They're Never Too Young For Books , and: Babies Need Books (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: They're Never Too Young For Books, and: Babies Need Books Wendy Saul McGovern, Edythe M. They're Never Too Young For Books. Los Angeles: Mar Vista Publishers, 1980. Pp. 282. $10.00. Butler, Dorothy . Babies Need Books. New York: Atheneum, 1980. Pp. 178. $9.95. Two recent publications, Edythe E. McGovern's They're Never Too Young for Booksand Dorothy Butler's Babies Need Booksare designed first, to convince adults that books are important for children and second, to help the caretakers of pre-schoolers make intelligent decisions about which books to present when. As such these texts need to be evaluated both on the rationale for early reading proposed and on the appropriateness of the suggested titles. McGovern begins by listing the "nine needs" of the very young child—"material security," "safety," "emotional security" and so on—then hypothesizes how books can satisfy each of these needs. Can books make up in any way for indigence? Probably not. But this child has other needs, common to all children, and meeting these may help to make this material lack more bearable. Also, pragmatically, a broad exposure to the written work from a very early stage of intellectual development may well prepare that child for a more materially secure adulthood in terms of future requirements, such as literacy, for example. Her questionable description of child development leads to an axiom she employs in book selection: "The younger the child, the simpler and more literal the material should be." Still, for literary reasons, McGovern notes that condensations, bowdlerized versions, readers and series books are suspect, and that an author's mastery of plot, character, conflict, theme, style, setting, tone, and point of view is important to consider in choosing books for pre-schoolers. The justification for selection is explained in thirty pages. Of the remaining one hundred and thirty five pages, one hundred and twenty five are devoted to lists—lists of first books, bilingual books, fairy tales; lists of books which stress physical safety, the unique self, problem solving, sexual identity; lists of books about holidays, the weather, human biology and more. There are several problems with these lists. For instance, if we take seriously the author's maxim regarding the complexity of books appropriate for young children, the inclusion of works such as F. Rojankovsky's Tall Book of Nursery Talesin a list of "first books," leads one to suspect that McGovern is simply not familiar with all the texts she recommends. Similiarly, using the literary criteria outlined above, I fail to understand why Baby's First Golden Books, Baby's First Whitman Booksor the Wipe Clean Booksare recommended. The fact that all the titles are presented without annotation compounds the confusion. Several omissions also seem puzzling. Anne Rockwell's respected and fairly standard Three Little Pigs and Other Storiesis not found in the list of fairy and folktales, while the work of Maria Hall Ets or Karla Kuskin is noticeably absent from a [End Page 41]list of "first books" which includes over one hundred and fifty volumes. Furthermore, the lists themselves seem strangely unparallel—some focus on subject matter, others are based on the age of the reader, still others apparently present books that "emphasize skills." McGovern concludes with a short section on "Reading Aloud." Again, annotations to the excellent contextual studies and practical guidebooks on the subject are missing. A more personal statement to novices is offered by Dorothy Butler in Babies Need Books. Butler's rationale for her belief in the importance of literature in the life of the young child is a curious amalgam of undocumented "scientific" theory, common-sense, and rich experience. Ms. Butler hopes that her book will be of "use to parents in much the same way a car manual is of use to the motorist who aspires to give personal care and attention to his vehicle." Implied here is a technical relationship between expert, educated adult mediator and thing-like child reader. Elsewhere, however, Butler takes a completely different tack, suggesting that children and their caretakers "need things in common." No relationship can survive on the basis of mutual, unquestioning adoration. For...