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[CCBC-Net] minding our education
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From: leonardsma at aol.com <leonardsma>
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:09:31 -0400
I was an extremely verbal child--and a remedial reader. My reading teacher asked me, in second grade I think, to write her poems for me to read to her at our next week's sessions. I found that I enjoyed doing that very much. And of course because I had written the poems myself, they were very easy to read. So that was my start. As the youngest of three children, I had lots of hand me down books at home, including 15 or 20 Little Golden Books, but really all sorts of things. We had an excellent Carnegie library in my home town, Mount Vernon, NY, and a bookmobile that parked two blocks from our house. I loved going in one end and leaving, with a book or two in hand, by the other. As I reached the point of choosing books for myself I found I wanted to read history books and biographies (surprise, surprise). I made my parents special order a copy of the Young Readers' edition of John F. Kennedy's PROFILES IN COURAGE, because I was fascinated by Kennedy (I had campaigned for him
the previous year at the age of ten). I began buying illustrated books at junk sales before I was a teenager for the sake of having a book at home that I considered beautiful. In fifth grade I belonged to a writing club, organized by our school librarian, which was visited one day by a local author whose last name (I remembered vaguely years later) could also be a first name. Eventually I realized that the author who had made such an impression was Jean George. It was so good later still to get to know her. The club was not a completely happy experience. The librarian accused me of having plagarized something that she thought I could not have written myself. It was lucky I had such a strong sense of myself, and a mother who was willing to tell the librarian off. At Yale I decided on my own to write about the history of American children's books--my idea being that early 19th century books might reveal something about how a new nation, formed on new principles, had been launc
hed. My advisor was David Brion Davis, an authority on the history o
f slavery and a deeply curious man; I was grateful he took on my project at a time when others in the much vaunted Yale history dept didn't see the point of studying children's books. I discovered Nancy Burkert's SNOW WHITE when I was I was a graduate student in the Iowa Writers Workshop for poetry; that was the first children's book I saw with art that I thought deserved to be seen in a museum. I found GOODNIGHT MOON while browsing in a New York book store a few years later. The poetry and distilled simplicity of it amazed me. I was looking for a big project for myself just then and thought that maybe I could write a biography of this poet for very young children.
Leonard S. Marcus
54 Willow Street, #2A
Brooklyn, New York 11201
tel 718 596-1897
e-mail leonardsma at aol.com
web www.leonardmarcus.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Lang Budin <miriammeister at gmail.com>
To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
Sent: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 2:41 pm
Subject: [CCBC-Net] minding our education
I, too, want to thank Leonard and the rest of the ccbc-net community for this fascinating discussion. Leonard has been magnificently generous with his time and his store of knowledge. We are so lucky the children's literature, publishing and librarianship captured his interest back in his undergraduate days! That makes me wonder what books might have been formative for you, Leonard. What did you read as a child and what was read to you? Who were your "minders of make-believe"? Parents? Teachers? Librarians? Peers? Also, in response to Hollis, I'd like to mention that when I was in library school (U. of Chicago, mid-70's) we certainly studied the history of children's literature and of public libraries. Maybe all that got tossed out as new technologies gained ascendancy and course requirements changed. Then, too, the speciality in children's service seemed to have been dropped by many library schools for quite a while. My impression is that it has
been revived in some places. Does anyone know if that's true? And, in a related question, do education students generally study the history of education? -- Miriam Lang Budin Chappaqua Library, NY _______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Wed 30 Jul 2008 03:09:31 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:09:31 -0400
I was an extremely verbal child--and a remedial reader. My reading teacher asked me, in second grade I think, to write her poems for me to read to her at our next week's sessions. I found that I enjoyed doing that very much. And of course because I had written the poems myself, they were very easy to read. So that was my start. As the youngest of three children, I had lots of hand me down books at home, including 15 or 20 Little Golden Books, but really all sorts of things. We had an excellent Carnegie library in my home town, Mount Vernon, NY, and a bookmobile that parked two blocks from our house. I loved going in one end and leaving, with a book or two in hand, by the other. As I reached the point of choosing books for myself I found I wanted to read history books and biographies (surprise, surprise). I made my parents special order a copy of the Young Readers' edition of John F. Kennedy's PROFILES IN COURAGE, because I was fascinated by Kennedy (I had campaigned for him
the previous year at the age of ten). I began buying illustrated books at junk sales before I was a teenager for the sake of having a book at home that I considered beautiful. In fifth grade I belonged to a writing club, organized by our school librarian, which was visited one day by a local author whose last name (I remembered vaguely years later) could also be a first name. Eventually I realized that the author who had made such an impression was Jean George. It was so good later still to get to know her. The club was not a completely happy experience. The librarian accused me of having plagarized something that she thought I could not have written myself. It was lucky I had such a strong sense of myself, and a mother who was willing to tell the librarian off. At Yale I decided on my own to write about the history of American children's books--my idea being that early 19th century books might reveal something about how a new nation, formed on new principles, had been launc
hed. My advisor was David Brion Davis, an authority on the history o
f slavery and a deeply curious man; I was grateful he took on my project at a time when others in the much vaunted Yale history dept didn't see the point of studying children's books. I discovered Nancy Burkert's SNOW WHITE when I was I was a graduate student in the Iowa Writers Workshop for poetry; that was the first children's book I saw with art that I thought deserved to be seen in a museum. I found GOODNIGHT MOON while browsing in a New York book store a few years later. The poetry and distilled simplicity of it amazed me. I was looking for a big project for myself just then and thought that maybe I could write a biography of this poet for very young children.
Leonard S. Marcus
54 Willow Street, #2A
Brooklyn, New York 11201
tel 718 596-1897
e-mail leonardsma at aol.com
web www.leonardmarcus.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Lang Budin <miriammeister at gmail.com>
To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
Sent: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 2:41 pm
Subject: [CCBC-Net] minding our education
I, too, want to thank Leonard and the rest of the ccbc-net community for this fascinating discussion. Leonard has been magnificently generous with his time and his store of knowledge. We are so lucky the children's literature, publishing and librarianship captured his interest back in his undergraduate days! That makes me wonder what books might have been formative for you, Leonard. What did you read as a child and what was read to you? Who were your "minders of make-believe"? Parents? Teachers? Librarians? Peers? Also, in response to Hollis, I'd like to mention that when I was in library school (U. of Chicago, mid-70's) we certainly studied the history of children's literature and of public libraries. Maybe all that got tossed out as new technologies gained ascendancy and course requirements changed. Then, too, the speciality in children's service seemed to have been dropped by many library schools for quite a while. My impression is that it has
been revived in some places. Does anyone know if that's true? And, in a related question, do education students generally study the history of education? -- Miriam Lang Budin Chappaqua Library, NY _______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Wed 30 Jul 2008 03:09:31 PM CDT
