Roberto the Insect Architect

Nina Laden

There's something to be said for reading childrens' picture books every now and again. Childrens' authors can't get away with as much as adult authors can; for one thing, they generally have less room in which to get away with it (unless they are J. K. Rowling or Clive Barker, the vanguards of the burgeoning "childrens' doorstop" movement); for another, kids have an innate crap detector adults seem to get rid of as they get older. Reading chidlrens' books is a good way of grounding yourself, if you've gotten stuck in a rut of overly wordy stuff.

Roberto the Insect Architect is a fun one. (And note that a number of Amazon reviews of it have been posted by adults who own the book for themselves rather than their kids.) It's your basic "be yourself" kind of book, and reminds me in many ways of Randall Jarrell's brilliant The Bat-Poet. It's shorter, of course, being for a younger audience, and the points that are made are closer to the surface, but Laden still keeps things in hand by letting the story tell the story and giving visual cues that will make the reader of the intended age work (for example, Roberto's dream and its realization, which bookend the narrative in pictures instead of words). Worth reading for all ages.