Awful Poetry for Children: A Small Rant

“Puppy wuppy loves his tasty bone.
Watch him wagging his little tail as he is running all the way home.”

I’ll be the first to admit I’m no poetic genius. I don’t read nearly as much as I should, and I’d certainly be cast out by true poetry snobs. But even I have to protest about the quality of some of the stuff passing as “children’s poetry” these days.

I wrote the poem above as an example, but it’s so close to one of my son’s books that it’s scary. I’m not here to throw any individual author under the bus, but I’m sure you can think of several books that are just as bad, am I right? So what’s the problem with children’s poetry these days, and what can be done about it? Let’s take a look.

A Dismal Realization

Although I don’t read a lot of poetry, I do enjoy styles as diverse as Shakespeare’s sonnets, Emily Dickinson’s musings, Shel Silverstein’s gags, and Gerard Manly Hopkins’ meaningful wordplay. They don’t all have a set meter (which is the rhythm of a poem) or rhyme scheme (which is the pattern of vowel sounds), but they all pay careful attention to detail and word selection. Sheesh, even Dr. Seuss is a master of meter and rhyme! (Does it still count if you’re making up the rhyming words? I’ll assume it does.) To me, the quality of the poem matters just as much as the content. 

So imagine my chagrin as I’ve been reading books to my 1-year-old son and realizing, “Wow, some of this stuff is garbage.” Granted, the writers may be very busy people. They may have grander aspirations than churning out couplets about farm animals. They may feel they don’t need to perfect one little poem for one little book since it’s just for kids anyway. They may want to be real writers some day, for heaven’s sake! 

Well, mister, let me tell you how I feel about that.

The Writer Loses

First off, if an author tries very hard to write a good poem for children but it turns out rather poorly, I wouldn’t really blame him. I would blame the editor for passing it and the publisher for printing it, but I probably wouldn’t blame the author for writing it. If, however, an author feels that children aren’t mature enough to need good poetry or interested enough to want good poetry, then I would strongly disagree. And I would smack his face with a wet noodle. 

Even if the quality of a book didn’t matter once it was published, the author who slacked off would still be doing himself a disservice. All current writing is practice for future writing. If an author allows himself to write sloppy poems because he thinks it doesn’t matter, then he’s missing a chance to hone his skill and sharpen his mind. He’s also revealing that he doesn’t respect his readers—neither the small ones or the big ones. Reading poems like “puppy wuppy” feels like being consigned to a 10-page trip to purgatory. No author should have that kind of omnipotence.   

The Reader Loses

But the ones who suffer most at the hands of lazy children’s authors are, of course, the children. To use an analogy, everyone knows the maxim, “You are what you eat.” (And yes, I’m aware of the irony of writing this one-handed while I polish off a Christmas cookie. Seriously.) But studies show that a child’s first 500 days of life—from conception to age 2—are the most critical for nutrition. Their diet during these formative months may help determine their immune systems, allergies, and even which genetic characteristics to display. No pressure, moms. 

My real point here, as I’m sure you see, is that our literary diets always have a direct correlation to our mental structure, but I believe the most crucial time to read good books is during childhood. To quote a very non-scientific source, Kathleen Kelly says it perfectly in the movie “You’ve Got Mail”: “When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.” I couldn’t agree more.

Good Books Are for Everyone

Childhood reading even directs the taste for future books. Dr. Seuss may lead to Silverstein, Kipling, and Shakespeare, but poorly-written books may dampen a child’s desire and squelch his interest in future reading. How many of you thought you “hated reading” only to find out later that you hated reading boring books but loved reading good books? Plenty, I’d wager. But I’ve known many high school students who retained their “hatred of reading” because they’d never been exposed to better books. That makes me shed teardrops on my tomes. Brethren, these things ought not so to be!

So rather than dumbing down poems intended for children, why not give them well-crafted, age-appropriate poems and teach them to enjoy it? That’s the sort of thing C.S. Lewis was passionate about. He wholeheartedly believed that a book which wasn’t good enough for adults wasn’t good enough for children, either. This doesn’t mean that the book should include agendas, jokes, or innuendos intended for the parent reading the book. Rather, it means that if an author churns out garbage, he can’t expect anyone to enjoy it—not even a child. “We can be sure,” Lewis says, “that whatever does not concern us deeply will not deeply interest our readers, whatever their age.”¹ 

The Choice to Be Choosy

The more I consider this topic, the more I’m determined to read better books to my boy. Sure, he’s only one and isn’t taking copious notes on the poetic structure of his bedtime books…yet. But his mind is a little sponge, and he’s already absorbing the rhythm and rhyme of language. (He’s quite advanced, you know.) The books I read him will teach him what is good, beautiful, true, and worthy of imitation.²

The choice of quality literature will become even more important over the next few years as well, and I want to be up for the challenge. That’s why I’m asking you, dear reader, for recommendations. What are some well-written children’s books that you’ve enjoyed? Who is a children’s poet that you would recommend? Feel free to leave a comment below! 

As for me, I think I’ll go stash some better books on my baby’s night stand. So long for now!  

Sources:
¹ C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children
² Philippians 4:8