A contemporary trend? Melvin Burgess is telling tales in twitter instalments.
Wish I could pick up a free copy of David Almond’s The Savage from Liverpool.
‘Red Riding Hood’s not out of the woods yet’ : academic debate reported in a Toronto Star newspaper article, with comment by Zipes.
Tagged Block 1, Block 6, Burgess, fairy tales, publishing
Anne Fine is reported in yesterday’s Times* as ‘[deploring the] ‘gritty realism’ of modern children’s books’:
In the Fifties, when a strong child was dealing with difficult circumstances, there was always a rescue at the end of the book and it was always a middle-class rescue.
The child would win a scholarship to Roedean or something, and go on to do very well. That was felt to be unrealistic and so there was a move away from that. Books for children became much more concerned with realism, or what we see as realism.
But where is the hope? How do we offer them hope within that? It may be that realism has gone too far in literature for children. I am not sure that we are opening doors for children who read these books, or helping them to develop their aspirations.
The article goes on, however :
Amanda Craig, who reviews children’s books for The Times, said…. that Fine was also capable of producing “utterly bleak” books such as Road of Bones, about a boy growing up in totalitarian Russia. The title of the book, which was shortlisted for a Carnegie Medal in 2007, refers to the bones of political dissidents who dared to oppose Stalin.
So just within the article there is evidence that Fine’s views are more nuanced than the reporting suggests. And a blogger who was also present at the Edinburgh book festival event where Anne Fine was speaking writes
I’m of the opinion that she spoke exactly those words that were quoted in the Times yesterday, but I didn’t feel then that she meant it quite as people are interpreting it. (Bookwitch)
Fine herself has written, on her website biography page:
I studied Politics and History at University, and the interest in political issues shows up in many of the books.
I don’t believe that Fine’s views can be as simple as represented.
Mind you, I have An Interest. One of my favourite books is her Book of the Banshee (a breath of fresh air and sanity for anyone with teenage children). And I was thoroughly impressed by her when she turned up – years ago – at my tiny local library to give a talk. She spoke eloquently and passionately to her packed audience for an hour, proving in so many ways her dedication to the public library service and to books for children.
I admit to warming to her particularly because – elegant as she certainly is – she started then by explaining “This is how I look without the makeup that those lovely publicity people at the publishers do for their ‘author photos’.”
* You might like to check out this article because it also quotes Melvin Burgess and Anthony Browne, authors on our set books list.
