Hi! So my Internet decided to just not work for the last few days so I am behind with the children's book event! So today the missing posts will be put up so get ready for an influx of awesome children's posts and hopefully that will get us back on track to continue with the event tomorrow. The next week is all about children's books from 6-11 with some great giveaways, so check back all next week for them :) Now onto the guest post from the wonderful Rebecca Emberley children's author & illustrator!
Strolling through the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Massachusetts
the other day, I was struck by the visceral reaction I had to so many
paintings and sculptures revisited. Some of them I may not have
seen in many years but they still evoked a strong sense of “home”.
Almost as if they belonged to me in some way and I realised that,
of course, they do.
An illustrated children’s book has very much the same effect on the
child who reads them or has them read to them.
Whether they are aware of it or not, those images stay with them
and help form who they are and how they think and feel. The book
becomes a part of them.
Part of being an author and illustrator of children’s books is; the
understanding that no matter what you are thinking and feeling when
you create the book, it takes on a life of it’s own when you let it go
out into the world. I am often delighted and amazed when I see the
things that other people have found in one of my books that I had
not realised was there! Lessons I did not intend but which make
their way into the fabric of someone’s life.
One of the most courageous things we do as artists is to let go of
the thing you have brought into the world and let it be what it will
be to the beholder.
Art infuses our lives with texture and meaning that cannot be achieved
by reasoning alone. I think that a child who reads and is read to
develops critical thinking and problem solving skills that cannot be
developed any other way. I like to think of all the little bits of my
work that travel around in other people, and all the bits of other
people’s work that travel around in me. We are filled with wonderful
stuff. So pick up a book, sit down with a child and read. Have an
adventure or two, knowing that it will always be there anytime you
need it.
Thank you for a most interesting and facinating post, that was insightful. x
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