Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#21

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 3:55 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #10

lr4444lr wrote: post #6

This just doesn't strike me as true at all. Most of my children's books have very non-descript settings that begin in non-connected single family houses. But regardless of that framing, so many of my kids' books dive into the realm of the protagonist's imagination. This honestly just sounds like another indirect shot taken at suburban life. I get it, internet content writers disproportionately live in the big cities,…

Most of my childhood books were rural based adventures. The books my kid has are mostly rural or have no setting at all. I agree that stories involving houses tend to portray single family homes. I can't think of any that actually portray that house in a suburban setting (the premise of the article). I'm sure they are out there, but none come to mind for me. Then the question is really, so what if the settings are no…

My favorite children's book growing up (the embarrassingly named Captain Underpants) was definitively suburban.

More generally, I guess I'd question what it means to portray a house as suburban. The author seems to be assuming that anywhere with cool nature stuff in walking distance is rural, and that's not true; my definitively suburban house growing up was within easy walking distance of a pretty well-forested park on one side and a creek on the other.

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#22

Post by adamsea » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 3:57 PM UTC

So the article addresses its own question and the answer is children’s stories require walking because it’s children and the suburbs aren’t generally walkable (or interestingly walkable) environments.

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#23

Post by Finnucane » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 3:59 PM UTC

hhggfdss wrote: post #9

giantg2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I was trying to think of what a suburban story would look like. The cities have things like museums or the zoo. The country has natural things to explore. The suburbs are basically a bunch of houses with yards - not a lot of opportunity for childhood adventure stories.

Really? I grew up in a rural area and the suburbs always seemed like fun, you know why? There were other kids! Is this just an illusion? All I ever wanted as a kid was a neighborhood. We had to convince our parents to drive us all over hill and dale if we wanted to see anyone our age.

That's funny--I grew up in a suburb and always wanted to be somewhere else. I didn't want to read books about places like the one I was already in. (I now live not far from where my great-grandparents lived when they first came to this country, so I guess I made a big loop).

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#24

Post by rcthompson » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 4:00 PM UTC

This is a pretty sweeping generalization. The suburb I grew up in was and still is plenty walkable (though it is admittedly even more bikeable/driveable) and has plenty of places for kids to have adventures. Of course, I've definitely been to many suburbs that are completely unwalkable by design, but not every suburb is like that.

(My sense is that more recently-built suburbs tend to be more heavily designed around a presumption of car ownership, but that's just based on my own experience.)

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#25

Post by generalk » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 4:05 PM UTC

Jugurtha wrote: post #13

Why do so few events that shape your life or are worthy of mention take place in the suburbs, a place where people mostly sleep/rest? This reminds me of "liquid networks" from Steven Johnson's book "Where Good Ideas Come From". Here's a talk where he addresses it briefly, timestamped at the moment he starts talking about "liquid network"[0] Things worth telling mostly happen in cities, or the internet. - [0]: https:/…

I grew up in suburbs, I went to school in suburbs. I met my wife in the suburbs, I had my first kiss in the suburbs. I definitely had some formative events that occurred on the mid-90s Internet, and would not be the person I am today without it.

But I for damn sure also wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't rode my bike to my friends' houses to trade floppy disks or watch Schwarzenegger films, or sneaked out to the mall to meet folks, or hung out at the neighborhood strip-mall comic shop and picked up various CCGs and RPGs.

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#26

Post by watwut » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

notahacker wrote: post #16

lr4444lr wrote: post #6

This just doesn't strike me as true at all. Most of my children's books have very non-descript settings that begin in non-connected single family houses. But regardless of that framing, so many of my kids' books dive into the realm of the protagonist's imagination. This honestly just sounds like another indirect shot taken at suburban life. I get it, internet content writers disproportionately live in the big cities,…

Yeah. I'm not convinced settings for kids books really tell us more about urban planning than they tell us about the the problem with not enough political situations being solved by encounters with handsome princes these days. And I'm pretty sure that well established story tropes predate suburbanism and republicanism is more of a factor in the popularity of certain types of fantastical settings than magic kingdoms f…

The children's books actually show hansome princes very rarely. Those are featured in traditional stories, m but most children's books in bookstore are decisively not that.

What you call well established story tropes is not actual content of actual children's books.

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#27

Post by analog31 » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

pmiller2 wrote: post #5

Hmm... is it because the suburbs are boring? reads article Yep, except instead of "boring," they say "walkable." I can't say I disagree.

I grew up in a suburb. As kids, we found plenty to do, often involving places where we weren't supposed to be. The nature of suburbia as boring didn't even occur to us until we were teenagers, and then it led to adventures that can't be portrayed in children's books.

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#28

Post by drchopchop » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

lr4444lr wrote: post #6

This just doesn't strike me as true at all. Most of my children's books have very non-descript settings that begin in non-connected single family houses. But regardless of that framing, so many of my kids' books dive into the realm of the protagonist's imagination. This honestly just sounds like another indirect shot taken at suburban life. I get it, internet content writers disproportionately live in the big cities,…

Also, if you change that to "children's shows" instead of "children's books", most of them are set in something resembling a suburb: Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies, etc. Sesame Street is a notable exception.

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#29

Post by watwut » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 4:12 PM UTC

sidibe wrote: post #17

mdorazio wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the suburbs if you're not old enough to drive your "adventures" mostly consist of meeting at someone's house and doing house things. So yes, there are other kids to interact with, but not much of an environment in which to interact with them.

Seems like most things kids want to do just require yards or houses and other kids. Before you can drive I think the main factor for how much fun your environment is (assuming safety and no poverty) is the density of kids your age in the neighborhood.

Kids do what is available. And kids are definitely able to use more then just yard.

Yard gets boring when you are like 6. Then the kids either have bigger space to bike, explore, play actual hide and seek where they can actually hide etc .... or move all activities inside typically toward videogames.

Re: Why are there so few children’s books set in the suburbs?

#30

Post by dhosek » Mon, Dec 28, 2020, 4:22 PM UTC

The author undercuts his claims when he writes:

t’s true that some popular picture books do seem to have a suburban setting: Victoria Kann’s Pinkalicious series (2006-), the Berenstain Bears series (1962-) by the Berenstain family, and Norman Bridwell’s Clifford the Big Red Dog (1963-) come to mind. But these books also come to mind when I consider books I’d rather burn than read – not because they take place in the suburbs but because they’re so poorly written and illustrated. My only claim here is that the best children’s books forgo suburbia.

Just thinking about my kids' favorites of late and the Ladybug Girl series is set in exurbia and Mac B Kid Spy is set in suburban California when he's not flying off to England and elsewhere in the service of the Queen of England.