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Politics and Purpose in Literature
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:56:53 -0500
Thank you to Thom Barthelmess for eloquently starting our discussion for the second half of April. (And thanks to all who invigorated the Poetry discussion in the last few days).
Thom wrote about his own personal experience as a child, having to "supply some of the links in the chain that bound me to the stories I consumed. . . Little by little the breadth of human experience expressed in books for kids is spilling out of conventional boundaries. That's good. In a world increasingly dependent on the generosity of pluralism, a generation of extrapolative young people might be just the thing."
M.E. Kerr referenced Luna by Julie Anne Peters, about a transgender teen, and how this experience is a timely reflection of reality as referenced by a recent article about Smith College.
Their perspectives remind us that books hold power--and are empowering--in (at least) two ways: as a reflection of the realities in our world, illuminating truths
( including truths about ourselves as individuals and as a society); and as agents for change and connection, offering opportunities for every reader approaching a book about someone or some group they may think of as "other" to discover that there are, indeed, "links in the chain" between other and self.
Thom mentioned "The Voice That Challenged a Nation" and "Sonny's House of Spies" as two books that illuminate different (yet linked?) aspects of the human and societal condition through the lens of individual experience. I also think of literature that offers insight into what is happening around the world, such as the books of Deborah Ellis, from her novels such as the "Breadwinner" trilogy and "The Heaven Shop" to
"Three Wishes," the interviews she conducted with Palestinian and Israeli children and young adults. I think of Jeanette Winter's latest book, "The Librarian of Basra." These books humanize the news, reminding us all, children, teens and adults alike, of the humanity behind the headlines.
The link between politics or books with a purpose and literature for children and teens seems to me rich and multifaceted, with so many truly good books we can point to--books that are, first and foremost, literature, written out of and to illuminate the human condition, not to teach a lesson. What strikes me is how much we can learn from them regardless.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
ph: 608&2?03 fax: 608&2I33 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 20 Apr 2005 08:56:53 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:56:53 -0500
Thank you to Thom Barthelmess for eloquently starting our discussion for the second half of April. (And thanks to all who invigorated the Poetry discussion in the last few days).
Thom wrote about his own personal experience as a child, having to "supply some of the links in the chain that bound me to the stories I consumed. . . Little by little the breadth of human experience expressed in books for kids is spilling out of conventional boundaries. That's good. In a world increasingly dependent on the generosity of pluralism, a generation of extrapolative young people might be just the thing."
M.E. Kerr referenced Luna by Julie Anne Peters, about a transgender teen, and how this experience is a timely reflection of reality as referenced by a recent article about Smith College.
Their perspectives remind us that books hold power--and are empowering--in (at least) two ways: as a reflection of the realities in our world, illuminating truths
( including truths about ourselves as individuals and as a society); and as agents for change and connection, offering opportunities for every reader approaching a book about someone or some group they may think of as "other" to discover that there are, indeed, "links in the chain" between other and self.
Thom mentioned "The Voice That Challenged a Nation" and "Sonny's House of Spies" as two books that illuminate different (yet linked?) aspects of the human and societal condition through the lens of individual experience. I also think of literature that offers insight into what is happening around the world, such as the books of Deborah Ellis, from her novels such as the "Breadwinner" trilogy and "The Heaven Shop" to
"Three Wishes," the interviews she conducted with Palestinian and Israeli children and young adults. I think of Jeanette Winter's latest book, "The Librarian of Basra." These books humanize the news, reminding us all, children, teens and adults alike, of the humanity behind the headlines.
The link between politics or books with a purpose and literature for children and teens seems to me rich and multifaceted, with so many truly good books we can point to--books that are, first and foremost, literature, written out of and to illuminate the human condition, not to teach a lesson. What strikes me is how much we can learn from them regardless.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
ph: 608&2?03 fax: 608&2I33 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 20 Apr 2005 08:56:53 AM CDT
