Others have a more specific intention, notably Roald Dahl, here quoted from two
interviews with Mark West:
The person who is what I call a fit reader has a terrific advantage over people who are
not readers. Life becomes richer if you have the whole world of books around you,
and I’ll go to practically any length to bring this world to children.
West 1988:74When I’m writing for adults, I’m just trying to entertain them. But a good children’s
book does more than entertain. It teaches children the use of words, the joy of
playing with language. Above all it teaches children not to be frightened of books...
If they are going to amount to anything in life, they need to be able to handle
books. If my books can help children become readers, then I feel I have
accomplished something important.
West 1990:65–66Consequently, it is a task to be taken seriously, especially in the light of Joan Aiken’s
dictum that ‘A children’s book should be written...remembering how few books children
have time to read in the course of a childhood and that the impact of each one is probably
equivalent to a dozen, or twenty, encountered at a later age’ (‘Between family and
fantasy’ in Haviland 1980:63.)
As to the more profound motivations, Gillian Rubenstein has a theory ‘that most
people who end up writing for children [had] some kind of trauma which makes them
feel that age emotionally for the rest of their lives because that’s where they experienced
their strongest emotions’ (Nieuwenhuizen 1991:232). Equally, there is a certain
scepticism about anyone who claims an easy relationship with childhood, as expressed
by E.L.Konigsberg: ‘It seems to me that people who profess to love children really love
childhood and, what’s more...they really love only one childhood—their own—and only
one aspect of it, called innocence’ (‘Ruthie Britten and because I can’ in Hearne and Kaye
1981:68). Lloyd Alexander also comments on this:
With all the best intentions in the world many adults have a very peculiar view of
childhood. It’s strange, because we were all children at some point, though we’ve
forgotten that. We sentimentalise childhood. We look upon it very often as a happy
golden age. There are a great many writers for children, and splendid writers for
children, who are perhaps more interested in recapturing their own childhood;
whereas I am trying to come to terms with my adulthood... I speak to the child as a
growing person.
Wintle and Fisher, 212, 213The next question that authors confront is: what changes do you make for a child
audience? A large majority of authors do not feel inclined to make changes, even under
pressure from publishers. To journey-person writers, some of these stances may seem
idealistic or privileged. Richard Adams:
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