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[CCBC-Net] Pinkwater, Horvath
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From: Edie_Ching at cathedral.org <Edie_Ching>
Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 11:31:27 -0400
a book somewhat similar to Horvath's When the Circus Comes to Town is Allan Ahlberg's The Better Brown Stories, in which the characters get fed up with their predictable humdrum existence and go pound on the author's door for more exciting roles. Each chapter has them at different ages, with different pets, different jobs, etc. and my students really like this. Our fourther and fifth graders (all boys) also just love the Arabel's Raven series by Joan Aiken. They fight over the copies that we have, once they discover them.
Edie Ching.
Message----From: HUMMINGRK at aol.com [mailto:HUMMINGRK at aol.com] Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 6:10 PM To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject: [CCBC-Net] Pinkwater, Horvath
Glad Daniel Pinkwater came up in the conversation...I read Borgel to my sons years ago and we still laugh over the pet peach pit and dancing popsicle. I can't wait to read Author's Day!
We have discussed Polly Horvath's books Everything on a Waffle and Trolls, but I thought I'd throw her name into the fray during our humor discussion, too. Maybe some in the CCBC cyberworld missed Horvath's early book, When the Circus Comes to Town. T he protagonist is working on her novel when a new family moves in next door. She's pretty sure that the family is fictional because they match details in her book so closely. How does one explain to a person that he or she is, in reality, a fictional char acter? What a great way to start a story that goes on to parody the narrow-minded attitude prevalent in some small towns. I love Horvath's low key, understated humor, though many readers do not.
It's a wonder any funny books are published at all, I sometimes think; humor is so personal. It does not translate across global cultures. It doesn't even travel from New England to the Midwest very easily. Maybe that's one reason for the proliferatio n of "gross-out" humor. Like slap stick, it has a simple base for understanding.
Received on Mon 06 May 2002 10:31:27 AM CDT
Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 11:31:27 -0400
a book somewhat similar to Horvath's When the Circus Comes to Town is Allan Ahlberg's The Better Brown Stories, in which the characters get fed up with their predictable humdrum existence and go pound on the author's door for more exciting roles. Each chapter has them at different ages, with different pets, different jobs, etc. and my students really like this. Our fourther and fifth graders (all boys) also just love the Arabel's Raven series by Joan Aiken. They fight over the copies that we have, once they discover them.
Edie Ching.
Message----From: HUMMINGRK at aol.com [mailto:HUMMINGRK at aol.com] Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 6:10 PM To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject: [CCBC-Net] Pinkwater, Horvath
Glad Daniel Pinkwater came up in the conversation...I read Borgel to my sons years ago and we still laugh over the pet peach pit and dancing popsicle. I can't wait to read Author's Day!
We have discussed Polly Horvath's books Everything on a Waffle and Trolls, but I thought I'd throw her name into the fray during our humor discussion, too. Maybe some in the CCBC cyberworld missed Horvath's early book, When the Circus Comes to Town. T he protagonist is working on her novel when a new family moves in next door. She's pretty sure that the family is fictional because they match details in her book so closely. How does one explain to a person that he or she is, in reality, a fictional char acter? What a great way to start a story that goes on to parody the narrow-minded attitude prevalent in some small towns. I love Horvath's low key, understated humor, though many readers do not.
It's a wonder any funny books are published at all, I sometimes think; humor is so personal. It does not translate across global cultures. It doesn't even travel from New England to the Midwest very easily. Maybe that's one reason for the proliferatio n of "gross-out" humor. Like slap stick, it has a simple base for understanding.
Received on Mon 06 May 2002 10:31:27 AM CDT
