{"id":1377,"date":"2018-02-06T08:25:51","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T13:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2019-04-05T18:20:35","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T22:20:35","slug":"why-read-the-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2018\/02\/why-read-the-classics\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Read the Classics?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cYou think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive.\u201d \u2013James Baldwin.<\/a><\/p>\n

Although I was a voracious reader growing up, my parents always urged me to read “the classics.” Many classic literature authors have birthdays in February. You may have read many works by them, especially if you were an English major. How about Charles Dickens, Wilhelm Carl Grimm, John Steinbeck, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Jules Verne? Then, there are some modern children\u2019s authors, whose books are now considered classics, such as Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House<\/strong> books, Judy Blume of Hello, God, It\u2019s Me, Margaret<\/strong> and Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day<\/strong> fame, and Clifford, the Big Red Dog<\/strong> author Norman Bridwell. So what is a \u201cclassic,\u201d especially a children\u2019s literature classic?<\/p>\n

The Baldwin quote above gets at the deepest level of what makes a title a classic, a story that is true for all generations because of how it touches our innermost selves and connects us to people everywhere and every time. I love this statement\u00a0<\/a>by Eden Ross Lipson, former book editor for the New York Times Book Review,<\/strong> who said that a children\u2019s book becomes a classic not because of its reviews, but \u201cwhether your children choose to read the book to their children, and so on, an organic and generational process of elimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italo Calvino proposed fourteen criteria for a classic<\/a>. For me, the best is number eleven. \u201c’Your’ classic is a book to which you cannot remain indifferent, and which helps you define yourself in relation or even in opposition to it.\u201d An iStorybook\u00a0blog post<\/a> sets five criteria for a children\u2019s classic, including having likable characters, an uplifting ending, being fun for both children and parents, and telling us something about being human. Children love their favorite books passionately, will reread them over and over, or demand they be read to them. How many have tried to convince a toddler, \u201cPlease, couldn\u2019t we have a different book today?\u201d I read Louisa May Alcott’s\u00a0Little Women<\/strong> multiple times from the age of nine to adulthood. Each time, I found a different story as I grew older and related to the lives and experiences of the March sisters anew.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s explore some resources that lead us to the classics in children\u2019s literature, both the traditional and \u201cnew\u201d ones. Find some classic titles for your classroom collection, school library, or as a recommendation for a certain child.<\/p>\n

A marvelous work of memoir and literary criticism by Bruce Handy shares his thought on his and his children’s favorite classics and why they are endearing and enduring great works of art. Read this New York Times review<\/a> about Wild Things, The Joy of Reading Children\u2019s Literature as an Adult.\u00a0<\/strong>Remember why you love authors like Laura Ingalls Wilder and Maurice Sendak, who penned many twentieth-century children\u2019s classics.<\/p>\n

As always, a great place to look for suggestions for classroom resources is TeachersFirst<\/a>. Several special features have gathered helpful reading suggestions.<\/p>\n