Summer Reading

     School is nearly out and the library is gearing up for summer reading.  Reading is one of the pleasures of summer especially for children, swaying in a hammock or lying on the beach with a book in hand, reading by flashlight in a tent or on a bunk in a summer camp cabin. Here's a plea to parents, if only for the summer, please allow your children to read whatever they want. Too often during the school year I see parents directing their children's reading, letting them read only from recommended lists the parents hold, checking each book a child selects to see if it is too "easy". Lighten up, parents, please, because you are removing much of the joy of reading from your children. It hasn't ever been about "hard" or "easy", it's about story first and foremost. Part of the fun of choosing books at the library is the joy of discovery, finding a book you may or may not like, taking it home and seeing if you do like it. It's summer, the library is free, and if your child doesn't like a book it's okay for him not to finish it. Most everything we have in the library is recommended in one way or another, so just for the season, let your child choose her own books. Reading has never been a ladder to climb, it's a pleasure to savor. The fact is, I think this pressure has turned many children off to reading. I am no longer seeing the kind of child readers who once frequented the library, checking out stacks of books, spending time examining each one to see what it is about. Yes, parents of preschoolers still check out many books, but school age children, on their own, rarely do. Instead reading seems to be another chore, another task to master to please their parents. It's not a way to raise a reader, someone who will find joy, amusement, solace and information from books all their lives. Adults, do yourself a favor too, and read whatever you want this summer, maybe something you have always wanted to try. As for me, I'll be rereading a favorite book from my own childhood,  Little Women, something I have wanted to do for some time .

Why I Will Always Love Jane Langton's Books

     I heard her speak once, long ago, a wonderful lecture on the history of children's books. As a child I devoured her books, especially loving a book called The Majesty of Grace (whose title, for reasons unclear to me, has been changed to The Boyhood of Grace Jones). And since I am an avid fan of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and all things transcendental, I also love the stories of the Hall family in their Concord home, with the busts of Thoreau and Emerson in the entry.
The Fledging is one of my absolute favorites. Therefore, as an adult, I am quite happy to discover the Homer Kelly mysteries by Ms. Langton. Dark Nantucket Noon, the first I've read, is so beautifully written and so evocative of the island of Nantucket in its descriptions. It also features lovely illustrations by the author, and I do enjoy illustrated books for grown-ups (see previous post). The Transcendental Mystery is the next I will read, and I envison such a delightful summer, sprawled out on a deck chair in my backyard, fresh squeezed lemonade at the ready, and a Homer Kelly mystery to wile away the warm afternoon.

Why I Love Comforting Old Novels

     Yesterday I was working at the Menlo Park Library and I came across a display of just the sort of comforting old books I love to curl up with. I picked one I'd always considered reading, Father of the Bride, by Edward Streeter. I've seen the movie, starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor, and I was thrilled with the look of the worn book, with illustrations by Gluyas Williams. (Wasn't it a wonderful thing when novels for adults came with illustrations?) It was a glorious sunny day, and at my lunch hour I walked up Santa Cruz Avenue to Ann's Coffee Shop. It's a vintage sort of place, whose decor looked decidedly 1940s, just like the novel I clutched. I sat at the counter and scanned the menu, which offered specials of "hash" and fresh rhubarb pie, and decided on a grilled cheese sandwich (with tomato). I opened up my novel and spent the next forty minutes reading and eating in perfect contentment. This is bliss, I thought, absolute bliss. Uncomplicated food and an uncomplicated novel (in the chapter I was reading, Mr. Banks' only dilemma was whether to serve martinis or old-fashioneds to his guests). On the walk back to the library I wondered why I was so inordinately happy over such a simple lunch. It wasn't exactly the Ritz, and shouldn't champagne be bliss, rather than iced tea, and shouldn't I have been reading something more intellectual, or at the very least a best seller? But there you are, it was a moment free from worry, I didn't have to worry about how I was dressed, or whether the menu featured something scary like beef cheeks or even the cost, and my book of choice was happy and non-violent (although there were several heated arguments about the wedding guest list and the expense). Today at my lunch I will probably have to face the real world, but yesterday, ah, bliss!

Why I Will Always Love Janey Moffat

     Janey, the middle Moffat, is, and will continue to be, one of my favorite characters in literature. I do, in fact, love all of the Moffats, as well as the town of Cranberry. And I love the book's illustrations by Louis Slobodkin too. The Moffat books remain in print and it is easy to see why. They are filled with warmth and tenderness and happiness in living. The family is poor, their father is dead and their mother is a seamstress, yet the stories aren't about angst, they are about dignity and respect and joy. That's why I go back to them over and over again. There are adventures in everyday living and although I have never been to a town like Cranberry, when I read about it, I feel that I know it. And I especially love the "oldest inhabitant" and want to wish "how do" to him!
     What is interesting is that Eleanor Estes told this same family story in her only adult novel, called "The Echoing Green". However, this book is so sad and depressing that I could barely get through it. Sometimes writing, especially writing for children, needs to be about good times. Otherwise, life is much too hard to endure.
      And speaking of dichotomy in writing, I just read two books by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, "Cross Creek" and "Cross Creek Cookery". I had always had an interest in her, mainly because I love her short story, "Jacob's Ladder" so much. Cross Creek was a beautifully evocative book of place and people, at her house in Florida where she wrote "The Yearling". It was also rather shockingly racist at times, although she may actually have been more liberal in her thinking than some southerners of the time. With that in mind, I just finished reading a wonderful biography written by her former maid, Idella. It is so interesting to read about "Mrs. Rawlings", from this point of view, and also to view a writer's life from a close observer. Mrs. Rawlings took to drink and would sometimes write with a bottle of whiskey by her side. I have often heard of her friendship with Zora Neale Hurston, and Idella does write of a lovely visit by Ms. Hurston, when the two writers had lunch and talked all day. However, when it came time to spend the night, Ms. Hurston had to sleep out in the maid's quarters, sharing a bed with Idella, even though there were empty bedrooms in the house.
     

Why I Still Love Peter Pan

I still love the book "Peter Pan" by James M. Barrie. Here are some of the reasons why:
a. The first line remains one of the greatest in literature. It goes like this: "All children, except one, grow up." There you have the entire story of the book in one line! That's great writing, folks!
b. The children learn to fly! Mostly all children believe, deep in their secret hearts, that they can really fly. With a tiny bit of fairy dust, maybe they actually can.
c. Tinkerbell - I mean, really, who doesn't like Tinkerbell - a fairy with a bit of spiciness to her. If you belive in fairies - clap your hands!
d. Pirates and an Indian princess, lost boys and islands, dog nannies (who could be more loyal?), a mother's love and the last grasp of childhood - no matter what places technology takes us to, imagination will never go out of style.

Crazy about the Broadway musical and its score, and the play of Peter Pan too.
Hate most of the movies about this story, i.e., the Disney version (and that goes for the Disneyland ride too!), Hook, and all of the other rewrites of a wonderful story. Hey, when something is great just the way it is, don't change it or create a ridiculous back story. When you do, all of the elements that make a story so delightful are hopelessly lost.

Perhaps next year at spring cleaning time, a child you know may be on her way to the Neverland too. "...and thus it will go on as long as children are gay and innocent and heartless."