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The Well
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From: Beth Wright <Beth>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 10:35:38 +0000
Our library just held its first book discussion group for children, and my seven participants (all 3rd to 5th graders) initially told me that they hated The Well by Mildred Taylor. By the end of the discussion they had decided that, while they all hated a lot of the things that happened in the story, they thought the book itself was very good. One reason they gave was the characters' diction, which they said made it clear the story happened in an earlier time and a different place (we live in Maine where, unlike the characters, no one says y'all).
Another reason I'll paraphrase from our discussion: they said they had to keep reading the book to see if there was justice done in the end (for CCBC-NETers who haven't read The Well, its plot focuses on several hugely unfair, unjust racial incidents). Also, one participant said that when she read historical fiction, she liked to pretend she was the main character and see what it felt like to be him or her. When I asked her if she could do that with David Logan's character in The Well, she nodded emphatically and said "Oh yeah!"
My conclusions from this discussion (and previous experience): while successful historical fiction needs to have authentic details from the appropriate time period (like the diction of the characters in The Well), it also needs a compelling plot and interesting characters, just like any other well-written fiction. A piece of historical fiction can be the best researched, most authentically constructed book in the world, but if the plot and characters aren't engaging it's just going to further convince readers who aren't fond of this genre that it's boring. I'll be the first to admit I'm one of these readers, and have been since I was a kid...but occasionally along comes something like The Midwife's Apprentice, or The Ramsay Scallop, or The Well, and I'm reminded all over again of the power of historical fiction to connect us to the past.
Beth Wright Edythe Dyer Community Library Hampden, Maine
Received on Tue 28 Oct 1997 04:35:38 AM CST
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 10:35:38 +0000
Our library just held its first book discussion group for children, and my seven participants (all 3rd to 5th graders) initially told me that they hated The Well by Mildred Taylor. By the end of the discussion they had decided that, while they all hated a lot of the things that happened in the story, they thought the book itself was very good. One reason they gave was the characters' diction, which they said made it clear the story happened in an earlier time and a different place (we live in Maine where, unlike the characters, no one says y'all).
Another reason I'll paraphrase from our discussion: they said they had to keep reading the book to see if there was justice done in the end (for CCBC-NETers who haven't read The Well, its plot focuses on several hugely unfair, unjust racial incidents). Also, one participant said that when she read historical fiction, she liked to pretend she was the main character and see what it felt like to be him or her. When I asked her if she could do that with David Logan's character in The Well, she nodded emphatically and said "Oh yeah!"
My conclusions from this discussion (and previous experience): while successful historical fiction needs to have authentic details from the appropriate time period (like the diction of the characters in The Well), it also needs a compelling plot and interesting characters, just like any other well-written fiction. A piece of historical fiction can be the best researched, most authentically constructed book in the world, but if the plot and characters aren't engaging it's just going to further convince readers who aren't fond of this genre that it's boring. I'll be the first to admit I'm one of these readers, and have been since I was a kid...but occasionally along comes something like The Midwife's Apprentice, or The Ramsay Scallop, or The Well, and I'm reminded all over again of the power of historical fiction to connect us to the past.
Beth Wright Edythe Dyer Community Library Hampden, Maine
Received on Tue 28 Oct 1997 04:35:38 AM CST
