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Today I’m five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe but when I woke up in Bed in the dark I’m changed to five. Abracadabra. – is how Emma Donoghue’s Man Booker shortlisted novel, Room, begins. Anyone who has watched a four year old laboriously write the number 4 ¾ will know how important it is from being four and not quite there – to being the new persona you magically change to at five.
Abracadabra!
In her short story, Child’s Play, Alice Munroe has a slightly different take. Every year when you are a child you become a different person. Generally it’s in the fall, when you re-enter school, take your place in a higher grade, leave behind the muddle and lethargy of the summer vacation.
The first event for the Course was part of the Bath Children’s Literature Festival where David Almond was in conversation with Julia Green, the MA Course Director as well Writer in Residence for the Festival. There’s no one who loves words more than David Almond and no one with more passion and energy for doing what he believes in doing.
David was talking about his new book, My Name is Mina, which follows the life of Mina before she appeared in Skellig and is a playful exposure of his writing process. He announces:
Staring into space is a good thing to do.
Words aren’t words but are visions.
The book is neat and tidy but the mind is messy.
There is no better place for a writer to be than the children’s book world because it’s so playful.
On asked whether he plans, he shakes his head. Does a bird plan its song?
On the way words fall on the page, he says he minimizes his pages to see the shape of the print on the page.
All this and much more. He doesn’t use the words – energy and passion – but this is what comes through in everything he says. Energy and passion and playfulness.
And abracadabra what a year my son has ahead of him!!!
I think I am a little envious of your son!