Books for sale: A variety of children books are on display at a bookstore in Jakarta. JP/William Mansell

Our favorite childhood books may have been more than just enjoyable tales. But just how much do our cherished stories from childhood affect us?

“Our family’s favourite children’s book is called Flat Stanley, about a boy named Stanley that could flatten himself to fit under closed doors,” says acclaimed Australian children’s author, Jean Chapman.
And so they called their trundle bed “Flat Stanley”.

Jean has been writing for kids for more than 60 years after landing a job as scriptwriter for Australia’s ABC Radio National “Kindergarten of the Air” show. Since then, she has gone on to publish bestselling children’s books such as The Bush Jumper and Velvet Paws and Whiskers.

“These sorts of things, where the imagination is triggered through the shared experience of reading, are quite special.”

Bookstore owner Robyn Stevenson believes that imagination is the means to allow us to understand and deal with life.

“When we are children, books give us space to play and develop our imagination,” says Robyn, who managed Pepperina Bookstore in the Hunter Valley, Australia, for 10 years before retiring.

“They are the tools that allow us to understand life. We continue to do this as adults, but our childhood reading is the springboard for the development of our imagination.”

She believes her passion for children’s literature stems from the important role books play for a child.
“So much growing up is condensed into such a short space of time during your childhood years, and reading helps children understand this intense experience through imagination.”

When bookworm Dawn Oelrich was growing up in Canada, she enjoyed books with fantasy elements.  

“My favorite childhood book was The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley,” Dawn, now 52, says.  

“I was given it on my fourth birthday. When my mom died, my sister sent the book to me. She found it in our house and it had ‘To Dawn - May 1959’ written inside the front cover.  

“The book is sad and ‘Dickens-ish’,” she goes on. It is about an orphaned and mistreated chimney-sweep who escapes into the sea. He is not a merman, but a child among friends.  

“I suppose there were many times I wanted to escape as a child and this idea appealed.  

“I read our school library from the beginning to the end,” she continues. “Books — I love them — I love them so much that when I read Shogun by James Clavell, I lived on fish and rice for a week!”
Jennifer Taylor doesn’t hesitate when it comes to naming her favorite reading experience. She remembers The Enchanted Forest as the best children’s book she read.

“I read that book so much, I believed in fairies,” says the 23-year-old avid reader.  

Written by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, this book is about a girl who journeys into the world of fairies that live within the magical borders of the Enchanted Forest.

“I used to go into our garden and build little fairy houses. I took my dolls house furniture into them and left notes inviting the fairies.”

“One morning I came out to see if they’d eaten the sugar and chocolate crumbs I’d left on the miniature dolls-house plate the night before.  

“It was gone, and, in its place was a tiny piece of paper where written in miniature writing was a thank you note from a Queen Fairy.”  

She was so happy at the time that she cried. Of course her mum wrote the note, she says, but the limitless imagination books can give children is wonderful.

Daphnee Cook, 25, absolutely adored the characters in her favorite childhood books.

“I loved Anne of Green Gables… She was the sort of person I wanted to be, perhaps madly dreamed I was — someone totally independent, imaginative, passionate and brave,” she says. “But also with a vulnerable side, which as a 10-year-old, you could totally identify with.

“I guess I liked books that had heroines I could imagine being. Or one I could imagine falling in love with, say, Peter from The Chronicles of Narnia. Or Aslan the lion! I think I even had a crush on Aslan!”

But while so many children fall in love with stories and characters, how the writer created a book a child can hold so dear is a mystery pondered over by many.

“That first draft you write is magic,” says Jean Chapman. “There’s a freshness and spontaneity of a handwritten first draft.”

Jean asserts that a combination of elaborate plots to heighten suspense, and uncomplicated, black-and-white characterization, are vital ingredients for children’s books. And in today’s fast-paced lifestyle, lots of dialogue is important to keep action levels high.

“We’ve also become a highly visual society, so books with structures that mirror movies are going to be successful,” she added citing the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling as a notable example.  

Rebecca Jones, has worked with many children and lots of books in her time as a childcare specialist. All this experience has left her with a pretty good feel on what children like to read.

For young children, books with lots of visual stimulation and rhyme work well. Not only are they fun and enjoyable, but they give their readers little life lessons. Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a classic example, she notes.

The story is about a caterpillar that eats his way through the week. The book is full of large illustrations and vivid colors.  

But this book also gives children an interactive experience through the holes punctured in the illustrations of the food the caterpillar eats. Young children are fascinated by the holes and are always excited by the chance to poke their fingers through.

When children, especially boys, reach nine, those grotty stories about snot and poo are hard to put down, she says, such as Paul Jennings’ wacky Unreal collection and Gretal Killeen’s book, My Life is
a Toilet.

Rebecca says, however, it doesn’t matter whether the book is entirely visual, funny or sparks a sense of adventure — fiction will always connect to the world of the reader.

“Fiction develops an understanding of issues and ideas and gives readers the ability to apply them to the real world.

“Not only do books link with your own world, but they help add depth to your passions.”

But for Carmela Manning, who was brought up in Peru in South America, books weren’t so significant during her childhood.  

“Our main entertainment was to play and improvise with whatever we had,” the 61-year-old recalls. “We had lots of physical activities.

“Even at kindergarten there was an outdoor life. I remember our classrooms were represented by different colors and my classroom, including our own garden, were blue — even the gardening tools and our aprons were blue. I loved it, and maybe this is where my passion for colour has come from.”
As for the classics Peruvian readers would seek out, Carmela calls to mind two authors.  

A South American author who writes for children is Marcela Paz, who is Chilean and has written a series of books called Papelucho, and a Peruvian author called Alfonsina Barrionuevo, who has been writing children’s books for some time now.  

“But the two books I enjoyed were Little Red Riding Hood by German authors Brothers Grimm, and Pinnochio by the Italian author Carlo Collodi.

“They were such fun.”

Yes, fun. That’s exactly what those treasured stories from childhood are, in all their varied forms —slices of adventure and pieces of fun.  

And dare we say perhaps books give children something even more. In the words of one of children’s most treasured authors, Dr. Seuss:

‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

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