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March 08, 2010
Board Books Gone Awry
As I’ve been reading more board books from the library’s collection, I’m finding a bunch I really like, but I’m also finding some I’m not crazy about. As an example, let’s take Shoes by Maisie Munro and Jenny Hale. At first it looked quite promising. It has a shaped cover with smooth curves instead of the more traditional little rectangle or square, something I’m a fan of because I think this makes it easier for small children who don’t have a lot of manual dexterity to manipulate the book. This is also a cover in two layers—the top layer being a bright red sneaker with fuzzy white spots covering up a lovely picture of a monkey (the main character of this book) on a bright lime green background. Then the verso reveals this is an Australian import—better and better. I LOVE Australian children’s books.
Now we get into the book itself. It starts out much as one might expect, with pictures and short sentences that talk about the things we use shoes for—walking a long way, kicking a ball. The narrative begins to break down on the page, “Shoes are for dancing the tango.” I have nothing against the tango or even wearing shoes while you’re dancing the tango, but I do have a problem with a monkey wearing ballet pointe shoes while dancing the tango because that’s what’s happening here, and that’s just wrong. When you’re dancing the tango, you’re supposed to wear something like this. When you wear pointe shoes, you are supposed to pirouette, which, incidentally, is what the monkey is doing in this illustration instead of the tango. It is true, I know, that this level of detail is certainly not going to be appreciated by the babies chewing on this book, but, still, this is a book that consists of exactly five page-spreads. There’s no reason not to get all five of them right.
And, okay, so I have a thing with shoes that is maybe impacting my evaluation of this particular board book. BUT STILL.
The rest of the book goes on just fine from there, with shoes helping the monkey dress like daddy and providing some chew-time fun for some puppies.
I feel kind of harsh and judgey about this book, but it’s the attitude behind it that bothers me more than the particularities, an attitude that’s something like, “Eh, it’s just for babies.” You see this a lot in board books, but it seems to me that babies are the ones you give the very best things to, and there are certainly better board books.
Posted by adrienne at March 8, 2010 02:03 PM
Comments
Oh, my WORD, you did NOT just point me to relatively inexpensive and FREAKIN' ADORABLE shoes when you know I am far, far away in the UK and cannot just order them. You did not just do that to me.
Oh, were we talking about a book?
Yes. *cough* It DOES seem dumb of them to not get it right when a.) the book is so danged short and b.) PARENTS will know what a tango is, hello, despite what babies know, or not, and c.) they missed a chance to show off some amazing shoes by going with the ballet slipper.
You're not being harsh. Seriously: they should get it right.
Posted by: tanita at March 8, 2010 02:50 PM
Those shoes look cute, Tanita, but I bet they would hurt your feet. Shiny shoes never have any give to them, and then there are the heels. I just can't wear heels. They make my knees and ankles hurt. (Well, I can wear a decently-made relatively short wedge heel.)
Did I talk you out of them? Because even writing that and knowing it all to be true, I still kind of want to buy them because MAYBE THEY'RE DIFFERENT.
Thanks for making me feel less like a curmudgeon about the book. It feels like poor editing--like someone could have just told the author to make the text match the illustration or the other way around. I can't imagine it would have been that big a deal, and it's a fine book otherwise.
Posted by: adrienne at March 8, 2010 09:50 PM
While, cute, I do think a monkey doing the tango is a bit much for such a short board book, so I agree with your assertion that there might have been a better or a more suitable example to use. I personally prefer books that have a more realistic slant to them so I'm not sure that explaining a tango to a baby is age-appropriate. Cute idea, however, for all the other uses in which shoes are displayed and explained.
Posted by: Ilene Fine at March 12, 2010 12:19 PM
Amen for wanting dance (shoes and movements) to be represented accurately, no matter what the situation.
Posted by: Little Willow at March 14, 2010 03:43 AM
Little Willow, I thought of you when I read this one.
Posted by: adrienne at March 14, 2010 04:53 PM