Tactile BooksProbably the best known format is the pop-up or movable book, of which a vast number
have been published. Attempts have been made by some publishers to add a third
dimension to the printed page by giving a tactile surface to illustrations, not always
successfully. A partially tactile illustration can be more misleading than no tactile
surface at all. One of the more successful and also most expensive was Eric Carle’s The
Very Busy Spider (1985) which has a tactile web. Cloth books have a long history, but
until recently these tended to be for babies, and were sometimes not particularly well
presented. The quality has been improved by the introduction of stitched-in sheets of
foam to bulk out the book and slightly stiffen the pages, and other titles include pockets
containing removable dolls. Bath books are another innovation: made of plastic and
usually highly coloured, they have the advantage of being waterproof and washable. A
newer addition which incorporates the ubiquitous micro chip has been books with
sounds. These range from books of children’s songs together with a keyboard, through
those which operate on opening and play a tune, to a more sophisticated development
which allows the child to interact with the story by pressing the appropriate illustration
to produce noise as a part of the story itself. On the whole, the noises produced are
realistic and can help a child who needs assistance with sound discrimination. Children
with poor fine motor control, severely handicapped children and those for whom a multi-
tactile approach is important, have found all of these forms of printed book invaluable.
Images of ChildrenIt is difficult to pinpoint any dramatic change in the way children with difficulties have
been shown as book characters. Non-fiction, in particular series which look at children
with specific physical or sensory problems, is often the beginning of change. While in
fiction, the positive images of minority ethnic and cultural groups of children and the
mix of children within school classes also has increasingly been realistically shown, the
inclusion of children with visible difficulties must be done with understanding and
knowledge of the reality of school life. American writers and publishers (for example,
Albert Whitman) have led the way: Marc Brown’s Arthur series, beginning with Arthur’s
Nose in 1976— has always included children who have special needs; among them have
been a child in a wheelchair, a child wearing hearing aids, children wearing glasses;
Lorraine Henriod’s Grandma’s Wheelchair (1982) presents a child’s view of a loved
grandparent who is still a companion and friend despite the wheelchair. When Wendy
Lohse’s Something Else (1990) was first published there was a certain amount of
unease, as the main character is a child born without legs. The image she presents is of
a determined child who wants to attend school and make her own way despite the
typically short-sighted comments of some of her school mates. Books illustrated by
Caroline Birch have presented Afro-Caribbean children with two wonderful role models:
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman (1991) and Hue Boy by Rita Phillips Mitchell (1992).
Among other areas which are now being more satisfactorily covered in children’s fiction
are the difficulties of teaching children about street safety and stranger danger,
understanding intellectual handicap, children with learning difficulties, physical
disability, loss of sight or hearing, death, AIDS, differences in home and family life,
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