«Wunder» - a book that inspires parents and children
Strictly speaking, there are three types of children's books. Those that children like, those that parents like and those that both like. The first group includes «Greg's Diary» by Jeff Kinney. I don't know if you've ever read it, but it's really good and speaks straight to the heart of desperate adolescents.
But if you read on, it immediately becomes clear how much of your own childhood you have repressed. And also why. In other words, it's a good book because it was written for children and not for adults.
The third group are books that you look forward to reading like a good friend.
The second group - books that parents like - includes all those in which the authors try to see the world «through children's eyes». Nowhere is this more evident than in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's «The Little Prince». It is undoubtedly a masterpiece, but I still remember rolling my eyes for the first time at the sentence «One sees well only with the heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes».
This category of books is often more about a pedagogised longing of adults for an unspoilt ideal childhood; a quasi-religious state in which they want to avoid encounters with complicated, rotten reality and prefer to imagine themselves on a perfect planet far away from everything.
The third group are books that both parents and children enjoy. In other words, books that you look forward to reading like a good friend, where we suggest to the child: «One more chapter, okay?» and not the other way round. For some, this might be «Harry Potter», for others «The Red Zora».
I recently had this experience with «Miracle» by Raquel Palacio (the film version is currently showing in cinemas). It tells the story of ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, whose face is so disfigured as a result of a number of complicated genetic defects that everyone who sees him either looks away in horror or stares at him like he's been in a car crash. Auggie himself explains it to the reader: «Whatever you imagine my face to be, it's probably worse.» Every day at school is a torture for Auggie, every encounter is a struggle. Over time, however, his classmates learn to see the person behind the mask. Auggie experiences friendship and encouragement.
Palacio uses two very clever literary tricks: firstly, the chapters are short and easy to read aloud, and secondly, the story is told in a Quentin Tarantino-like manner from the perspective of different people, so that we see bullying scenes from the point of view of the victim, the perpetrator and the witness and are therefore forced to form a differentiated picture. We imagine what it would be like to be Auggie and what it would be like to see him. That sounds terribly pedagogical, and yet I was amazed at how much my daughter responded to the book - and how often I had tears in my eyes while reading it.
What I want to say: In «Miracles» we learn what is preached to us in «The Little Prince», namely that you can only see well with your heart, because what is essential remains invisible to the eyes.
