Despite P.D. Eastman’s status as a blacklisted animator in the early 50s (discussed in further detail here), he became the author of a popular children’s book that remains in print today. Even if I were solely to base my evaluation of Are You My Mother’s current popularity on the local public library system’s catalog, I would be able to infer that it is still a popular choice for children learning to read. There are fifteen copies of Are You My Mother? in English (several of which were checked out when I searched the catalog on 4/6/15) and two in Spanish in the Champaign-Urbana library catalog.[1] Additionally, I checked out a 135th printing of the 1980 edition of the book from the library that is for this project. This indicates that the book is still being circulated and enjoyed by children and their families years after its initial publication.
http://cucatalog.org/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=6.1033.0.0.7&pos=4
When it was first published, Are you my mother? was not included in Children’s Catalog, a reader’s advisory used by educators and librarians to assist with collection development. This may have been due to the fact that Random House’s Beginner Books were a new phenomenon at the time and that controlled vocabularies were not taken seriously. The first Beginner Book, The Cat in the Hat, was published four years prior[2] — at the time and P.D. Eastman’s simple book about a baby bird was only the eighteenth book to be published in the series (indicated by the B-18 on the spine). By 1966 the book was being included in Children’s Catalog (earning two stars) and it is still being written about and discussed on blogs and websites like Amazon.
The book has remained relevant both in the US and abroad over the course of 54 years, amid changing social and political climates. As one reviewer notes, “His journey takes a long time--61 pages, several times longer than most books for young children … Despite this book's considerable length . . . many children want it read again and again.” [3] In spite of its simplicity, I believe that the book’s length enhances the reader’s experience by allowing children to feel as though they are reading a longer text. The page layouts throughout the book contain small amounts of text and drawings that only take up a portion of the page, creating pages with ample amounts of white space. This allows young readers to focus on the text as they’re reading without being overwhelmed as well as allowing them to engage with the action of the book via illustrations. As discussed here, reviews of the book cite its simple language and illustrations, as well as children’s ability to relate to the anxiety of being lost or separated from a parent or caregiver, regardless of their background, as reasons it has become a classic.
http://cucatalog.org/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=6.1033.0.0.7&pos=4
When it was first published, Are you my mother? was not included in Children’s Catalog, a reader’s advisory used by educators and librarians to assist with collection development. This may have been due to the fact that Random House’s Beginner Books were a new phenomenon at the time and that controlled vocabularies were not taken seriously. The first Beginner Book, The Cat in the Hat, was published four years prior[2] — at the time and P.D. Eastman’s simple book about a baby bird was only the eighteenth book to be published in the series (indicated by the B-18 on the spine). By 1966 the book was being included in Children’s Catalog (earning two stars) and it is still being written about and discussed on blogs and websites like Amazon.
The book has remained relevant both in the US and abroad over the course of 54 years, amid changing social and political climates. As one reviewer notes, “His journey takes a long time--61 pages, several times longer than most books for young children … Despite this book's considerable length . . . many children want it read again and again.” [3] In spite of its simplicity, I believe that the book’s length enhances the reader’s experience by allowing children to feel as though they are reading a longer text. The page layouts throughout the book contain small amounts of text and drawings that only take up a portion of the page, creating pages with ample amounts of white space. This allows young readers to focus on the text as they’re reading without being overwhelmed as well as allowing them to engage with the action of the book via illustrations. As discussed here, reviews of the book cite its simple language and illustrations, as well as children’s ability to relate to the anxiety of being lost or separated from a parent or caregiver, regardless of their background, as reasons it has become a classic.
[1]"Are You My Mother?" Urbana Free Library Catalog. http://cucatalog.org/polaris/search/searchresults.aspx?ctx=6.1033.0.0.7&&term=are%20you%20my%20mother?&by=KW&sort=RELEVANCE&limit=TOM=*&query=&page=0&searchid=1
[2] "Beginner Books." Accessed April 1, 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beginner_Books.
[3] "P(hilip) D(ey) Eastman." Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Biography in Context. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.