H Judy - Thanks for this! I have a long essay about A Summer to DIe that I keep trying to finish - my sister and I swapped the book during lockdown - it had been one of the first books passed between us sisters that I remember ...your links aren't working for me for some reason but I'm wondering if they're to Lowry's list of speeches on her website. There's a beauty there where she talks about 'making herself up' through books (and how her older sister didn't need to'. This resonates with me so deeply! I also learned lots of poetry through children's/YA books - including S.E Hinton & Paul Zindel ... I guess it's the same today just that the objects being referred to are different - more likely to be films/games etc ....
This is beautiful, Judith. I just read The Giver for the first time this week because I saw that it’s a banned/challenged book in the US. The writing and the story made me curious about the author, so your lovely essay (with the welcome link to Lowry’s speech) comes to me like a gift. Thank you.
Some good thoughts - I remember learning about the history of kid lit at uni and that books had been really didactic at the start, and that Lewis Carroll had been the start of the Golden Age - when kids books were not didactic - at least, not in the sense that they overtly told kids what to think or believe. I definitely think its possible there is a sense of this today, but it's probably not as overt in a way. It's subversive in a way.
H Judy - Thanks for this! I have a long essay about A Summer to DIe that I keep trying to finish - my sister and I swapped the book during lockdown - it had been one of the first books passed between us sisters that I remember ...your links aren't working for me for some reason but I'm wondering if they're to Lowry's list of speeches on her website. There's a beauty there where she talks about 'making herself up' through books (and how her older sister didn't need to'. This resonates with me so deeply! I also learned lots of poetry through children's/YA books - including S.E Hinton & Paul Zindel ... I guess it's the same today just that the objects being referred to are different - more likely to be films/games etc ....
Oh, that’s annoying about the links. Which ones? I can send you the speech directly if you like.
the speech specifically! Please do :)
Will do
Hey Simmone, I have fixed the links. There are now two that take you to the page on Lois's website where she has pdfs of her speeches:
http://loislowry.com/speeches/
This is beautiful, Judith. I just read The Giver for the first time this week because I saw that it’s a banned/challenged book in the US. The writing and the story made me curious about the author, so your lovely essay (with the welcome link to Lowry’s speech) comes to me like a gift. Thank you.
Oh thank you, Leila! That means a lot.
Some good thoughts - I remember learning about the history of kid lit at uni and that books had been really didactic at the start, and that Lewis Carroll had been the start of the Golden Age - when kids books were not didactic - at least, not in the sense that they overtly told kids what to think or believe. I definitely think its possible there is a sense of this today, but it's probably not as overt in a way. It's subversive in a way.