Theme · Hometown
Children's books set in real places: three classics, and a book set where you live
The street outside the front door, the park with the duck pond, the station where you catch the train: some children like to find their own place in a book. Below are three classic stories set in real places, with publisher and age, and what is known about recognising your own world in a story.
What is known about finding your own world in a book
First, the gap. We found no study showing that children enjoy or understand a book better because it is set in their own town. What exists is a wider idea.
The scholar Rudine Sims Bishop wrote in 1990 that books can be windows onto worlds that are real or imagined, familiar or strange, and that in the right light a window can also be a mirror, so that readers see their own lives in it.1 She was concerned with whether children find their own lives in books. Carrying the idea over to a street or a town is our step, and no study backs it.
Three stories set in real places, checked
All three are classics set in large cities. We found no verified picture book set in an ordinary small town or village, and the page says so instead of guessing. Ages come from BookTrust or Common Sense Media, named for each book.
Make Way for Ducklings
Robert McCloskey · Penguin Group · Common Sense Media: age 2+, publisher's recommended age 4 to 7 as listed there
Mrs. Mallard leads her eight ducklings across busy Boston streets to the Public Garden to meet their father. A police officer helps protect them during the dangerous street crossing. A story to read in Boston, with the city as part of it.
Madeline
Ludwig Bemelmans · Penguin Group · Common Sense Media: age 4+, publisher's recommended age 4 to 7 as listed there
Twelve girls live in an old, vine-covered boarding school and walk in two straight lines with their teacher, Miss Clavel. Madeline, the smallest, is fearless, until one night she is rushed to hospital. The illustrations show Paris landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.
A Bear Called Paddington
Michael Bond, illustrated by Peggy Fortnum · HarperCollins Children's Books · BookTrust: interest age 6 to 8, reading age 7+
The Brown family find Paddington on Paddington Station, wearing his hat and duffel coat, with marmalade sandwiches. Each chapter is a story of its own about his well-meaning mishaps at birthday parties, the theatre and the seaside. Each chapter stands alone, so it suits reading a little at a time.
A place can be a character
In Make Way for Ducklings the street crossing is the plot.2 In Madeline the landmarks are in the pictures.3 In A Bear Called Paddington the station is where the story starts.4 In each, a real place gives the story a shape that a made-up one would have to build from scratch.
What that means for a book about your own place. A child can recognise a corner shop, a bus stop or a duck pond much as they recognise Boston's Public Garden. In your idea you can name the places your child knows, and they appear in the story.
Or a story of their own
If your child should be the hero
- Your child leads a tour of the street, the corner shop and the park, and finds a small surprise at every stop.
- A visitor arrives in town and your child has to show them the best way to the harbour, the market or the playground.
- On the way to school, your child notices that something has changed in the neighbourhood and sets out to find out why.
Frequently asked questions
- Are there children's books set in a real town or city?
- Yes. Make Way for Ducklings is set in Boston, Madeline in Paris, and A Bear Called Paddington starts at Paddington Station. We found no verified picture book set in an ordinary small town.
- Do children like books that are set where they live?
- We found no study that says so. Rudine Sims Bishop described books as mirrors in which readers see their own lives, but she wrote about representation in books in general.
- What age are these books for?
- Make Way for Ducklings is age 2+ at Common Sense Media, with 4 to 7 as the publisher's recommended age listed there. Madeline is 4+, and A Bear Called Paddington has an interest age of 6 to 8 at BookTrust.
- Can a book be set in our own street or town?
- Yes. In your idea you can name the street, the park, the shop on the corner or the town, and the places appear in the story.
Sources
- 1.Bishop, R. S. (1990): Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom 6(3), reproduced by The Open University, OpenLearn.What it confirms: Books are sometimes windows onto worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange; in the right light a window can also be a mirror.
- 2.Common Sense Media: Make Way for Ducklings (book review).What it confirms: Robert McCloskey, Penguin Group edition; age 2+, publisher's recommended age 4 to 7 as listed there; set in Boston, the family heads for the Public Garden.
- 3.Common Sense Media: Madeline (book review).What it confirms: Ludwig Bemelmans, Penguin Group edition; age 4+, publisher's recommended age 4 to 7 as listed there; the illustrations show the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.
- 4.BookTrust Bookfinder: A Bear Called Paddington.What it confirms: Michael Bond and Peggy Fortnum, HarperCollins Children's Books; interest age 6 to 8, reading age 7+; Paddington is found at Paddington Station.
Other themes: Animals, Autumn, Dinosaurs, Rabbits, Moles, Elephants, Witches, Unicorns, Fire engines, Dragons, Cats, Football, Dogs, Pirates, Space, Diggers and trucks and Forest. Or children's books by age, growing up, topic by topic and all the illustration styles.