ABSTRACT
Children will acquire their first languages naturally in any functional social setting, but there is a social divide. Some children grow up in language deserts, unable to participate in a rich oral or literal culture and without much quality daily verbal interaction. Pediatricians and educators are currently concerned about these children and how they present when they come to school after having experienced a ‘30-million-word gap’ at home. Other children receive intense verbal attention and enjoy a steady supply of children’s books and interactive reading sessions. In a society that no longer relies on memorization and communal storytelling for quality literary fare, it is up to children’s books to deliver the linguistic sophistication our modern brains have adapted for. Children’s books thus tend to support the modern intellectual elite and children who grow up in families of higher socio-economic status. The chapter concludes with a response to Isaac Bashevis Singer’s (1978) Nobel Banquet Speech, in which he made ten famous points about children’s literature, most of which must be qualified or challenged in light of this volume.
