On Learning from Children’s Literature.

I’ve been excited about revisiting some of my childhood favorites with my baby. While I’m sure he’ll enjoy them more when he understands the words, until then I’ll have to enjoy it enough for the both of us. He usually falls asleep, or gets hungry, or I have to attend to more feces related issues, or when his dinner comes back up, so reading has been in quick spasms.

While rereading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Gruffalo, Go Dog, Go!, and Peter Pan has been great, it’s the ones I’d never read before, ones from my wife’s childhood, that I’ve loved most. Nostalgia is a sweet sauce, but new discovery can be tangier. Today I was introduced to Jill Barklem’s Brambly Hedge Summer Story. One hot summer two mice fall in love, and so there’s a wedding. It’s all mushy and cozy, and the art is beautiful, but the best part is a line spoken by Old Vole, who officiates the ceremony:

“Then in the name of the flowers and the fields, the stars in the sky, and the streams that flow down to the sea, and the mystery that breathes wonder into all these things, I pronounce you mouse and wife.“

What a beautiful example of world building. Of course that’s what would be said at a wedding for two mice from a brambly hedge. It’s a poetic and magical bit in the middle of an otherwise straightforward children’s story. Sometimes it’s just a single line that can make a world come alive.