the Spy (1964)). British writers such as Gene Kemp, in her Cricklepit stories (The
Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler (1977) et al.), and Chris Powling (for example, The Conker As
Hard As A Diamond (1984)) have caught the banter and felt life of primary (elementary)
school classrooms particularly well. Children’s experience of places, including the secret
ones that adults do not know about, is a special feature of this age group classically
pinned down in Clive King’s Stig of the Dump (1970).
The domestic can still be an appropriate setting for children’s stories, but such
settings can lead out to fantastic explorations, in classics such as E.Nesbit’s stories and
C.S.Lewis’s Narnia tales. Domestic settings can also lead inwards to explorations of
relationships, to the interplay between children, their siblings and their parents. Of
particular note here is the work of the British writer, Philippa Pearce. A Dog So Small
(1962) deals with a solitary child’s longing for a fantasy companion. The Battle of Bubble
and Squeak (1978) deals with sibling rivalry, and relationships between step-parents
and children. Pearce’s work shows how books for this age range can become more
complex and sophisticated in their moral viewpoint and in the range of themes that can
be addressed. Tom’s Midnight Garden (1958) and The Way to Sattin Shore (1983) are
subtle yet very readable explorations of time, of past secrets and of the relationships
between the young and the old.
Two other writers deserve special mention here to show how simple seeming stories
can give developing readers the challenges they need. One, Margaret Mahy, is a New
Zealander who has produced an impressive body of work since 1969, from picture books
to novels. Her collection of short stories, The Great Chewing Gum Rescue (1982), for
example, shows a writer at the peak of her power. In Britain, Jan Mark has been
versatile and represents the best of the new wave of writers for the young to have
emerged in the last two decades. The Dead Letter Box (for 8- to 12-year-olds) shows how
ideas about friendship and communication can be folded in an accessible storyline.
One of the fascinating features of children’s reading of literature in this age group is
that it shows greater understanding of the ways in which literature works for them
(Meek 1988). It is also possible to probe the development of children’s grasp of the sorts
of textual devices that writers use; children’s comprehension of rituals within stories
build upon their prior reading, and can lead to more sophisticated texts. These are learned
behaviours, and parents, teachers, adults play an important part in developing them
(see Mills 1994b).
Children’s sense of humour becomes more sophisticated. They enjoy the possibilities
of logic and common sense being turned on their heads. Like Alice, children at this stage
have to battle their way, without a map, through an adult world which often appears
ridiculous. Writers have often drawn upon the comic potential of that process of growing
up (although not always for the benefit of children). A.A.Milne’s Pooh stories, and many
others since, show how easy it is for immature minds to misconstrue things. Children of
9 or 10, who are just past that kind of misapprehension themselves, can be onlookers
on the action of childhood. Much of the best humour in books for this age group can
come when adult pomposity, or adults’ obliviousness of children, is observed. A classic
example is the American Florence Parry Heide’s The Shrinking of Treehorn (1971) where
parents and teachers are earnestly unhelpful; as in many of the best books, there is a
powerful metaphor beneath the hilarious surface.
BOOKS FOR YOUNGER READERS 379