CCBC-Net Archives
Humor in Serious Novels for Children
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 12:09:43 -0500
I want to add to the list of novels by Walter Dean Myers already started by Violet Harris in her message. Myers successfully develops humor through dialogue and internal action in his contemporary novels for children, including The Young Landlords and Won't Know Till I Get There.
Katherine Paterson is also very gifted in incorporating humor into her serious novels, most of which are probably already familiar to many in the CCBC-NET community.
Ellen Raskin's novels were pointed out already. Raskin's works are correctly classed in humor and should not be missed, no one, absolutely no one is writing the kind of humor at which she excelled. Raskin was serious about the theme of each. It's rewarding to uncover the layers of meaning she created in The Westing Game; The Tatooed Potato and Other Clues; and Figgs & Phantoms (her most serious and definitely autobiographical work).
Have you discovered Brian Doyle yet? Once you read his novel Uncle Ronald, you'll look for other books by this remarkable Canadian author. In Uncle Ronald Doyle manages the complicated challenge of merging subtle humor with broad slapstick and exaggerations of many kinds from character names to Keystone Cop types of pranks and diversions. Who can forget the "O'Malley girls" and other town characters such as the McCooeys and Even Steven? What about the central character Mickey during the times while he's reading the book his mother packed for him when he escapes from his abusive father? (The book is Beautiful Joe: The Autobiography of a Dog. The boy thinks to himself that it's "hard to concentrate on because you kept trying to forget about the fact that the dog could write a book... did the dog get somebody to write this for him?") How about Uncle Ronald's caretaking of Mickey, and his courtship? Unforgettable Uncle Ronald, a "gentle bear of a man," according to my colleague Megan Schliesman. The madcap action takes place within a tightly drawn, suspenseful human tragedy, a drama of emotional and physical survival narrated by Mickey, now 112 years old and once again a bed-wetter. Most of the action is set near or in a small town in Ottawa, in 1895. Not to be missed by readers who are ten years old and older. ... Ginny Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education (www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/) University of Wisconsin - Madison Public Service Hours until June 15: M-F 9:00am - 4:00pm CDT
Received on Wed 13 May 1998 12:09:43 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 12:09:43 -0500
I want to add to the list of novels by Walter Dean Myers already started by Violet Harris in her message. Myers successfully develops humor through dialogue and internal action in his contemporary novels for children, including The Young Landlords and Won't Know Till I Get There.
Katherine Paterson is also very gifted in incorporating humor into her serious novels, most of which are probably already familiar to many in the CCBC-NET community.
Ellen Raskin's novels were pointed out already. Raskin's works are correctly classed in humor and should not be missed, no one, absolutely no one is writing the kind of humor at which she excelled. Raskin was serious about the theme of each. It's rewarding to uncover the layers of meaning she created in The Westing Game; The Tatooed Potato and Other Clues; and Figgs & Phantoms (her most serious and definitely autobiographical work).
Have you discovered Brian Doyle yet? Once you read his novel Uncle Ronald, you'll look for other books by this remarkable Canadian author. In Uncle Ronald Doyle manages the complicated challenge of merging subtle humor with broad slapstick and exaggerations of many kinds from character names to Keystone Cop types of pranks and diversions. Who can forget the "O'Malley girls" and other town characters such as the McCooeys and Even Steven? What about the central character Mickey during the times while he's reading the book his mother packed for him when he escapes from his abusive father? (The book is Beautiful Joe: The Autobiography of a Dog. The boy thinks to himself that it's "hard to concentrate on because you kept trying to forget about the fact that the dog could write a book... did the dog get somebody to write this for him?") How about Uncle Ronald's caretaking of Mickey, and his courtship? Unforgettable Uncle Ronald, a "gentle bear of a man," according to my colleague Megan Schliesman. The madcap action takes place within a tightly drawn, suspenseful human tragedy, a drama of emotional and physical survival narrated by Mickey, now 112 years old and once again a bed-wetter. Most of the action is set near or in a small town in Ottawa, in 1895. Not to be missed by readers who are ten years old and older. ... Ginny Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education (www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/) University of Wisconsin - Madison Public Service Hours until June 15: M-F 9:00am - 4:00pm CDT
Received on Wed 13 May 1998 12:09:43 PM CDT
