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ifeelbetterMy computer won't turn on. This is incredibly sad for my life because I'm leaving for my Thanksgiving-at-home time in two days and the repair shop said it will probably be two days before they fix it. If they can even fix it.
So I'm in my office, avoiding reading The Bondwoman's Narrative and (though not my fault for once!) avoiding grading papers....making more lists. I make terrible decisions, what can I say?
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jedusor suggested "Top Five Authors who should have written children's lit" and I was like, whoooooa. SUCH a cool idea.
But first I'm gonna do a Top Five Children's Lit because...I don't know why. To show my taste in books? To give context? As a warmup?
5. Naytalie Babbitt - The Search for Delicious
This book may be responsible for my current career--that and the fact that both my parents have PhDs in English lit, my sister is getting one, and so is my brother-in-law. But this book. Natalie Babbitt is one of those authors who can touch some really weird stuff with her children's lit (The Devil's Storybook, for instance) and make it work. She's got a moral package, true, but she never forces her reader to buy into it. She's about opening things up, not giving answers.
Summary, according to amazon.com: Gaylen, the King’s messenger, a skinny boy of twelve, is off to poll the kingdom, traveling from town to farmstead to town on his horse, Marrow. At first it is merely a question of disagreement at the royal castle over which food should stand for Delicious in the new dictionary. But soon it seems that the search for Delicious had better succeed if civil war is to be avoided.
Gaylen’s quest leads him to the woldweller, a wise, 900-year-old creature who lives alone at the precise center of the forest; to Canto, the minstrel who sings him an old song about a mermaid child and who gives him a peculiar good-luck charm; to the underground domain of the dwarfs; and finally to Ardis who might save the kingdom from havoc.
4. Lloyd Alexander - The Prydain Chronicles
This is totally even the cover of the version I read as a kid. This series is great--not just because it's a fun read (it is) or imaginatively and intellectually stimulating (it is) or, even, because these characters are fantastic role models to children (they are). It's great because Alexander manages to do new things with a fantasy template that should have been wrung dry decades ago. And he does it with a pig-herder as his protagonist.
Summary, according to amazon.com: The tale of Taran, assistant pig keeper, has been entertaining young readers for generations. Set in the mythical land of Prydain (which bears a more than passing resemblance to Wales), Lloyd Alexander's book draws together the elements of the hero's journey from unformed boy to courageous young man. Taran grumbles with frustration at home in the hamlet Caer Dallben; he yearns to go into battle like his hero, Prince Gwydion. Before the story is over, he has met his hero and fought the evil leader who threatens the peace of Prydain: the Horned King.
3. Shel Silverstein - Where the Sidewalk Ends
Because everyone needs a little Shel Silverstein in their lives. This is just truth. I am laying some truth on you right now.
2. Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book
I grew up with The Jungle Book and, so-very-flawed though it may be, there's a lot to that book that I still love. For example, no one in my family can read the Red Dogs chapter in the second volume without crying. No one. Not even my dad. But it IS so seriously flawed--in racial terms especially.
What's so wonderful about TGB is that it does all the best things that TJB does but without the baggage. I heard Gaiman describe this book as the best idea he ever had--perhaps too good for him. I agree. This IS the best idea he ever had.
Summary, according to amazon.com: Somewhere in contemporary Britain, "the man Jack" uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he "looks like nobody but himself," grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods that includes matronly Mistress Owens; ancient Roman Caius Pompeius; an opinionated young witch; a melodramatic hack poet; and Bod's beloved mentor and guardian, Silas, who is neither living nor dead and has secrets of his own. As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present.
1. Peter S. Beagle - The Last Unicorn
Hands down, the best thing any girl can read to help her through the rocky patches of puberty. Molly Grue should be every young girl's guardian angel and Schmenderick is a king among men. And the writing. These lines are so good, they can just wait in your memory banks until you hit every block life has to offer. I forget how Alan Bennett phrased it in History Boys, but he mentioned something about how great literature prepares us with the antidote before we hit the trauma. That's what TLU does.
Summary, according to amazon.com: The unicorn discovers that she is the last unicorn in the world, and sets off to find the others. She meets Schmendrick the Magician--whose magic seldom works, and never as he intended--when he rescues her from Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival, where only some of the mythical beasts displayed are illusions. They are joined by Molly Grue, who believes in legends despite her experiences with a Robin Hood wannabe and his unmerry men. Ahead wait King Haggard and his Red Bull, who banished unicorns from the land.
Now for people I wish would (have) writ(ten) children's lit. (Those sure are some hard-working parentheses in that sentence.)
5. Shakespeare.
I wouldn't be who I am, you wouldn't be who you are, no one would be anybody if it wasn't for Shakespeare. OK, that was hyperbolic and Not True but...GUYS. He's just....he's everything. I would love to have seen what he could do with a novel, let alone what he would have done for children.
4. Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Yes, this weird. I totally agree. Buuuuut. A lot of girls need better, stronger literature in their formative years. And Millay is such a strong figure...I would have loved to see what she could have done.
3. James Baldwin.
There is a great deal of music in his prose. I think that would work well for children but he is also a writer who would not flinch to tell truth to children. Too much children's lit is about masks and mirrors--like preparing them for a too-perfect-version of the world is better than preparing them honestly.
2. Dylan Moran.
Because...guys....it would be HILARIOUS. And children like laughter as much as I do.
1. Jon Stewart.
I honestly feel like Jon has been a really close, intimate presence in my maturation process. I mean...he walked me through my first time voting. He comforted me after the trauma of 9/11. I've spent a half hour with him, four days a week, for over a decade. Him writing children's lit could be so very right.
Or it could go incredibly wrong. I have no idea. But I still wish it existed. Just so I could see.
So I'm in my office, avoiding reading The Bondwoman's Narrative and (though not my fault for once!) avoiding grading papers....making more lists. I make terrible decisions, what can I say?
jedusor suggested "Top Five Authors who should have written children's lit" and I was like, whoooooa. SUCH a cool idea. But first I'm gonna do a Top Five Children's Lit because...I don't know why. To show my taste in books? To give context? As a warmup?
This book may be responsible for my current career--that and the fact that both my parents have PhDs in English lit, my sister is getting one, and so is my brother-in-law. But this book. Natalie Babbitt is one of those authors who can touch some really weird stuff with her children's lit (The Devil's Storybook, for instance) and make it work. She's got a moral package, true, but she never forces her reader to buy into it. She's about opening things up, not giving answers.
Summary, according to amazon.com: Gaylen, the King’s messenger, a skinny boy of twelve, is off to poll the kingdom, traveling from town to farmstead to town on his horse, Marrow. At first it is merely a question of disagreement at the royal castle over which food should stand for Delicious in the new dictionary. But soon it seems that the search for Delicious had better succeed if civil war is to be avoided.
Gaylen’s quest leads him to the woldweller, a wise, 900-year-old creature who lives alone at the precise center of the forest; to Canto, the minstrel who sings him an old song about a mermaid child and who gives him a peculiar good-luck charm; to the underground domain of the dwarfs; and finally to Ardis who might save the kingdom from havoc.
This is totally even the cover of the version I read as a kid. This series is great--not just because it's a fun read (it is) or imaginatively and intellectually stimulating (it is) or, even, because these characters are fantastic role models to children (they are). It's great because Alexander manages to do new things with a fantasy template that should have been wrung dry decades ago. And he does it with a pig-herder as his protagonist.
Summary, according to amazon.com: The tale of Taran, assistant pig keeper, has been entertaining young readers for generations. Set in the mythical land of Prydain (which bears a more than passing resemblance to Wales), Lloyd Alexander's book draws together the elements of the hero's journey from unformed boy to courageous young man. Taran grumbles with frustration at home in the hamlet Caer Dallben; he yearns to go into battle like his hero, Prince Gwydion. Before the story is over, he has met his hero and fought the evil leader who threatens the peace of Prydain: the Horned King.
Because everyone needs a little Shel Silverstein in their lives. This is just truth. I am laying some truth on you right now.
I grew up with The Jungle Book and, so-very-flawed though it may be, there's a lot to that book that I still love. For example, no one in my family can read the Red Dogs chapter in the second volume without crying. No one. Not even my dad. But it IS so seriously flawed--in racial terms especially.
What's so wonderful about TGB is that it does all the best things that TJB does but without the baggage. I heard Gaiman describe this book as the best idea he ever had--perhaps too good for him. I agree. This IS the best idea he ever had.
Summary, according to amazon.com: Somewhere in contemporary Britain, "the man Jack" uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he "looks like nobody but himself," grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods that includes matronly Mistress Owens; ancient Roman Caius Pompeius; an opinionated young witch; a melodramatic hack poet; and Bod's beloved mentor and guardian, Silas, who is neither living nor dead and has secrets of his own. As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present.
Hands down, the best thing any girl can read to help her through the rocky patches of puberty. Molly Grue should be every young girl's guardian angel and Schmenderick is a king among men. And the writing. These lines are so good, they can just wait in your memory banks until you hit every block life has to offer. I forget how Alan Bennett phrased it in History Boys, but he mentioned something about how great literature prepares us with the antidote before we hit the trauma. That's what TLU does.
Summary, according to amazon.com: The unicorn discovers that she is the last unicorn in the world, and sets off to find the others. She meets Schmendrick the Magician--whose magic seldom works, and never as he intended--when he rescues her from Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival, where only some of the mythical beasts displayed are illusions. They are joined by Molly Grue, who believes in legends despite her experiences with a Robin Hood wannabe and his unmerry men. Ahead wait King Haggard and his Red Bull, who banished unicorns from the land.
Now for people I wish would (have) writ(ten) children's lit. (Those sure are some hard-working parentheses in that sentence.)
I wouldn't be who I am, you wouldn't be who you are, no one would be anybody if it wasn't for Shakespeare. OK, that was hyperbolic and Not True but...GUYS. He's just....he's everything. I would love to have seen what he could do with a novel, let alone what he would have done for children.
Yes, this weird. I totally agree. Buuuuut. A lot of girls need better, stronger literature in their formative years. And Millay is such a strong figure...I would have loved to see what she could have done.
There is a great deal of music in his prose. I think that would work well for children but he is also a writer who would not flinch to tell truth to children. Too much children's lit is about masks and mirrors--like preparing them for a too-perfect-version of the world is better than preparing them honestly.
Because...guys....it would be HILARIOUS. And children like laughter as much as I do.
I honestly feel like Jon has been a really close, intimate presence in my maturation process. I mean...he walked me through my first time voting. He comforted me after the trauma of 9/11. I've spent a half hour with him, four days a week, for over a decade. Him writing children's lit could be so very right.
Or it could go incredibly wrong. I have no idea. But I still wish it existed. Just so I could see.
