A slim friendly book about elements that make children’s books appealing to kids. I read about it on Nymeth’s blog, and I of course had to go get it from the library straight away. I like reading books about books. Jerry Griswold mentions a number of things in books that appeal to little children – snugness (yessss!), scariness, smallness, lightness, and aliveness. I don’t think this is a comprehensive list, but I liked what he said about these five things. Especially the snug section – I loved reading about people who had found their own little places to go. There was a lot of stuff in there about The Wind in the Willows, and Rat’s lovely house, and Mole’s own nice little house, and Badger’s comfortable undergound home. It reminded me of The Speckledy Hen. Did anyone else ever read the Little Grey Rabbit books? I love those books.
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One of my favourite things about books like this one is that they make me discover lovely books I completely missed as a child. For example, I’m now dying to read Mary Norton’s Borrowers books.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you think of them – I liked the first one all right, but I didn’t get on very well with any of them. I suspect that a lot of the humor and charm will work better on a reader older than seven or eight. I did like it when Arriety became friends with the boy, though!