Musings on children's and YA literature, the academy, and the relationship between them, from an English professor and mother.

Monday, May 19, 2008

"Reading" pictures...

Everything is new to the infant. I remember seeing my tiny daughter, only minutes old, lying in her father's arms drinking in the scenery with eyes wide open, and suddenly realizing what an odd world we'd brought her into.

Shaun Tan and Brian Selznick show us that odd world in their remarkable picture books (or are they graphic novels?) for older readers. Read more about The Arrival and The Invention of Hugo Cabret, here...

(cross posted at Midlife Mama)


1 comment:

  1. It's maybe not quite the same point, but you reminded me of a saying of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav who said, 'It is forbidden to be old. ... For the child knows how to be amazed, everything to him is new - the sky, the sun, the stars, mother, father, the doll. He participates in the Biblical statement, 'And God saw everything that He had made and it was very good.' Adults, unfortunately, have ceased to be astounded. They see no mystery; freshness is hidden under names and categories.""

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