Story Time Sentiments

Narrative is the method by which people have communicated for millennia. It is how tradition is passed on from generation to generation; it is the way culture has developed in our societies.

I was thinking today about the books we have read together as a family and how these stories have become part of our family culture and traditions. I for one can definitely see this influence, as the stories I have read to the children and have spilled over the pages into our communications and traditions over the years.

One example is the story of Little Nut Brown Hare in ‘Guess How Much I love you this much’ by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram. It tells of a little rabbit who keeps asking his dad how much he loves him. It’s at the end of the book when the father tells Little Nut Brown Hare that ‘he loves him all the way to the moon and back’; that has had a lasting effect on my eldest daughter. I have read it many times over time and we still use it as a form of affection years later. She was the first one to have that book read to her over and over again and she has listened to me reading it to her siblings too. She knows what I mean when I say ‘I love her all the way to the moon and back.’ The words from this book have been adopted into our expressions towards each other with fondness. These words have become apart of our family traditions.

There are books that we have read where the phrases have transferred themselves into our child’s vocabulary. Charlie and Lola by Laura Child has heavily influenced my two youngest to the point that one of them talks in the same way that Lola does. ‘I absolutely will not not ever eat that…I am not slightly sleepy’.

Stories like Harry Potter have heavily influenced my children. Whenever we hold a stick in our hands one of us will say ‘Expelliarmus’ We then make wands out of sticks and play wizards and I will try and cast spells on the children to clean up their bedrooms ‘Tidyup-ius’

As we pass each other on the stairs you will often hear the words ‘You shall not pass’ uttered from Gandalf the Grey as he battles with the fiery demon in the Fellowship Of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien.  I just want to say at this point that I am really grateful for those film producers who turn classic tales into movies because the people like me who have trouble reading would never have known the story through reading alone. Saying that I have read a quote that said ‘Don’t judge a book by its movie’…nevertheless, I’m still grateful.

The Twits by Roald Dahl is a book that has made our family giggle for years. The amount of times I have informed the kids that they have ‘the shrinks’ when they are ill is unreal.

I have long believed that parents greatly influence what their children read, after all they are the ones who buy the books. As children grow they make their own choice about what they read. As a parent, I’m personally always drawn to the illustrations, but if the story isn’t as good then I just cant buy it.

I know there are many versions of the Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde but Lisbeth Zwerge illustrated the one that I bought. It is a beautifully illustrated book that made me cry as I read it to the children. The story is so beautiful and the kids could see how I felt about the words I was reading. The illustrations really helped in my purchase, as the other illustrated versions didn’t make me buy it. The Lizbeth Zwerge version did help me make that choice.

The Empty Pot by Demi is another amazing story that has supported me in influencing my children. This is a beautiful tale about honesty with simple illustrations that support the narrative and don’t distract in any way.

As a child my mother read me the story of The Little Red Hen. She used to use the Little Red Hen as a form of chastisement when I was lazy. ‘Don’t be like characters in the Little Red Hen’. I knew exactly what she meant because the story she had read me. Aesops Fables is another book where fables became apart of my life.

Becoming a book illustrator has always interested me, but I am a long way off ever accomplishing such a task. But if I ever do get that opportunity I will always remember the power and long lasting effects of narrative.