Dozens of times a year people tell me they want to write or have already written a children's book. This admission varies from those who have a fascination with their own childhood to those who want to share a personal tale or event. Some understand the art of literature for children and have invested a great deal of effort to write a story worthy of young readers. Others think that writing for children is a simple task, "anyone can do it!"
But there are also those who have written a children's book with other motives. For example, some want merely to see their name in print (not a good reason for writing!) or have a misconception that writing can be lucrative and writers can be independent through their publishing (a fallacy except for less than 1 percent of the children's book writers).A third group of writers are those poets, actors, song writers, athletes, artists, musicians or adult novelists who venture into the children's book market for reasons still to be ascertained.
I am critical of this latter group of writers. Most have neither invested in the study of literature for youth as an art form nor have they ultimately told a "good" story. Often these stories are didactic and the patronizing tone leaves a bad taste to both adult reader and child listener. Even if the book is an excerpt written down to children from a successful adult novel (Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club") or a rendering of a musical (Rodgers and Hammerstein's stage version of James A. Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific"), it does not guarantee a satisfying children's book. In my estimation, neither of the above titles were pleasant children's books.
Following are examples of both kinds of books written by famous adults; titles that are quality stories and those whose authors should be encouraged to keep to the career that has made them famous.
Berkeley Breathed, one of America's popular illustrators with the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip, "Bloom County," has successfully plied his art in books for "children of all ages." Breathed doesn't try to disguise the humor in GOODNIGHT OPUS (Little, Brown) for only a young audience, nor does he sneak in adult humor that leaves the young reader guessing. Opus, probably the world's best known penguin, finishes Grandma's bedtime story on a Milky Way Flying Machine as he encounters a fairy on a heap of "re-owned teeth," Abe Lincoln leaping off his pedestal to take a dip in the memorial fountain and reaching the Milky Way where "There, all above us, six billion udders. No cow dads around, just milky cow mudders." "Departure from the text" is the theme of "Goodnight Opus" and it's a winner.
Another winner is Anne Tyler's TUMBLE TOWER with pictures by Mitra Madarressi (Orchard Books). This is a contemporary tale of Molly the Mess, daughter of king Clement the Clean, Queen Nellie the Neat and sister to Prince Thomas the Tidy. For any child who is hounded by the "clean your room" duties and parents who routinely make those demands, "Tumble Tower" will be a great story. After all, it isn't every day that parents also learn to leave their own room a little more cluttered.
Two titles that failed as children's books are THE NIGHTTIME CHAUFFEUR by vocalist and songwriter Carly Simon (illustrated by Margot Datz, Doubleday) and WHEN I WAS LITTLE: A FOUR-YEAR-OLD'S MEMOIR OF HER YOUTH by actress Jamie Lee Curtis, illustrated by Laura Cornell (Harper Collins).
The Simon text is as stilted and flat as the paper doll-like characters that are pasted to the one-dimensional art. When Jasper receives a rocking horse for his seventh birthday (he's only a head shorter than his parents) it becomes a magical horse on a nighttime adventure. He finds an old woman who has lost her note (C-sharp!) and Jasper, we suddenly learn, has an incredible voice that "danced in and among the new-born leaves on the trees and flew back again to the old woman's ears. She stopped her wailing as she became mesmerized by the song." "The Nighttime Chauffeur" is a story that Simon told to her own children as they grew up. It should have remained just that, a family story for retelling.
Jamie Lee Curtis says, "This book is a realization of my own childhood through my daughter." "When I Was Little" is meant to tell about the age of 4 because by then, according to the author, "kids already have lived a very long life." I've struggled to find the intended audience for this picture book. Certainly children do talk about when they were babies, but lines such as "when I was little, I didn't know what dreams were. When I was little, I didn't know who I was . . . Now I do!" is not the voice of a 4-year-old. The garish cluttered art is not child-like and detracts from what worth may have been in the story. "When I Was Little" may be a sentimental adult piece but overall it is not worth the time or money!