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Children's reactions to my books
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From: Sylvia Engdahl <sle>
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 18:48:25 -0800
My apologies for sending my last message twice! I don't know what happened -- the copy I sent to myself didn't show the list address on the "To" line, so I assume it had been inadvertently omitted; but apparently the list got it anyway.
I wonder if any of you who have actually talked to children below age 12 who've read _Enchantress from the Stars_ could tell me something about their reactions. I get e-mail from adults who remember reading it at 10 or 11 and loving it, but they were clearly exceptionally mature children who were reading at an advanced level. Years ago, at the time it became a Newbery Honor Book, I used to get letters from children who had been assigned to "write to an author" in school, and who seemed to have little idea of what the book was about -- which didn't surprise me, since I hadn't intended it for readers that young. Today, perhaps, because of the greater familiarity of some of its concepts through TV and movies, younger readers can grasp it than in the past. I'd be interested to know!
And I'd particularly like to know about any reactions you've heard from kids about my other books. I don't encourage giving the others to preteens because they often find them uninteresting, and this turns future potential readers away. _Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains,_ for instance, bores most readers below high school age; one adult recently wrote that she remembered not liking it and was sure I must have rewritten a lot of the new edition until she realized that she'd first read the book when she was too young to understand it. I've long been frustrated by the shelving of these books in children's rooms, though I've been told that today, more libraries have separate Young Adult sections than formerly did, so that the problem is no longer so serious.
I don't have any personal contact with readers except through e-mail, so I would love to hear what you've experienced.
Sylvia
_____________________________________________________________________
Sylvia Engdahl - sle at sylviaengdahl.com
Author of CHILDREN OF THE STAR and ENCHANTRESS FROM THE STARS
Visit my Web site, http://www.sylviaengdahl.com
_____________________________________________________________________
Received on Tue 13 Nov 2001 08:48:25 PM CST
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 18:48:25 -0800
My apologies for sending my last message twice! I don't know what happened -- the copy I sent to myself didn't show the list address on the "To" line, so I assume it had been inadvertently omitted; but apparently the list got it anyway.
I wonder if any of you who have actually talked to children below age 12 who've read _Enchantress from the Stars_ could tell me something about their reactions. I get e-mail from adults who remember reading it at 10 or 11 and loving it, but they were clearly exceptionally mature children who were reading at an advanced level. Years ago, at the time it became a Newbery Honor Book, I used to get letters from children who had been assigned to "write to an author" in school, and who seemed to have little idea of what the book was about -- which didn't surprise me, since I hadn't intended it for readers that young. Today, perhaps, because of the greater familiarity of some of its concepts through TV and movies, younger readers can grasp it than in the past. I'd be interested to know!
And I'd particularly like to know about any reactions you've heard from kids about my other books. I don't encourage giving the others to preteens because they often find them uninteresting, and this turns future potential readers away. _Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains,_ for instance, bores most readers below high school age; one adult recently wrote that she remembered not liking it and was sure I must have rewritten a lot of the new edition until she realized that she'd first read the book when she was too young to understand it. I've long been frustrated by the shelving of these books in children's rooms, though I've been told that today, more libraries have separate Young Adult sections than formerly did, so that the problem is no longer so serious.
I don't have any personal contact with readers except through e-mail, so I would love to hear what you've experienced.
Sylvia
_____________________________________________________________________
Sylvia Engdahl - sle at sylviaengdahl.com
Author of CHILDREN OF THE STAR and ENCHANTRESS FROM THE STARS
Visit my Web site, http://www.sylviaengdahl.com
_____________________________________________________________________
Received on Tue 13 Nov 2001 08:48:25 PM CST
