there has been a surge of children’s books in my dashboard lately, many of which i recognize. i can’t tell you what any of the stories are about, but those colorful covers pull me back to a forgotten childhood, when i used to sneak out of my room during nap time to steal a book from the shelves in the hallway. i would only have a moment to make my decision, before the nanny peaked around the corner in the kitchen and caught me, so there were some insane book-cover-judging choices being made. did i want a story with animals wearing clothes or funnily shaped school children? did i want something silly or recognizable and morally sound? maybe i just wanted something comfortable, the book that i could read (or really just look at the pictures) and hear my mom’s voice draw out the longer words, cradling me to sleep.
i haven’t thought much about what children’s picture books are doing in terms of e-books, and i’ve only ever looked at the kindle as a slimmer version of a hefty novel. has there been any sort of movement among the younger set toward e-readers? in this hypothetical i start to fear the future: what happens to those pen-and-ink drawings? how about the fun typography that can be bold and dance across the page? more importantly, what happens to those moments when you’re curled up next to your mother or father and they give you the little nudge to reach over and turn the page, the thick paper revealing that yes, the magic will continue, at least for now?
as an adult (although i use that term loosely) it’s hard to understand how someone could so thoroughly enjoy a 5-word-per-page hunk of cardboard with simple drawings, but i forget that as a i child, that’s all you really need.
