Mama, tell a story

There are still spaces available for our Writing for Charity event.

So much of my life is reading to little ones, so forgive me if I keep ruminating about it. It's been fascinating to have two kids in two different stages of storytelling at the same time. Maggie (18 months) likes simple pictures, bright colors, photographs of animals and things familiar. She's learning about all the things that make up her world, and the known is still exciting to her, so this make sense. She likes to identify animals, see babies do things like eat and walk and sleep, and see everyday objects like spoons and balloons and chairs and hats. She needs no narrative structure.

Max on the other had at age 4 is all about stories. He wants stories about everything--what we're doing now, what we might be doing later. He is on the cusp of toddlerhood and kidhood, still interested in Maggie's baby books but also reaching forward to the more complex ideas and things outside his ken. He likes a story about what if a monster ate our entire house just as much as what if we called Grandma and she wasn't there and we had to leave a message. Both stories are thrilling to him and help him process the unexpected. I find it interesting that he needs stories so much. We read lots of books, but he also likes to hear made up stories and make up his own, especially if he's upset about something. If things don't go his way and he just can't get over it, the best cure is to tell a story where things do go his way, where he is the hero and he makes things right. A good story is better tonic than a lollipop or even a hug. Stories help him structure and understand the world, and feel in control. Just as much as Maggie is learning about the world by seeing and naming objects, Max is learning by hearing and creating stories.

I think Maggie is learning objects and people, the players, if you will, of the stories of her life. Max is on the threshold of a lifetime of good stories, something I don't think he or anyone will outgrow. Life is cataloged by story. Narrative is essential. Everything and everyone are characters. And every event has a beginning, middle, and end.

This all reminds me of this wonderful quote about the purpose of fantasy and fairy tales:

"We all like astonishing tales because they touch the nerve of the ancient instinct of astonishment. This is proved by the fact that when we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: we only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough. A child of seven is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door and saw a dragon. But a child of three is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door. Boys like romantic tales; but babies like realistic tales – because they find them romantic. In fact, a baby is about the only person, I should think, to whom a modern realistic novel could be read without boring him.

"This proves that even nursery tales only echo an almost pre-natal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water."
"The Ethics of Elfland," Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton

[I mourned my camera at ALA last week, but always lovely Linda Sue Park has some photos of our Readers Theater on her blog.]

Comments

[Heather]

That quote is one of the most clear, concise examples I have ever heard about stories. It struck a nerve deep inside me reading it. When he said tales make apples of gold just so that we can remember they were green, I suddenly realized how true it was. I think I better understand why I am in love with fairy tales and fantasy all over again. And hearing about Maggie and Max made it even clearer for me. I cannot wait for the day when I can read books just like you are able to.

[Liesolotte]

What a lovely post. And I don't just mean the quote. I think that, as young children, when our inner critic is dormant, we are all the more able to appreciate the power of story. Just story sans grammatical maneuvering. After all, that's what all fantasy writers strive for, I assume: getting their story to shine out without any distractions. The Grimms did pretty well.

[Mrs. Mordecai]

Thank you for your beautiful thoughts. I've always loved fairy tales and have never "grown out" of them, even as an adult. Thanks for validating me!

[Dr. Sallie N. Cheinsteen]

I think that is why stories exist. Because we, who have grown and lived a life become bored... bored with the every day average aspect of our life - it used to be an adventure when we were little. So we need the fairy tales and fantasy to remember the adventure so that we can live a life that is worth while. So we can feel heroic, feel lonely and sad and ecstatic and enthralled. So we can feel. So we can remember. Simply because we should and can. And so we read. To remember to live our life. To live in the world, and yet not be in it because we believe in something others don't have time for. Imagination. I loved this blog. :)

[Heather]

Dr. Sallie N. Cheinsteen your comment was beautiful.

[Maribeth Kayla]

This was very interesting and the quote is lovely! :)

[Celes]

Fabulous quote and post! I can't better say what other commenters have, but I quite agree.

Also, I -should- be at Writing for Charity! I'm excited. :)

[Calliope1of9]

Oh yeah, your camera was never recovered from the King's English, right? Darn them.
Maybe it'll turn up at the Rapunzel party.

[Q]

So few people know how much we need stories, and I think that many have deluded themselves into thinking they don't.

[Chelsea]

I think we all need stories, but not all of us know that we do. Stories help us with real life problems. One of my favorite quotes is;
"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us the dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." F. K. Chesterton

I can't wait for the charity event!

[Liesolotte]

I just had another thought, this time on reading aloud. I am currently reading my younger brother the 4th Harry Potter book. My parents read all of the books aloud to me, and although I've read them to myself thousands of times (almost quite literally) I always feel that the magic of them is only truly captured by the voice. Writing is beautiful, but there are some works- often children's books- that are meant to be read aloud.

[Frogster]

So interesting! Maybe Max will grow up to be an amazing author just like his mother!

Chelsea, I love that quote from F. K. Chesterton.

[Enna Isilee]

That's really great. And Max most definitely seems to be working his way up to author-hood.

[Shayla Smoot]

Your kids are so smart!!!

[Fantasy]

I really like this post. It was sweet and real, which is cool. The fact that once upon a time life was new to everyone and everyone was satisfied by it alone. That's just so sweet.

[Miss Erin]

That was a truly lovely post.

[cuileann]

I love hearing about these kinds of things, and I like that quote more each time I read it.

[NerdyEm]

Have I got the book for Maggie!? Monster, Monster by Melanie Walsh. Have you read this one?

All three of my kidlets could not put this book down for their first two years of life. Infact, Micah turns two this month and I think she'll still prefer it over any other book until she's three. "This one!" She'll say (over and over again) with a twinkle in her eye as she shoves it into my face.

Not to rave like a mad woman over a picture book, but I bought 10 copies from Alibris.com to give as baby shower gifts a few years ago, because I could not think of anything I'd want more as a new mom, than that stunningly spartan and graphically beautiful book. Plus, then when our copy is utterly dilapidated, I can just pull out the replacement...

The best part of the story, is the climactic anticipation of the second-to-the-last page when the text runs "What's that crunching sound?" (There's an actual bite taken out of the corner of the cardstock.) Then, upon turning the page, the text says "It's me, I'm the monster, and I'm hungry!" And then the book just happens to open and shut wildly as it nibbles on toes and curled-up knees on the sofa, with squeals and peels of giggles and shrieks. I love it.

Isn't the motherhood of a bibliophile delicious? And have you seen Ned's Rainbow, also by Melanie Walsh? When I see these simple, graphically-designed stories, I want to BE Melanie Walsh. Both Maggie and Max would adore this book with it's quotidian scenes, and enjoyable storyline! For a while there, when Rees was two, we were checking this book out of the library every 2 months, and then renewing it for the 3 time 3-week limit per library patron. The striped pajamas in this one especially get me.

Shannon, I really jived with this entry of yours. I've been thinking a lot about childhood as of late, and what I want for my children in their green sprout years. What do I want them to remember doing everyday?

When you quoted "Mere life is interesting enough" it made me think about how children are so supremely content with examining a dead june bug, or a slickery wriggling earthworm.

They don't need the contrived Xboxwhatsits and virtual entertainments that bombard them from every corner, they just need a few hours every day to poke about in their own vegetable patch or flower garden--to examine, touch, smell, and taste the real life about them. To feel a splinter in the foot for the first time on a summer's day, to shout out in surprise as a grasshopper lightly springs about inside two samll clasped hands, and to make a pot of Hot Wheels soup in a sand pail at a couch cushion stove in a self-made cusion fort in the family room.

The redolence of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine comes to mind. Warm summer days of freedom and firsts. And sometimes lasts. Life is so good.

What about that old Norman Rockwellesque classic by Doris Burn entitled Andrew Henry's Meadow? It came out in my older brothers' time (the 60's) and I always think of it as the quintessence of sunny childhood days and books. Are you lucky enough to know it? It has just been put in print again. Hurrah for the genius who made that happen!

And I better be acting like an adult about now, and go tuck myself in before the 6:30 routine rolls around all too soon.

Staying up 'til 1:30 was worth it though, if just to read "These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green." Thanks.

[Ellenboro]

I loved that quote. Thank you so much for posting it here. It is so true, what it says.

Maxie and Maggie sound like they're having a good time growing up and discovering. I think Maxie seems to have a great imagination. Hopefully Maggie is the same way. You seem to be dong a great job with those two angels. They're so cute!

[cloudscome]

Great post. I am also fascinated with how my young children learn story and employ it in their lives. I just finished reading Book of A Thousand Days and I loved it. Thank you!! I linked you today in my review.

[Marcy]

Yay, G. K. Chesterton!

It's also one of the things I like about traveling -- after I came back from my first trip outside the U.S., I got several glimpses of common everyday things which looked remarkably like the beautiful and exotic from my trip.