One-of-a-kind British writer Peter Dickinson died in December at age eighty-eight. His work cannot be easily categorized: a prolific author, he wrote everything from adult detective novels to speculative YA science fiction to heart-stopping adventures to intriguing almost-fantasies. The protagonists in his work for children range from an American-missionary boy who finds himself trekking through Tibet during the Boxer Rebellion (Tulku) to a blind teen who finds himself swept up in a plot by environmental terrorists to hijack a North Sea oil rig (Annerton Pit) to a human girl who finds herself transplanted into a chimp’s body (Eva). His books were wholly original, brimming with ideas, often concerned with the nature of religion and/or what makes us human — and also unfailingly compelling and masterfully plotted. Yet he did not consider himself an artist, but a craftsman: “I have a function, like the village cobbler, and that is to tell stories.”
Peter Dickinson’s 1993 Horn Book Magazine article “Masks“
Horn Book Magazine reviews of select titles by Peter Dickinson
“A Defense of Rubbish” by Peter Dickinson
The post Peter Dickinson, 1927-2015 appeared first on The Horn Book.
In the future we will all be wearing yellow sweatshirts and Bumpits
We’ve been doing a fair amount of weeding in the old Children’s Center these days. I’ve taken on the challenge of tackling the fiction. Weeding a fiction collection is rather like weeding a garden. There’s a lot of dead heading involved. Space to fill. Dead matter to discard.
While going through the books of yesteryear I’ve been intrigued by the passing fancy of some authors. While folks like Judy Blume or Laurence Yep have written for decades and remain popular figures on the Summer Reading Lists, certain writers have fallen by the wayside.
The other day Jennifer of the Jean Little Library blog left this comment on my post about movies that usurp their books in the public consciousness: “Re. Doubtfire, Anne Fine used to be majorly popular – take a look at a library shelf that hasn’t been weeded for a while. She’s still a big deal over in the UK, although her popularity over here has waned, at least in my library. She seems to be mostly writing beginning chapter books now – Jamie and Angus anyone? Her older book Flour Babies still checks out frequently, despite the awful cover.”
She’s not wrong. Weeding the Fine books I had to determine which ones would stay and which ones would go (we have reference editions of most books, so this is not quite the dire situation I make it sound).
It gets one to thinking: Who are the popular children’s authors of yesteryear who remain on unweeded children’s library shelves around the country? Who just doesn’t move like they used to? A couple names come to mind right off the bat.
Anne Fine: Already mentioned. In a way, her popularity has been usurped by Jacqueline Wilson.
Paula Danziger: She may be in need of a book jacket revival. In fact, I believe such a revival has already happened overseas in Britain. In her day, Danziger was the go-to funny female writer (shoes that are now filled by Lisa Yee). Some of her titles still go out, in spite of their covers, but for the most part they shelf sit more than I’d like.
Peter Dickinson: We have a heckuva lot of Dickinson on my library’s shelves, but when I bring up books like Eva with my kids all I meet with are blank stares. I think he was always more of a YA writer anyway, so it’s strange that we have so many of his books in the children’s section. Maybe he should have been purchased for the teen collections all along.
Scott O’Dell – Aside from Island of the Blue Dolphins and Zia, his books don’t really go out. Compare his outdoor survival tales to those of Gary Paulsen or Jean Craighead George and you’ll see a definite difference in circulation stats.
Those are just the first four to come to mind, though there are certainly others out there as well. Confess it then, folks. Are there great authors of the past that just sit on your shelves, where once they used to fly? If possible, limit yourself to folks who did particularly well in the 70s and 80s (even early 90s) but don’t write all that much today. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, after all.
Lightning quiz Fusenews today, folks! 
It is one thing to play Nellie Oleson, the much loathed villain of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, in a television show. It is another thing entirely to write a book about the experience. And certainly I would not have know that such an event had taken place were it not for Peter’s post on Collecting Children’s Books. And that’s not even including the news about the children’s author that’s showing up in a soap opera! Alas, you’ll have to read Peter’s post to see who it is for yourself.
- Quiz question, beauties. Do you work in a county library that serves a population under 16,000 or a town library that serves a population under 10,000? Is your library in a rural area, with a limited operating budget, and an active children’s department? And is your budget for books a bit diminished these days? Want some free children’s books? Then now would be the time to apply for this grant from The Libri Foundation. I kid not. Read through the rules, see if you fit, and apply before August 15th for a grant that will help you and your kids out. And I am much obliged to Dawn Mundy for the link.
- You know what author I like? I like Peter Dickinson. He’s one of those blokes I’ve resigned myself to never ever meeting due to the fact that he is, y’know… British. But if you had told me that he was still up for doing online interviews I would have scoffed and huffed and generally made a fool of myself. That said, Scribble City Central has a simply lovely talk with the man up and running right now. And if you don’t know your Dickinson, I advise you to go out and read Eva or The Seventh Raven right now. Particularly The Seventh Raven. Best school play meets hostage situation book for kids I’ve ever read.
- It’s not every day that children’s literature is so heavily featured on NPR, but Monica Edinger, Esme Raji Codell, and Peter Cowden have offered up their picks for summer reading on the show On Point with Richard Ashbrook. Good choices to be found there.
- To be frank, when I heard that Louis Sachar had written a book for kids about the game of bridge, my first instinct was to think, “What next? Golf?” I still pretty much feel that way, even after having read Leila’s review of his book The Cardturner over at bookshelves of doom. But at least I feel a little less weird about the fact that it even exists at all.
- Woah! Woah-we-woah-woah-hold-on-there-woah! Have you read the Oz and Ends piece on the new Indian edition of Mitali Perkins’ First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover? Definitely the strangest bit of news in the course of all our whitewashing controversies. Heavens above!
What do you get the Percy Jackson fan who
Because they are my passion--always have been, always will be. From the earliest days of being read to by my father (Rudyard Kipling's White Seal and The Elephant's Child were top favourites as were Peter Rabbit--the first 'proper' book I ever read by myself--and the tales of Orlando the Marmalade Cat), to the present day (discovering new wonders all the time, the latest being Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Peter Dickinson's The Ropemaker and Angel Isle, plus the anticipatory future pleasure of reading a long list of others including Michelle Lovric's Undrowned Child), I have found almost my every reading need covered within the canon of children's literature. (Of course I read a wide-ranging variety of 'adult' literary genres too, and take great pleasure in much of it--I am currently immersed in the three volumes of Lyttleton/Hart-Davis Letters--a nostalgic journey into a long ago world of publishing and academia.) But if some wizard waved a wand and said 'Begone' to every book written for those over 18, then I would not be unhappy to find only children's books in my library. There is an honesty and a directness about a really well-written children's book which cuts straight to the heart of things without messing about. For me, being a writer in this field is the best job in the world. While wrestling with words and plots and recalcitrant characters (and often days on end where inspiration fails) is hard work mentally--and sometimes physically--I wouldn't and couldn't dream of doing anything else, ever. When a story comes out just right, it is a kind of satisfaction second to none (until a second reading, when, inevitably, the next round of 'fiddling about' kicks in--for me a story is never really finished, even when the editor has to physically rip it out of my hands and send it to the printer!).
Thus, feeling as I do, it was a huge pleasure last Friday to join in with our fantastic blog birthday party (and if you haven't visited, please go back and take a look--it's still not too late to enter
the great book giveaway competition and sign the guestbook). The chance to celebrate, talk and read about children's books here with like-minded people from fellow authors to agents, publishers, reviewers and readers has indeed been An Awfully Big Blog Adventure. I've learned a lot over the last year. Happy Birthday once again, ABBA, and thanks for introducing me to the blogsphere! Long may you flourish, and long may we all go on celebrating children's books together.
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Constance Greene is one–when I first became a librarian back in the 80’s, the same children who read all of Judy Bloom read Constance Green. And Marilyn Sachs is another–I think both these good authors could use new covers. Danziger’s P.S. Longer Letter Later book (written with Ann Martin) is still extremely popular, along with its sequel–children who read P.S. sometimes go on to Danziger’s other books.
E.L. Konigsburg – Mixed up Files still circulates somewhat, but not much else, including her latest.
Zylpha Keatley Snyder – Fifth and sixth graders love The Egypt Game, but do not check out other titles.
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Constance Greene, check. We’ve a fair amount of her on the shelves. Snyder, heck yes. The Egyptian Game, The Gypsy Game, The Headless Cupid, and anything with a new cover does okay. That said, the older stuff sits and sits. And Konigsburg, yes. Though we’ve had luck with the Jennifer, Hecate, etc. book in its new cover, and A View from Saturday does well on Summer Reading Lists.
Konigsburg? Say it isn’t so!
We’re weeding our juvenile fiction collection as well. I’ve asked the other librarians who are weeding to collect the books that never checked out or have really old and dated covers. I’ve scanned the cover and collected the circulation info and put them on a posterous blog. It’s really interesting to see. The Isis Pedlar by Monica hughes is my favorite. We’re trying to draw conclusions from our weeding, so far it’s too random. I’m writing this at home so I don’t remember some names, but I remember: Betsy Byars, particularly Bingo Brown. Diana Wynne Jones and Kathleen Karr
I’m trying to put one book out a day, so visit more than once on your trip down children’s lit memory lane
I’m curious whether you all think it’s because the writing gets dated, the jackets get dated, or whether the frontlist-loaded publishing model is pushing backlist aside. I do know from the publishing side that perennial backlist classics, things that have sold well for decades, are now in precipitous decline and it’s not clear why.
Lois Lowry’s books remain popular in our library, except for the Anastasia Krupnik series. I don’t know if the covers have been updated, but we still have the original covers. I recently reread the first one and I still love it. I remember reading them when I was a child, but they don’t seem to circulate as much as her other books do.
Check out Thomas Memorial Library’s (Cape Elizabeth, ME) Lonely Books Club. They won an EBSCO Award for this program. Children read books from the Lonely Books Club display (of books that don’t circulate frequently) and fill ou reviews for chances to win prizes. If you do a search (library’s name + “Lonely Books Club), you can find out more (including downloads if you want to start a club). I haven’t done this yet, but it’s been on my agenda ever since I read about it.
Oh, I see that we were supposed to include writers that aren’t as active as they used to be, so that leaves out Lowry. Well, I loved Barthe DeClements’s books when I was a kid, but I don’t think hers go out as much.
Semi-off-topic, does all this weeding mean that there’s a big library book sale coming up? I do love me a chance to buy large stacks of worn library-bound books…
Kristen: book jackets can be replaced, I think it’s the literature trends that push titles. Harry Potter brought fantasy to a new level and I think children became sophisticated readers. thick books have become a whole genre in our library. as in What would you like to read? A thick book… they don’t seem to care what the genre is, they want the story to last a long time… look at Tumtum and Nutmeg it’s 504 pages long for third and fourth graders.
Anyway, fantasy ruled the land for almost a decade which has sort of morphed to SF and horror (we’re doing a werewolves, vampires and zombies staff reading assignment this month). So with these trends, great books like bingo brown and anastasia krupnik faded (but Beezus and Ramona and Judy Blume still get read….) Maybe mama’s who read Lowry and Byars and Konigsburg will gently remind their offspring of these good books.