From: Brenda_Bowen at prenhall.com <Brenda_Bowen>
Date: 15 Jul 1998 11:07:40 -0400

I was lucky enough to attend a function at last year's ALA where
     various authors spoke about the book that meant the most to them as
     children. Cynthia Rylant didn't talk about one book, she talked about
     many books -- all of them comic books. HUEY AND LOUIE and UNCLE
     SCROOGE are the ones I recall from her speech; but she spoke with her
     characteristic quiet passion about how much those comics meant to her
     as a child, how they were the only books her family could afford, how
     delicious was the anticipation of reading the next installment.
     
     Bruce Brooks, in BOYS WILL BE, writes a wonderful essay about what
     boys read, and comic books feature prominently.
     
     All this is to say that the influences that make writers writers are
     not always what we expect. And that when we see kids reading books
     that we think are "beneath" them, we should think a minute about Bruce
     Brooks and Cynthia Rylant, and some of the other closet comic-book
     readers who turn out okay in the end.
     
     Brenda Bowen
     Simon & Schuster
     (former Archie fan)
Received on Wed 15 Jul 1998 10:07:40 AM CDT