, and this applies to children worldwide today, indigenous folktales have few readers; often only when reading these materials are required by schools. A good storyteller, however, will be able to “sell” these stories to children.One must remember that there really is a book suitable for every reader; the problem is to bring the two together. What do we learn form this? Yes, we do produce quality books on par with international standards; yes, we do have unique things to offer to readers from different backgrounds; but I conclude that we still have to avoid producing books inferior in theme, and general appearance. There are still many of these.

Afrikaans picture books that have been the most popular are for example the following titles; although this is not a comprehensive list:

(Van hierdie boeke is myns insiens uiters onaantreklik, en ‘mass market stuff”, maar die kinders is mal oor hulle)

• Preller, Martie Babalela
• Hans Christian Andersen sprokies soos die Lelike eendjie, in Afrikaans vertaal deur Philip de Vos
• Die nuwe Droombosreeks, eg Reenboogfeetjie se ongeluk(Ugh!)
• Faulkner,Keith Die kameelperd wat kon koe-ke-le-koe
• McNaughton, Colin Boe!
• Faulkner, Keith Die bang beertjie
• Andreae, Giles Kameelperde kan nie dans nie
• Biro, Val Die drie rammetjies rof
• Murphy, Jill Net vyf minute vrede
• Rankin, Joan Mevrou Potjierol en die klein katjie
• Lillegard, Dee In my kartondoos
• Conboy, Fiona Hol muis hol
• Faulkner, Keith Die platbekpadda
• Trivizas, Eugene Die drie klein wolfies en die nare vet vark
• Hill, Eric Otto se pretjaar
• Paul Korky Hessie en holderstebolder
• Miesiemuis (Fantasi)
• Root, Phyllis Mevrou Stoffer se varkie
• King-Smith, Dick Die fluitende varkie
• Robertson, Julia Die Goorgomgaai
• Grobler, Piet Net een slukkie padda
• Joris, Daniel Die avonture van Arthur, eg. Arthur word ‘n padda
• Weninger, Brigitte Dit was ek, Mamma! Met die karakter Miko (Fantasi)

Omdat die verskeidenhheid nie so groot is soos by Engelse titels nie, word die meeste boeke hier wel uitgeneem, maar ma’s kla dat hulle al al die boeke ken en oor-en-oor uitgeneem het!

Dit s opmerklik dat die amper “comic” styl van illustrasies uiters gewild is. Belangrik is dit ook dat daar ‘n sentrale “endearing” karaktertjie is wat die kinders lief voor word, soos Otto, Arthur, die Goorgomgaai; Miesiemuis, Jasper. Miko. In English characters like Maisy the mouse, Kipper, Spot, Angelina, Lettice, Berenstain bears, Babar the elephant, Gumdrop, Postman Pat; Barney the dinosaur and Telly Tubbies.

Popular English picture books:

I have a huge collection of picture books as a special storytime collection for my Born to read programme. Almost every title on the market suitable for this age group is purchased and used exclusively for storytime. Some examples are the following:

• Fox, Christyan Cat and mouse – the hole story
• Alborough, Jez Duck’s key- where can it be?
• Inkpen, Mick Wibbly pig
• Campbell, Rod I’m hungry!
• Campbell, Rod Dear Zoo
• Cousins, Lucy Ha—ha Maisy - the Maisy books
• Sharratt, Nick A cheese and tomato spider
• McNaughton, Colin Shh! (Don’t tell Mister Wolf)
• Roddie, Shen Hatch, egg, hatch
• Fowler, Richard Mr Little’s noisy truck
• Holabird, Kathrine Angelina Ballerina
• Cole, Babette Dr. Dog , in fact all her books are hilarious
• Hest, Amy In the rain with Baby Duck
• Stanley, Mandy Lettice the dancing rabbit
• Scarry, Richard All his books
• Dahl, R The enormous crocodile
• Gretz, Susanna Riley and Rose in the picture.
• Inkpen, Mick Kipper’s birthday
• Ezra, Mark The frightened little owl
• Waddell, Martin Owl babies.
• Pfister, Marcus The rainbow fish
• Inkpen, Mick Kipper’s beach ball- all the Kipper books.
• Carle, Eric The badtempered ladybird
• Shannon, David No, David!
• Barber, Shirley Spellbound: a fairytale romance
• Thomas the tank engine

If one looks at popular themes, depending also on the age of the child, it would be mostly the following:

Humour is always big, eg, Thomson, Pat Drat that fat cat!

A brilliant new author is Child, Lauren with books like I am too absolutely small for school.

Animals, eg bears,( Gliori, Debi Mr Bear to the rescue;) rabbits, cats and dogs, Wild animals

Dinosaurs

Rhyming texts

Fantasy-fairies, dinosaurs

Family, home, grandparents

Things that go: trucks, cars, planes.

Pre-schoolers: 4-6 years of age:

Most picture books are still suitable for this age group; especially as picture books can be used on different levels for different ages, and are extremely versatilein their application. A simple story can be dollied up with more information while you are reading or telling the story. Teachers here always need books on a specific theme, eg. Vegetables, Seasons; Celebrations; Me and my world; etc. Therefore it is important that writers and illustrators look at what is available on the market, and try and fill the gaps so to speak by creating books for specific needs like these.

Beginner readers:

Readers for children beginning to read by themselves, are of a high quality and very diverse in themes, illustrations, appearance. I am regularly impressedby the quality of stories and illustrations in this category. Internationally produces series have inviting titles like Green bananas; Step into reading; Spiral readers; Bangers and Mash; Brand new readers; Leapfrog; Road to reading; I can read; Funny bones; Reading together, and many more.Berenstain bears, and others. Dr. Seuss The books are a delight: stories are good and entertaining, and often much better than those in picture books.; The brandname is easily identified by eg. A green banana; pencil stripes; a little frog; a tiny hop-scotch drawing; a small colourful hippopotamus; to name a few. In Afrikaans we have the Ster-stories; Rimpelstories; Oxford storieboom; Storiestraat en Kom ons lees. Kinders lees hierdie boekies met oorgawe, en tans een van die mees gewilde seksies in die biblioteek. What one must remember is that when children read in a second language, small print and too thick books are very off-putting. We have too few books in Afrikaans with nice easily readible print.

8-11 years of age:

As the children get older, a big difference start to show between the reading preferences of boys and girls, and also between Afrikaans and English speaking children, and Xhosa speaking children.

Boys in general show an interest in stories with more facts added to the usual story: books on Dinosaurs; Asterix and Tintin; Puzzle adventures; Scary stories., Where’s Wally ; Cartoons and Joke books. The Japanese Manga comic books are popular, with the Kung Fu boy, Iron fist Chinmi. Terry Pratchett with his graphic novels like the Discworld series, are hugely popular. 37 titles are already published, and he is admired for using myth, folklore and fairy tales for satirical parallels with current cultural, technological and scientific issues. The little girls love stories about fairies; ponies; ballet, unicorns From about 9 years of age they start reading My secret Unicorn and Captain Underpants; Rainbow Magic and Stardust series.. They also love May, Kate and Ashley; Sleepover club; in fact any books loking like girlie stuff in appearance and format.

Series/ Brand names:

I cannot over-emphasize the importance children attach to Series. The Dorling Kindersley readers which include facts with story; the Usborne farmyard tales; the Green Bananas; Beetle and Friends; Young hippo magic; Horrid Henry; Princess Posy; Mermaid Rock; TItchy witch; Little Dolphin; Orchard crunchies; to name a few. New on the market is Reenboogdrome series by LAPA, and the Lili series. Oxfors Storieboom se stamstories vir ouer kinders is ook baie gewild.

Older children: 11-14 years of age:

By now they have very specific tastes; and anything goes, determined by the personalities and likes of the specific child. We find that this group is definitely reading more English than Afrikaans. Popular English books include the following: Fantasy off course!: Artemis Fowl;Harry Potter; Chronicles of Narnia Adventure stories, eg. Survive series; Willard Price; Chris Ryan Scary stories, eg. Christopher Pike’s Spookville; Bonechillers; Darren Shan; The Nightmare room Realism, eg. Authors like Jacqueline Wilson.; Mates,dates series by Cathy Hopkins; Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot Interestingly , the titles of books often get them to read the books. Titles like : Do I look like I care?; Not a proper mum; Born to be bad; Bad boys; Fat kid rules the world; etc.These titles “speak” to them; the books sound cool, and enviting.: Humour : Morris Gleitzman; Roald Dahl Series once again have great appeal and many devoted followers: series like Animorphs; Choose your own adventure; Lemony Snicket’s Series of unfortunate events; the South African produced Siyagruva series; Remnants; old favourites like Hardy boys, Enid Blyton; Nancy Drew.

Afrikaans books in the different categories:

Ek verwys u na ons IBBY SA website waar ek al die nuwe Afriaanse boeke wat aan my voorgelë word, kortliks bespreek In hierdie verband moet ek së dat daar ‘n groot verbetering in die voorkoms en temas te bespeur is,en die boeke is deurgaans baie meer toeganklik vir kinders. Dit is tog te jammer dat by ouer titels goeie verhale nie meer gelees word nie, juis omdat die omslae so vaal en verbeeldingloos is. ‘n Mens kan die jongmense eenvoudig nie kwalik neem nie! Hulle word vandag visueel so gestimuleer, dat boeke geweldig moet kompiteer om hul aandag te kry. Oor die verskillende kategoriee die volgende: Ek het reeds prenteboeke bespreek, Reekse bly maar gewild. Vir die 9-11 jariges is daar byvoorbeeld Reenboogdrome uitgegee deur LAPA; Stamstories; Lili die wensfeetjie reeks in sagte pienk en liggeel/ liggroen omslae; Liewe Heksie; Gedaantes en Geraamtes; Jasper In der waarheid word die ou gunsteling reekse nog gelees, soos Saartjie, Trompie; Swart Kat; Grille en Goeters; Reenboogrant maats en Tieners om maar ‘n paar te noem. Gelukkig het hierdie reekse nou verskyn met pragtige nuwe omslae en hersiene tekste. Van die skrywers wat gewild is , is Fanie Viljoen , Jaco Jacobs, Carina-D Hugo met haar Thomas@. .net; Gedaantes en Geraamtes.; en Bloemhof se Rillers- Omnibus. Vir dogters, op ‘n ligte noot, is daar boeke soos die twee titles van Tania Brink- Liefde laat jou Rice rispies anders proe, en Ouens is nie Pizzas nie; en ‘n ouer reeks Eerste liefde en die Reenboogrant-reeks.;maar ongelukkig verskyn daar min leesbare stories op ‘n ligte trant, en is issues nog maar altyd ‘n sterk tema. Ongelukkig nie so gewild by kinders nie! Van die nuutste boeke war gepubliseer is, is daar ‘n paar belowende titels, bv. Jaco Jacobs se Monstergrappe; en sy Suurlemoen- ‘n boek vir tieners;ons huidige IBBY Honour boek vir Afrikaans. Ook; Sms’e, skurke en spinnekoppe’;van Nerine Ahlers en Alet Steenkamp; ook Ruik jy die filmster van Naomi Meyer(Tafelberg); en Tafelberg publiseer ‘n lekker fantasie verhaal van Fanie Viljoen, Klitskronkel en die vlammende swaard. H&R kom met Kobus Maree se Jakkalsvoël; en Terugkeer van Rudi Venter. Martie Preller het drie nuwe titels by LAPA waar die held van die stories die kind is; Jy en Hercules; Jy en die Dinosourus; en Jy en Toetenkat. Die aanbiedings is so reg in die smaak van vandag se kind; karikatuur-agtige karakters; aksievol; deelnemend. Perdestories is uiters gewild; in Engels is daar ‘n paar uitstekende reekse; en daarom verblydend dat LAPA die Stalmaats-reeks uitgegee het. Human & Rousseau het ‘n paar lekker boekies vir peuters gepubliseer, soos Ons nuwe baba, en Ons gaan na die dokter; Otto se groot woordeboek; Ben en Madeliefie se Tekenboek, en hulle Groottes en vorms; en die vermaaklike Bangkat en Boe deur Michael Bond. Waak tog , veral by ouer kinders, teen enkel titels , veral wanneer die skrywer nog nie bekend is nie, want so ‘n boek kan maklik in die “woodwork” verdwyn.; Kinders soek altyd na die volgende boek wat ‘n vorige lekker leesbare stojrie opvolg.

Opsommend kan ek kortliks oor Suid-Afrikaanse kinderboeke die volgende së:

• Daar is ‘n groot verbetering in die gehalte, algemene versorging, verskeidenheid, en geskikte temas.
• Hoewel heeltwat nuwe boeke jaarliks gepubliseer word, is daar egter nog steeds te min boeke in die verskillende kategoriee; en nog te min kinder-vriendelike boeke wat handel oor temas met ‘n ligte aanslag.
• Ons is dankbaar vir elke nie-fiksie onderwerp waaroor daar ‘n boek in Afrikaans verskyn; mense vra ons gedurig hoekom daar nie inligting in Afrikaans oor die onderwerp is nie. Ek is verheug oor LAPA se nuwe boek, ‘n Nie-fiksietitel : Wat as my hond; ook Jaco Jacobs se Monster grappe en sy Wurms met tamatiesous en ander lawwe rympies.

In conclusion then:

Children do love books, and therefore it is important that they are introduced to books from an early age. Beginner readers should also be of a high quality in content and general appearance. If we win them over for books at an early age, a reading youth is created, and the rest will come much easier.

Lona Gericke, Children’s librarian, Bellville 29 October, 2007.