Friday, April 6, 2012

The Lifelong Influence of Good Children's Books


I was tidying up my office the other day and came across these:


I haven’t looked at any of these for a while but they still rank among my favourite books. They’ve always been part of my life. I remember going to the library many times as a child, signing them out or just sitting and reading my favourites. [My favourite is still The Tale of Two Bad Mice, but I also love The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies and The Tailor of Gloucester.] In high school, some of my friends and I even nicknamed one of our teachers "Puddleduck", after the character in The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck.

As an adult, I remember being thrilled to visit an exhibit about Beatrix Potter’s life and work, with her original sketches and paintings. My husband bought me the entire collection of the little books early in our marriage. And I “rediscovered” them again in reading them to my own daughters. On my bookshelves I have a biography as well as The Beatrix Potter Journal (a collection of letters, photographs, journal entries and art).

I think reading Beatrix Potter’s books and learning about her and her life planted the seed of my writing dream. Growing up, I was interested in drawing plants and tiny creatures from nature. And I made up stories about families of mice. The first novel I wrote was about tiny human-like people that live in a garden. It’s so interesting to see how the spirit and love of those tiny tales connects to so many different parts of my life and has influenced me as a writer.

-- Andrea
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6 comments:

  1. TerryLynnJohnsonApril 6, 2012 at 10:47 AM

    I have not read any of these books, I'm almost ashamed to admit! But I do remember vividly reading The Black Stallion over and over again. I loved animal stories.

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    1. Andrea MackApril 6, 2012 at 1:05 PM

      I loved the Black Stallion books! I checked them out of the library over and over again.

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  2. Kate FallApril 7, 2012 at 12:23 PM

    I love the Beatrix Potter books and read many of them to my children. It's amazing how she really studied nature and got all the plants right instead of calling them weeds. (I own a documentary of her on VHS tape somewhere.) And I'll never forget what soporific means! There are a couple of books that influenced me, too, as a young reader ... I'll have to post about this soon!

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    1. Andrea MackApril 20, 2012 at 6:16 AM

      Yeah, I loved how she wasn't afraid to use "big words", even in a children's book. When I was a teen, I got very interested in drawing plants and animals, in part from reading her books.

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  3. Christina FarleyApril 18, 2012 at 7:02 PM

    I love Beatrix Potter's books and I loved that new movie made about her. It was a fictionalized version of her life but it was so special. Made me realize I shouldn't give up on my dreams either.

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  4. Andrea MackApril 20, 2012 at 6:15 AM

    Christy, I haven't seen that movie - definitely going to have to check it out!

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