What they also need to grow

There is a phrase by Philip Pullman that has stayed with me for a long time:
Children need art, stories, poems, and music
as much as they need love, food, fresh air, and play.

And the more I read the full text, the more sense it makes.

Because when a child lacks food, it shows.
When they lack rest or movement, it shows too.
When they lack love… sometimes it takes longer, but it leaves a mark.

But when they lack songs, stories, images, poetry,
that isn’t always visible.

The body is fine.
They run, jump, laugh, make noise.
Everything seems to be in order.
And yet, something may be missing.

Not because everyone needs the same thing.
There are people who live full, meaningful lives without music, without books, without art.
And that’s okay.

But there are others —many—
who carry inside them a kind of quiet hunger
that only awakens when, by chance,
they hear a song,
see an illustration,
listen to a story,
and something inside clicks.

They didn’t know they needed it
until they found it.

Pullman talks about “awakening” that hunger.
About not letting childhood pass
without having had, at least,
the chance to encounter culture, art, and music.

And this isn’t really about big museums or concerts.
It’s about everyday life.
About singing without doing it perfectly.
About repeating the same song over and over.
About looking at an illustration together.
About listening to a familiar story.

At Petit Folks, we truly believe in this:
not in “teaching culture,”
but in opening the door.

In placing songs, images, and words
within reach of childhood,
so that, if that hunger exists,
it can awaken.

Because just as we care for the body,
we can also care for something more invisible.

🎶 Sometimes, all it takes is one song
to awaken something
that will stay with us for a lifetime.