3 books to see the world like children
Practical Tips and Recommendations

Books that make children grow #55: Children's sensitive view of the world

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April 15, 2019
This article is part of the series:

Books that make children grow

3 books that allow you to read the world through the eyes of a child.

Have you ever stopped to think about how children see the world around them? By highlighting aspects and details of our daily lives that we don't even notice, their point of view often surprises us. Curious to discover the space around them, little ones are constantly asking questions about it.

Valuing this sensitive and often dreamy perspective is essential, because it allows us to understand a little more about what they think and feel, as well as helping us to appreciate the delicacies of life that, until then, we might have been leaving aside.

We have brought together three great works of children's literature that reveal children's sensitive and peculiar perspective on the world around them.

If I were a big giant

(Text and illustrations: Guridi,Translation: Marcia Leite /Pulo do Gato Publishing House)

In his first book written entirely by him, Spanish writer and illustrator Guridi enchants us with a captivating story told by a boy who, upon seeing a colony of ants walking, begins to think that, for the ants, he must be a great giant. So, he lets his imagination run wild and begins to dream about all the things he could do if he really were one: “If I were a great giant, I would play at changing the places of the clouds” and “If I were a great giant, I would tell the Moon many stories about the Earth” .

After imagining countless situations of things that only giants can do, such as not fitting into photographs, hugging the mountains so they don't feel lonely and becoming the conductor of an immense orchestra of birds, the boy realizes that being a great giant could also be a great challenge, as there would be no one at that height to keep him company and loneliness would prevail. He then comes to the conclusion that he likes being little, like children.

There are several possible interpretations. One is that there is a certain grandeur in being small. The illustrations, which appear to have been painted with ink and change colors as the great giant is portrayed at different moments, contribute to the feeling that everything is happening in a dream.

If you want to see a whale

(Text: Julie Fogliano,Illustrations: Erin E. Stead,Translation: Celina Portocarrero /Small Zahar Publishing House)

“If you want to see a whale, you’ll need a window and an ocean…”

This is how the North American author Julie Fogliano begins her narrative, inviting us to look again at the details of our daily lives through the perspective of a child.

In the story, the boy, alongside a dog and a bird, has several encounters along the way on the high seas, in the hope of seeing a whale – like when they smell the scent of delicate roses, when they see a pirate ship on the horizon gliding across the ocean or even when they play with the clouds floating, hanging in the sky.

Like any good picture book, Fogliano's poetic textual narrative, which dialogues with the illustrations by French artist Erin E. Stead, presupposes different perspectives on the story, sometimes with text and image complementing each other, sometimes opposing each other. We see this when, while searching for the whale, we receive countless recommendations not to get distracted by anything else. Meanwhile, the illustrations always show the boy with a watchful eye on the swaying roses, the ship's flag fluttering, or the radiant sun shining in the sky. The softness of the pastel tones lends an extra delicacy to the work, which has illustrations made using linoleum printing techniques.

The directors

(Text and illustrations: Paula Bossio,Translation: Marcia Leite,Pulo do Gato Publishing House)

Internationally recognized, writer and illustrator Paula Bossio talks a lot in her work about children's peculiar way of looking at the world around them, noticing what seems the same and at the same time different.

A girl, the narrator character, starts looking around her and finds countless oddities, shown in the book through very creative images: a man with a giant head waiting for the bus, a newspaper delivery man riding an upside-down bicycle, a dog taking its owner for a walk and even a man playing the flute with his eye.

However, people do not notice anything that is happening and continue thinking about their own lives. The girl, intrigued, comments to her mother about the strange things that surround them and her mother responds that there are many different people in the world.

This final reflection by the characters enables a rich dialogue with children about being plural while at the same time recognizing ourselves in each other – something that contributes to the development of a view of ourselves and others. After all, are we really that different?

To find out about these and other recommendations, look for the titles in a nearby library or, if you prefer, you can purchase the books using the links below:

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