Stories that endure are those that enlarge human experience.
January 7, 2012
Joan of Arc would be 600 years old this year. I suspect that the longevity and appeal of her story is that so much of the story remains enigmatic. I speculate that part of a story’s shelf life has to do with the mysterious qualities that we will never know. But we continue to read and be enthralled by her story. As Kathryn Harrison aptly said, “We don’t need narratives that rationalize human experience so much as those that enlarge it with the breath of mystery. For as long as we look to heroes for inspiration, to leaders whose vision lifts them above our limited perspective, who cherish their values above their earthly lives, the story of Joan of Arc will remain one we remember, and celebrate.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/opinion/joan-of-arc-enduring-power.html?_r=1
“Look, you can make a difference in your child’s life, just by reading to him for 30 minutes a day.”
January 4, 2012
Congratulations to Walter Dean Myers on being named the national ambassador for young people’s literature, a sort of poet laureate of the children’s book world. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/books/walter-dean-myers-ambassador-for-young-peoples-literature.html?pagewanted=all His message comes from his own experiences as an African-American man who dropped out of high school but built a successful writing career largely because of his life-long devotion […]
Bring in the New Year 2012: Take a ride on a butterfly.
December 28, 2011
Don’t be like the two caterpillars who were crawling along on the ground when a butterfly flew over them. And one caterpillar said to the other, “You’ll never catch me going up on one of those.” But I’ll ride a butterfly any day. And I hope you will too. ~Madeleine L’Engle
The Importance of free-thinking bookstores.
December 16, 2011
George Whitman, the American-born owner of Shakespeare & Company, a bookshop on the Left Bank in Paris dies at the ripe age of 98. He opened his bookshop in 1951 because he believed the book business was the business of life. He welcomed visitors with large in-print messages on the walls- and one of my […]
Why do children want the same book read over and over and over again?
December 7, 2011
The many rewards of rereading were recently recalled in an article in the NYT: “Read it again, Sam.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/books/review/read-it-again-sam.html We remember our first encounter and reaction to a book, and at the same time, we are amazed to think that the book has somehow changed. The experience of rereading keeps you in the moment and […]
