From Tots to Teens, StarMag
BANNED Books Week in the United States has ended but that doesn’t mean we should stop thinking about our rights as readers.
If you ever come across Daniel Pennac’s The Rights of the Reader (Walker Books, 174 pages, ISBN: 978-1406300918), get a copy for yourself (the last I checked BookXcess at Amcorp Mall in Petaling Jaya had a few copies).
The book was first published (in French and in France) in 1992. The English version appeared in 2006, translated by Sarah Adams, and illustrated by the illustrator most Malaysians know best, Quentin Blake (his are the drawings you see in Roald Dahl books).
Pennac based the book on his experiences as a child, a parent and an inner-city teacher in Paris. It’s a celebration of reading and stories, and champions a child’s right to have control over his relationship with books.
Pennac has listed 10 rights, and my favourite is the very first one: “the right not to read”. This might be a strange favourite for me since I’m always going on about the joy of reading, but you see, for reading to be a joy, it has to be a voluntary activity.
Because reading is associated with school, exams and knowledge, parents are anxious about their kids’ reading skills and habits. Some parents only want their children to read so they can pass exams. They think reading for fun is a waste of time. Other parents are disappointed when their children refuse to read story books. They feel that reading magazines and encyclopaedias doesn’t count as “real” reading.
It’s a fact of life that, no matter how inconvenient it is, we all need to go to school, and sit for exams. Studying is pretty unavoidable. Children learn to do it despite their more natural inclinations. Some actually enjoy it! But when it comes to reading for pleasure ... well, as much as it would horrify some adults to know this, some kids will just never enjoy reading. These children should never be forced to read. Parents should not make children feel like failures or freaks, nor should these parents feel like failures if, despite their best efforts, their children choose football, the telly or anything else over reading.
Mums who teach Renaissance literature, resist the urge to burst out screaming if you find your daughters devouring the Gossip Girl series. Dads, do not faint if your sons are reading Mills and Boon romances. At No. 5 on Pennac’s list is “the right to read anything” – yes, even the back of the shampoo bottle; even cheap, badly translated manga; even the Encyclopaedia Britannica; the complete works of Thomas Hardy; or The Star newspaper.
No. 2 on the list is “the right to skip”. This is another favourite of mine. Pennac talks about reading Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace at 12, and skipping huge chunks just to “follow the affairs of Natasha’s heart”. I can so relate because, at nine, I did the same to concentrate on Anna Karenina’s doomed love affair with Count Vronsky in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.
I still skip. In fact, I very often read the last page first. “You’ll spoil the story”, people say to me. How could they possibly know what would spoil the story for me? Reading is a personal thing – you’re the only one who gets to decide how to read a book.
“The right to mistake a book for real life” is right No. 6. The illustration shows a little boy reading a book of vampires. His thought bubble says, “It’s just SO me!” This is just SO my eldest son, who, thanks to Darren Shan’s Vampire Chronicles, believes he’s a vampire. I’m pretty sure that Elesh doesn’t really think he’s a vampire – he goes out in the daytime and eats garlic – but I’ve learnt not to argue when he says he is one. I mean, surely there’s something pretty marvellous about any reading that makes you want so much to be like a character, and live in the world it describes.
For all 10 rights, as well as to download the Rights of the Reader poster (courtesy of Walker Books), go to tinyurl.com/djs6aq. At the bottom of the poster is a valuable reminder: “Don’t make fun of people who don’t read – or they never will”.
I read parts of this book while I was in MPH. It was also on discount and I regret not buying the book that day.
This is gonna sound weird but I used to like exams when I was 8 or 9 because of the peaceful atmosphere. Nobody was allowed to talk or make any noise and I enjoyed the silence. But I hate exams now.
'The right to skip'. Somehow I feel guilty if I skipped even a word. This is why sometimes I take a very long time to finish a book.
Quentin Blake's art is just so attractive. Makes me wanna go back to MPH and find the book again! :)
Posted by: Josette | Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 00:20