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True Believer and Make Lemonade
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 10:13:39 -0500
Let's begin our discussion of True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff
(Atheneum, 2001), and Make Lemonade (Henry Holt, 1993), Virginia Euwer Wolff's first book featuring her under-the-skin protagonist La Vaughn.
From their distinctive style (NOT poetry, Wolff says in the May/June 2001 issue of The Horn Book Magazine, in her interview with Horn Book editor Roger Sutton) to La Vaughn's memorable voice to the wonderfully realized characters and honest situations, I found both of these books explosive.
La Vaughn doesn't draw attention to herself and her world in a dramatic way but her voice is riveting. I found myself stepping away from each book feeling changed. When I first read Make Lemonade in 1993, La Vaughn's amazing voice, a voice of vulnerability and tenderness and understanding and hunger, sounded for days afterword in my mind and has stayed with me over the years. I found with True Believer that the power of that voice has not diminished in any way for me.
What is your initial--or in?pth--response to either or both of these books? Do you find, like I do, that the broken lines of text put the reader in the moment with La Vaughn?
We know that not everyone has had a chance to read both books. Please feel free to discuss only Make Lemonade, or both books if you wish.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Tue 03 Jul 2001 10:13:39 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 10:13:39 -0500
Let's begin our discussion of True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff
(Atheneum, 2001), and Make Lemonade (Henry Holt, 1993), Virginia Euwer Wolff's first book featuring her under-the-skin protagonist La Vaughn.
From their distinctive style (NOT poetry, Wolff says in the May/June 2001 issue of The Horn Book Magazine, in her interview with Horn Book editor Roger Sutton) to La Vaughn's memorable voice to the wonderfully realized characters and honest situations, I found both of these books explosive.
La Vaughn doesn't draw attention to herself and her world in a dramatic way but her voice is riveting. I found myself stepping away from each book feeling changed. When I first read Make Lemonade in 1993, La Vaughn's amazing voice, a voice of vulnerability and tenderness and understanding and hunger, sounded for days afterword in my mind and has stayed with me over the years. I found with True Believer that the power of that voice has not diminished in any way for me.
What is your initial--or in?pth--response to either or both of these books? Do you find, like I do, that the broken lines of text put the reader in the moment with La Vaughn?
We know that not everyone has had a chance to read both books. Please feel free to discuss only Make Lemonade, or both books if you wish.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Tue 03 Jul 2001 10:13:39 AM CDT
