Madeleine L’Engle’s Memorial Service

Today is Madeleine L’Engle’s birthday. Because of that, yesterday a memorial service was held for her at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine here in New York City. It was quite extraordinary for me as I’ve not attended too many high church services. It was really moving in so many ways. She was very important to the children’s literature community, the Church’s, and the wider Episcopal Church community as well (two of my colleagues came because they’d known her through that world not the children’s literature one). Many moving words about her were said and some wonderful excerpts from one of her adult books were read. As I wrote before, her books were very important to me when young so I am happy I had a chance to pay my respects at this extraordinary event.

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Waiting for Lyra: The Truth Will Out

Great news this (although not for Bill Donohue):

More than ten years after its original publication, “The Golden Compass” (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books) has hit USA Today’s Top 50 Best Sellers list, having seen a 500% increase in sales over the last three months.

The Golden Compass’ Popularity Surges in Weeks Leading up to the New Line Cinema… | Reuters

Waiting for Lyra: Non-Armoured Bears

A Scottish zoo expects a rise in visitors to see the only polar bear in the U.K. in response to the movie.

Waiting for Lyra: It was Just a Kiss

Why I’m glad:
“Bad sex’ authors list announced”

(This relates to something in The Amber Spyglass, by the way, not the first book in the trilogy or anything in the movie that I know of — having not seen it yet.)

Worthwhile Overview of Children’s Book Illustration

How children’s books became wild. – By Emily Bazelon and Erica S. Perl – Slate Magazine

Waiting for Lyra: The Guardian Review

If Darth Vader wore a blond wig, a slinky dress and a dab of Chanel behind each ear, he could hardly be as evil as Nicole Kidman, playing the gorgeous villainess Mrs Coulter in this spectacular new movie version of Northern Lights, the opening episode of Philip Pullman’s fantasy series His Dark Materials.

Read the rest of Peter Bradshaw’s review here.

Waiting for Lyra: More Media

This informative Newsweek article, “A Director Confronts Some Dark Material,” includes some pithy quotes from author, actors, and director.

Who is Reading What and Why

The latest NEA report, To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence
is generating a lot of head scratching, soul searching, dismay, rejection, and more. But not by me. As much as I love books and love to read I also feel that neither are necessary to lead a complete and full life. I spent a couple of years in Sierra Leone where many still go through life getting their stories and information from other sources than textual ones. They live rich spiritual, and significant lives — without books, without reading. Of course, reading is helpful — I see the need for functional literacy. But the idea that if you don’t read books in your leisure time there is something scarily wrong — well, I’m not frightened at all.

I have a grand time with my 4th graders with books and reading. But study after study (this isn’t the first) indicate that reading falls off for kids as they move past me, up through middle school and beyond. My impression is that this is not simply because they are saddled with school reading they dislike or because too much homework keeps them from leisure reading. I think it is also because they are getting their stories in other ways and through other media. I’m struck by my almost-twenty-year-old nephew who was a voracious reader for many years. Now, in college, he tells me he has no time for leisure reading. My impression after watching him over the Thanksgiving weekend was that his leisure time is otherwise used, mostly online and from television . So he reads and takes in information and stories, just not so much from books. Perhaps he will return to leisure book reading at another point in his life. He is a good reader. But he is not reading books right now.

What turns someone on to reading or off to reading is almost impossible for me to predict. I try to balance opportunities for my students to chose their own books with my introducing them to books that I think are wonderful and that they then get excited about too. That is, I model for them a passion for reading that draws them in. But that certainly is no guarantee that they will fall into a lifelong love for book reading.

In yesterday’s New York Times Mokoto Rich explored the issue in “A Good Mystery: Why We Read.” In the article she mentioned Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader (see my post on it) and another book I liked a great deal, Francis Spufford’s The Child that Books Built. What I appreciate about both writers is they give us two very different individuals and their very different paths to avid book reading. Certainly adults can do things that turn young people off to books, but I don’t think we can do any one thing that will turn all the young people we encounter on to books. The issue is so complex, so multifaceted, so not simple.

Waiting for Lyra: Donna on Dust

Another smart and thoughtful piece from religion scholar Donna Freitas.

God in the dust – The Boston Globe

The Uncommon Reader

This novella by Alan Bennett (who wrote The History Boys among other things) is absolutely delightful and quite wise, full of bon mots about reading and writing. I listened to it read by the author, but it is also available as a regular book. Thanks to Roger Sutton for drawing my attention to it.