A Light Brunch before the Newbery-Caldecott Banquet

Those who remember my vow of being completely unpacked and "moved in" by Independence Day will understand if today's blog is shorter than usual. How can I serve Sunday Brunch when a chorus of books in the basement is shouting upstairs, "Shelf me!" "No, shelf me!" "I was here first!" "Shelf me next!"

Meanwhile, a pair of pants and two shirts, which have made it into the house but haven't quite made it into the closet, are warbling "Hang me!" to the tune of that old Roger Miller song.

Then there are jugs of windshield wiper fluid, cans of Turtle Wax, and containers of Tide detergent and Clorox on the garage floor, demanding to be put in their proper places. The bottle of kerosene threatens, "Get me in the cupboard by July fourth, buster, or I'll really show you some fireworks!"

So I've got exactly one week to get organized here.

It wouldn't be so bad if every item was large, had a designated purpose, and had a place waiting for it in the house -- like a lamp.

Lamps are nice.

You just pick one up from the floor of the garage -- and look what a fine empty space it leaves behind! -- bring it into the house, set it on the table, and -- voila! -- you feel like you've really accomplished something.

But what bugs me are the boxes filled to the brim with a lot of miscellanous stuff which will take forever to sort and put away:


And who's bright idea was it to "kill two birds with one stone" by hauling over loose items in a cooking pot?


Oh yeah, it was my idea.

But not a very good one.


A RABBIT TALE

Meanwhile, I went down to get the mail yesterday and discovered a dead rabbit in the driveway. It's a wide driveway, shared by four homeowners, and the inanimate animal certainly wasn't in my portion of the drive (I Brake for Bunnies!) Two of my new neighbors were standing outside chatting and since I am very shy and can never think of what to say to people until hours and hours after-the-fact, I just blurted out the first thing that came into my head: "Hey, there's a dead rabbit in the driveway!" (Hours and hours after-the-fact, it dawned on me that, "Hello, how are you?" might have been a good alternative.)

Neighbor #1 said, "Someone needs to get a shovel and remove it."

She gave me a look and I knew exactly which "someone" she meant. So I went into the garage, got a snow shovel and a Hefty bag, and returned to the scene of the crime. That's when Neighbor #2 spoke up: "Oh, don't just throw him away! Take him around back to the pond."

"You want me to throw him in the water?"

"No, just lay his little body down in the tall grass under the trees...so he can rest in peace." (Clearly, Neighbor #2 is the sentimental sort.)

As I made my way around the back of the condos -- a one-man funeral procession solemnly carrying a loaded neon-orange snow shovel straight out in front of me -- I thought, "There are probably other people in the world who, at this very moment, are disposing of dead rabbits. ...But I'm probably the only one doing so while thinking of Br'er Rabbit, Little Georgie, Uncle Wiggily, Hazel, Bunnicula, the March Hare, and Flopsy, Mopsy, and Peter Cottontail."


TONIGHT, TONIGHT, WON'T BE JUST ANY NIGHT

...at least not for Rebecca Stead and Jerry Pinkney. Tonight's the night they receive their Newbery and Caldecott awards for, respectively, WHEN YOU REACH ME and THE LION AND THE MOUSE at the American Library Association convention in Washington, D.C.

Susan Cooper, who won the Newbery for THE GREY KING, once described these annual award winners as "Midsummer Monarchs" and I, for one, will be anxious to hear all the reports about our newly-minted King and Queen of Children's Books and their royal banquet this evening. What will be served for dinner? What kind of program, novelties, and gifts will given as party favors to the guests? Will anyone be kind enough to send me one for my collection? (Notice how I just slipped that one in there?) What will the speeches by like? Will Mr. Pinkney get a standing O for finally receiving the Caldecott after five Honors? Will Ms. Stead thank Madeleine L'Engle in her speech?

In order to get this info, I guess we'll have to rely on reports from the bloggers who were lucky enough to attend this year's festivities. I know that Betsy from Fuse #8 is there, as is Travis from 100 Scope Notes, Liz from A Chair, A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy, Tom from Berger & Burger -- plus many more.

As for me, I'll be home, probably watching something dumb on TV like the "edible cities cake competion" on FOOD NETWORK CHALLENGE, while dreaming I am attending the Newbery ceremony (or better yet, attending the Newbery ceremony to receive the award myself. If I'm going to dream, why not dream big?)

But this does bring me to a question.

The technology now exists to broadcast the N/C ceremony live over the internet. If you could watch it on your computer, would you do so?

What if they charged a fee for viewing it?

Tickets to the event cost $94. Would you be willing to pay a fee to view the N/C ceremony live, if the money went to the ALA or, better yet, to a children's literacy program or, best of all, was used to purchase children's books for a public library?

If so, what do you think a fair price would be? The $94 includes a meal, dinner service, banquet favors, plus the opportunity to rub shoulders with Rodman Philbrick and Marla Frazee (or at least view them across a crowded room.) Staying home and watching the event on the web while eating a Big Mac isn't quite the same, but I'd still pay maybe $20 or $25 for the privilege.

What do ya say, ALA?

Want to offer the N/C ceremony to the children's book fans over the net next year AND make some money for the nation's libraries?

Think about it.


WHOA, NELLIE!

Remember bratty Nellie Oleson from TV's LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE? Played by actress Alison Arngrim, Nellie was such a venomous villian that many people are unaware that she was not just the flashy creation of television writers, but -- unlike a lot of denizens of TV's "Walnut Grove" (we're looking at you, Hester Sue!) -- she originally appeared in Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books.

Now Alison Arngrim is spilling the beans on her LHOP years in a funny and surprisingly well-written memoir called CONFESSIONS OF A PRAIRIE BITCH : HOW I SURVIVED NELLIE OLESON AND LEARNED TO LOVE BEING HATED. I was especially interested to learn that Alison Arngrim had never read the Wilder books before trying out for the show...first for the role or Laura, then Mary, and then some months later, Nellie Oleson. After killing them at the audition, she is offered the role almost immediately. She writes:

We had to start shooting so quickly after my audition that I had no time to cram, no time to read the LITTLE HOUSE books for more perspective on what I was doing. It was actually weeks before I went out and bought a copy of ON THE BANKS OF PLUM CREEK. When I read it, I was shocked; it was pretty slow and boring.

[How dare she diss our beloved Little House books? I'm beginning to think she titled her memoir quite accurately.]

But the Garth Williams illustrations were dead on. When I saw the picture of Nellie clutching her doll away from Laura, it looked exactly like me. She had my nose. It's just spooky.

[Not really spooky when you consider the producers probably cast her in the role because she favored the illustrations of Nellie. Still, to be fair, they didn't cast the other roles to resemble the characters in the books, starting with clean-shaven Michael Landon, who looked nothing like the bearded Pa in the novels.]


Ms. Arngrim's book contains other information about adapting the books for the TV screen and even reveals the real-life girls who inspired Laura Ingalls Wilder in her creation of Nellie. For example, there's one Genevieve Masters who, although "much of Nellie's nastiest deeds in the book were based on her" went unnamed in the books because "rumor has it that Genevieve's family was in publishing, and since Laura wanted her books published, she decided to cover up Miss Masters's misdeeds and blame them all on Nellie Oleson."


IN OTHER TV NEWS

As one of Hollywood's most famous up-and-comers, James Franco shocked everyone when he announced he was abandoning his film career for a couple months to appear on the
TV soap opera GENERAL HOSPITAL. Some thought he was doing it as a prank, or to fulfill requirements for his master's degree at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, but reportedly he is just joining the show "for the experience."

What does this have to do with children's books?

Well, I didn't know until recently that James Franco's mother is Betsy Franco, author and editor of a wide variety of children's books, including POND CIRCLE, SUMMER BEAT, MATHEMATICKLES, and METAMORPHOSES : JUNIOR YEAR.

Now comes word that the acting bug has bitten Betsy and, starting later this week, she will be appearing on GENERAL HOSPITAL with her son:



IS THIS ENTIRE BLOG ABOUT TV TODAY OR WHAT?

One more children's book related item. Last night I watched an episode of TV's ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. Filmed last summer in Providence, Rhode Island, one of the items brought in for appraisal was an old copy of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery. The appraiser identified the book as a first edition because the date 1908 appeared on the title page (in Roman numerals) and the verso stated, "First impression, April 1908."

The woman who brought the book in had picked it up at a flea market for less than five dollars. The antiques expert advised her that it was worth between $12,000 and $18,000! He added that a copy had recently sold for $20,000.

Some months later, in December of 2009, a first edition of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES was auctioned at Christies in New York -- and sold for $37,000.

I suspect that the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW woman decided to sell her copy...


BACK TO WORK

Well, I'm going back to unpacking. But I'll probably be taking a few breaks to check on tweets and blogs from ALA. Maybe next year we can all be there together...either in person, or gathered around our computer screens watching the festivities on the web. Thanks for visiting Collecting Children's Books. Hope you'll be back!

Long Time Passing

I was a teenager myself when I came across this volume at a used bookstore:


I wasn't sure what the title meant. Being a high school student -- and not the sharpest knife in the drawer, to boot -- I mainly equated "passing" with the idea of passing or failing a geometry quiz or some subject in school. I guess I assumed that the author, Lyn Tornabene, was writing about how she successfully negotiated her way through her teen years: she wasn't a failure as a teenager...she passed with flying colors! That kind of thing. The 1960s and 1970s were big on self-help books aimed at teenagers and I figured this was one of them.

As it turns out, I had it all wrong.

Instead, it turned out to be the author's autobiographical account of infiltrating a large metropolitan high school in the guise of a teenage student. Lyn Tornabene was a married thirty-three year old journalist when she was asked to contribute an article on teenage life to a major magazine. After doing some preliminary research, she dropped the idea -- only to awaken one morning

...mouthing cartoon phrases like Eureka! and Holy Cow! and [...] That's It! and Why Didn't I Think of It Before? Suppose I could be a teenager. Suppose I put on some teenage clothes and wore a wig and mixed in without their knowing I was an adult? [...} 'Passing' was a time-honored way to get a story. A man had passed for a Negro and written an important book about his experience. A girl had passed for a Playboy Bunny for a now defunct magazine and set the world on fire. Newspaper reporters had passed for inmates of jails and sanatoriums, hospital patients and unwed mothers. [...] Had anyone ever tired to pass for a child?

As soon as I learned the fascinating premise of this book, I knew I had to read it. So I bought the volume for seventy-cents (the price is still written inside the front cover) and read it that afternoon. Over the next few years, I read it many more times.

What motivated this particular reading obsession? On the one hand, the book works as a good spy story. Ms. Tornabene went to great lengths to hide her identity, moving to a distant city and living with a family friend while attending "Urban High." She wore a disguise of "typical" sixties teenage clothing, dying her graying hair and wearing glasses to hide her crows' feet. (At the time I didn't question these particulars -- after all, she was AN OLD LADY. Now, of course, thirty-three sounds pretty darn young to me.) Yet, despite her elaborte disguise, this high school spy is frequently questioned by peers. On her very first day of school, one student mistakes Lyn for a teacher and another says, "Your clothes are like a teenager, but your face is old." One reads the book continually wondering when her ruse will be discovered. And if it is, will she be sent to the principal's office -- or the police station?

The other thing I loved about I PASSED AS A TEENAGER is that it was written by someone who WANTED to observe and know young people. Any teenage reader would find that an appealing element. (As Ms. Tornabene notes in her book, "I know that when you're a teenager, nobody looks at your face. I registered in a high school and attended classes disguised as an adolescent, and not one adult -- from Dean of Girls to school doctor -- noticed. I got away with it. And I came home knowing that though teenagers may be running the economy, controlling the airwaves, taking over the highways, and turning 25,000,000 households inside out, nobody is looking them in the eye.") Although the things Ms. Tornabene observed at Urban High may not have exactly matched by own school experiences, there was enough similarity -- particularly in her portraits of the teachers (by turns mean, difficult, uncommitted, and inspiring) to keep me nodding my head in agreement as I turned the pages. Finally, as a teenaged reader, I enjoyed the this-too-shall-pass portrait of adolescence presented by the author. At the end of the volume, Ms. Tornabene asks herself, "Be young again? Not me." and lists some of the advantages of adult life:

I am potent. I can make myself felt. I can hold up my hand and say, "Wait a minute!" I can say No, I won't and Yes, I can. I can say This is me. I am this woman in this house with this man in this small sphere of this large world. This is mine. This small thing. And this. Not much, but mine. See me. I am a person. These are my limitations. These are my potentialities. You may not like me, but that doesn't mean I have to change. I don't have to submit. I don't have to repress. I can pack and go. Or, better yet, I can suggest that you can pack and go.

I found the promise inherent in those words very empowering as a kid.

Published in 1967, I PASSED AS A TEENAGER depicts the Beatles era, a time just before the counter-culture movement of the late sixties. Since then, other writers have followed in Ms. Tornabene's footsteps, "going back to school" as adults disguised as kids. David Owen did it with HIGH SCHOOL : UNDERCOVER WITH THE CLASS OF 1980. Cameron Crowe's experiences are recorded in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH. And there's even been a movie, NEVER BEEN KISSED starring Drew Barrymore, that plays off this premise.

It wasn't until today, though, that it struck me how many of us have tried "passing as teenagers."

True, most of us have never donned contemporary styles and run down to register at the local high school. But every time one of us writes a short story or novel from the perspective of a young person, we're clearly trying to "pass as a teenager." We're trying to get the words, thoughts, and feelings so true to the real experiences of a young person that we can "pass" without detection.

And even if we don't write for young people, aren't we spying in a foreign land every time we pick up a YA novel and experience the world from a teenage pespective? While the age range on the dustjacket may say 12+ or 14+, I know there are plenty of adults reading and enjoying these books as well. Maybe we read them to appreciate the universal, unchanging aspects of adolescence. Or maybe it's to observe a brave new world, totally unlike the one we experienced as kids. I'm sure I felt just as disoriented trying to read Lauren Myracle's "instant message novels" TTFN and TTYL as a modern kid would feel reading the scene in I PASSED FOR A TEENAGER where teenage partygoers strum guitars and sing "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

At heart, every reader is something of spy -- covertly observing the experiences of others -- not by going "undercover," but by going "between the covers" of a book.

Sunday Brunch for June 20

New house, month two.

Still living out of Hefty bags and paper boxes.

The garage is still half full of unpacked belongings.

And this week someone told me that the inside of my garage “looks like the town dump."


I said, "But you have to admit it looks SOOOO much better than it did last week, when the boxes reached halfway to the ceiling. Besides, don't you think our old family butter churn gives the garage an old-fashioned charm?"


"No, it makes it look like the town dump, circa 1851. That churn is as old and dilapidated as everything else out there. You should get rid of it.”

Get rid of it? I was thinking of having it repaired and making my own butter.

It may come to that.

Who knew that home ownership was so expensive?

First there was the broken toilet ($707 to replace), then the new couch ($500) and patio furniture ($358) which cost an arm and a leg to have delivered ($116.) Then there’s the new washer and dryer (which equaled one paycheck) and the new shelves for the library (nearly two months’ salary…and I still can’t show them to you yet, as they aren’t quite finished), the new mantelpiece (maybe not a necessity but where else will I hang my Christmas stocking?) and assorted small repair jobs (for assorted small fees. When you add all that up, I forsee a future of nothing but tomato sandwiches (grown from the containers on the back porch) spread with butter paddled from that “broken and dilapidated” churn in the garage.

And that's especially true after this week, when I had to spend an unexpected couple hundred dollars for new tires on my car.

On Wednesday, I was driving to work on the expressway when I saw a woman pulled over to the side with a flat. A tow truck was there, changing her tire.

I thought, “Poor lady. I HATE flat tires! …I'm so lucky I haven’t had one in ages.” I thought back to the time I had SIX flat tires in one calendar year. I thought back to the time one of my tires exploded as I was crossing a bridge. I thought back to the time I had a flat tire on the expressway on Thanksgiving. ...Just then I heard thump-thump-thump-thump! and realized that I now had ANOTHER flat tire!

What are the chances of THAT?

There I am, thinking about flat tires and within a minute my back tire blows.

Coincidence? Or did I make it happen by thinking about it? Or am I psychic?


YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE PSYCHIC...

…to make predictions. Head on over to Fuse #8’s recent blog containing her midyear picks for the Newbery and Caldecott Awards. After reading Betsy’s comments, as well as the nearly four dozen predictions from her blog-readers, I ran out and bought a copy of BONESHAKER, a debut novel by Kate Milford that a lot of folks seem to think has a shot at the Big N.

Remember, it was Fuse #8 who pegged Rodman Philbrick’s THE MOSTLY TRUE ADVENTURES OF HOMER P. FIGG as a Newbery possibility a year ago at this time. On the basis of her recommendation, I purchased a copy way back then…and thus wasn’t caught with my britches down (and a fourth printing of HOMER P in my hands) on Newbery Day.

In other words, Newbery and Caldecott collectors: Ignore Fuse #8 at your own risk!


DAVID OUTSIDE IN

I just had an odd experience while reading a recent YA problem novel. DAVID INSIDE OUT by Lee Bantle is a first-person story about a teenage boy who, despite having a girlfriend, finds himself attracted to one of the guys on his school track team. About halfway through the book (pages 113-115 to be exact), David calls a gay and lesbian hotline for some advice. A phone counselor named Jim recommends a book title to David. We are then told: "David wrote it down. Then the switchboard flooded with calls, and Jim had to go."

Wait a second.

If this blog featured a reading comprehension test, now would be the time to say, "What is wrong with the above quote?"

Well, remember me saying that DAVID INSIDE OUT was a first-person story? David relates the entire novel in his own voice. In fact, a couple lines after ending his conversation on the hotline, David says, "After I got off the phone, I told Mom I was going for a drive."

So I was shocked that -- right in the middle of a novel written in the first-person -- the narrative suddenly switched to an omniscient voice.

How did THAT happen?

And how did it slip past the author, the editor, the copyeditors, and the many people at Henry Holt Books that must have read this manuscript before it was bound between hardcovers?

And beyond that, now I'm curious if this error gives any clues to the manuscript's original format. Was the novel perhaps conceived -- and possibly written -- in the omniscient voice and later switched to first-person? I know that Katherine Paterson began writing JACOB HAVE I LOVED in the first person, despite some trepidation. She revealed, "I have always sworn that I would never write a book in the first person. It is too limiting, too egotistical. And yet, the book refused any voice but Louise's.” Ms. Paterson decided to “write it down in any way I can in the first draft” and then go back and change it later. Of course, she later discovered that her novel – a triumph of the first-person voice – did not need to be changed. I wonder if Lee Bantle wrote various drafts of DAVID INSIDE OUT in different voices before deciding to go with the first person. It seems as though I've heard of at least one major book -- I'm blocking on the title -- that was submitted and accepted by the publisher and then, during editing, was switched from omniscient to first-person prose.

Can anyone recall any famous of any examples of this?


A PECK OF TRIVIA

What are the chances that two of the most notable children’s/young adult authors to debut in 1972 would have the same last name?

It happened to Richard Peck and Robert Newton Peck.

They’re not related as far as I know, but during the seventies a lot of people seemed to get them confused with each other.

In 1972, Richard Peck published his first YA novel, DON’T LOOK AND IT WON’T HURT.


Though critically-acclaimed, it did not get the kind of rapturous reviews that Robert Newton Peck’s A DAY NO PIGS WOULD DIE – also published in 1972 – received. Many considered PIGS an instant classic.


Over the next decades, each author continued writing for young audiences. Robert Newton Peck specialized in historical and rural tales and became best known for his many humorous books about a prankish Depression-era boy (SOUP, 1974; SOUP FOR PRESIDENT, 1978, etc.) Richard Peck demonstrated a broader focus, writing modern realistic fiction (CLOSE ENOUGH TO TOUCH, 1981), fantasy (THE GHOST BELONGED TO ME, 1976), science fiction (LOST IN CYBERSPACE!, 1995) as well as many works of historical fiction, including Newbery winner A YEAR DOWN YONDER.

But a funny thing happened in the intervening years.

While Richard Peck’s career has continued to thrive, with many of his backlist books still in print and popular with young readers, only a sparse handful of Robert Newton Peck’s books remain in print today. A DAY NO PIGS WOULD DIE – still revered by critics and still taught in schools – is one, as is the first of the “Soup” stories. There are a couple others but, in general, his work no longer seems to be read these days. I find this odd since he mostly wrote historical fiction – a genre which doesn’t quickly become “dated.” I wonder why the “Soup” books, so popular with young boys in the seventies and eighties, are no longer read by kids in this new century. Any theories?

Meanwhile, in researching Robert Newton Peck this week I discovered three intriguing bits of trivia:

1. The best man at his first wedding was Fred Rogers. Yep, the same “Mr. Rogers” from children’s television. The two met while attending Rollins College.

2. While A DAY NO PIGS WOULD DIE was widely-described as RNP’s first novel, he had actually published a novel for adults back in 1962 called, of all things, THE HAPPY SADIST!

3. I was equally surprised to learn that many facts regarding Peck’s life are in dispute. According to the Wikipedia – which, I know, can’t always be trusted – “He claims his birth date as February 17, 1928, but refused to specify where. Similarly, he states he graduated from a high school in Texas, yet again refuses to identify the specific location. Various sources indicate his birth place as Nashville, Tennessee. Though stated as his mother's birth place, other sources indicate the actual location as Ticonderoga, New York, and Peck, himself, may have been born there as well. The only verified Vermont connection, which Peck hints as his real birth place, comes from his father who was born in Cornwall, Vermont.”

Oh, and here’s a bit of trivia about the OTHER Mr. Peck…Richard. Did you know that his first book was made into a movie? It was called GAS, FOOD, LODGING.


Its tagline was “When Shade’s good, she’s very good. When Trudi’s bad, she’s better,” which is enough to tell me that this movie is probably a far cry from Richard Peck’s original novel! I don't think those character names are even IN the novel DON'T LOOK AND IT WON'T HURT.


WHO ARE JANE, JOSEPH AND JOHN?

Back in the seventies, a couple publishers -- Pantheon comes to mind -- used to reprint their dustjacket flap copy on the first blank page of text of every hardcover book. At the time, I thought this was a rather cheap touch; it reminded me of how the opening pages of paperback books are often filled with plot summaries, book reviews, and author bios.

But I think my feeling is changing on this issue (after thirty years!) At least it does every time I pick up an old book without a dustjacket and long for the kind of background info that might have been provided on the volume's original cover.

Just this week I happened upon a book at the library called JANE, JOSEPH, AND JOHN : THEIR BOOK OF VERSES by Ralph Bergengren. Originally published in 1918, and revised and enlarged in 1921, this volume of poems was checked out of our library as recently as 2005. It contains over four dozen verses about nature, friendship, and other observations of life and childhood. Each is attributed to one of three kids: Jane, Joseph, or John. Jane and John are siblings, but I can't figure out if Joseph if also a brother or a friend. I'm assuming that the original dustjacket might provide a little background on their connections, explaining if these were fictional children or perhaps based on the author's friends or family members.

Not having that knowledge made me feel like I was reading the book out of context.

I tried to do a little background check on the author, Ralph Bergergren, but he didn't turn up in Contemporary Authors or any of my other handy reference sources. Even the internet didn't provide much info, though I learned he must have been a fairly popular author of his era, since JJ AND J is still in print today, as are a couple of the author's other books -- including one available on Kindle! One of the JJ AND J poems, "The Worm" (attributed to "Joseph") seems to remain pretty popular even today, as I found several references to it on the internet. Here's the text:

THE WORM
[Joseph]

When the earth is turned in spring
The worms are fat as anything.

And birds come flying all around
To eat the worms right off the ground.

They like worms just as much as I
Like milk and bread and apple pie.

And once, when I was very young,
I put a worm right on my tongue.

I didn't like the taste a bit,
And so I didn't swallow it.

But, oh, it makes my Mother squirm
Because shethinks I ate that worm!

And here's a poem that caught my eye, given the focus on this blog:

A BOOK-LOVER
[Joseph]

My Pop isalways buying books:
So that Mom says his study looks
Just like bookstore.
The bookshelves are so full and tall
They hide the paper on the wall,
And there are books just everywhere,
On table, window seat, and chair,
And books right on the floor.

And every little while he buys
More books, and brings them home and tries
To find a place where they will fit,
And has an awful time of it.

Once when I asked himwhy he got
So many books, he said, "Why not?"
I've puzzled over that a lot.

As I said, I'm puzzling over who Jane, Joseph, and John are.

Heck, considering the dearth of information available on the author, I'm also puzzling over who Ralph Bergregren is!


TRAGICOMEDY

Jane, Joseph, and John weren't the only folks I found in the stacks this week. I also happened upon MY SISTER EILEEN.

Published in 1938, the book is a series of comic pieces that Ruth McKenney originally wrote for the NEW YORKER about the experiences she and her sister shared as young Midwestern girls trying to make it big in New York.

I've seen the 1942 black-and-white film adaptation of MY SISTER EILEEN, as well as the movie musical from 1955. I never saw the stage musical version, WONDERFUL TOWN, but I've read the script and own a copy of the Rosalind Russell recording.

One thing I've never done, though, is read the book.

I was surprised to find it in the children's section of the library. After all, the characters in the film and play are in their twenties and spend a lot of time being chased by guys. Imagine my surprise when I began reading the book this week and discovered only the last couple chapters are set in New York City. Most of the vignettes concern Ruth and Eileen’s uproarious childhood experiences: going to the movies, taking elocution lessons, attending summer camp, having a penpal. Though clearly written for adults (the tone is nostalgic rather than immediate) I can see why some young readers would get a kick out of these funny tales.

It wasn’t until after I finished the book that I tracked down some biographical info on Ms. McKenney. It came as quite a shock to discover that the author of this humorous volume lived a life that was downright tragic.

To start with, Ruth tried to commit suicide as a teenager, but Eileen prevented her from hanging herself.

Eileen would later marry Nathanaiel West, author of MISS LONELYHEARTS and THE DAY OF THE LOCUST. In 1940, the couple cut a vacation short in order to attend F. Scott Fitzgerald’s funeral. Driving through El Centro, California, Mr. West ran a stop sign and both he and his wife were killed in the accident. Eileen was only twenty-six years old and the play with her name in the title was due to open on Broadway four days later. In fact, after attending the Fitzgerald funeral, she had planned to fly to New York for opening night. We can only imagine how Ruth felt when the play opened to rave reviews just days after her sister’s death.

Ruth also married a writer, Richard Bransten. He would commit suicide on Ruth’s forty-fourth birthday. Though she lived another sixteen years, she never wrote another word.

Somehow I’m glad I read the book, laughing all the way, before I learned the sad truth of Ruth and Eileen’s lives.


SUMMER OF A MILLION BOOKS

To those of us who love books and reading, anything with a name like “Summer of a Million Books” sounds like fun. However, this new initiative will likely turn out to be both fun and important. According to a press release I received:

Reach Out and Read, the nationwide school readiness program, today launched a bold new campaign to give a brand-new, age-appropriate book to one million children in need before Labor Day. The Summer of a Million Books campaign unites Reach Out and Read pediatricians and family physicians at 4,500 hospitals and clinics across the country in their mission to prepare America’s youngest children to succeed in school.

To find out more about this project, click here.

As for me, I’m going to spend the first days of summer (which starts tomorrow) cleaning out that garage! I have set a deadline of July 4 – Independence Day – to declare my independence from clutter, unpacked boxes, and living out of Hefty Bags! By July 4, I intend to have all my clothes hung in closets, all my books placed neatly on shelves, the garage cleared, the carpets cleaned…and then I’ll finally be all set to start churning butter to save on the grocery bill.

Thanks for reading Collecting Children’s Books. Hope you’ll be back.