Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 10: The GuideSylvester, Charles Herbert
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Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 10: The Guide
Sylvester, Charles Herbert
Children's literature; Literature -- Collections
The world of literature is filled with poems and stories which emphasize
abstract truths, teach needed lessons or give universal principles of
beauty. Many of these have been the subject and the inspiration of
pictures. And, in the re-telling of the poem or story with brush or pen,
the artists have added a something of their own individuality and
character which serves not only to emphasize and perpetuate themselves
through their pictured translation of these noble thoughts, but also
makes the principles inculcated by the author become a part of the
child's moral creed.
All have long realized the value of pictures in connection with stories
involving scientific knowledge, but the co-operation of the artist with
the author in presenting literature to children is of equal importance.
The picture arrests the interest of the child and wins his love for
books long before he can read; it arouses his desire to master the
meaning of the printed forms, that he may discover the story for
himself; it gives him facts regarding unfamiliar things without which
knowledge the printed symbol means little; it leads him to the discovery
of unseen beauties in his environment; it develops his imagination; it
arouses his creative faculties; it aids him to grasp the deepest,
highest meaning of the world's literature; it opens up the undreamed
beauties of the vast world of art; it interprets abstract thoughts until
they become a part of his character, and CHARACTER is the true end of
all READING and of all EDUCATION.
_III. On the Use of the Pictures in "Journeys"_
Children love pictures, and they love to make them. We of riper years
are inclined to forget how very strong was our pictorial instinct when
we were young. A little girl may make on a sheet of paper a few
irregular lines not very well connected, wholly meaningless to us, and
see in them very plainly every lineament of her favorite doll. She sees
no lines, no paper, only her own precious doll. A little later she will
draw pictures to illustrate a story, and while we may see nothing in her
work, she sees enough to make the story more real, and is in this way
preparing herself to read more intelligently and with greater
appreciation as she grows older. We should not laugh at these crude
drawings, nor try to make them better. They express her ideas in her
way, and that is enough. On the other hand, we should encourage her to
try other pictures for other stories till she learns herself to distrust
her drawings, or finds a way to express herself so that others may
understand what she thinks and feels.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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