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[CCBC-Net] Charlotte Zolotow quote
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From: Ernie Cox <ernest.cox>
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 20:39:16 -0400
I thought many of you on this list would appreciate an excerpt from an interview Charlotte Zolotow gave to Justin Wintle. The full interview appeared in the book The Pied Pipers: Interviews with the influential creators of children's literature, Raddington Press Ltd. 1974 (LC 74-15918). While this interview occurred over 30 years ago it still seems right on...
JW - One book of yours, A Father Like That, which shows a little boy reflecting on what his father might be like if he had one, seemed to me a risky book to do for the very young.
CZ - That came out of a deep feeling that kids so often have no parent or an imperfect parent. All through that book I was working toward the ending, the feeling that if you can't create your parents you're at the mercy of them whether they're there or not there. The only way out of that is to grow up and become the parent you would like to have had. It isn't just parents - it's a thousand other things you wish other people would do or be, and which they're not going to do or be. But if you can make yourself do or be that, then at least there's one person who's fulfilling this goodness. Why did you think it was risky? Because it might upset them?
JW Because it gets close to a very real, very pathetic situation; because of the realism of the emotion described.
CZ It's a genuine thing that kids experience, because of the war and because of so many divorces. We get a lot of books that try to explain divorce to children in a very flat-footed way. They're not really books, they're not really stories; they're a sort of preaching. A reconstruction of an emotional need I think can reach a child much better. There is no answer if there is no father, except the hope that you can get to be a father yourself. It's not a lesson, but it's a though I would like to carry further, because I think so much of the misery in the world is caused by wanting to make other people over into the way we think they should be. If we could just settle for being that way ourselves we'd be ahead.
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 20:39:16 -0400
I thought many of you on this list would appreciate an excerpt from an interview Charlotte Zolotow gave to Justin Wintle. The full interview appeared in the book The Pied Pipers: Interviews with the influential creators of children's literature, Raddington Press Ltd. 1974 (LC 74-15918). While this interview occurred over 30 years ago it still seems right on...
JW - One book of yours, A Father Like That, which shows a little boy reflecting on what his father might be like if he had one, seemed to me a risky book to do for the very young.
CZ - That came out of a deep feeling that kids so often have no parent or an imperfect parent. All through that book I was working toward the ending, the feeling that if you can't create your parents you're at the mercy of them whether they're there or not there. The only way out of that is to grow up and become the parent you would like to have had. It isn't just parents - it's a thousand other things you wish other people would do or be, and which they're not going to do or be. But if you can make yourself do or be that, then at least there's one person who's fulfilling this goodness. Why did you think it was risky? Because it might upset them?
JW Because it gets close to a very real, very pathetic situation; because of the realism of the emotion described.
CZ It's a genuine thing that kids experience, because of the war and because of so many divorces. We get a lot of books that try to explain divorce to children in a very flat-footed way. They're not really books, they're not really stories; they're a sort of preaching. A reconstruction of an emotional need I think can reach a child much better. There is no answer if there is no father, except the hope that you can get to be a father yourself. It's not a lesson, but it's a though I would like to carry further, because I think so much of the misery in the world is caused by wanting to make other people over into the way we think they should be. If we could just settle for being that way ourselves we'd be ahead.
-- Ernie J. Cox Media Specialist St. Timothy's School 4523 Six Forks Road Raleigh, N.C. 27609 919.787.3011 ext.1708 sttimothys.org http://erniec.edublogs.org/ (mediacentered blog)Received on Thu 02 Aug 2007 07:39:16 PM CDT
