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Young Canada’s Book Weekâ€" Concerning Food for Young Minds By Marian Brown Chiidren's Librarian, Barrie If a book for children is so well written as to be "good litera- ture" grown-ups can usually enjoy it too. November 15th to 22nd is Young Canada's wok Week. Between those dates there will be .dio talks, T.V. programmes, magazine articles. wspaper columns, window displays and elaboâ€" Ie programmes in some schools and libraries, l dealing, in one way or another, with books vr boys and girls. Why? Why all this commotion out what children read? Well, let's think about it. Children today are gger, stronger and healthier in body than ever .:y have been before. and this is undoubtedly to 3 good. It comes in part. we are told. from better d more careful feeding during infancy and tldhood. It seems logical to assume that a carc‘ lly fed child will be healthier than one care- sly or inadequately fed. But what of the mind? The power to reason. make decisions and form judgments, is an ential part of the human character. and is the action of the unique instrument, the human hr]. The mind, like the body, must have proper ‘tll'ishment if it is to function properly, and a ‘ .Ilthy body which shelters an undernourished, ilfunctioning, or nonafunctioning mind is of far .x use to our society than a healthy. vigorous ‘nd in a weak and sickly body. I the food the mind requires is knowledge. F'10Wledge is gained through experience, but. we the experience of most individuals is deâ€" iedly limited, and the sum total of human ex- I'ience both broad and deep, the child of today i 'ist supplement his own experience in order to Id the food which will enable his mind to keep zee with his growing body. This is where books come in. Books are the Ly‘L‘lJ-freeze in which the knowledge and wisdom “‘ mankind is stored. From books a child can FML I959 benefit from the experience of others. thereby broadening his outlook and deepening his under- standing of the world in which he lives. Un» fortunately, not all books provide healthy nourish» ment for growing minds. There are books which are as light and frothy as the meringue on a lemon pie â€" and contain even less nourishment: there are books which are merely sweet and which make a child's mind fat and lazy as a steady diet of sweet food makes the human body. There are yet other form.» of reading matter which. like bad food. contain poisons against which the inno- cent child has no defence and which may permu- nently sicken and cripple his mind. The books which nourish a child‘s mind are those which give him the information he wants. thus nourishing his growing mind. which present to him new ideas and differing points of view. thus stimulating both mind and imagination by making him think. an exercise which develops his mental functions as physical exercise develops his body. Through reading such books he joins in the experience of others, and through them broadens his knowledge and deepens his under- standing of people. places and things. BElelC’S these essential qualities. the books a child reads must be those he enjoys reading. for without enjoyment he will miss that pleasurable exciteâ€" ment compounded of intellectual stimulation and vicarious experience which is the trite end and supreme joy of reading. This is why. for one week in the year. parents and teachers. librarians and publishers. and all others who have the welfare of children at heart. take time out to discuss the importance of chil- dren's reading and to bring into the limelight those books which they believe children will cn» joy and from which they will derive benefit. 25