Sunday, August 27, 2017

Can We Turn Children’s Classics Into Books For Adults?



A new book was just released about the pleasure adults experience when reading children’s books.  It’s entitled Wild Things:  The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult (Simon & Schuster).  I didn’t get a chance to see the book but its premise seems obvious, as there’s no doubt that parents and adults can feel a great amount of satisfaction and comfort in reading books intended for young minds.

Here are some reasons why adults enjoy children’s books:

1.      They are reminded of their own childhood and positive experiences in reading these same or similar books.

2.      The messages in these books are empowering, truthful, hopeful, and educational and serve to reinforce the lessons of life.

3.      They tend to simplify things and remove the complexities of adult thinking.  Sometimes we need to simplify or make life black and white so that we can navigate through tough times.

4.      These books are illustrated and give us another dimension.  We can’t just stare at screens of tweets, FB posts, or memes; instead, we wallpaper our eyes with colorful drawings of innocent yet familiar characters. 

5.      These stories recharge us and put us in a new frame of mind, providing a re-set button.

6.      If we’re reading with or to our children, we have the added benefit of seeing the world through their unbiased eyes.

7.      Children’s books also show us how much we’ve grown up and have forgotten.  These stories put us back in a frame of mind that sponges learning, values, curiosity, appreciates detail, and soothes with loving words. We feel innocence when reading children's books.

What are some of your favorite children’s books?  Do they stand the test of time?  The ones that stick out to me, hands down, are Curious George and Dr. Seuss.  Those two giants are what I enjoyed reading as a child and what I read to my children as a parent.

Those books express and represent what a children’s book should capture – adventure, curiosity, creativity, emotion and fun.  I wonder if there is a way to create an adult version of such books.  Now that could be a hot market – children’s books turned into adult fare.  I’m not talking about graphic novels or a non-illustrated book. I’m saying could we have adult Curious George or adult Dr. Seuss come alive to lead again the generations it raised as children?  

I would pre-order such books, faster than you can say:  “This is George. He’s a good little monkey and always very curious.”



The year 2017 marks another inflection point in the study of the human mind:  The next 50 to 100 years will bring the ability not just to quantify but also to alter fundamental aspects of identity.  Today we are at base camp in a rapidly accelerating climb to the augmented brain:  Intelligence will be more malleable, and so might the subjective experience of gender or even personality traits.  To reach this summit, scientists may use some combination of genetic editing and brain-computer interfaces.  These tools thrill and scare us in equal measure.  They are perhaps best construed as an egalitarian force in a world changing at warp speed.”
--Psychology Today



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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2017©. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now resides in Westchester. Named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs 

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