‘Literary Childhood’- in the circle of reading initiations

Abstract

„Reading childhood”, which according to some researchers comes to its end when a child turns nine or ten, has an exceptionally important impact on forming literary culture of an adult person. Then in the process of literary initiation, which means shaping of literary needs and habits, an adult reading go-between plays at predominant role. That is the reader who introduces a child into the world of literature and, in large measure, is also responsible for the fact that a future independent reader will associate contact with a book with a feeling of pleasure. An adult reading go-between is also responsible for the proper choice of texts which are read to a child. It is rather a tough task when you take into consideration relatively short period of childhood when diverse reading experiences should be included. It would be optimal to balance the recurring elements with the new ones, take care about gender and stylistic diversity of the presented texts, include both classical works, accompanying many generations of readers, and the contemporary ones.