Children learn to read after being captivated by pictures, Sir Quentin Blake has said, as he argues no-one should be compelled to try heavy texts too young.
Quentin Blake speaks at the Hay
Festival 2013 Photo: Jay
WIlliams
Sir Quentin, the former
children's laureate, said he had been put off reading temporarily after
attempting to tackle challenging books too young.
He added children enthralled by pictures would then naturally move on to
Dickens at an "appropriate age".
Speaking at the Telegraph Hay Festival, Sir Quentin told an audience that
children learn to read from an "emotional motivation", as he urged educators not
to "turn their backs" on the fun of illustrations.
"The relationship between text and illustration can on occasion be quite
complex, but what illustration can first of all do is to welcome you to the
book," he said in the Hay Library Lecture.
"I was lucky enough to have a similar experience in illustrating A Christmas
Carol, and a secondary schoolteacher wrote to me recently from Nottingham to say
that the school had had the enterprise to buy 90 copies, enough for three
classes. 'Now they are all reading Dickens.'"
He added: “They [children] learn because they want to. The emotional motivation is immensely strong: no one should be turning their back on that.”
He told the Telegraph he had read Oliver Twist at a young age and was put off Dickens for "another ten years" before learning to love it.
"You should be reading serious books but the appropriate age," he said.
"There is a sort of intimacy about drawings. If you are small, you feel that they're addressing you; it's like a conversation.
"These things develop people's feelings about books and about reading."
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He added: “They [children] learn because they want to. The emotional motivation is immensely strong: no one should be turning their back on that.”
He told the Telegraph he had read Oliver Twist at a young age and was put off Dickens for "another ten years" before learning to love it.
"You should be reading serious books but the appropriate age," he said.
"There is a sort of intimacy about drawings. If you are small, you feel that they're addressing you; it's like a conversation.
"These things develop people's feelings about books and about reading."
More
