I thought she meant the artwork and started to comment on some colorful details bordering the edge of each page, but she held up her hand and pressed her palm right in the middle of the text and said, "No, I mean this. What makes it so nice?"
I had mistakenly assumed that she was just daydreaming about the pictures while I was basically reading aloud to myself; but, in fact, without any pointers or tutorials, she was grasping the concept of poetry and writing of quality.
Around the same time, I was writing about the concept of ut pictura poesis (on my Quotidian blog) and thinking about the related argument that painting takes precedence over poetry (but does it?) because we value sight over hearing. On the contrary, Ellie bypassed the visual and knew instinctively that she was hearing something "really nice." So intriguing -- both her appreciation of poetic verse and also her palpable gesture of reaching out to touch the words!
Ellie is also a fan of library storybooks, many of which contain their own subtle literary motifs. The other day we were reading a couple of her favorite books, both by the same author, one featuring a pig who likes to read -- that would be The Book Hog (2019) -- and the other one featuring a crocodile who likes watermelon but fears The Watermelon Seed (2013).
A few nights later, in a completely different book, a character had taken a grocery cart to the library. I said, “like the crocodile who wants to check out all the books.”
Ellie said, “I think you mean the Book Hog, Amma, not the crocodile.”
She's always one step ahead! Nearly ready for kindergarten -- or should I say grad school!
No comments:
Post a Comment