Frances!

[brigid]

Like a lot of parents, we are trying to inflict our own positive child hood experiences on Niko. Which means, in Nesko’s case, Niko’s learning Communist-era Football (soccer, to those of us in the USA) fight songs, and Yugoslavian pop songs from the 70s, and eating spaghettios. And in my case, that means mostly wooden trains and a million weird kids’ books and lots of making up goofy songs. (We also dress him in nerdy clothing a lot. Because he can’t stop us. HAH! this shirt offers +5 to nakedness! He has +10 charisma! He is a level 3 human! ZIIIING)

Niko is really into Russel Hoban’s “Frances” books, some of which were illustrated by Lillian Hoban (they were married, they got divorced, they kept working together; the first book was illustrated by Garth Williams). We have “Bedtime for Frances” (aka GO TO BED NOW FRANCES), “Bread and Jam for Frances” (aka NYOM NYOM FRANCES) and “A Baby Sister For Frances” (aka FRANCES HAS A BABY!). How much does he enjoy these books? So much that sometimes he asks for them instead of Thomas And Friends stories. How much does he enjoy these books? So much that sometimes in his sleep he murmurs about wanting A Red Car Toy (Lightning McQueen from “Cars”), and sometimes he murmurs something about Frances.

The books are pretty dated in some ways. In “Bedtime,” Father Badger (who is the disciplinarian) threatens to spank Frances if she doesn’t go to sleep; there’s a pretty clear division of labor among the genders. And they’re dated in good ways as well. Frances catches snakes in a pillow case and does tomboy-ish things and has a male best friend (who often wears purple checked pants), two things that aren’t seen quite as often among girls in kids’ books today (at least the ones I’ve seen, anyway). They are clever, sweet stories, very solid, and sprinkled throughout with little songs just begging to be sung.

If you grew up reading them, take another look at them. If you’re looking for something for your kid, check them out. There’s I-Can-Read versions that are edited to be simpler, but the original texts have a richness the edited ones lack.

What are some of your favorite childhood books? What are you re-sharing with your kids? I’d love to know.

Technorati Tags: parenting, todder

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Comments

[dorothean]

Whenever the bookstore has one of those "buy a children's book to be donated to charity" things, I buy Corduroy. I love Corduroy.

[waldo]

We had to read about Frances running away today before nap. I swear, the second I said, "the end" he was comatose. He was seriously only managing to hang on for Francis.

In other news:

Nano cannot go swimming in the dirty water, only fish can.
The cavy ate lettuce.
We couldn't find the ostriches.
Bats are scary.
There was not enough time with the roaches in the Red Tunnel.
And snakes cannot bite Nano because there is a window.


It was a good day!

[waldo]

I'm so evil... I so approve of this: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2011/08/18/funny-pictures-that-was-a-terrible-bedtime-story/

[lassarina]

I loved the Serendipity books! Leo the Lop, Serendipity, Squeakers...man, those are some good memories. (My mom perpetually buys those books for friends who have children in the 3-4 years range; they're good for learning to read, and I read them over and over and over again because ANIMALS.)

(in totally unrelated news--are you still looking for employment? Because my place of same is hiring again.)

[al_zorra]

I have no personal experience with raising children so I'm reluctant to speak to that. But, you are talking books! Reading! Reading to! Read to! Read together!

I do have personal experience with these activities as an adult and as a child too. :)

Books that aren't up-to-date, that don't reflect the world we're in right now? I loved all those books madly. We had zillions of these from my great-grandparents' days, my grandparents' days, my parents' days. I swear that, along with Bible Stories, fairy tales and my grandmothers' photo albums reaching back into the 19th century were the foundation of my interest in history. Different, new, strange, filled with wonders. I didn't understand everything? It didn't matter -- I was learning enormous amounts of information, from social behaviors to clothes to machinery and technology. Nothing teaches you faster that nothing stays the same. Understanding this and being comfortable with this may well be the greatest survival skill we can have these days.

Everything changes all the time now and its exhausting. I even had an impulse to cry, coming out of the drug store, where for the life of me I could not find plain old Gillette Mach 3 razor blades. (Both of us forgot our shaving implements due to having to leave for the airport at 4 AM.) What shaving of masculine faces, or female legs is performed with now I don't know. I guess, at least for women, we're all supposed to have this done via waxing or something at a professional service. I don't wanna!

Love, C.