Did children’s books miss the plot?

Hardcore readers can find almost fainting in shock after goggling in colorful illustrations that colonize every page of each child’s novels in bookstores today. In this rather unfortunate situation, please bring extra pillows, because if the writer Anthony Horowitz – who brought us the adventures of adolescent Spy Alex Rider – is near, can participate in this fainting.

Please not that they do not show fingers in Julia Donaldson’s iconographic books filled with spiritual quatrains for Gruffalos to lasso the fleeting logic of the parents’ parents. I am specifically referring to medium-quality books (or to the lower fiction addressed to ages 8-12) positively explodes with cartoon illustrations, the “pick me” of books at a time when reading is a tiring work assigned by the greatest good. Yes, Wimpy Kid Tomes with your figure and literally anything, David Walliams: That means you.

What does Horowitz say

“I have doubts about the children’s books world,” Horowitz comments during a recent appearance at Podcast Headliners. “You know if you look at a bookstore, books that look popular – and don’t hide them for a minute because they give pleasure to children – tend to have very bright colors in the cover and [a] Type of slightly cartoon. ”

The sadness of the steadily increasing number of attention extends from (or terrified) the prospect of anything over 300 pages, Horowitz’s complaints about modern children’s books are not over – nor do they have no scientific value.

“They are very short. They are big guys. There are many images … which seems to be now the most popular and not what I write,” he continues as he continues to blame social media to remove attention.

For the cynical teenager or gen-zer, it is almost impossible not to reject Horowitz’s doubts, such as the Rantings of an old man who shouts in the clouds. For them, Horowitz just looks at what all of us (us?) They love more than anything else in the whole world: the rose mirror in the back.

Even when we lovers of (appropriate) nod fiction in agreement with poor Horowitz, too many of us will blush in the memory of our parents’ visceral horror in the 1990s in Deep Love for the almost endless Sweet Valley and Sweet Valley Karachi books on the knees). To add salt to the wound, we avoided the works of JRR Tolkein, CS Lewis and (the worst of all) Mark Twain suggested by the promising elders. Now, thanks to the life cycle, it’s time to publish those terrified seniors a sincere mental apology and unexpectedly join Horowitz, as well as we mourn the fantastic novelism of the children down.

Are they really roses glasses?

Heaven, no. An occasional riffle through the children’s part will produce colorful quentin blake illustrations that enhance the text with relentless durability. Short, sharp proposals and random capital markets (a larger font size to truly make the point at the point) celebrate almost every page so that the audience will not be tempted. scroll.

Horowitz has avoided name and discourage any writer in particular, but we do not need to be so kind. Let’s look at the aforementioned Walliams-one of the authors of the UK children of the UK is currently considered, though minus the world-wide tidal force that was JK Rowling. I have a sample in front of me here from his collection of short stories, the worst children in the world 2 (2021), although it is impossible to convey the complete visual kaleidoscope to a simple text without the order of font sizes, illustrations and random bold objects in his disposal:

“The creepy crimes are called creepy crimes for a reason. They are creepy and they are captivated. Her pocket.”

Converse this with Kaye Umansky, a children’s writer in the 1990s, for which almost no one has heard. Here is a short sample from Pongwiffy and Doom’s holiday (1995):

“Poor Scott. The business world is unstable and things had not gone well for this […] The players had stayed away in Droves, and the film had broken all the box office files with the lowest entrances in history. Since then, it has been what usually refers to the business circles of appearance as a “rest”, which in all other circles means from a job. “

Absorbing the joy

It is unfair to condemn one and worship the other on the basis of the minimum lines, but be sure that you can consider this application of the structure of spirit and sentences as an exact snapshot of their respective magnum opuses. Just like the fantastic world of Walliam includes a wild imagination (we can’t blame him for his stories in the way we can liberal use of visual aids or short proposals), the Umansky repertoire is also full of wild lines including witchcraft, vampires keep the associated parents.

However, because Umansky prose remains trapped in pages absolutely full of text and very few images, her books can also be invisible to an erotic child. I know this because in a local school, a librarian who wanted to remain anonymous (for reasons that will soon be clear) said: “Get the whole pongwiffy set, if you really want, but don’t tell anyone at school, just give you everything –

Is it because fewer than ever parents read to their young children now? Does he have the task of learning to enjoy fiction without throwing the eight -year -old shoulder without a guiding hand? Or do publishers just work harder than ever (snappy suggestions! Much color!) To stand out as books become a dead race?

A particular literary agent told screenwriter Cairo Smith (who immediately complained to X, as he should have) that teenagers can no longer understand a third person omniscient. Are teenagers really this unconventional and indifferent? Or is it because no publisher can risk losing the seductive forces of social media? There are no easy answers – but how sad it would be if tomorrow’s adults do not have literary childhood heroes to return when they are in a desperate need for a repair of nostalgia.