WONDER 2

THE WONDER OF STORY

In her book, "In Search of Wonder," Katherine Paterson describes three ways that Wonder should be present in a children's book:

First there is the Wonder of nature and human nature - that is the setting and the characters.

ASLAN

Such a story for me, would be "The Lion, the Witch,and the Wardrobe."  As a child I remember feeling a great desire to be in this land of Narnia, where trees walked, animals talked, and children had the power to save the world.

Next there is the Wonder of language- the telling of the tale.

Think about Beatrix Potter's language in Jemima Puddleduck.  She explains to a passing gentleman that she is not lost, but simply looking for a nesting place where her eggs will be safe from the farmer's wife, who always takes them away and gives them to a hen to hatch.  She complains about the "superfluous" hen.  Magnificent word!  

And what about those SOPORIFIC lettuces in McGregor's garden?

"It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is soporific.  I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit.  They certainly had a very soporific effect upon the Flopsy Bunnies."

Is it any WONDER that these stories with such rich and melodic language and enchanting settings are still classics?

Finally, there is the Wonder behind and beyond the story - "the meaning of this story that ties us to the mystery of the meaning of our life and all of creation."

Paterson tell us that C.S. Lewis experienced this kind of Wonder after reading Squirrel Nutkin.

"After reading it, he was filled with desire, for what he knew not, maybe Milton’s enormous bliss of Eden was the best way to explain the feeling that came over him.

“I can only describe it as the Idea of Autumn.  To be enamored of a season – fantastic as that may seem.  

"He went back to the book again and again, not to gratify the desire (that would be impossible, for how can one possess autumn?) but to reawaken it”  

WONDER 1

WONDER is..

"to live without ever being quite sure what to expect, and therefore, quite often, to encounter...

DELIGHT."

                                                  ~Susan Cooper 

"Of one thing, I am certain, that the age needs first and foremost to be startled, to be taught the nature of wonder."

~ GK Chesterton

"Children come into the world full of wonder, but alas age has a way of eroding that wonder unless we work at it diligently."

                                           ~Katherine Paterson (Newberry author)


.....And what better way to nurture that sense of wonder than with ...
 A GOOD STORY.

Lorain County Young Authors' Conference

WARM WELCOME FROM LORAIN COUNTY

What joy it was to present to Grades 3-5 of the Lorain County Young Authors' Conference as their featured speaker - all 700 of them!

  

We talked about Story as a Journey and our Writers' Roots.  What a wonderful audience they were!

The Young Authors' participating school districts chose their best writing award nominations from each grade level (3-8) as their choice for outstanding writing.  At the conference, the Best of Show writing finalists were announced and presented with trophies and posters of their book covers.  Their original books are later reproduced and awarded to them in professionally-bound keepsakes at school district board meetings.

An added bonus for me, was to meet a kindred spirit -fellow Scot and author, Carole Barrowman, who presented to the Grades 6-8.

Good will triumph 4

"As is a tale so is life, not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."  Seneca




None of us knows how long our lives will be, but we do know that it is GOODness that makes it worth living and unites us all.

But what models of goodness do we provide our children?

Who are their heroes?

Are they simply "famous" people?

Or are they GOOD people who can inspire our children to be GOOD too?


After the heart-wrenching tragedy of Newton, it was hard for any of us to believe in any goodness amidst such an agony of suffering.

"...like 9/11 Newton contained within it, the ongoing fact of revelation.   Both 9/11 and Newtown were marked by a revealing of the goodness of normal people which is seldom celebrated, but is central to the balance of the world.  When teachers tried to shield the children, it was a revelation of their goodness,   It is important, in part, because, by the light of the goodness of others -by that light, we can see ourselves”

Eugene Kennedy, Psychologist, Professor Emeritus at Loyola University

Good will triumph 3

As parents and educators, we soon learn that our job is not simply to eradicate all trials and tragedies from our children's lives.  Rather it is to give them the wisdom and the courage they will need to navigate life's stormy waters, tame the demons, and kill the dragons!

Newberry Medalist winner, Katherine Paterson, explains that good books are really a great way for children to "practice" life.  But children need us to share books that can offer such an opportunity BEFORE they are needed - that is before the child suffers a devastating loss or an unexpected betrayal.

"Fairy tales do not tell children that the dragons exist.  Children already know that dragons exist.  Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."  G.K. Chesterton

Good will triumph (2)

The two most important ingredients of any children's book, according to Jane Yolen,  are - hope and joy.







BELIEVE








"Beneath the muck and scum of things, there something always, always sings."  Emerson

Good will triumph

Julian of Norwich was a medieval, English mystic, who maintained that :

"All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

Madeleine L'Engle believed that this "all wellness" should be at the heart of every single children's book. 

But what does it mean, this "all wellness?"

Well, maybe it is easier to begin with what it does NOT mean.  I do not think it means that we have to feed children some naïve, Pollyanna, pie-in-the-sky stories that completely disregard the sadnesses that simmer beneath our lives.

Rather I think it has to do with having a stalwart belief in what all good stories from the Chronicles of Narnia to the Harry Potter series center around - and that is, despite our troubled times and dark days, despite the evil doers and the naysayers of the world, despite all of that....

GOOD is more powerful than Evil....

LOVE can conquer Hate

HOPE is what we humans DO (even if we do not always feel it)