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Dear Genius: Books for Generations
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 16:46:13 -0500
Please feel free to continue sharing any favorite letters or excerpts from Dear Genius, and to talk about the books that you find yourself seeking out.
Ellen Finan commented that in reading Dear Genius, she found herself wanting to go back and look at Danny and the Dinosaur, and to seek out The Annotated Charlotte's Web. I find myself wanting to go back to everything of Ruth Krauss's, and of course I want to check to make sure the third sleeve did get removed from France's bathrobe in Bedtime for Frances. I find myself wanting to read books I've never read because I now have some insight into their creation, but I also want to reread books that I have loved since I was a child myself (even if I reread them not so long ago).
One of the surprising things for me in reading Dear Genius was to realize how many of the books I did love as a child were created/published under Ursula's guidance. In July of 1996, we discussed Harriet the Spy on CCBC-Net, and many of us commented on what an important book that was for us as children. And there it is in Dear Genius, edited by Ursula, as were Goodnight, Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Charlotte's Web, and so many other books that children are still seeking out with enthusiasm today. So many of her books seem to be timeless in that sense, exploring with honesty the emotions of childhood experience that resonate endlessly through the generations.
We've already talked about Ursula's legacy in terms of the editor's whom she nurtured and helped develop. Let's think about her legacy in terms of the books she edited and the author's and artists she helped nurture, such as Charlotte Zolotow, Maurice Sendak, Louise Fitzhugh, John Steptoe, and many others. Does anyone have thoughts on the correlation between this aspect of Ursula's legacy and the books being created for children and young adults today, or on specific books she edited that are part of today's "classics."
Also, Leonard, do you think she had a sense of book such as Harriet the Spy and others as being timeless--was she thinking beyond the immediate future and realizing that books she was creating were going to speak to children for generations? (Maybe that's impossible to do, but do you sense that she was ever able to step outside herself and her work and look at it in the context of the history of children's book publishing?)
Megan Schliesman
Megan Schliesman (schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706 608&2?03
Received on Wed 19 Aug 1998 04:46:13 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 16:46:13 -0500
Please feel free to continue sharing any favorite letters or excerpts from Dear Genius, and to talk about the books that you find yourself seeking out.
Ellen Finan commented that in reading Dear Genius, she found herself wanting to go back and look at Danny and the Dinosaur, and to seek out The Annotated Charlotte's Web. I find myself wanting to go back to everything of Ruth Krauss's, and of course I want to check to make sure the third sleeve did get removed from France's bathrobe in Bedtime for Frances. I find myself wanting to read books I've never read because I now have some insight into their creation, but I also want to reread books that I have loved since I was a child myself (even if I reread them not so long ago).
One of the surprising things for me in reading Dear Genius was to realize how many of the books I did love as a child were created/published under Ursula's guidance. In July of 1996, we discussed Harriet the Spy on CCBC-Net, and many of us commented on what an important book that was for us as children. And there it is in Dear Genius, edited by Ursula, as were Goodnight, Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Charlotte's Web, and so many other books that children are still seeking out with enthusiasm today. So many of her books seem to be timeless in that sense, exploring with honesty the emotions of childhood experience that resonate endlessly through the generations.
We've already talked about Ursula's legacy in terms of the editor's whom she nurtured and helped develop. Let's think about her legacy in terms of the books she edited and the author's and artists she helped nurture, such as Charlotte Zolotow, Maurice Sendak, Louise Fitzhugh, John Steptoe, and many others. Does anyone have thoughts on the correlation between this aspect of Ursula's legacy and the books being created for children and young adults today, or on specific books she edited that are part of today's "classics."
Also, Leonard, do you think she had a sense of book such as Harriet the Spy and others as being timeless--was she thinking beyond the immediate future and realizing that books she was creating were going to speak to children for generations? (Maybe that's impossible to do, but do you sense that she was ever able to step outside herself and her work and look at it in the context of the history of children's book publishing?)
Megan Schliesman
Megan Schliesman (schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706 608&2?03
Received on Wed 19 Aug 1998 04:46:13 PM CDT
