Why Junior Needs to Be Scared

A Tweet from Jen Robinson pointed me at this lovely article from the Boston Globe, titled When We Shield Our Kids from Scary Stories, Who Are We Really Trying to Protect? It looks at parents who gloss over scary parts like the death of Babar's mother, and experts who discuss why it's important to allow kids exposure to scary things at a young age.

Fave quote, about why kids aren't so disturbed by the loss of fictional mothers as the mothers are:

the very fear that they’re dealing with is something that they just keep re-experiencing, and then they metabolize it and are then able to manage those feelings.

Yes. YES. This is the same reason that I maintain Go Away Big Green Monster is one of the finest picture books of all time, because it doesn't ignore the monster. It confronts, acknowledges, and overcomes, and isn't that what we want our kids to be able to do with the horrors of the world?

Reading Roundup: July 2011

By the Numbers
Picture Books: 38

Sources
Library: all

Standouts
Writing: The Queen of France by Tim Wadham, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
A testament to a little girl's imagination (she wakes up feeling royal) and her parents' indulgent playing-along. The sequences between Rose and the Queen of France "just missing each other" as the girl changes from one persona to another especially made me smile.
Illustration: Hopper and Wilson by Maria van Lieshout
Oh, those soft watercolors! With the big, big sea and the little boat and the splotch of red that is the balloon which turns out to be the elephant's saving grace. It's just a pretty, pretty book.
Overall: Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes
Another one about imagination. A baby rabbit wonders how it would feel to be a butterfly, a rock, or any number of other things as he hops around in his springtime world. The ending is a little sweet for me, but overall I loved this book, and its signature illustration style.

Because I Want To Awards
Where Have You Been Every Time I Had to Do a Fourth of July Storytime?: America, My Land, Your Land, Our Land by W. Nikola-Lisa, illustrated by various artists
That Must Have Been One Well-Built Boat: Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat by Philip C. Stead (If you recognize the author's name, it's because he was also behind the perfectly lovely Caldecott winner A Sick Day for Amos McGee.)
Tongue-Twister of a Readaloud: Scapegoat by Dean Hale, illustrated by Michael H. Slack