Life Advice from a 96-Year-Old
This is a video well worth watching, not least for the speaker’s understanding of her 100th decade as a way to relive her childhood–or more specifically, to live the childhood she wishes she had had. “I’m having my second childhood now, my happy childhood,” she says. “I had a miserable childhood. I did not enjoy being a child….So I have fun now. I’m enjoying my childhood, finally.”
I love the idea that we are not limited to the childhoods we actually had. That we can revisit that intense, passionate, fresh, joyful and rage-filled and awe-filled time, as we wish. That we can do it better, if we want to.
And children’s literature gives us a gateway to do that. Those of us who had lonely childhoods can read about life-changing best friendships. Those of us who were (oh, perhaps) a bit bored can read about wild adventures. Those of us who felt powerless or helpless can find stories of undaunted heroes.
Childhood never leaves us, or rather, we never leave it. Maybe, as the speaker of this video suggests, we grow not away from our childhoods, but toward them–if we’re lucky, coming full circle.
Read MoreAmerican Born Chinese
Anybody who is interested in or cares about children’s literature, or graphic novels, or Asian-American culture, or just basically anything should read Jamie Fisher’s article about Gene Wang’s unparalleled American Born Chinese and the upcoming Disney adaptation (for which I cannot wait).
Read MoreMaking Dahl Nice
It’s been in the news–Roald Dahl’s publisher and estate are releasing new, less offensive versions of his books. “Cloud Men” are now “Cloud People.” Augustus Gloop isn’t “fat”—he’s “enormous.” Miss Trunchbull no longer has a “horsey” face. (I don’t get that one at all, but…) It’s definitely okay for women to wear wigs, in case you were wondering.
People have opinions. Salman Rushdie, for one. I appreciated Helen Lewis’s thoughtful piece in The Atlantic.
Okay, well, tastes change. Audiences change. Jokes that were once edgy are revealed as downright cruel. And Dahl’s estate does have the right to make alterations if they think it’s in the best interest of the author and his work.
And yet. I don’t feel good about it.
These changes are so superficial, for one thing. Augustus Gloop’s character is one long, repeated, anti-fat stereotype. Calling him “enormous” changes nothing. If the book’s anti-fatness is problematic enough, let’s not read it anymore–but let’s not dance around it by changing one word and thinking we’ve accomplished something.
But there’s something else here too. It’s Dahl. Dahl’s work is nasty (as Helen Lewis sagely points out). Mean. Angry. Sharped-edge and judgmental. (I’ve never quite gotten over reading some of Dahl’s short stories, written for adults, when I was around twelve or so.) We’re supposed to judge Augustus Gloop for being both fat and greedy (and yes, it’s not fair to treat those things and synonymous, and yes, that’s what Dahl s doing), Veruca Salt for being spoiled and bratty, Mike Teevee for being screen-obsessed, and Violet Beuregard for…um…chewing gum a lot, I guess.
I think that’s part of what kids love about Dahl. There’s the joyful wish-fulfillment (come on into this chocolate factory!) and then there’s the savage disapproval of everybody who doesn’t deserve to be there. Stretch them in the gum-stretching machine! Throw them down the garbage chute! Drive them out of the book and away, away, away.
Kids are judgmental. They are learning the rules, spoken and unspoken, around them. They can be unmerciful to peers who don’t measure up. We call it “tattling” and try to get them to stop, but we can’t. They can’t. It’s such an absorbing project, figuring out the rules. It goes on for a lifetime.
And there’s also truth in these books about what those with power do to those without. Will Miss Trunchbull still be an unsettlingly mean character if she doesn’t have a horsey face? Probably. But she’ll always be appalling. She’ll always leave adults feeling queasy and children feeling thrilled and scared and somehow, deep down, vindicated.
Dahl was not a nice person. He wasn’t a nice writer. But it seems that somehow, he stayed close to some feelings of childhood, the ones that we as adults don’t always like to think about. The bitter sense of powerlessness. The thrill of rule-breaking. The triumph in watching others get punished.
Is cherishing what’s intense and powerful in Dahl’s writing worth the nastiness? That seems to me to the be the deal we should be thinking about. Not whether “enormous” is somehow less offensive than “fat.”
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You’re Right, Books Are Dangerous
Blue paper covers shelves of books that students are being denied access to.
This just breaks my heart.
In a classroom–a classroom–books are being kept away from students. Students want to read, to learn, to feed their curiosity, to enlarge their sense of the world, to simply have fun, and they’re being told NO. Are being told that’s not what school is for. Are being told that curiosity and openness of mind and heart must be controlled. Are being told that THEY must be controlled, that they and their teachers cannot be trusted to make choices about their own reading. About their own minds.
The people who made these laws are right about one thing–books are dangerous. They tell facts. They explain ideas. They make change. They are change.
And if that scares you–you might do something like this to children.
But it’s about your weakness and your fears, not about the books. And not about the students. The only thing on display here is the cowardice of lawmakers who don’t deserve the title, don’t deserve their jobs, and who are cowering in fear of chapter books.
Shame, shame, shame.
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews