Last night, while putting my soon-to-be 6 year old to bed I read her a story. The book was called Owl moon and its about this father and daughter team who go owling into the woods in the cold snowy nights. The book was beautiful with apt illustration, the pictures take you right into the chilly cold night. And the story was so simple yet magical. These kind of books normally have very short stories that hold on the attention of young children – simple words, easy and relevant themes, straight-out-of-a-dream illustrations; I love them! It gives the children something for their imagination, they get transported into the magical world in the story right away. Day before, we read the children’s version of ‘The selfish giant’ by Oskar Wilde. What a beautiful story that was. (There used to be this big giant who comes home after visiting some relatives to find many children in his garden and the garden is in its full spring splendour. He gets angry and chases the children away and puts up a sign ‘No trespassers allowed’. And right after that day spring deserts him its winter in his garden. No flowers, no birds, no noise and no children. One day he sees from his window that there is a sign of spring in one corner of the garden. He goes there to find out that some kids have managed to creep in to the garden through a hole in the wall. He helps a young boy down a tree and then realises the relationship of spring and children. After that he opens his gates for the children bringing in spring alongwith. He keeps looking for this little boy whom he had helped but he is nowhere to be seen from that day. He grows old with time and suddenly one day he sees the little boy and he tells him he has always seen him helping the children in his garden and has now come here to take him into his own garden called Paradise. The giant is old and slow but smiles at his little friend and falls asleep. The next day the children come to his garden to find him in deep sleep with a smile on his face.) I had read this story when I was a kid but reading this to my own child was a completely different experience. She would be asking n+1 questions (do you think the giant will wake up, the children will miss him or not, what is a paradise and so on.. I don’t have all the answers all the time but I try for sure. It makes me think about/analyse the story rather than just read it for self. And thus I kept on thinking long past my kid was fast asleep, not for the first time, how amazing, how magical is the world of books, especially for children.
As a very strong contrast, today she was invited to one of the birthday parties of one of her friends. It’s supposed to be a princess party, she’s supposed to wear one of those garish pink made-in-china princess gowns complete with an equally garish crown and a sceptre of some sort. If its an invitation from a boy, it would either be a star war party or Ben 10 Alien force parties. I never manage to find an answer as to in what way these ideas really add to children’s lives. If its for a girl, its these pink and lilac short skirted figure hugging clothed barbies or the Disney princesses who look simply dumb in those flowery gowns. Disney gave us the unbeatable Tom and jerry and Mickey and Donald kind of cartoons, so I really will think twice before pointing a finger at their experience in children's entertainment, but honestly the merchandisation of all these fairy tales characters sometimes drive me up the wall.
The trouble is its getting worse by the day. There is this new set of girls toys called ‘BRATZ’ - blingy, voluptuous, vain and simply improper – just consider the name – BRATZ??? On the kids channel there will be 100s of ads about beads, make up kits, lip glosses etc etc. Where do these things lead the thought process of a child? Does it make them think anything except vanity and appearances and the like? I know I am putting my biased adult ideas into simple growing up of young children, but am sure am not the only one. And if you think its any better for boys, think again. Aliens, monsters, power rangers, transformers. Violent, mean, complicated, ugly. My sister tells me after a session of afternoon cartoon of her 3 year old son and his friends the whole group gets definitely, visibly more violent. They shout more, fight more and try to break stuff with a visibly stronger vehemence. Where is the logic in all these? We all know the facts but call it peer pressure, we are not completely out of the system just condemning it. We try making a balance – my daughter does not have that garish princess gown, but it IS pink and frilly. May be its just the social programming.
In any case, amongst of all these chaos, I will definitely keep reading stories to her, keep opening doors to the magical world of books and stories, stories that'll make her dream, stories of moon jumping, fishing in the air, owling, stories about the songs of sea and sailors..
