Why Children's Books?

>It is the work of a writer for children to do the same for the world itself. Children have not yet built wide hinterlands: to them, the world is still opaque and full of necessary bewilderment. Those who write for children have the chance to point them towards beauty that they do not yet know exists

I think this is the kind of metaphysical flight of fancies that are not only useless, but lead astray. My observation is the opposite: children find beauty everywhere. Beauty is just the natural state of things. They have not been trained yet to see things from the lens of their own interest, which is the basis for the eye of discrimination. Things that are good for me are beautiful, things that are bad for me are ugly. Children have yet to learn what is good or bad for them.

Then there are the "rules" of children's books... but these have changed a lot in the last century, and most of what the industry takes for granted nowadays would have seemed absurd and laughable to the great authors whose legacy she claims.

The stats at the end about access for the poorest are heart breaking. My son loves his books and it’s so nice to see.

"British children’s books have often taught other truths – that the best thing you can be is white, upper or middle class, and if you are a girl, quiet. "

Firstly, there are many exceptions. For example, Aravis in CS Lewis's The Horse and His Boy is neither white nor remotely quiet - she is aristocratic. The Telmarine descended characters in the later books in the series are (in our terms) mixed race, and this was one of the most successful chidlren's book series ever, written in the 1950s. The Family from One End Street (which i remember reading as a child) was published in 1937 and is about a working class family.

Even Kipling is better than the article gives him credit for "You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"

I think some bias towards middle class[1] characters and settings is inevitable because authors are middle class and write about what they know.

"You can only be a hero, we have told children, if you have that kind of name: names licked clean by kings and queens."

BS, as a non-white kid growing up in 70s and 80s Britain I never felt this. The author thinks people can only identify with characters like themselves, which is condescending.

"That is changing now, albeit slowly: books such as Malorie Blackman’s Pig Heart Boy, Patrice Lawrence’s triumphant People Like Stars and Tola Okogwu’s Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun"

Three British authors!

[1] the British definition of middle class.