Books and children: why it's important to get them used to reading from an early age

BOOKS AND CHILDREN –

In an era dominated by the internet, electronic media, Kindles/ebooks/smartphones/tablets, one wonders if read a book for children (and transmit to them the pleasure of reading) is something vintage, an experience with a retro flavour, and above all whether it still makes sense. We asked Anselmo Roveda, editor of the Andersen magazine, which dispelled all our possible doubts.

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Some time ago, the writer Maria Teresa Andruetto said in an interview: "If there's anything that literature powerfully teaches us, it's to ask questions. Not to give us answers. A novel, a story, a poem forces us to ask questions, presents us with the possibility of questioning ourselves, whether we are children, teenagers, or adults. It questions us about who we are, what we do, in a thousand ways and differently for every reader. If art has anything, it's the ability to place us in uncertainty.

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I gladly agree, adding that it's not a disorienting uncertainty. On the contrary, it should be an uncertainty capable of making us aware of multiple points of view, even those far removed from our own.

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Having cleared up some misunderstanding, if we must discuss the functions of children's books, several can be identified. (Unfortunately, however, many adults, not only the ignorant or the uninformed, attribute "functions" to children's books that are very similar to that distorted idea of ​​pedagogy that here it would be best to call for what it is: the domestication of childhood.)

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BOOKS AND CHILDREN EARLY READER EDUCATION –

Let us now come to the possible functions of literature, even for children.

• The meeting with the good books, suggests Aidan Chambers in We Are What We Read, allows us to broaden our experience and knowledge of the world;
• It promotes personal and inner growth;
• It facilitates language learning;
• It entertains pleasantly;
• It promotes emotional development;
• Teach rules;
• Develops imagination;
• It challenges our beliefs and eventually changes us profoundly;
• It allows us to enter into empathetic contact with other human experiences without suffering the consequences (think of bereavement or falling in love, think of the possibility of encountering them on the written page, of "living" them by sharing the characters' emotions, of treasuring them to compare and strengthen our own emotions);
• Finally, it allows you to experiment with the most diverse solutions to life's problems to verify their outcomes before facing them in reality.
• Finally (even if we're just talking about pure entertainment), it can make us wrestle a seven-headed dragon from the comfort of our armchairs, or travel through a space-time gap while lying in bed. In short, even without the need—thankfully!—for pedagogical intent on the part of the authors, reading a book leads us to experiences with powerful educational and developmental implications. Different and meaningful for every reader.

For those who have children, have a library or are teachers and want to be updated on quality publications we recommend  subscription to Andersen magazine.