HomeReading List:
The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear, Holbrook Jackson, editor
Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, Dover edition
The Marvelous Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
Stuart Little by E.B. White
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (Signet Edition)
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
_ _ _ Children's literature: mainly a delight and a wonder - to stimulate, to use the quality of language.
These writers were out to entertain and delight children. Art and beauty of detail was uppermost; secondly, to stress the values of society.
It's very important to read aloud - a musical construction, arrangements of words to the ear. Read as dramatically as you can. Children love active, colorful poems. Great sense of the absurd, foibles of the adults.
Often in children's literature there is a conflict between children and adults. A lampooning of insensitivity of adults for children. (See Lear's "Jumblies.") An author must be able to see through the child's perspective.
Read to children early - they will want to write themselves, ages 4-7. It's good for parents to do a little writing, so they can help.
NONSENSE Why kids get it: kids intuit things, associations, word resemblances, not logical. Onomatopoeia - when language is invented, this is usually how it's done. Jargon is the opposite of nonsense. Nonsense is children's sense. Associational. You get it intuitively.
Rhymes link ideas together, sometimes point out contrasts.
In children's literature - there's a terrific amount of FOOD! Kids love words like "Runcible." [from "The Owl and the Pussy-cat"]
The nonsense elements have symbolic truth in them, make perfect sense to children. Adults don't understand!Children love refrains - must be in an imaginative & musical manner. You delight in hearing it again. Work some of the main symbols, elements into the rhymes. Rhymes are never superfluous.
In fiction for children, characters often break into verse, addressing a supernatural being, an incantation. The magical part of poetry puts people under spells - rhymed couplets, 3 or 4-beat lines. Use language at its most compelling, incantational.
"Adults are the ones who can't tell the difference between a symbol & a literal statement." - N.B.
Edward Lear
Lear was primarily an artist, a landscape painter. Most children's literature writers were painters first; literature was a sideline. (Lewis Carroll was a mathematician.) Lear tutored children. The best writers wrote in collaboration with the children. Wrote, then tried to find if children liked what they had written, went back and forth.Lear was good with inventing place names. Edgar Allen Poe made up half the places he wrote about. So did Coleridge. Lear & Tennyson admired each other's work.
There's a good bit of gentle, easy satire in children's literature. Overly protective adults who leap to conclusions, assume the worst. Super-cautious. But at the end of "The Jumblies," the adults change their minds & join them!
Silvery bees = synaesthesia. Feel & intuit your way through children's literature. Sound is very important.
Quality children's literature is just like quality adult literature. It incorporates understanding of history, etc. Use language as simply, as colorfully as you can.
With Lear, clothing & food are stressed, also noses. Edward Lear had a large, odd-shaped nose.
Children love little birds & little animals, mice.
Children always visualize the image. 19 of 20 adults look right through to the abstract meaning. Children are the ideal audience.
Mid-word end rhymes good - surprises a child is likely to enjoy.
[Though you've such a tiny body,
And your head so large doth grow, -
Though your hat may blow away,
Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo!
Though you're such a Hoddy Doddy -
Yet I wish that I could modi-
fy the words I needs must say!
Will you please to go away?
That is all I have to say -
Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo!
Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo!- from Lear's "The Courtship of the Yonghy Bonghy-Bo"]
Many images have double meanings.
Place names often use repetition, e.g., "Quangle Wangle."
Dr. Seuss was much influenced by Lear.
When writing, try "ridiculously serious."
Classroom scenes, comments on teachers are popular in children's literature.
Lear's characters rise above their problems, have inner strength.
January 18, 1990
A function of art - to share. Something that's heard, read aloud.
The highest aims of mankind, especially faith, hope & love, are wound in the values of society.In children's literature, the author is trying to understand the child's viewpoint. It's essential [for a writer of children's literature] to spend a lot of time with children. What they like, their reactions, faithful to their experience.
[This type of writing is] Most likely to appeal to everybody - aim at the imaginative mind.
- Words in children's literature:
- imaginative, musical, high percentage of dialogue, lively, brief, colorful, characters imagined well, interesting, surprising, sounds the way (animals, etc.) would talk.
- - - A. A. Milne (author of Winnie-the-Pooh)
Milne was a dramatist. He wrote plays. Had a good ear for conversation. Vital. Capitalized words. Kids think in terms of symbols & archetypes. Characters burst into poetry every once in a while.
Poetry - the higher part of himself [Milne], higher level of consciousness - used to hypnotize, address deities.
The animals in Milne's stories are Christopher's own (in real life.) Christopher, Milne's son, played with them and gave them their personalities. Pooh is 9/10 Christopher.Children's literature starts off with lovely, lively opening scenes, but kind of quiet, [in an] introducing [fashion].
Later, more action builds. Usually one chapter with the most action. A galaxy of interesting characters. Some enter later.Milne wrote of children's curiosity & developing reasoning power, always involved in their own interests, e.g., Pooh's constant theme of "honey."
- Kid's interests:
- 1) food
- 2) surrounding landscapes - teachers, parents, clothing, domestic facts of the child's life.
The child is developing a sense of language, social value, reasoning power (e.g., Chapter 3 of Winnie-the-Pooh, children figuring out who made the tracks.)
Milne used "pseudologic" - approximating adult conventions, courtesies, e.g., [the character] Trespasser W.
Writing limericks - the 5th line must be a humdinger. Vital. Most work best this way.
Eeyore - a parody of self pity. Adult gloom. An old relative who complains. Children's literature deals with the world as it is, but keeps in mind the wonder & awe of children.
Other Milne books - House at Pooh Corner, Poems for Children.
Milne can think the way a child thinks a teddy bear thinks.
Children's literature - often contains at least one party, often a schoolroom scene.
Toward the end, almost always has a chapter where everyone gets into the act.January 25, 1990
Concentrate on making characters interesting - so they're universal and individual.Frank Baum (author of The Wizard of Oz) was an actor as a youth.
When reading poems to children - be sure to read good poems by good poets.
e.e. cummings wrote a lot for children.
A lot of major and minor poets wrote for children.
There are few [great] writers who write exclusively for children.Tennyson was very fond of reading to children.
_ _ _ Frank Baum 1856-1919
Was born in a small town in New York. Moved to South Dakota, then to Chicago. Published under several names.There are 30 or so Oz books. Ruth Thompson books are good. Baum's widow signed over rights to her.
The Land of Oz - conceived as a child's nonsense version of his own country, N.B. thinks.
Pokes fun at adult society. Children usually see through all this anyway.
Military satire - one army member, revolution & suffrage satire. [The character] Jinja has selfish personal aims.
Like Shakespeare, Baum believed that revolution was not good, too much too fast. Baum was an affirmative, happy writer, like Shakespeare.
Wrote logic satire - heart vs. head. Love was primary; intellect secondary, e.g., the woggle-bug.
Baum appreciated each one's eccentricities, [did his best to] understand & enjoy the world with all its differences.In Baum's stories, children frequently talked to inanimate objects. Faith vs. magic, e.g., fire and Queen of the Fieldmice.
Satire on international misunderstandings.
The book [The Wizard of Oz] is absolutely American - as a child might see it.Children's books are actable - action comes alive in the dialogue.
You can make people believe anything if you put in enough detail, like Mark Twain did, written casually.
"The Gump" [character in The Wizard of Oz] was written about the same time the Wright Brothers were flying.
Children love word play, if you handle them right. They like puns - but you have to make a good, new one.
Theories of where the word "Oz" came from -
Abbreviation for ounces??
Connected with the Land of Uz, where Job [in the Bible] came from??Baum uses flashbacks to fill you in.
The Simpleton - goodhearted, but not bright. Throughout children's literature, children may identify with characters, like Jack Pumpkinhead [both characters in The Wizard of Oz].
Attention to detail is one of the things that make a work of art.
Each personality is carried through - e.g., the Woggle-bug & Tin Woodman - who's always kind & has a good heart.
- Lots of symbols -
- Woggle-bug (the smartest) gives the Gump a head.
- Jack, the least bright one, finds the Gump a broom for his tail.
Children's literature - widens and develops the imagination.
February 1, 1990
Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows
"The Greatest Children's Book of the 20th Century." Lyrically written, wildly funny."Children's literature - the origin of all literature." - N.B.
It's especially important to give good art to children.Toad - the favorite comic figure of all. A good writer symbolizes & dramatizes. No editorial comments. No little sermons stuck in . Animals - children feel in common with them because they are graceful, beautiful, smaller, intuitive, instinctful.
Grahame has a great ear for dialogue - vitally important.
Must be unusual, precise, colorful. Each individual should sound like himself.2 main themes of the book:
1) Dawn of the automotive age
2) Beauty of the natural world.
Lost baby otter found in the arms of Pan. Pan vs. the automobile.Most characters [in Wind in the Willows] are a parody of or satire on humanity.
Water rat - soul of realism. A poet, utter devotion to the world he lives in. Rat's life is saved by poetry.
"Artists are more normal than the average human being." - N.B.
"Poetry can save your life." - N.B.The wind in the willows is the same as the sound of the pipes of Pan.
Grahame wrote in the romantic tradition. Romantics were the original ecologists.
Toad has a great regard for money. Money corrupts Toad, too much engaged in the material world.
Grahame puts English customs into his books, e.g., Christmas carols. Elements of old & new England clashing in the book.
Grahame is fundamentally a poet.
Villains speak in almost straight prose. Witches speak in tight meter & rhyme.
When writing children's literature, try different styles, forms, effects.
Write a nonsense recipe.Rhyme - interesting, musical, surprising, delightful, an added delight to a poem.
Folk tales are often highly compressed.
CHILDREN VISUALIZE EVERYTHING. [Keep that in mind.]
February 8, 1997
Kenneth Grahame lived from 1859 to 1932. From ages 5 to 8 he lived with his grandmother. He supported himself by writing books and worked for 30 years for the Bank of England. Married at age 40, had a child right away, wrote the book for him (Alistar). Lived to age 73 in Scotland.
Grahame is not so down on the human race, but likes the animals & is on their side, like children. Grahame doesn't see the poet as a romantic escapist, as some adults do.
Wind in the Willows is a good model to study for fiction for children.
Details need to dramatize the main themes in some way, e.g., friendship, love, etc.
Grahame especially good at combining the love of nature with the comic, the history of England.
Children are direct, intuitive & spontaneous - can intuit the symbols, absorb them.
The child often gets a chance to think things through & can think ahead of the character, e.g., the mole.
The old writers wrote for all children, not specific targeted age groups.
Huck Finn - a satire on Southern hypocrisy.
Check out Richard Wilbur's book, Loud Mouse.
Illustrations suggest to children what they should be seeing in words.
_ _ _ E.B. White - Stuart Little
Good balance between the serious & the funny. Just the right blend.
Check out E.B. White's essays. He wrote for the New Yorker for decades. Look up E.B. White's poems.
A poetry background is helpful for children's literature authors.
Stuart Little - a romantic idealist.
Each character should be real, unique, not a stock character.
E.B. White was a lifelong friend of James Thurbur.
February 22, 1990
Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm
Padraic Colum - Irishman who wrote an introduction in one edition of Grimm.
Fairy tale collections - a nation's oral literature passed down.
The Grimms took several decades to get all these stories down.Fairy tales are written for the children, for their delight & enjoyment.
True essence of the fairy tale - values of the nation. Central beliefs, condensed history and aims of that nation.
Fairy tales deal with problems & wonders of the world, complexity of mankind's society.Dialogue is musical, lively, felicitous, condensed.
The pure essence of the story left after hundreds of years.
Like religion, the fairy tale is the essence of belief brought down over the years.Literature is at the heart of civilization. With children's literature, this is very much so.
Must be DELIGHTFUL TO THE IMAGINATION, above all things.
Grimm Brothers - close lifelong friends, grammarians, historians. The Grimm Bros. didn't write [create] any of these stories.
Issac Bashevis Singer also wrote very good collections.
The Grimm Brothers were born in approximately the 1780s, lived until their 70s. Published their first book approximately 1810.
Characters always lively and convincing. Sometimes a bit of caricature, but usually not too much so.
[When writing fairy] tales say as much as you can in a short space, don't elaborate. Leave a certain amount of colorful, lively symbolic detail. Characters have odd turns to make them real.
Many fairy tales are clear-cut, black-white, no middle ground.
"The Simpleton Tradition" is like "Prudent Hans."
Young children love dialogue. "Prudent Hans" is a good example for very small children.
Grimm's stories founded in the Christian tradition.
_ _ _ Alice in Wonderland
Carroll - "greatest children's author who ever wrote."
An Anglican. Alice is an exemplary child. Jesus' words - "child of the kingdom of heaven."Alice in Wonderland - Victorian child's idea of the adult world. Satirizes all of English society.
Carroll was a math teacher, qualified to be a minister. Published 8 or 10 mathematical works, was highly regarded. He became a tutor for the Dean of Oxford's 5 daughters. Played croquet a lot.
Carroll's father was a minister, a vicar. Carroll grew up in a devout household. Alice's humanity - before the Fall [in the Bible]. She is what mankind can be.
Age 7 to 8 is the age of reason. Alice's age was 7.
Parodies - satires on class reunions, e.g., Mock Turtle. The Duchess - a satire on children's governesses.
Carroll was friends with the Pre-Raphaelites. They were trying to get rid of Victorian ideas of art. He was a great friend of Christina Rossetti.The Walrus was a parody of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Rossetti's wombat is a dormouse who sits on the dinner table.
Themes in the book - games and inventions. Carroll played children's and adults' games.
The White Knight is an amateur inventor (the White Knight may be Carroll himself). Was physically clumsy; liked Alice [who was patterned after the Dean's daughter, Alice] the most of any character.Alice in Wonderland is full of etiquette, manners, constantly explaining morals & meanings. Pompous didacticism. Has parodies of mathematics & logic. Carroll loved word play. Children apparently loved it.
Alice was highly imaginative. Talked to herself.
Carroll was an admirer of Queen Victoria. Possibly similar to Alice, as she took over the throne at a very early age. English society was seen through the eyes of a child.
The real Alice got the 1st copy of the book.
D.G. Rossetti, in his later years, believed he was the shark.
The book was written in 8 "fits."
Includes satires on wars, duel. Humpty Dumpty is a satire on a literary critic.Carroll weaves in many things out of his own experience, e.g., the Cheshire Cat.
Hatters went mad from mercury poisoning.
"Beautiful Soup" is a parody of the Victorian song "Beautiful Star, Star of the Evening."
Children had to memorize a lot of poems, were always being asked to recite.
March 8, 1990
George MacDonald, a friend & a theologian, persuaded Carroll to publish the book.
Carroll was fond of music halls.Alice - realizes she's not supposed to let anger overcome her. Barely keeps her temper sometimes. Keeps her balance. Alice's innocence, ardor, sense of wonder - the most wonderful things of a child.
Humpty Dumpty - symbol of arrogance & intellectual pride.
Alice's cats are at the beginning & end of each story.
The White Knight very much helps Alice to grow up.
Parodies Tennyson, Wordsworth, Southey, some song writers."Children begin to get suspicious of large sweeping statements." - N.B.
Wordsworth's worst poem - "The Thorn." Read it.
_ _ _ Advice for publishing: Send complete manuscript, or some chapters (if a longer book) with a cover letter, include aims of the book (without expounding didactically - pique their interest) and some other things you've done.
When getting a rejection slip back, wait 6 months, then send [the manuscript or poems] again, saying "I'm submitting these, have made changes per your recommendations."
_ _ _ Astrid Lindgren - Pippi Longstocking
Pippi & Huck Finn both have insights into adults. Like Alice, they were surrounded by bossy, narrow-minded adults. Lindgren has a keen eye for hypocrisy & stuffiness.
Pippi - the most famous child star of literature since World War II. Pippi was an early women's liberationist - came out in 1945. The book was written in the tradition of Samson & Paul Bunyan. Dialogue is very lively.
Astrid Lindgren read the stories [she had written] to her children. From children's reactions, she built Pippi. Lindgren was born in 1907. Published over 70 books for children.
Pippi - One of the greatest achievements of the 20th century.
[Publishing advice:] Keep at it doggedly - sending out to editors.
Many children's poems are published in adult magazines - accepted by non-stuffy editors. Not just for children. Simple poems, clear, lyrical.
Louise Bogan compiled an anthology for children. Few of the poems were originally intended for children. [The Golden Journey: Poems for Young People]
All the children waiting out there to have their imaginations filled . . .