Stuck at the ‘Kids Table’: Respecting Children’s Literature

I was listening to episode 120 of Your Kid’s Next Read with Allison Tait and Megan Daley recently, when something they spoke about caught my attention. They spoke about the way children’s literature is seen at awards ceremonies and festivals – and that often, they feel it is relegated to what Allison calls ‘the kid’s table at the wedding’. Allison spoke about the importance of children’s literature, and a blog post she wrote earlier this year about paying attention to ‘the kids table’ – children’s authors – if we want to improve literacy levels.

So what’s this all about?

This little rant on episode 120 about this was focused on Allison’s experience of being a children’s author at events and how she has seen it belittled and joked about – as though it is not as important as adult literature. Like Allison and Megan, I would argue it is more important, because it shapes us as readers. There are always books that we remember from our childhood – the ones that captured our imaginations so deeply that we fell in love with reading. And the ones that turned us into readers. For me, that was Narnia and The Secret Garden, Seven Little Australians, Emily Rodda’s Teen Power Inc novels, and so many more. But it feels like children’s books and literature are often relegated to ‘the kid’s table’. When it comes to writing and literary festivals, the first thing I look for is the children’s authors and their events, and often, they are relegated to school days or school visits, which Allison confirmed and Megan pointed out that the children’s programs are often the least funded, least recognised, and they also get the least space in the program. As someone who wants to write for children and has been trying to, these events on programs would be invaluable to me as a writer, reader, and reviewer. It is also why I use my blog to advocate for children’s books just as Megan does as a teacher librarian. I understand her exhaustion, and I am very grateful that my local independent bookstore has a children’s literature specialist who is also the president of my local CBCA sub-branch. Having people like Claire in the bookstore, and podcasts like Your Kid’s Next Read with Allison and Megan is crucial in my mind to promote children’s books, reading, and literacy, and this is why I agree with Allison about the place of children’s literature on festival programs.

Allison’s experience

She has been to so many events where children’s authors are sent to school but excluded from the main program. It does make sense for them to go to schools, but what about the kids whose schools don’t get the author visit or who go on a non-school day with their family to these festivals? Where do they get the connection to literature they crave? Earlier this year I volunteered at the Family Fun Day for a local writing festival – Words on the Waves.  Their Ripples School Program had an event for all schools at the local university campus, and has had events throughout the year as well, making children’s books accessible to as many children as possible. This was a great way to do it, as each event had author talks, book signings, and lots of fun things for the kids to do. It would be interesting to see festivals do something like this more or give children’s books and authors more space in the main program and at the main venues.

Creating Readers

You may be wondering why I’m going on about this and agreeing with the stance of Megan and Allison. Well, it goes back to the books that we all connected with as children. These books made us into the adult readers we are today, they gave us the joy and love of the written word. Children’s books create the readers and the writers of the future, but there is a worrying decline in literacy. Allison quoted a school visit she undertook, and said in year five, about three quarters of children are readers, but that goes down to half by year six and she said she’s lucky to find ten percent in year seven – she quoted a fantasy writing workshop she did where the kids were meant to have read the book and only ten percent of the year seven group were readers. Arguments can be made that kids have other things to entertain them these days and it is true, but there is something books can give us that other things might not. I have found that – because I don’t read on a screen – the joy of a paperback reminds me of where I started reading. And the books I have read as a child ensured my journey to finding great adult books. In turn, the podcast also mentioned that children’s literature builds readers so adult literature can sing too. In other words, we can’t have one without the other, because books and reading for children feeds into reading for adults.

Advocacy

Advocacy is a big part of many things, and when it comes to children’s books, the biggest advocates are children’s authors, readers, book reviewers, the Children’s Book Council of Australia, and the fabulous National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature – which I recently had the privilege to visit, and it made me want to go back to university to study Australian Children’s literature. These advocates are there to promote and share Australian children’s books and reading through reviews, the CBCA Book of the Year awards, and in general, share our love for children’s books. These advocacy avenues are all well and good, but as a reviewer, I think more needs to be done – more effort needs to be made and less mocking should be done – going back to Allison’s example about an event host using a childish voice to introduce the children’s books. Using our hearts and heads, we can find ways to promote children’s books and literature and celebrate it. Where you can, advocate for children’s books, celebrate them, share them, give them the love they need. It doesn’t matter how you read – audio, print, digital. The thing to remember is that children’s books are important and as I have said before, as Allison and Megan said, they create the readers of the future. Read blogs, read the books, and take an interest!

Conclusion

A few things Allison said really stuck with me – that the publishing industry needs to get together to advocate for reading and well-resourced school libraries, and that it would be better if awards ceremonies respected all forms of literature – even if it focuses on adult fiction, those books may not be there if the authors had not discovered the joy of books as a child – in whichever form works for them. It is the child and young adult readers who attend literary events aimed at them that will in turn go to literary festivals for adults, and I think this is a crucial reason why children’s authors should get more space on the main programs. It will help child readers, children’s authors, and advocates for children’s literature to get together and promote these wonderful books and reading. Because children’s literature creates adult readers, according to Megan, and all of this creates the readers of the future.