Who is one of the
naughtiest rabbits you've heard of, aside from Little Bunny Foo Foo? My nominee is Peter. In Beatrix Potter’s book Peter is called
naughty: “But Peter who was very naughty, ran straight away to Mr. McGregor’s
garden, and squeezed under the gate.”
Back in the late 1990’s my
mother suffered from a stroke so severe that she could not talk, walk or do
anything to help herself. I spent much
of that summer with her being her manager, re-teaching her language through the
use of children’s books (much to the dismay of her speech therapist who said I
should be using adult books). Mom’s work
from the time I was in jr. high was in libraries with children. That’s also what I was doing at the
time. I told the therapist this and he
begrudgingly allowed me to continue – not that I wouldn't have continued
without his “blessing.”
Enter Peter Rabbit. A small enough book that we had to sit close
together in order to see and talk about the pictures. And the magic moment when I read, “But Peter
who was very naughty, ran straight away to Mr. McGregor’s garden, and squeezed
under the gate.” and Mom said, “Naughty Rabbit!” I was as joyful as a mother listening to her
child’s first real words. Naughty as
Peter was, he had given my mother back her ability to talk. After that breakthrough, we talked about the
books and the pictures.
Never underestimate the
power of a Naughty Rabbit.
2 comments:
This is brilliant. I hope if I ever have a stroke that people read me my favorite "children's" books, no matter what my age.
Right Susan Marie! I couldn't believe the speech therapist wanted me to read stuffy old adult books to my mom and I certainly wasn't going to read the kinds of novels she read to her - I got embarrassed when she lent them to me (all those steamy sex scenes that parents aren't supposed to be into). Besides what kind of conversational interaction can you get with stuffy adult books if the person you are reading to does not have the vocabulary to discuss them adequately?
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