By Katherine Rundell (author)
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A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month August 2019
Award winning author Katherine Rundell is as passionate about reading children’s books as she is about writing them. In this brief but perfectly structured handbook she encourages all readers to think about the particular qualities of children’s books and about the special experience of reading as a child – which she remembers clearly.
Drawing on her deep knowledge of children’s stories and supporting her arguments with endorsing quotes from writers of all kinds she sets out her defence of the book’s title in brief sections. She is as much at home in the factual – ‘On how children’s fiction came to be’ and ‘On children’s fiction today’ as the more personal which reflect her own views including ‘On wild hunger and heroic optimism’ and ‘The galvanic kick of children’s books’.
“W.H. Auden, in an essay on Lewis Carroll: ‘There are good books which are only for adults, because their comprehension presupposes adult experiences, but there are no good books which are only for children.’ I am absolutely not suggesting adults read only, or even primarily, children’s fiction. Just that there are some times in life when it might be the only thing that will do.”
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In 2016, Katherine Rundell - Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and prize-winning author of five novels for children – found her understanding of the world she lived in upturned: by Brexit, Trump, a sweep across Europe towards nationalism and insularity, terrorist attacks. Literary fiction did not help her understanding, so instead she turned to old narratives, told for the benefit of children and adults and anyone who would listen.
In this delightful and persuasive essay for adult readers Katherine Rundell explores how children’s books ignite, and can re-ignite, the imagination; how children's fiction, with its unabashed emotion and playfulness, can awaken old hungers and create new perspectives on the world.
Praise for Katherine Rundell;
'Rundell's pen is gold-tipped' - Sunday Times
'Rundell is now unarguably in the first rank' - Philip Pullman
‘Katherine Rundell just gets better and better’ Jacqueline Wilson
‘Rundell is a class act’ The Times
‘One of our most talented writers for children’ Observer
‘Katherine Rundell cannot put a foot wrong’ Sunday Telegraph
‘She has already found a voice that is indisputably her own’ Daily Telegraph
Katherine Rundell is a multi-million-bestselling author whose novels for children have won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Costa Children’s Book Award, among many others. Impossible Creatures was Waterstones Book of the Year 2023, and in 2024 Katherine was named the British Book Awards Author of the Year and Impossible Creatures won the Children’s Fiction Book of the Year. She is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College and a Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, where she works on Renaissance literature. Her books for adults include Super-Infinite , winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize. Very occasionally she goes climbing across the rooftops of Oxford, late at night.
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“W.H. Auden, in an essay on Lewis Carroll: ‘There are good books which are only for adults, because their comprehension presupposes adult experiences, but there are no good books which are only for children.’ I am absolutely not suggesting adults read only, or even primarily, children’s fiction.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise and determined it is suitable for children aged 13-18 years old
Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise features in the following genres: Books for Teachers, Recommendations, Featured Books for 13+ readers, Julia Eccleshare's Picks of the Month, Featured Books for Young Adults
Hardback. £6.29, down from the £6.99 cover price. In Stock.
Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise was written by Katherine Rundell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise has 62 pages
£6.29, reduced from £6.99. In Stock.
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