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Copyright 1972, Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz

I had to read this statement about a dozen times before I could believe it really said this.

What planet do these people live on? Have they never heard of Winnie the Pooh? The Wizard of Oz? Peter Pan? Alice in Wonderland? Peter Rabbit? Charlotte and Wilbur? Mike Mulligan and Mary Ann? I could go on for quite a while.

Maybe, my son suggested, they were referring to the physical book, that volumes wear out after 20 years. Except that's equally asinine. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that there are millions of copies of children's books published and printed before 1989 that are still in excellent, completely useable condition, with content still just as capable of stirring the souls of children or tickling their funny bones or teaching them something interesting. Otherwise, there'd be no one out here making a stink about old books, but there are tons of us.

Well, maybe, said my Devil's Advocate, they were referring to library copies which can get some pretty tough wear and tear. True - but libraries are still sweating bullets about having to purge the pre-1985 books from their collections, which makes me think those old books are surviving at a pretty high rate. Doesn't surprise me, when you consider the industrial strength of some of those bindings and the fact that past the age of 2 or 3 kids start to treat their books with a little more respect.

In fact I recently finished reading a truly outstanding library book, Mine for Keeps, by Jean Little (Little, Brown, 1962) and although after 46 years the cover art looked faded, there weren't even any ripped pages or significant stains or anything else that would make this book unusable. And the content, about a girl with cerebral palsy who struggles to fit in at her local school after returning from a special boarding school was timeless and universal. I really cannot recommend a book more highly. I read it first when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and when I rediscovered it I was overjoyed. What's really wonderful about this book is, despite my initial description, is that it's not so much about a girl and her disability as it is about the typical kid challenges faced by a girl who also just happens to have CP. That's an important distinction, and it's only part of what makes this book so great. (It's a great dog story too.)

Illustration copyright 1962, Lewis Parker

I'm now reading my way through all of Ms. Little's sensitive, moving books (thanks to the many amazon sellers who haven't yet been forced to remove their inexpensive non-collectible copies of vintage kids' books), including her memoirs, which I also strongly recommend. In the first volume, Little by Little, there is a hilarious scene in which Jean, who is blind from shortly past conception, subs for a last minute scratch in a championship college intramural basketball game. Today that scene would have been videotaped, become a viral youtube video and been re-broadcast on ESPN and all the morning talk shows.

No, the CPSC's completely ignorant statement is the equivalent of saying that we have no need of Rembrandt, Matisse, or da Vinci paintings since some perfectly nice ones have been made in the last 20 years. No need of Shakespeare, Jane Austen or Dickens when you can read John Grisham or Janet Evanovich (not that I have anything against those latter authors - fine beach reading. In fact, Grisham could write a pretty good thriller featuring an evil congressman in cahoots with the consumer lobbyists and aided by a nefarious CPSC enforcer as they pursue a beautiful crafter fleeing with his movie-star beautiful fiancee, the vintage bookseller.)

I had started a completely different post about the impact of CPSIA on literacy programs (I've been collecting info from several prominent ones), the economics of binding, and the research on the link between lead poisoning and exposure to books and educational toys (which I have a feeling will surprise Congress). But I'll save it for tomorrow.

Let this sink in meanwhile: Mary Poppins: irrelevant. Pippi Longstocking: useless. Babar, Ferdinand, Curious George, Frances, Corduroy, Harriet the Spy, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Madeline, the Borrowers, Little Tim, the Runaway Bunny, Max in his wolf suit, Horton and the Whos, the Grinch, Sam-I-Am, Amelia Bedelia: who needs them?

Now this book above you might argue is an example of why a children's book is "useless" after 20, well, more like 40-some years. As you can see from the cover, this volume has had a long, rough life. The Trolley Car Family by Eleanor Clymer (David McKay, 1947 - my copy is from the late 50s or early 60s) was one of the many books in my family's collection of "bathtub books." The house we moved into when I was 10 had a huge claw-footed bathtub on the third floor, and my sisters and I spent substantial chunks of our moody teens in it reading and re-reading our favorite childhood books. But even though this book's cover is rather the worse for the wear and it's a bit wrinkled from too much hot water and Calgon, it still has all its pages. Twenty years after its bathtub duty, my own kids enjoyed sharing the old-fashioned adventures of the family who was forced to move into the trolley car their dad drove until the trolleys were replaced by more modern buses, Pa lost his job, and the family was forced out of their home.

Come to think of it, a story about job loss, home foreclosure and useful things deemed obsolete doesn't sound so old-fashioned these days, does it?

Although I’m not intending to get political here, I did want to post another poem for another historic moment, to be fair. When John McCain announced his vice presidential running mate, Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, I was pleased to see a woman on the ballot. Whatever your views, it is exciting to see this diversity in the candidates running for highest office. So, here’s a poem to mark that occasion, with a nod to her Alaskan "cowgirl" roots.

The Last Cowgirl of the Western World
by Judith Viorst

The last cowgirl of the Western world
Buckles her belt,
Pulls up her boots,
Slaps her broad-brimmed Stetson on her head,
Then saddles her swift white stallion
With the black star over each eye
(She calls him Star Eyes),
And gallops into the setting sun,
Across the wide prairies,
Across the deserts and badlands,
Past mesas and buttes,
Through roaring mountain streams,
Singing tie-yippie-yie-yo yie-yay
While the tumbleweed twirls,
While the wild wind whips her hair,
Singing tie-yippie-yie-yo yie-yay
To the skydiving hawks,
To the wolves howling high on the hills,
Singing tie-yippie-yie-yo yie-yay
As she saves the cattle from rustlers,
The settlers from raiders,
The babies from rattlers,
The covered wagons from plunging over cliffs,
Singing tie-yippie-yie-yo yie-yay,
Yippie-yie-yo yie-yay,
As she rides the range
Till it’s time to ride the school bus.

Viorst, Judith. 1995. Sad Underwear and Other Complications. New York: Atheneum Books.

Picture credit: fabsugar.com

This challenge was hosted by Incurable Logophilia. My author was Orson Scott Card.

Why this particular challenge? Well, I love reading challenges in general, and this one had flexibility. Reading three books by one author? Something that I could hardly resist. Plus, I'd just created the Cardathon Challenge and thought I could overlap books rather nicely and perhaps spread the word about how great Orson Scott Card is!

Which author and why? I love Orson Scott Card. In fact, I love, love, love Orson Scott Card. But finding time to reread his books can be problematic. You see, I'm supposed to be reviewing children's books and young adult books. And I needed my favorite author to be part of a challenge so I'd have a valid excuse. But that's saying more about me and not enough about him. I love Orson Scott Card because his books are awesome, it's true. But there is more to it than that. His characters are just so incredibly well drawn that they're "real." They definitely become your friends. And it's impossible to forget them. You want to visit them again and again and again.

Which books did you read? I read Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus; Lost Boys; Empire and Speaker for the Dead.

Which would you recommend for someone trying this author for the first time?

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Ender's Shadow would be a nice start as well. For those not wanting to tackle a series Enchantment would be a good choice or Pastwatch. And I just love The Worthing Saga.
How would you characterize the writer or the books? Practically perfect in every way... Or if that's too Mary Poppins for you...amazing or awesome...I suppose would suffice. I love the fact that they're so character-focused, but they don't lack plot and action either. He has so many different styles, writes in different genres, but all are good...and most are great. I definitely have no problem saying he's my favorite and my best.

While nothing can displace Ender's Game from being my favorite and best Orson Scott Card novel, I love, love, love Pastwatch. I'm not quite sure how I can convey that. But I'll do my best.

It's set in the future. I would guess several hundred years in the future. Humans on Earth have become technologically advanced, but they're still paying for the mistakes of the past--most notably the environmental mistakes of the past. One of the technologies available is the ability to watch past events fold out before your eyes on the big screen. In the early stages, this technology could only watch vast regions--note climate changes and social changes--the building of communities and sometimes their collapses. But as this technology is developed further, it becomes possible to watch history in greater detail, minute detail. Scientists, historians, researchers (whatever you want to call them) can do studies on communities, societies, or individuals.

What's the point of watching the past? To learn. To understand. To answer impossible questions.

Pastwatch has multiple narrators--each one with a special interest, a special research area, together they are trying to answer some BIG questions.

How is Christopher Columbus involved? Well, he's one of our narrators for one thing. But secondly, he becomes the subject of interest for most of our other narrators. It is HIS life that is being dissected and held up for study. What our researchers learn is that at some point in time, future scientists, interfered or manipulated the past that turned Christopher Columbus' interest to sailing west. Their quest to figure out how and why of this manipulation will lead them on a journey with massive consequences. For they're debating whether or not they should do something along the same lines...

Semi-Apocalyptic fiction. Alternate histories. Time Travel.

Pastwatch is exciting. While the characters are well developed, they aren't as memorable for me as those in the Ender books. But that could be because I've read Ender's Game about a dozen times and Pastwatch only twice. Overall, I say this is a must-read. Those with an interest in history will find it fascinating. As will those with a love for science fiction.

I read Lost Boys for the R.I.P. II Challenge, the Cardathon Challenge which I'm hosting, and the Read the Author Challenge. I had avoided it for years quite honestly because it is not really my kind of book. The premise is simple, what if a boy's "imaginary" friends weren't imaginary. What if they were ghosts. What if a boy's changed behavior wasn't the result of a cross-country move, what if their new house was the burial ground for kidnapped and murdered children. What if he was the only one who could see them, hear them, talk with them. What if no one believed your story. Meet Stevie. A young boy--seven and eight--who is the 'sensitive' one in his family. Thought to be odd by his classmates, Steve's insight isn't as imaginary as folks think. The oldest child--with two younger siblings and another on the way--the year of 1983 is a living nightmare. His father, devastated by the economic recession gets a job as a writer of computer manuals. He was a game programmer. A rather successful one. The mother is lost in taking care of her children and busying herself with church work. Neither is quite aware of the dangers that await them in this small town in North Carolina.

It's an uncomfortable read that never gets any easier. Why? It paints the horrors of humanity--the depravity of man--in a thoroughly realistic and haunting way. Though there is 'one' main threat, the sickness and cruelty of the human race surround this family. The coworker who is a bit too insistent on babysitting. The teacher whose cruelty is just unspeakable. The neighbor who is quite possibly certifiably crazy yet off his medication. And then there is the serial killer/child molester. This seemingly "normal" and "safe" neighborhood is anything but. And that is what makes Lost Boys so scary. The fact that even though these are cautious parents who want only the best for their children, in some ways they are helpless to protect them. It is what you don't know that may come back to haunt you when all is said and done.

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.

Speaker for the Dead is the sequel to Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. But in many ways, it is even more instrumental than Ender's Game. You see, Ender's Game started out as a story--a short story. Orson Scott Card was working on ideas for a new novel, and the basic premise of Speaker for the Dead came to him. Although, at the time the Speaker was a Singer. He thought and worked and thought and worked. And then it came to him, what if the Speaker was Ender! What if he used one of his *old* characters, and gave him a new story. There was one problem. The story needed to be fleshed out before this new novel could work. And it needed more "fleshing" than just a simple prologue or chapter could do. What he needed was to turn his original story into a novel all its own. This is when the characters (we know and love) came into existence. This is when Andrew/Ender was "born."

Speaker for the Dead is a sequel, but it didn't begin life that way--and you don't have to read it that way, either. It was my intention all along for Speaker to be able to stand alone, for it to make sense whether you have read Ender's Game or not. Indeed, in my mind this was the "real" book; if I hadn't been trying to write Speaker for the Dead back in 1983, there would never have been a novel version of Ender's Game at all.
How did Speaker for the Dead come to be? As with all my stories, this one began with more than one idea. The concept of a "speaker for the dead" arose from my experiences with death and funerals. I have written of this at greater length elsewhere; suffice it to say that I grew dissatisfied with the way that we use our funerals to revise the life of the dead, to give the dead a story so different from their actual life that, in effect, we kill them all over again. No, that is too strong. Let me just say that we erase them, we edit them, we make them into a person much easier to live with than the person who actually lived.
I rejected that idea. . . No, to understand who a person really was, what his or her life really meant, the speaker for the dead would have to explain their self-story--what they meant to do, what they actually did, what they regretted, what they rejoiced in. That's the story that we never know, the story that we never can know--and yet, at the time of death, it's the only story truly worth telling.

Sickness and healing are in every heart. Death and deliverance are in every hand. (240)

Of all of the humans, he is the one who will understand us. (347)

When you really know someone, you can't hate them. (370)

Once you understand what people really want, you can't hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can't hate them, because you can always find the same desires in your own heart. (370)