From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 12:35:21 -0500

The first books I remember absolutely loving as a very young child are AND TO THINK THAT I SAW IT ON MULBERRY STREET by Dr. Seuss (borrowed from the public library) and our personal copy of the Walt Disney version of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Life changing? I dunno. Memorable? Absolutely.
  Like Miriam and Melody, I was profoundly affected by THE FAMILY OF MAN - the exhibition and the book. I saw the exhibition during the summer when as an undergraduate student I worked as a volunteer in an urban neighborhood in Washington, D.C. I saw THE FAMILY OF MAN exhibition more than once that summer. I couldn't stay away from those haunting photographs organized according to themes and concepts so new to me then and yet exactly right according to my emerging personal values. We still have the worn copy of THE FAMILY OF MAN I bought with just about all of my limited personal spending money. Thanks, Julie, for pointing out Leo Lionni's involvement to this exhibit and book so life-changing for me and others.
  As a girl I read my way through the public library children's department, and so there are several books I might name as life-changing from my childhood reading. However, certain all-time faves and life-changing books weren't available in the public library. I had to use my allowance to get hold of every single new WONDER WOMAN comic book. I had to buy or hope to be given a birthday copy of the latest JUDY BOLTON mystery book by Margaret Sutton. Judy Bolton never achieved the popularity or visibility of her counterpart Nancy Drew. I guess I read and reread that series and liked it so much because Judy grew and changed as each book in the series emerged, and Nancy didn't. As I wonder now about my attraction to the WONDER WOMAN and JUDY BOLTON series, I guess that as a girl I could see "possibility" in these female characters. Unlikely possibility, to be certain, but I think that must have been what was so compelling. According to late 20th and early 21st century standards Judy represents an extremely conventi onal, amusing model of young woman-hood, her detecting skills not withstanding. It was too early for HARRIET THE SPY.
  Tomorrow we'll leave our Madison, Wisconsin, home so very near the neighborhood where Sidney grew up, and we'll drive to our "north woods" cottage. Our Madison house is where my worn copy of THE FAMILY OF MAN is always at hand, along with many other life-changing books. There's nostalgia in those bookshelves, but it's nothing compared in intensity with the nostalgia connected with our seasonal place. The tattered copies of my JUDY BOLTONS belong at the cottage. We'll dust them off later this week, along with everything else we'd closed and covered up for the winter. The JUDY BOLTONS continue to be popular rainy day, summer reading for kids. Go figure, because we have a quite fabulous, otherwise very up-to-date children's & YA & adult book collection in the cottage, too. But the JUDY BOLTONS have survived the countless purges of our bulging cottage bookshelves prior to every single upcoming village booksale. These copies have lasted. They've mattered, and not only to me. Maybe I should try and find out why.
  Warmly, Ginny
 

Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
 
 
Received on Wed 24 May 2006 12:35:21 PM CDT