What makes a children's book?

I was driving into work earlier this week when Morning Edition had an interview with Philip Pullman about his new book, "The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ". Pullman was explaining the reasoning behind why this book was written, talked about the plot a little, and read a couple of excerpts.

Well, it sounded quite good. And since His Dark Materials is still one of my favorite books/series of all time, I put this new book on my todo list - either I'll cough up the money to buy it or I'll wait for the library to get it.

In the meantime though, I decided to look up the other books he has written, since I've only read HDM and I know that he's got more out there. So I looked up his official website, looked at the descriptions of the books, and realized that the majority are classified as "young adult" at best or "children's" for the rest. I didn't really care, wasn't going to let that bother me, and I went to the library and picked up four books to start: "The Ruby in the Smoke" and "The Shadow in the North", the first two books of the Ruby series; "The Broken Bridge", and "The White Mercedes", which are standalone books.

As of this writing, I have finished "The Broken Bridge" and have just started "The White Mercedes", and damn, we must be raising smart children now. That or I forget about the types of books that I read when I was little, but I think I was also reading out of my age group on a regular basis. But then this got me to thinking about how broad the category of "children's" is when applying it to a book. I had to go into the children's room at the Boston Public Library to get these books, and as I was sitting on the floor thinking about which ones were going to be the first to check out, I looked around. There were science fiction-looking books, with artistic covers and potentially deep material right next to "Froggy Goes To The Park", what I usually think of when I think of children's books.

So, then, what qualifies? "The Broken Bridge" wasn't a difficult read, but the themes that were presented were complex, and with each new revelation the story got that much more twisted and complicated, where I guess a kid could read it and say, "Well, that's bad," whereas I look at it and see how each new action impacts on the character's psyche. But perhaps that's because I have that much more experience in the world than kids? "The White Mercedes" apparently has a pretty graphic sex scene...and people complain about Harry Potter being bad for children. I KNOW that's not something that the under 13 year olds will fully comprehend, because I read books like that when I was young and I didn't get it. I'll have to repost after I get there, see what it's really like.

His Dark Materials I certainly read when I was younger, and again, there's a level of complexity that maybe you can understand as a kid, but certainly better when you are an adult. When you are a kid, you read about Dust and how it's this concept that's so important for their world, and that's that, but then when you are older you think of it as more of a philosophical thing, is Pullman trying to describe something else here, something that impacts children and then goes away in adulthood? There are BOOKS written on the topic of "What IS Dust?", and I think that's something that Pullman will revisit one day.

Or, if I may, pull up another of my favorites, "The Giver", which was read to me in sixth grade when I got the idea of what was going on, could follow the plot and feel sympathy for the protagonist, but when I was older and rereading this book in a matter of hours, I would think about the political and moral justifications behind the setup of the story, a bleak narrative of misguided ambition and unintended consequences. Do kids understand that? Or is that something that's picked up later?

So, I'm back to my original question: what makes a children's book a children's book? A character that a kid could relate to, mostly by having the main character be about that age? Showing that the child main character is able to handle all sorts of problems that come their way, therefore the child reading will be able to handle day-to-day things?

Well, whatever the answer, I'm enjoying the children's books that I'm reading now, and I don't care that I have to go into a little room with little chairs at a little table in order to find them. :)