Everything you didn't know about your favorite childhood authors
NPR had children's author Lesley Blume on the air this morning with a must-read list for kids this summer. It includes books I've loved and forgotten, including "The Phantom Tollbooth," "The Boxcar Children" and "The Witches."
It also reminded me how scary children's books can be! I'm not talking R.L. Stine Goosebumps scary. I'm talking creepy, your-parents-are-going-to-die-and-leave-you-out-in-a-world-inhabited-by-the-supernatural scary. I'm starting to wonder how in the world Harry Potter caused such a stir while Natalie Babbitt's "The Devil's Storybook" is considered a classic. (If Babbitt's name looks familiar, it may be that you remember her mystical and "Tuck Everlasting.")
And speaking of children's books that are more than meets the eye (I will never forgive you for ruining my Transformers, Michael Bay!) here's a New Yorker piece about the evolution of the Little House books.
If you haven't read it yet, it's a fascinating look into the complex relationship between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. And I find the passages about their hatred of the New Deal is especially interesting today, considering our current seemingly never-ending economic crisis.
Comments
i loved the bit lesley blume read from "the devil's storybook." i, too, like the idea of it being boring down in hell. :)
Posted by: maryann | August 12, 2009 11:15 AM
My daughter's reading the Phantom Tollbooth right now. I can tell she's hooked!
Posted by: Kate | August 12, 2009 1:16 PM
Nancy, Thanks for the link to The New Yorker. I really enjoyed that article!
Posted by: Gail Farrelly | August 12, 2009 9:57 PM
The New Yorker article was good, but it seemed a little disorganized. Anyway, she mentions historian Pamela Smith Hill in that article, and her book, Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life, really is worth checking out. Could be one of the best on the subject I have seen in a long time and it is only $12.95!
Posted by: Martyn | August 13, 2009 8:34 AM