Last week, the Times-Age posed a question loaded with nostalgia and sentiment to its Facebook followers.
What was your favourite storybook as a child, and why?
Scrolling down the long list of replies, I wasn’t surprised to see many familiar titles and references to my own childhood picks.
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is one of my first memories of a deep, mysterious world which lured me into the wardrobe along with the Pevensie children.
There were also multiple mentions of Enid Blyton, whom I and many others can probably thank for a love for words and gripping plots of boarding schools, mysteries and one very enormous magical tree.
It’s comforting to think about what shared experiences helped shape us growing up, such as the books and characters we all seem to have loved at some point.
But it’s not just in childhood that these books can spark joy, or teach lessons, as said much more eloquently by CS Lewis.
“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”
It’s true that the best children’s books also have messages which ring true in adult life, like the following observation from the “Famous Five” iconic tomboy, George.
“I don’t know why, but the meals we have on picnics always taste so much nicer than the ones we have indoors.”
It’s quite right; food always tastes slightly sweeter when outside and in good company.
But Lewis is probably referring to deeper life lessons, like the eternal wisdom delivered by the classic picture book “The Rainbow Fish”, where the shiny protagonist finds happiness in sharing with others.
“The Rainbow Fish shared his scales left and right. And the more he gave away, the more delighted he became.
“When the water around him filled with glimmering scales, he at last felt at home among the other fish.”
The power of books and fictional universes knows no bounds, and Wairarapa has a special connection to the creators behind these worlds.
A recent example is the playground named after children’s author Joy Cowley.
In an interview with the Times-Age, Cowley was saluted as a “living taonga” by the South Wairarapa District Council and there was overwhelming public support in favour of naming the playground after her.
I’m sure we all have our own favourite Cowley passages from our youth.
It has to be “Nicketty-nacketty noo-noo-noo” for me. It’s one I can remember my grandmother reading to me with perfect delivery of the poetic rhetoric.
It’s also a story I had the pleasure of reading to a family friend’s daughter recently, in one of those sentimental yet slightly jarring full-circle moments.
This is, of course, just one example of how these tales link generations together.
In more recent times, it’s revitalising to see a wider range of backgrounds, content and cultures being covered in children’s and young adult literature.
Books, both classics and new have the power to educate from a young age, as noted by another iconic creator-of-worlds Dr Seuss.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
