3 Reasons To Read A Children’s Book This Fall (And 13 Books To Get You Started)
Photo by Yaroslav Shuraev
The children’s section of my local library is a wondrous nook of a place, a special place to me. No, it doesn’t have wood paneling or intricate rugs that tell stories or floor-length windows or a fireplace (though I wouldn’t object if it did). It’s a standard children’s section of a standard American public library, with a stiff flat carpet that I can’t remember the color of because it’s probably grey or navy, with neutral walls, and fluorescent lighting.
But it is wondrous and special to me because of the many memories I’ve made there that have endowed it with a certain familiarity that has made a town where I didn’t grow up feel more like home. There have been magical times of quiet joy when my children and I have discovered some of our favorite stories together.
We’ve developed traditions like using “library voices,” my son’s charming insistence on always listening to a minute or two of an audiobook so he can inspect the ancient device called a boom box, and helping by returning our books to the big blue bin or handing my library card to the librarian.
There have also been a couple of near meltdowns in the library (one of which nearly made me cry) and one unleashed temper tantrum from a certain two-year-old progeny of mine who shall not be named. There was even an extremely windy December day when one of our car doors hit me in the head and caused a gash as we were getting ready to go inside.
All of our library experiences have been very “real life.” But they have also been imbued with a certain sense of wonder, certainly because of the relationships between myself and my children and the friends that we have met or seen there, but also because of the stories surrounding us and loading down our library bag with their precious weight, like gifts waiting to be unwrapped so they can alter our lives for the better, in small but significant ways.
And then there was the time when I took myself on a date there last fall.
In the fall, the tree-clad mountains surrounding the valley where I live take on robes of scarlet and burnished orange. It might sound silly that I chose to take myself on a date to the children’s section of my local library, but it was one of the most restful and refreshing hours I’ve spent. I was close to giving birth to my third child, and I wanted to gather as many beautiful books as I could to read to my older two children, or for them to pore over on their own, in the weeks following the baby’s birth.
I do love to let my children follow their whims to whatever books catch their eye on occasion (with supervision). We’ve found some of our very favorites that way! (Have you read McToad Mows Tiny Island by Tom Angleberger and illustrated by John Hendrix? If not, you really should). But on this occasion, I yearned to choose the books myself, to put books in front of them that I knew were filled with goodness, truth, and beauty.
I spent a very peaceful, almost magic hour there, drifting through the books in total silence, and walked away with a plethora of picture books—some playful (Owl Babies by Martin Waddell, illustrated by Patrick Benson and Ludwig Bemelmans’s Madeline, for example), and some melancholy and intricate (Margaret Hodges’s retelling of Saint George and the Dragon, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman and the Fan Brothers’ The Night Gardener).
I have (and I hope my children have) many sweet memories from delighting in these stories together during that season of change in our lives.
As we begin this new fall season, I’ve been pondering three beautiful gifts that I think children’s literature has to offer us.
01 | Children’s stories can inspire us to live our everyday lives with a sense of wonder.
What better time than fall, the season of crimson and golden leaves, to invite a sense of wonder into our everyday lives? I have always loved stories about animals that talk, and since I was little I have found my own life enriched by such tales of hospitable and courageous forest creatures with a sense of wonder as I navigate everyday life.
In his autobiographical work, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis credits reading Beatrix Potter’s tale, Squirrel Nutkin, as one of the most positively formative experiences he had as a boy:
“The second glimpse came through Squirrel Nutkin; through it only, though I loved all the Beatrix Potter books. But the rest of them were merely entertaining; it administered the shock, it was a trouble. It troubled me with what I can only describe as the Idea of Autumn. It sounds fantastic to say that one can be enamored of a season, but that is something like what happened; and, as before, the experience was one of intense desire. … And in this experience also there was the same surprise and the same sense of incalculable importance. It was something quite different from ordinary life and even from ordinary pleasure; something, as they would now say, “in another dimension.”
Another children’s literature recommendation for inspiring a sense of wonder is The Brambly Hedge series, by Jill Barklem. You could study the illustrations of this gorgeous series about a loving community of woodland mice for hours, and return to your own life looking for ways to care for others and unveil the beauty in the everyday.
02 | Children’s stories can help us grow in empathy.
Fall is the perfect time for hosting and attending gatherings of friends and family. We might be traveling to visit family for Thanksgiving, or perhaps hosting neighbors in our home for the holiday. Maybe we will be encountering more strangers than usual at our local coffee shop as seasonal beverages boasting autumnal spices draw in the crowds. Perhaps we will be volunteering more at our local homeless shelters or soup kitchens as the winds turn cold.
The warm haze of summer is retreating and we are greeted with a fresh perspective on the people around us. With a children’s book on our bedside table and running in our imagination, we might find ourselves better equipped to listen more closely to the needs and desires of others so that we can serve and love them well.
In The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald, Princess Irene encounters strangers who become the dearest of friends (a very old lady and a boy named Curdie) and learns:
“We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary… To understand other people.”
The Princess and the Goblin is one of my favorite novels and beautifully encourages its readers to grow not just in empathy but in other virtues like courage and joy, as well.
Other children’s literature picks for growing in empathy:
A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. If you haven’t read these stories before, you may be surprised to find how much depth, wit, and insight they have to offer. (The audiobook version starring Stephen Fry and Judi Dench is wonderful!)
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Some of my favorite aspects of this book are the character arcs of Colin and his father, and the way they mirror the growth of the garden, showing us that no one is beyond redemption.
03 | Children’s stories can grow our understanding of and appreciation for truth.
There is something about the paradox of fall, the intense colors that actually signal the leaves’ death, that grounds us in the realities of life. A children’s novel that does the same could be the perfect companion to your leaf-clad, coffee-in-hand fall musings, offering both comfort and truth.
All of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis are the perfect stories for encouraging us in our pursuit of seeing our world, ourselves, others, and God more clearly. My personal favorite is The Silver Chair, in part because I feel a certain kinship with the insecure and forgetful Jill, but do read them all. (And—please—listen to the album, by Sarah Sparks).
Other reading recommendations for growing in our understanding of and appreciation for truth:
Fairytales. In the introduction to his book The Light Princess and Other Fairytales, George MacDonald says of the fairytale: “The beauty may be plainer in it than the truth, but without the truth the beauty in it could not be, and the fairytale would give no delight.”
An Essay by Walter Wangerin Jr.: “Hans Christian Andersen: Shaping the Child’s Universe”
In short…
No matter where you find yourself in life, I believe a children’s book (or three…) would be an invaluable companion to you this fall season. May the stories you read inspire, encourage, and grow you and enrich your life with wonder, meaningful connection, and truth.
Books mentioned in this article:
