The Places You Will Go

Memories of Pain and Pleasure

By DAPHNE LEE

from Tots to Teens, StarMag

I'D heard about it; read about it; been told about it. But I had not read Lois Lowry's The Giver (Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 208 pages, ISBN: 978-0385732550) before last weekend. Listening to an interview with the author (on a podcast) was what led me to finally read the 1994 Newberry Medal winner. And about time too!

In the interview, Lowry came across as funny, kind, insightful and thoughtful. She told great stories about her interesting life. She discussed her books with humour and irony.

When she first became a writer, she wrote for adults and children, but she said that quite early on she realised that "young readers are profoundly affected by what they read and in some cases even changed permanently". This made her start to focus more and more on writing for children and, eventually, write exclusively for them.

I am impressed by the respect she evidently has for children. How they respond, think and feel obviously means a great deal to her, so much so that she feels a responsibility to provide them with literary nourishment.

Newberry Loot

I wondered into Payless Books (1Utama) en route to buying a pair of WHITE socks for Ekath's school concert (this afternoon - help me, spirits of the universe ... I do not enjoy watching small children perform ...) and bought eight children's books.

Six are Newberry Medal Winners:
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite Angeli 1950
Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen 1957
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George 1973
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos 1980
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech 1995
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse 1998

One is a Newberry Honor Book:
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen 1987

and The Mansion in the Mist by John Bellairs, whose work I've wanted to check out for ages (his books don't seem to be available in local bookstores, or perhaps I just haven't looked hard enough).

They were RM8 each, apart from The Door in the Wall, which cost RM6.

I love the fact that Newberry Medalists are available at such great prices. As they're award winners (the US's most prestigious award for children's novels), libraries are always buying new copies and selling off the old stock. Lucky us, we get to buy these books at RM8 and they're in very readable condition.

Unfortunately, the Caldecott Winners (for picture books) don't seem to wind up at Payless.

And British award-winners don't either, but I think in this case it's because Payless deals solely with suppliers from the States. Pity, that.

Picture Book of the Month: Not a Box

November 2008
Not a Box
By Antoinette Portis
Publisher: HarperCollins, 32 pages
ISBN: 978-0061123221

A BOX is a box is a box. Right? Wrong! A box is a race-car, a mountain, a robot, a skyscraper, a hotair balloon, a pirate ship ... basically anything and everything you want it to be.

This book is about how imagination can transform an object, and your life!

Rabbit and his box are rendered in black ink, while red embellishments show readers just where Rabbit's flights of fancy take him and his "not-a-box".

Absolutely brilliant!