The gwenyth swain Blog

Meet the Willoughbys & Willowbys

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:57:23 -0500

What’s in a name? Tons! I’m one of those writers (and readers) who believes that a great deal of a character’s character is revealed by his or her name. And one of my favorite names in children’s fiction lately has been Willoughby/Willowby.

Most recently, Lois Lowry has published the delightfully daffy middle-grade novel, The Willoughbys. It’s a fantastic read-aloud about a family of, for all intents and purposes, orphaned children named Willoughby. That there’s also a character named Baby Ruth just adds to the fun. Perhaps the best part of Lowry’s tale is how she plays on the reader’s expectations of what “should” happen in a story, particularly in an “old-fashioned” kind of story, as this one is.

Lowry’s book reminded me of another great old-fashioned read-aloud gem, for much younger children. Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry was originally published in 1963. After languishing in out-of-print-land for years, it was revived in part due to a concerted effort by bookseller fans. Why did they work so hard to see this book resurrected? In part, it’s because this book has a rhyming text that actually works. It reads beautifully, with a fast or nearly frantic pace, and the pen and ink illustrations add immeasurably to the fun.

Any questions or comments? Just send me an email.

Reading Queen

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:14:04 -0500

I love to read, but I’m a pretty “common” reader: someone who takes off on great, rabid reading jags, after months of carrying around the same partially read novel.

Alan Bennett, in a short and lovely book, asks us to suppose that a very “uncommon” person has joined the ranks of readers. In her later years, Queen Elizabeth II, in the pages of The Uncommon Reader, accidentally makes contact with a mobile library (aka bookmobile). The Queen is surprised to find one idling behind the kitchens at Buckingham Palace. Unfailingly polite, she feels she must check out a book. And so begins a funny and touching look at how reading can take you far, even to the point of nearly overpowering you.

Bennett uses this slim novella to explore how we read, what affect our reading journeys can have upon us and the people around us, and what it means to read deliberately. In the process, he presents the reader with beautifully crafted prose.

Check it out!

Any questions or comments? Just send me an email. Still to come, a look at various Willoughbys...

This Blog Has Been on Break...

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:24:03 -0500

If you’re a regular visitor, you may have noticed that the blog has been, well, under-performing lately. It’s been on summer break, taking in the sights in Rome (above) and elsewhere. As you can guess, it’s hard to get back to blogging after you’ve seen Paree--and Rome and beautiful Barcelona. But look for an entry on various Willoughbys soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the last of summer!

Any questions or comments? Just send me an email.

A Quick Poem for Poetry Month

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:01:55 -0500

What do I do in the Target parking lot? Write poetry--sometimes. Here’s what came to mind on a recent shopping trip, when all the new things in the bags didn’t seem quite as special as the things you can’t buy...

***

Stories My Parents Told Me

I have discovered something I always knew:
Our stories are our currency, our common faith.
The marks my mother makes me see,
across the decades,
left by hoboes on the family’s fenceposts.
The hope and fear my father helps me feel,
riding on a bus to Washington in ’63,
on a journey to a dream.
Each story, like the gift at the top of the list,
enchants me.
Brighter than gold,
the light of love and faith.

***

FYI, if you’re wondering about the photo, it’s of me, on my father’s shoulders, with my mother sitting in the background.

Any questions or comments? Just send me an email.

A Taste of Colored Water

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:01:41 -0500

As I’ve been traveling to schools to read and promote my newest picture book, Riding to Washington, about the civil rights movement, I’ve been finding other books that cover this fascinating era. One of the most unusual is Matt Faulkner’s new picture book from Simon & Schuster called A Taste of Colored Water.

Faulkner, who has illustrated several historical picture books, including Thank You, Sarah by Laurie Halse Anderson, both writes and illustrates A Taste of Colored Water. His pen-scratch and watercolor illustrations of life in the south have the effect of “colorizing” the old black-and-white photos familiar to anyone who has studied the civil rights era.

The artwork and the story strive to give us a view of civil rights struggles as seen from the naive eyes of two white children in a small southern town. When their friend Abbey Finch tells of having seen a “colored” water fountain in the big city, the two children innocently assume she means that the water coming out of it is colored—and deliciously flavored as well.

When they finally make a trip to the big city, the truth turns out to be somewhat different. The water fountain—just one small aspect of Jim Crow segregation—looks ordinary to the two children. Yet the water, when it flows up into the air, sparkles beautifully, catching the colors of the sun.

Before the children manage to get a drink, however, they become engrossed in watching a civil rights protest march on the street below. The peaceful march is abruptly broken up by police armed with water hoses. Faulkner doesn’t dance around the fear and violence of the era, but he filters the experiences through the eyes of children, children who are innocent, yet mature enough to ask, “Daddy, what color does a person have to be to get a taste of colored water?”

A Taste of Colored Water makes for an interesting introduction on its own to the civil rights era, and is a new and different choice for black history month studies in elementary schools. But this author recommends pairing it with Riding to Washington to give a fuller picture of the era and the ways in which both blacks and whites struggled to change our country.

Any questions? Just send me an email.