ORIGINS OF STORY: On Writing for Children

Presents a collection of 16 essays by children's book writers and artists originally presented at lectures sponsored by Children's Literature New England

Seventeen essays originally presented as lectures at Children's Literature New England conferences between 1988 and 1996. Contributors include Sharon Creech, Maurice Sendak, Susan Cooper, Tom Feelings, Madeleine L'Engle, Virginia Hamilton, Ursula Le Guin, Katherine Paterson, Gillian Cross, Jill Paton Walsh, Margaret Mahy, and Gregory Maguire. Speaking to such topics as "Image and Word" and "Myth as Metaphor," the essays reveal the authors' writing processes, their beliefs about the nature of childhood, and their thoughts about its connectedness to the larger issues of literature and life. The contributors struggle to find coherent answers to the proverbial question of where they get their ideas by discussing their own experiences of reading and writing and their observations about the structures and themes of fiction. All write movingly of their belief that story and metaphor provide a safe and empowering place for children to grow despite the dragons of race, gender, and class that may besiege them.
Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

For more than 10 years, writers and scholars have gathered on college campuses under the aegis of Children's Literature New England to discuss books and writing. This volume gathers together 16 essays, by top-notch children's writers and illustrators, that represent some of the themes around which programs were structured. Among the voices here are Gillian Cross, who writes about how an author must take a giant step into the unknown to find a story; Madeleine L'Engle, writing on the heroic personality (though her choice of Stephen Hawkings' wife as a heroic personality may be out of date since the duo is divorced); and one of the best, Maurice Sendak, who gives his reasons for writing We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy (1993), something many people have wondered about. Among the other authors included are Betty Levin, Virginia Hamilton, Tom Feelings, Katherine Paterson, and Jill Paton Walsh. Thought-provoking and immensely readable, this is professional reading that's fun. Ilene Cooper