From: Sharon Grover <sgrover>
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 96 19:30:39 EDT

Most of the postings for this month have described the strength of Temple's writing and the sadness of her early death. No one, yet, seems to have taken up KT's challenge to find similarities, or links, between her fiction with contemporary settings and her fiction with historical settings. Ginny did mention that her characters all came alive through their stories (I know I'm not quoting you accurately, Ginny, and I apologize, but I've already dumped that mail) and their clear voices, regardless of where or when they lived.

Another link might be that all of Temple's young characters struggle with coming of age in a difficult time and place; although coming of age is surely never an easy process, Temple's characters have such weighty issue with which they struggle: revolution, oppression, war. In the case of THE RAMSAY SCALLOP, the young people even must come to terms with the continuation of the world after the end of the century.

Now that I read what I've already written (I guess I can't stop myself from thinking out loud, even online), it strikes me that all of her novels for young people deal with finding and maintaining some kind of faith in the face of oppression in one form or another: political, religious, sexist. And, these threads of oppression, all of them, weave themselves to some extent through all of her books. Her young people must face developing who they are in an environment where their decisions are not only difficult, but hindered by their society. Temple's gift was to never let the outcome be facile or unbelievable.

As a teacher, a writer and an advocate for young people and for peace, she will be sorely missed.

Sharon Grover Youth Services Selection Librarian Arlington, VA sgrover at leo.vsla.edu
Received on Thu 27 Jun 1996 06:30:39 PM CDT