Inspiring Young Readers
Q: When is a book not a book? A: When it’s a toy
I’ve noticed that there's quite an interesting debate going on in some corners of the internet about whether children are ‘over-toyed’. A number of commentators have made out the case that children have access to far more toys than they could either use or need and that, as a result, they ascribe an ever decreasing value to them. I’m not sure if this is really a modern day problem or not – I seem to recall similar views being expressed decades ago. Maybe every generation thinks a subsequent one is living in the lap of previously unimagined luxury.
However, I do think there is some substance in the notion that many children have enough toys without being given more in the guise of books. I’ve written in the past on this site about how dismal I find the Christmas book market for ‘funny’ books or celebrity flimflam of all kinds. In that piece I suggested that these so-called books aren’t really books at all – they are just disposable adult playthings used to fill stockings and will (could) never really be read, destined instead to clutter the shelves of charity shops for the coming year.
I know that this isn’t going to be a popular point of view but I think Christmas also brings out some of the worst in children’s book marketing too. They have their own version of the book-that-isn’t-really-a book – because it’s primarily a toy. These ‘books’ are loaded with gimmicks; pages cut into unfathomable shapes, drilled with holes and stuffed with fluffy puppets that burst out of the cover like the monster bursts from chests in the Alien movies so that any passing resemblance to a story book is purely coincidental.
Turning books into toys too seems to me less likely to result in children embracing books in the future and more likely to make them just another discarded item in the glut of over-consumption that toys have come to represent.
You’re probably thinking ‘so what?’ by this point – as long as it amuses a child for a while who cares if they see it as a book or as a toy? Well, the problem is I kind of do care. I want children to grow up thinking it’s the stories that lie between the covers of books that are magical not the menagerie of special effects that have been larded on so thickly that there is no story. I don’t have too much of a problem with pop-up books because on the whole they represent three-dimensional storytelling but these so-called books that don’t encourage children to think and imagine and simply provide idiotic tooting or pointless special effects just make me irritable.
These things belong in toy shops not book shops. I want children to grow up loving the experience of the book – understanding the relationship with the pages that deliver the magic of the story and respecting the role of the bookshop in providing these wonderful things. In other words, I want children to think books are special. I don’t want them thinking bookshops are toy shops and books are there for ephemeral stimulation to just be cast aside as soon as the flimsy novelty has been exhausted.
There are going to be those of you reading this who will think this either puritanical or Stalinist or both and I’m tempted to agree that it’s a slightly odd thing to keep as a hobby-horse. But I do think there’s a point to be made here : books, at any level, take some effort and for the youngest of readers they are best shared with an adult who helps bring them to life. If they are reduced to cheap geegaws designed to distract an inquisitive child for just a few minutes we run the risk that they will crowd out real books and train children to value only instant gratification over something that can be explored more deeply.
That’s my Christmas rant over and done with for this year…….
Terry Potter
December 2016