Why adults
are (and should be) reading MG
‘No book is worth reading at the age of ten which is
not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty.’ CS Lewis
Some
books are labelled for children. Some adults read them. When a lot of adults
read them they are called crossover. His Dark Materials and The Lie Tree are
award-winning crossover novels. The crossover label gives adults permission to
indulge; but look, there's a crowd of big people swarming the genre wall without a permit. Many adults are out there avidly reading, blogging and reviewing children’s books. While some
do it for career reasons and to screen books for their own children, many do it
for their own reading pleasure.
Great Middle Grade Reads is a Goodreads group with over 2000 members, of which a
large majority are adults. I asked them why they chose to read children’s
books.
Two words: HYGGE and PLAY
Hygge: the
Danish art of cosiness, has been trending since mid 2016.
Children’s
books are hygge.
Story is hygge. Story simplifies and orders the random and chaotic in a way that is satisfying and reassuring.
When
Hillary lost the US election her impulse was to retreat with a good book. What
better way to escape the flux without? What more comforting book than a
childhood favourite? What else can return us so accurately, literally word for
word, to childhood? The pleasures of nostalgia and rediscovery combine in the dual
viewpoint of now and then.
'Some of my favourite stories are the ones that helped get me through those (middle grade) years, to make me laugh, to clarify my own wonky emotions and feelings by way of characters. MG will always have a special place in my heart.'
As well as old favourites, adults are seeking out fresh reads which give access to the mental landscape of childhood.
'I like to shut the door on the current
day, and throw myself into a fun or magical adventure (with a)
happily-ever-after ending.’
With
children’s books readers feel safe from ‘excessive
gore, violence, bad language and sexuality’. Irritation is expressed with adult
books where authors use the f-word to
‘show how cool they are’. The values promoted in children's books are equally hygge: ‘loyalty, friendship, courage, perseverance
and goodness.’
'As many MG books have a happy ending they are nice to read when you are feeling stressed or need a bit of escapism from the real world.'
YA
books do not share this comforting function since they are ‘darker and grittier and adolescence is
angsty and emotionally tumultuous’.
Play
‘A physical or mental leisure activity that is
undertaken purely for enjoyment or amusement and has no other objective.’
Like
hygge, play is having a moment. Adult colouring books are best sellers. The
Duchess of Cambridge is said to be a fan. The TV programme, The Grand Tour, is three
blokes living out play fantasies on wheels. Trampolining, soft play, tree
climbing, board games, collage nights, crafts, obstacle races, are all growth
areas for adults with a strong element of play. They combine freedom with
creativity, absorption with a carefree mindset. Play is refreshing, experimental,
surprising and anarchic. It’s also good for you. Play is an antidote and a release, a necessary balance to
constraint.
A
more receptive corollary to this active play is playful books. If there’s no
zipwire handy we can always pick up Peter Pan and scramble in some rigging.
It
was agreed that adult books can take themselves too seriously. MG was seen as ‘pure fun; it’s about the thrill of the ride, entertainment and
enjoyment.’
'Being an adult is stressful sometimes and can be rather dull. Reading MG allows me to rediscover my inner 11 year old.'
One
reader likes to give her reading self a break from books that can be a ‘chore and a thought challenge,’ ones that ‘drown in waves of analysis, description
and interpretation.’ Another finds the experience of reading children's books liberating, since she can read without the
feeling that someone is ‘looking over my
shoulder placing too many literary or social expectations on my experience.’
A key element of play is the exercise of imagination. Crossover readers felt the lack of imaginative
latitude in modern life and sought it through children’s books.
CS
Lewis makes the point that juvenile tastes for the adventurous and marvellous
used to be everyone’s tastes. Mythology, folklore and fairy tales were not
originally written for children. They simply fell out of fashion for adults in
favour of social and psychological ideas. He argues that the early wonder tales
‘tap into the wonder a child has about the world.’ In less rational ages this
wonder did not subside at adolescence. It was preserved into adulthood. Myths once
provided the back story for the way things are rather than evidential
chronicles and science. A good myth gives imagination ‘room to walk around.’ The
mythic structure of many children’s books reinstates that liberty.
‘I wanted to read something without boundaries.
Children have fewer boundaries and so do children’s books.’
Children’s
books ‘explore important issues in
imaginative ways.’
'Good children's authors tap into the wonder a child has about the world, and are in touch with the natural child in themselves.'
~ ~ ~
The remaining comments focused on style.
Adults
are reading children’s books for the overall quality of the writing as well as
for specific elements of style.
Children’s
fiction does not demote story to a vehicle for messages and flourish. Narrative
is foregrounded and celebrated as a pleasure in itself. Lewis was particularly
enamoured of the fairy tale, its ‘brevity, restraints on description, flexible
traditionalism, inflexible hostility to all analysis, digression, reflections
and ‘gas’.’
Good
kid’s lit is ‘a lesson on how great
writing appears to be easy to do, when in reality it takes great skill'.
‘When it takes an entire page to describe a room I get
bored.’ MG tends to stick to ‘precise essentials. What is needed to hold
a child’s attention works for adults too.’
The
concision of a restricted word count was welcomed by some readers. When time is
lacking children’s books can deliver ‘a
really good story in a shorter number of pages'.
'MG books tend not to preach. Being preached at makes me want to stick my fingers in my ears and sing 'la la la'.'
'I love that MG is constructed so perfectly as to create an amazing story in so few pages, and it can still impact life.'
On
vocabulary there is an enjoyment of simplicity for its own sake and also from the point of view of relaxation: ‘I don’t need to
concentrate so much when I’m tired'. Conversely there was praise for the
rich vocabulary of MG classics, ‘so much
richer than much that is about today'.
~ ~ ~
There are ample reasons why adults are choosing to read books currently classed as MG. Children’s books satisfy universal desires for security, pleasure, play and wonder. It's also refreshing to find deeper themes dressed in simpler clothes. Added to this are the scope of ideas, the range of subjects and the quality of writing.
So
light a fire, grab a blanket and a bun (I prefer Jo March’s bag of apples), and
settle down with a warming read.
