Why You Should Read Children’s Books Even Though You Are So Old And Wise

By Katherine Rundell

Reviewed by Melissa Salisbury

Katherine Rundell is a bestselling author of novels for children and an Oxford academic. Becoming one of these is no mean feat; becoming both and still being under 40 years of age tells you a little something about Rundell’s passion for children’s books and her ability to argue in their defence.

In Why you should read children’s books even though you are so old and wise, first published in 2019, we are treated to both Katherine the author and Dr Rundell the academic in one short but brilliantly passionate essay about the power and importance of children’s books for both children and adults.

Rundell argues that reading children’s fiction ignites the imagination and the power of hope in a way that books for adults can’t. Good children’s fiction will distil complex human experiences like fear, love, and justice into their purest forms in a way our inner child still craves, and in doing so offers a powerful way for adults to connect with their past selves amidst the complexities of adult life. She argues that children’s books aren’t escapism, they in fact help us ‘refind things we may not even know we have lost’.

This essay is an eloquent and considered piece of writing that is equal parts serious and humorous. It makes a convincing case for adults to delve into children’s literature, both old and new, to remind them of what it’s like to face fear, failure and peril but emerge triumphant and have faith that there is love and justice in the world, even if in adulthood the evidence is against it.

The essay is potentially preaching to the converted; it’s hard to imagine someone who wouldn’t normally read children’s books picking this up and spending the time to be convinced otherwise.

However, aside from the many book reviews it yielded, perhaps its power lies in providing inspiration for those who write for children and the justification for adults who continue to read that writing well after they pass the recommended reading age. In so doing, they may not only ensure that children’s literature thrives but also convince at least one more adult to read a children’s book and connect with their inner child, even though they are so old and wise.

Bloomsbury 2019

Katherine Rundell