ShareThisBy KAREN MacPHERSON
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
It's usually a foolproof formula: children's book + written by a celebrity = pap.
Like many people, celebrities seem to think that it's child's play to create a good book for kids. But celebrities generally end up creating the kind of book many adults think children should read _ a book whose plot is a flimsy pretext to preach a moral lesson. It's true that many of the best children's books offer lessons, but the moral is clearly secondary to the author's effort to tell a great story.
Fortunately, there are exceptions to every rule, and there are celebrities who actually do create well-written books for children. Chief among them is actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who has just published her seventh picture book, "Is There Really a Human Race?" (HarperCollins, $16.99, ages 4-8.)
Curtis is one of those rare adults who can vividly remember what it was like to be a preschooler and can transform those feelings into an entertaining picture book. Her books are never preachy, but instead address children's feelings in a down-to-earth and fun way. As a result, Curtis has won raves from both readers and critics.
For example, her first book, "When I Was Little," is subtitled "A Four-Year-Old's Memoir Of Her Youth." And it's a pitch-perfect look at a typical 4-year-old, an age when kids like to look back at their "baby" years with something like disdain.
In "Today I Feel Silly," Curtis focused young readers' attention on their often-wild mood swings, while in "I'm Gonna Like Me," she distilled into text the matter-of-fact self-confidence manifested by healthy young children. But Curtis may be best-known for "Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born," a loving look at adoption that has become a modern classic.
The charm of Curtis' picture books is greatly enhanced by the whimsical watercolor illustrations created by Laura Cornell. When Curtis _ rarely _ veers dangerously close to mawkishness, Cornell supplies an illustration that injects a much-needed note of comic relief.
The success of this author/artist partnership is again evident in their newest collaboration. Inspired by a question from her now-8-year-old son Thomas, Curtis uses her breezily rhyming text to explore why we all seem to be in a "human race" to some unknown destination. To kids, the whole thing seems pretty murky. As her puzzled young protagonist asks: "Do I warm up and stretch? Do I practice and train?/ Do I get my own coach?/ Do I get my own lane?" Further on, he asks: "Is it a sprint? A dash to the end?/ Am I aware of the time that I spend?/ And why do I do it, this zillion-yard dash? If we don't help each other, we're all going to crash."
Curtis ends with a gentle plea to readers to avoid racing through life, urging them to take time to enjoy it. Yes, it's a rather overt moral, but it works because of Curtis' light touch and the broad humor of Cornell's illustrations. Perhaps the best illustration in the book, in fact, is a laugh-out-loud, two-page spread filled with pictures of just-born babies who already have begun the "human race." One tiny infant has a stethoscope and doctor's bag in her bassinet, while another sports sunglasses and a golden Oscar statue.
In a recent telephone interview, Curtis, the daughter of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, said she doesn't think there's a recipe for writing for children.
"I'm childlike in many ways. And I'm also empathetic. I'm a feeler _ I feel people, and I want to," Curtis said. "Everything I've ever written was influenced by a child. ... I don't sit and construct these books in my mind. I hear something that a child says or does, and take that and build on it."
Curtis added that, for her, writing a picture book is a "very quick process. The idea comes, and the book comes out in pretty much of a flow. ... I don't agonize over words. Occasionally I'll look for a word, but very rarely."
Asked what advice she'd give to parents who want to raise their children as readers, Curtis responded: "You can't force it. You can introduce it. ... It really depends on what kind of kids you have. ... I think whatever it takes _ comic books, 'Captain Underpants,' whatever it is _ the point is that you are really trying to instill the love of reading a story."
(Karen MacPherson writes this column weekly for Scripps Howard News Service. Contact her at karen.macpherson(at)gmail.com.)
