Here are three children’s books that all adults should read

The illustrated book is truly a curious object. Little text, sometimes not even a word, and many images contained between 32 and 48 pages, usually. In a bookshop or a library you can leaf through it in a heartbeat and you can delude yourself that you have grasped the story it contains, appreciated the illustrations and then inserted it into your mental catalogue, as a book for young, novice readers.

Sometimes things are actually like this, but not always. In fact, there are comic books, illustrated books, which contain stories and figures, which speak a simple language, but are also capable of saying very complex things. Books that are often subtle, but of great depth. Books capable of raising questions that concern not only childhood, but all of humanity. Books whose core meaning interests and touches, even with different perspectives, both the sensitivity of children and adults. In short, books which, from the first spark of conception, were not designed and written to speak to anyone in particular, but which have the ambition and merit to appeal to anyone who wants to read them.

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Here is the seminar Make a good impression! he would like to deal with this, that is, to propose to those who work with boys and girls, a selection of around twenty illustrated book titles, some of which are actual books, which can become an ideal place for independent reflection or for meeting, comparison and discussion among peers, including teachers. Therefore, a thousand miles away from the disastrous idea of ​​finding books that give answers and solutions to this or that theme, we would like to discuss books that, in the intent of those who conceived them, in the power of their narrative, textual and visual, manage to touch deep down, big and small.

This seminar aims to change, at least a little, the view on children’s books and is one of the juicy fruits born from a common purpose with the Farollo and Falpalà bookshop, which organizes the “La città dei bambini” festival readers”, a project by the CR Firenze Foundation and the Wimbledon APS Association with the artistic direction of Gabriele Ametrano.

Provocatively, I cite three books which, in this sense, are emblematic. In order of appearance, the first is A carrot seedOf Ruth Krauss e Crockett Johnson, published in 1945: a hundred words on 26 pages, a handful of colours, four characters and a carrot. Well this book which is the quintessence of simplicity, in the USA, at the time was defined by the NYT as a “parable that will conquer adults and children”, and was given as a gift by the head of an important engineering company to all its managers so that they would give it to their employees and the Church chose it as recommended reading. Today, as then, it should be read every morning to start the day off right.

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The second is In search of the lost piece Of Shel Silverstein, published in 1976: a single black pencil mark which, on the white of the page, draws the world that passes through an ‘imperfect’ round. Time passes and he always has different encounters, sometimes magnificent, sometimes melancholy. The text ends in a line or a word under each drawing and tells, laughing and singing, about human relationships. Read it to think about who we are, what we are looking for and who we would like to be.

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The third is The bear that wasn’t there Of Oren Lavie and Wolf Erlbruch (2014). The story of a bear, always smiling, who was born not from a she-bear, but from an itch and who, rummaging in his pocket, finds a note on which a strange question is written, Are you me? and three indications: 1) I am a very kind bear, 2) I am a happy bear and 3) also very handsome. Given the three indications, I would say that, even if they are not bears, everyone would subscribe to what he hopes for: I really hope to be myself! A small philosophy book, illustrated by one of the greatest authors ever!

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My long militancy in the field, always in search of good stories, makes me say with some certainty that, in a shared reading of these three books with young and old people, it is truly impossible not to make a good impression! Anyone who wants to know the other titles must be present at the seminar on 13 April at Villa Bardini with “The city of small readers”.