Essential Questions

When I taught the early elementary grades, there was one non-fiction book that I loved to read to my students throughout the year. The Story of Ruby Bridges was my happy introduction to Robert Coles, the author of this captivating picture book. I don’t think I ever read the story to my students without crying, so powerfully does Coles capture the story of Ruby’s ‘integration’ into a white school in Louisiana. Not only did the book have a significant personal impact on me (and my students), it gave me a thirst for really good children’s literature, and an understanding of how profoundly such literature can affect the character and conscience of teachers and students.

Dr. Coles (whom I have subsequently discovered to be a prolific author), in The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination, captures clearly the dynamic of literature:

“Novels and stories are renderings of life; they can not only keep us company, but admonish us, point us in new directions, or give us the courage to stay a given course. They can offer us kinsmen, kinswomen, comrades, advisers - offer us other eyes through which we might see, other ears with which we might make soundings” (pp 159-160).

I experienced how his book, The Story of Ruby Bridges, admonished, directed and encouraged me and my students. Through his stories and wisdom, Dr. Coles has played a powerful role in shaping the design of tumblon to recommend developmentally appropriate literature so that parents and their children may be challenged and encouraged by the likes of Ruby Bridges. We trust that our recommendations, keyed to a child’s development, will inspire an early love for great books.

When I was a third-grade teacher, I read The Story of Ruby Bridges to my students as often as I could, and every time it reduced me to tears. I was aware that in this story there was something precious and beautiful that touched the depths of who I am, and could do the same with my young students. This story affected me in those ways because through stories we recognize, construct, and communicate meaning.

Young children are no exception; they tell stories, although it is not uncommon to see parents tune them out or shut them down because the stories seem nonsensical. However, these children, like their parents, are simply seeking a story that makes sense of their experiences. These early stories can be as profoundly insightful as they are simple, if we will listen attentively. For children are continually constructing meaning, and the most natural way do it is through stories.

Parents are even more involved in story-telling. Whether we invent original stories or poems, watch them on television or in a theater, recite oral family histories, or read to our children, we are constantly communicating meaning. We are expressing a story about the way things really are. This is the very nature of literature, of art, and of life: to construct and express meaning. The quality of those stories we hear and tell, both in form and content, inevitably shapes the form and content of our children’s stories. They learn (or fail to learn) the art of story-telling, and the vision of what is good, true and beautiful by listening to stories.

The stories that children and parents tell, in turn, shape the stories that they create. In the life of a family, shared experiences become part of the family’s shared story - which can reach far beyond the family. For example, Ruby Bridges’ family told and embodied stories that enabled Ruby, at 6 years old, to be an instrumental figure in the history of the United States when she became the first black child to attend a white elementary school. That is the role that stories play in shaping families, society and history.

For all of these reasons, stories are the unifying thread of tumblon:

• We recommend great children’s literature to parents.
• We encourage parents to record their children’s memorable words and stories.
• We enable parents to preserve family stories in words and photos (and soon video too).
• We facilitate sharing those those stories safely with family and friends around the world.

We believe that through this service we can enrich the stories families enjoy, tell and create so that their family stories may influence the wider society like the Bridges family did.

“C.S. Lewis said that no book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally worth reading at the age of fifty.” (Honey for a Child’s Heart)

While emphatically true, I think that Lewis’ claim can be extended to even younger ages. Books worth reading to your preschooler are worth reading for yourself. That’s why, when evening reading time comes, I deliberately choose the books to read to my four-year-old daughter. The ones that have no plot or shallow characterization go straight back to the library; but the ones that say something, and say it well, we read again and again.

In our book recommendations, which will be linked to a child’s developmental stage, we will recommend books that are worth reading, not just those that sell a lot of copies. Our hope is that parents and children alike will discover the joy of books worth reading . . . and rereading.

Every parent develops a reading list of children’s literature - intentionally or unintentionally. That list may be very short and sorry, or may be long, and just as undiscerning; or, short or long, it may comprise books that really connect with children. The measure of a reading list, whether written or contained only in one’s mind, is the quality of the literature, not the length of the list.

So how does a parent construct that reading list? Robert Coles, in selecting books for his college and graduate students, offers wisdom that is valuable for parents of young children:

“Over time I began to learn from the students that constructing a good reading list involves not so much matching student interest with author’s subject matter (though there is no reason to ignore the pleasure that such a correspondence can offer) as considering the degree of moral engagement a particular text seems to be able to make with any number of readers.” (The Call of Stories p190)

The literature that tumblon recommends follows Coles’ counsel: children often connect well with these books, regardless of whether they had a previous affinity for the content. By constructing a good reading list for parents at each stage of early childhood, we aim to help parents in the process of defining and refining their own lists. If we succeed, parents and children will frequently enjoy - and be shaped by - great children’s literature.

My wife, who is a pediatrician, often hears parents complain, “My child won’t eat vegetables.” She invariably replies, “Well, do you eat vegetables?” Among parents who bring this complaint, the answer is virtually always, “No.” The fact is that children eat what their parents eat. The parents’ preferences and habits play a significant role in shaping a child’s palate.

While this is enormously important for the nutrition and health of young children, it is equally significant in understanding how parents influence what their children love and value. Gladys Hunt puts it this way in Honey for a Child’s Heart:

“Reading develops the taste buds of the mind as children learn to savor what is seen, heard, and experienced and fit these into some kind of worthwhile framework” (p21)

Parents have just as much influence over the ‘taste buds of the mind’ as they do over taste for food. A ‘junk food’ diet of entertainment that doesn’t include frequent reading of great children’s literature will produce children who don’t have a taste for good books.

This is why tumblon has early literacy development at the core of its design. We help parents to understand what skills their children are currently developing, and what books will cultivate a healthy ‘appetite.’ ‘Feeding’ your kids the right kinds of stories will leave them begging for more ‘vegetables.’ Great children’s literature has the power to shape our frameworks of understanding so that the ‘taste buds of the mind’ appreciate what is really good. Certainly this is no less important than making sure that your child has a healthy portion of greens at each meal.

In my second year teaching third grade, a remarkable portion (two-thirds) of my class began the year with reading levels well below end-of-second-grade benchmarks. So I was shocked to see one of my students pick up Harry Potter in the library. I was even more surprised to find him reading Harry Potter. It was a powerful moment in which I learned the power of motivation in improving children’s reading skills.

Jim Trelease offers statistical support for the conclusion to which I came:

 ”Students from lower income families tended to have lower [reading] scores, but when they were highly engaged (motivated) readers, they scored higher than students from the highest income levels who were poorly engaged readers and very close to the most engaged middle income students. Thus, high reading engagement is capable of vaulting the lowest SES [Socio-Economic Status] student to significantly higher scores and overcoming family culture. Motivation (which pushes frequency) is therefore a critical factor in elevating the at-risk readers” (The Read Aloud Handbook p95)

Motivation is no less important in parents than with children. So it is of utmost importance that parents find children’s literature that they love to read aloud with their children. For parents who didn’t grow up with great literature, or who are strapped for time to find good books, or simply can’t afford them, what can be done?

In addition to presenting literacy milestones from Reach Out and Read (a fantastic organization that promotes early literacy) and the Department of Education to help parents understand what to expect from their children, tumblon recommends great books for each stage of development so that parents don’t have to search or buy. They can simply check them out from the local library.

The result? No searching; no buying; just a simple list of great books (customized for the children’s ages) for parents and their children.