#firstbooks

[backpacksnstuff]

First novels: do we like them or love them? 🤔 Interestingly, I read the first novels by my favourite authors only after I’d read some other books of the said authors, which is an absolutely unconscious move 🤷‍♀️ Look here: “Player Piano” by Kurt Vonnegut “Poor Folk” by Fyodor Dostoevsky “Sense and sensibility” by Jane Austen “A Confederate General from Big Sur” - by Richard Brautigan …to name a few. I like all of them but I love ❤️ other books more 🙂 My recent read, “The Broom of the System” by David Foster Wallace, is a great book. It’s funny, very postmoderny (ticks all the boxes: a confused heroine, a strange drug/medicine/plot going around, drawing all kinds of weird people (there was a man who at some point was consuming a building 😅😬), etc.); it’s stuffed with some little charming tricks only DFW can pull and the anticipation and the subsequent discovery of such things make you smile. That being said, it is nothing like “Infinite Jest”, has not a single moment of sadness or revelation in it. Also, it’s short. I decided to pair this book with “V.”, the first novel by Thomas Pynchon, also the first postmodern novel which made me realize it’s not easy to read books of this genre, what with nonlinear narrative and so many characters you have to write them down not to forget who is who (it was more difficult to keep track of them in this particular book). The book makes you feverish, you search - like the characters of the book - for V., the elusive femme fatale. Anyway, I enjoyed the chase 😉 What do you think about first novels, their charms and imperfections? #bookstagram #bookstagrammers #instabooks #instabookstagram #firstbooks #postmodern #postmodernism #davidfosterwallace #thebroomofthesystem #thomaspynchon #v #americanliterature #americanauthors (at Tallinn, Estonia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTIUsCLLRh8/?utm_medium=tumblr

[chase-the-adventure]

Some of my first books! #firstbooks #childrensbooks #childrensliterature #brazil #brasil🇧🇷 #brasileiras (at Brighton, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_BaUiSJIiq/?igshid=154k1uoghdrsh

[tellingtalesshop-blog]

So obviously I’m now spending slightly longer than I should looking at all of the amazing baby books that are out there - I still love these brilliant @laurencekingpub art gallery cards! . #tellingtalesshop #tellingtales #theshopforillustratedbooks #babybooks #firstbooks #babygifts #babyflashcards #londonkidsbookshop #shoponline #shopindependent #hackneykids (at London Borough of Hackney) https://www.instagram.com/p/By8Bn4iFsan/?igshid=531cjp10gk84

[kaiespace]

So I should have shared this last week for #teacherappreciationweek but wow, things got crazy, between book launch stuff and freelancing and . . . Anyways, back to the point. 🙄 When I was in the second grade, I had a teacher who was a writer. Never made it big (as far as I can tell), I think he just had a few small press or maybe even indie titles out. But he wrote a book (I think maybe every year?) with all the kids in the class in it. It was silly and fun and, as you can see, had lovely hand-coloured art 😅 but he went above and beyond to put that together for us, and as a result, at the age of seven I knew that real people wrote books. 🖋📚 He wasn't the teacher that made me want to become a writer (that came later), but he normalized it, led by example. Teachers, parents, family, grown ups who take an interest in kids, read to them, read with them, give them books and make them books and keep a straight face and say encouraging things when they try to write books, it all matters. Everyone doesn't have to become a writer. But we can all be readers. Change the world with books, y'all. 📚🎉 . #teacherappreciation #canadianauthor #kidsbooks #firstbooks #debutauthor #indieauthor #childrensliteracy #raiseareader #bookstagram #bookworm #bookaddict #kaiespace

[jude5]

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Make your own board book. Toddlers love looking at books especially when they feature themselves or their family, toys or pets. Mount photos onto Blank board books, add simple wording and some repetition and you have a keepsake which will also help your child to develop pre-reading skills. #reading #toddlerfun #toddlerlearning #boardbooks #firstbooks #prereading #funbooks #makeyourownbook #makeyourown

[shift7]

“I Have Got To Stop Loving You,” Ai, from CRUELTY (1973). Ai was one of the first poets to show me how to be fearless inside of a poem. Poetry, in the farm-burbs where I grew up in Virginia, was always & only the white male canon (with a handful of Dickinson & Marianne Moore thrown in--no one even dared teach Plath). When I went to college & signed up for a poetry workshop, there was no textbook, so I went to the university bookstore & bought a handful of collections off the shelf by names I’d never heard of, starting at the beginning of the alphabet, where I met Ai. In the forest of words & works my brain has since become, these last two lines are still sharply carved into one of the strongest trees.

[tellingtalesshop-blog]

Back in stock and a sneaky new one! Milo is great with his clear and stylish illustrations everyone will love him (even in the bath!) . . #tellingtalesshop #childrensbooks #littlelearner #bathbooks #babybooks #firstbooks #kidsbookstagram #kidsbooks #learnathome #shopsmall #bookshop #londonkids #londonfields #broadwaymarket (at Andrews Road Hackney)

[we-are-all-mad-here-1865-blog]

I was intrigued by the idea that children’s literature, a genre seemingly dismissed by many, could so keenly reflect a shift in cultural values. In many ways, children’s literature serves as our initial foray into the independent gathering of information. Until we learn how to read, we rely on our observations, and the point-of-view of others when confronted with a question. With literacy, we are granted the opportunity to discover for ourselves. While our first books may not support philosophical wonderings, their perspective guides us into the world of empathy and knowledge. That being said, many early readers tend to pay more attention to the pictures in a book than the words themselves. In their pre-literacy years, images are certainly their only gateway into the narrative. However, even for young readers those illustrations act as a guide through the story. It was this idea that helped me narrow my interest from the evolution of Victorian children’s literature, to more specifically Alice in Wonderland. Drawn by the nonsensical nature of Alice, I wanted to further explore the creative relationship between Tenniel and Carroll that lead to the creation of a culturally iconic classic. While it was not difficult finding texts about the illustrations of Alice, it was challenging narrowing my search results. It was easy to find sources about Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland, and the narrative value of its illustrations through the USF Library database. However, it was difficult finding scholarly articles or books about Tenniel online. By locating a book review of a biography about Tenniel, I was able to find a print version of the biography itself in USF’s circulating collections. I was also surprised when I had difficulties finding texts discussing the general characteristics of Victorian children’s literature. Similarly to Tenniel’s biography, I used USF’s library database to find a book review, which led me to the book Evolution and Imagination in Victorian Children’s Literature. Although the book was not in USF’s library system, I was able to find excerpts of the book online.