When Real Life Meets Picture Books

Many children's books are a lot of fun to read, but have almost nothing to do with the real world. For example, Dr. Seuss's books have little grounding in reality. What on earth is a Star-Bellied Sneetch? And obviously cats can't talk and will not come knocking on your door. Many popular children's books are about things like puppies chasing lost balls and ducks crossing the street. These books are more realistic, but still don't tie in to real world problems.

And what's wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. Those kinds of children's books can be a lot of fun to read, and children can learn very basic morals from them : You shouldn't steal other people's things, you shouldn't make a mess that you can't clean up (what a great life lesson!), etc. Books that aren't grounded in any kind of reality can have worthwhile lessons as well.

But what really interests me are children's books that aren't fantasy, that address real-world types of problems. I don't mean like the Lorax, which addresses the real problem of saving the environment, but in a fantastical context. The book I read and wrote an analysis of this week was very grounded in the real world, which makes the ideas interesting for both children and adults. The book is called Zoo by Anthony Browne.

Zoo is fascinating because it's very simply about a boy's trip to the zoo with his family. To adults, it should be very clear what the book's morals are - basically, that humans treat animals in zoos badly - but to a child, these ideas probably seem much more subtle. The book's goal is to make kids more aware of a semi-controversial real-life issue : are zoos good for animals? Or do they do more harm than good? The book does this with very serious and sometimes slightly sad illustrations of animals in cages, mixed with more cartoonish images of people at the zoo staring at them, making fun of them, etc.

One thing that really made me sad was the way the young narrator mentioned that the polar bear at the zoo was pacing back and forth all day. This, to me, is a pretty clear sign that zoos aren't always good for animals, and I think Browne feels the same way. Many animals at zoos, like bears, wolves, and especially big cats, actually pace so much that they create worn out paths or trails in their enclosures. I think this is a sign that in captivity, these animals start to lose their mind a little. Being locked up really doesn't seem healthy for their mental states.

But I really do like that this book's morals involve real life. I'm not saying that people should write children's books about the Holocaust, but I do think it's important that children read both fantasy-type books and books about things in the real world, so that they grow up with a sense of what's going on around them. The question really comes down to how old children should be when books begin to introduce them to "real world" ideas, and what kinds of topics are just too serious for picture books.