Sunday, October 12, 2008

Quick notes on three recently-read children's books

Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, some Soup, and a Spool of Thread, 2003.

     In case you were wondering whether a fat working-class girl with a hearing impairment could be a princess, the answer is no.

Shannon Hale, Princess Academy, 2005.

     The Book of Esther meets Heidi. Yes, including Peter and the goats.

Blue Balliett, The Wright 3, 2006.

    Charming, as must be any book in which a major plot point revolves around the box of free books outside Powells. Interesting sensitive touch on the awkwardness of mixed-sex friendships in sixth grade. Alas for the "Bach symphony" moment, however. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Natalia,

We haven't met, but I'm the Executive Director of PAMLA, the pacific regional affiliate of the MLA, and we are hosting this year's PAMLA conference at San Francisco State. I thought you might be interested in submitting a paper to our children's lit. panel--given your work with the UC Berkeley Children's Lit. group, I'd love to have you involved in our conference. Email me at svonkin@netzero.com or check out our pamla.org website. I hope this comment finds you. Craig Svonkin