From: Megan Schliesman <mjschlie>
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 10:02:33 -0500

I want to formally welcome Richard Jackson to our discussion and thank him for his willingess to comment on Cynthia Rylant's writing, and pose some thought-provoking questions of his own! He is the editor of a number of Cynthia Rylant's books, from her early novels, A Blue-Eyed Daisy, A Fine White Dust, and others, to the poetry collections Waiting to Waltz and Soda Jerk, to, as he already mentioned, her Newbery-award-winning novel Missing May, and now The Islander. We welcome his perspective as Cynthia Rylant's editor, and as a thoughtful commentator on literature for children and young adults.

As someone who has worked on many of Cyndi's books over a number of years, I'm wondering if you can comment, Dick, on how you have seen her develop or change as a writer during that time, especially in regard to the books for older readers, although you have also edited some of her picture books and easy fiction as well. Her diversity is amazing, and it seems that this only serves to make her a better writer--the poetic quality of her novels, and, interestingly, the narrative quality of her books of poetry--especially Waiting to Waltz and Soda Jerk, with the single narrative voice in each. Judy O'Malley's description of The Islander--"What I loved about this book was the lightness of its flight through metaphor and poetic language on a very measured trajectory"-- made me think of a poem--how one might describe a poem. Have you seen her development as a poet and picture book writer affect her development as a novelist, and vice versa?


Additionally, since I first posed the question of how to "categorize" The Islander, I will say that I don't think the labels matter in the end--children (and adults, too!) ultimately respond to what a book is and means to them personally (and obviously that can differ from reader to reader). Indeed, young readers don't necessarily think in terms of genres, but they often know what they like. I think acknowledging that a book like The Islander defies established genres (or crosses the lines between them) can be a way to get it into the hands of more children, some of who may gravitate only to certain kinds of stories.

As Nina Lindsay's eloquent message revealed, there is so much for children to discover in that beautifully written text. But first they have to pick it up. Perhaps The Islander will be a book that finds readers itself by word of mouth from child to child, but if not, then librarians and teachers will use their knowledge of individual children to put the book in their hands. I love Judy O'Malley's description of the writing in The Islander
(quoted above). It is a beautiful summary of Rylant's writing for adults, but the question for librarians and teachers is how to translate that into a description that will appeal to children. So for me there is importance in acknowledging that the book can be seen in different ways. This is also a book that seems ripe for classroom discussion for the very same reasons.


Finally, Julie Reece Deaver asked what people thing about The Van Gogh Cafe, a book that The Islander made me think of because of the "magical" quality that she mentioned, even though "magical" is not the first term I would use to describe The Islander. But I think that both books embrace a sense of wonder but make it something everday at the same time-?cept that amazing things beyond explanation happen--it is integrated into the characters' perspectives on the world. I did have some concern about the child appeal of The Van Gogh Cafe, but hoped that this wonder would carry it--does anyone have responses to that book from child readers?

Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Mon 13 Jul 1998 10:02:33 AM CDT