Lacy Underpinnings and the Children’s Author: Guest Post on the Wild Things! Blog Tour

Last Tuesday, Wild Things! became commercially available, and children's literature aficionados

everywhere are in for a treat. And there's lots "beyond the book" -- checkout the blog for exclusive videos and other content cut from the print version. Today, Betsy Bird, of Fuse #8 fame, pops in to give us the nitty gritty behind the woman who gave us that child minder we all aspire to be, Mary Poppins. 

 

Lacy Underpinnings and the Children’s Author

By Betsy Bird

           

Recently I watched the film Saving Mr. Banks with some friends and, I’ll admit it, I was scared of what I’d see.  I’ve been burned too many times, man.  Children’s authors inevitably end up portrayed on film one of two ways.  Either they’re complete and utter burnouts and wastes of flesh (see: Young Adult and The Door in the Floor) or they’re ootsy cutesy adorable types, all fluffy bunnies and fairy dust (see: Miss Potter and Finding Neverland).  They don’t usually have any depth to them, so I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.  In Saving Mr. Banks the author P.L. Travers is rendered a three-dimensional human being with humor and warmth (thanks in large part to a performance by Emma Thompson that I once heard described as “the spoonful of medicine that makes the sugar go down”). 

 

The film got some things about the life of Travers right and some things wrong, but that’s to be expected.  Still, it was funny watching the movie knowing what I know about the woman.  You see, we have a section on Travers in our book Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature.  You look at a film like Saving Mr. Banks and what do you see?  An uptight contrarian.  A woman who’ll put a huge Mickey Mouse doll in the corner until he “learn[s] some subtlety”.  Few would watch the film and be aware of some of the stories in her life.

 

You see, Ms. Travers is one of the honored children’s authors to occupy space in our Sex & Death chapter.  I kid you not.  And which of the two applies to her?  Is it sex or is it death?  It’s sex, baby.  Of course it is.

 

P.L. Travers lived an adventurous life.  When she wasn’t acting in theater troupes she was writing sexy stories for an Australian newspaper.  I kid you not.  The woman behind Mary Poppins wrote some very saucy stuff.  And heck, I’d write it down for you here but I’ve got to leave you some reason to read my book, don’t I?

It’s not as though Travers was the only author for children with that kind of writing at her beck and call, of course.  Consider the case of Wanda Gag.  Perhaps you are aware of the Bohemian author/illustrator’s best-known book Millions of Cats.  Well, Ms. Gag was quite the person to know.  Bobbed hair and scandalous diary entries and all.  And when it came to sex, Gag knew what she was talking about.  Best of all, her journals were published and some of those entries were impressive.  I’m thinking particularly of an encounter she had on a crowded New York subway that reads like something out of late night Cinemax.

I sincerely doubt we’ll ever see a biopic of Wanda Gag, but then again maybe I’m wrong.  Just a couple weeks ago they announced that the director McG would be directing a movie on the life of Shel Silverstein.  And believe me when I say THAT guy would make for a spicy film indeed.  In fact, everyone in our Sex & Death chapter would be worth reading up on.  But don’t take my word for it.  Best that you check the book out for yourself.

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Photo of Wanda Gag from http://www.minnesotahistorycenter.org/

P.L. Travers playing Tatiana in Midsummer's Night Dream from wikipedia

Who else is going hunting for Wanda Gag's journals? Thanks, Betsy, for letting us know all has NEVER been as tame as it might seem, behind the scenes of children's literature.

And, for reading to the end, you can enter to win a copy of this phenomenal book. I'll draw the winner September 1.


More stops on the Wild Things! Blog tour:
August 5: 100 Scope Notes

August 6: There's A Book

August 7: Nonfiction Detectives

August 8: Guys Lit Wire

Week of August 11: Book Riot

August 11: GreenBeanTeenQueen

August 12: Modgepodge Bookshelf

August 14: Wendy on the Web

August 16: Elizabeth O. Dulemba

August 18: Into the Wardrobe

August 19: Books 4 Your Kids

August 20: The Book Nest

August 21: Random Chalk Talk

August 22: Children's Corner

Wait, what? School libraries without librarians, but not for the reasons you'd think

When I started library school, eons ago, there was a pretty obvious need for media specialists around the state. The scuttlebutt was that you could pretty much get a job anywhere just by being enrolled in a library program, except in my own north Alabama, where certified bodies were thick on the ground. I've actually never worked in a building without someone else there certified to do my job, but the tide seems to have turned for school librarian supply and demand. 

This morning, I sent an email to an elist to learn almost everyone I'd known in one of the larger systems had left. There are CRAZY openings around here, and in systems which used to be considered aspirational, places from which to retire. I have some theories.

No aides. Many district stopped funding library aides last year. Without those library aides, the library is a less attractive place for teachers with the certification to be. As one teacher wondered, "why would I do that when I'd basically be working 33% more, since I'd have to give up a [block] planning period?" 

De-professionalization of all education. Some schools and systems have become appreciably terrible to work for. Believe me, you can fall into some huge Internet rabbit holes looking at the outrage resulting.

The district where I live has this rather impressive list of openings this, their second week of school:

Schools, with libraries, but no librarians? Before you pack your bags, there's a catch. You can't apply "to a school." You must apply "to the system." Because you obviously don't need to know the faculty and administrators you work with....or even the grade level. Oh, and they cut the salary schedule for new hires to the state minimum. So you sign up to work for ANY random school, for the LEAST possible pay? I don't think anyone with any options would do that, frankly.

Obviously, both of these factors I've identified have much to do with budgets and personnel issues I have no interest in working through whatsoever. But I bet if you properly staffed libraries, and ran schools as the community institutions they happen to be rather than remote outposts of a centralized empire, these systems would have more positions filled, and more kids would get the library services they need.

And it makes me grateful for my work, in a perfectly-sized, adequately-funded system.

Back to school!

I spent most of the month of July away from home. Some of it was for fun, some of it for intellectual and professional growth. I missed my spoiled cat and my sweet husband terribly. I read some big, long grown-up books. I ate some really ascetic meals, and some that were downright voluptuary. I was wonderfully lazy. I managed without a laptop (but did use the available public  business center and campus desktops a bit). And it was interesting to see how friends, fellow teachers, other tourists were using or weren't using types of computing.... I also spent more time in nature than is usual for me, but something I really hope to keep up, something that is easy to say given our mild summer here.

We have a mere two days left of summer break, then our teacher work days. As of the latest update, we'll have three months in the vocational building until we can stretch out in our fabulous new digs. Though I wasn't sure about leaving home for another five nights just next month, I'm looking forward to IBBY. I think that group's concentration on international children's literature through a comparative lens the closest to the scholarly work I aspire towards, and I am a little dazzled by the attendees, and curious about how different countries are handling things like ebooks. Mexico City has seemed less "other" since I discovered there is a massive Starbucks in the conference hotel. 

More practically, I'm working on ways to use ethical concerns surrounding photojournalism to talk about intellectual freedom issues with young people, all rooted in our Newseum talks. And, from the NEH Dickinson seminar, I want to capture my new understanding of how the publication history and the successive packaging of Dickinson in anthologies reflects the treatment of her work, and is representative of that of other women. 

Goodness, it was a luxury to have the time and space to think about such esoterica, and to hear absolutely nothing about college-and-career-readiness for a bit.   

http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1q7prt/90_percent_of_the_girls_at_my_university_on_any/

And, of course, I'm excited to see what the new trends happen to be, this school year.

College, sorta redux

I'm spending a week in Amherst, "where "only the 'h' is silent," at the NEH's Emily Dickinson summer camp....and it is bringing back a tidal wave of memories. It was 23 years ago this summer I landed on another rural New England campus for freshman year...

I haven't spent time in this part of the world in the summer for a while, but it seems remarkably unchanged. Some things I'd forgotten:

• Food SO bland, you have to add pepper bite per bite. 
• The intensive upkeep of these old campuses, how many people are involved, and how early the grounds crews get started.
• Tap water that tastes of chlorine. At the Emily Dickinson House Museum, our guide said the early water closets had poisoned the ground water in New England villages -- maybe that's why. 
• The wry and twisted sense of humor that some of the natives have -- an affect so different from the norm at home. Our Professor Boghosian poked fun at anyone he found writing letters, "Tell them ALL about it." That sort of encapsulates the attitude around here, too.
• What it feels like to wake up shivering on a mountain summer morning.

The workshop experience itself is terrific, well-organized and run, bringing in some real heavy-hitters in Dickinsoniana. My final project is looking at Dickinson as a proto-modernist, so I get to think about capital-L Literature for a while... Dickinson has been a touchstone for me, and I'm really appreciating moving beyond a "Belle of Amherst" superficial understanding of the poet as a eccentric and towards a fuller understanding of her place in her family, community, and world. 

After ALA annual...

Has it really been a month? 

So, ALA was incredible -- incredibly hot, incredibly dry (well, Las Vegas midsummer -- can't expect much less, can we?), but also incredibly invigorating.

I pretty much debriefed what I keyed in on here and here for SLJ, but the commonality between the two pieces is this palpable member-driven groundswell of self-empowered sharing and collective action -- something to warm the heart of any idealistic librarian, however beleaguered she might be by interdivisional and organizational politics. And the fact it's coming from youth services quarters is best of all. 

My tangible takeaways:

When Mr Dog Bites by Brian Conaghan

Have *you* read this funny, sad, smart, enlightening bit of YA fiction published by Bloomsbury yet? If not, go find a copy, and don't let the mildish kerfluffle about realistic language put you off. I've written up Brian's USBBY program talk for Bridges, the organizational newsletter, but suffice if to say, he's as beguiling and sweet as his book's hero, Dylan Mint, and the book's stream-of-conscious narration and whip-smart Glaswegian dialogue reach levels of Joycean lyricism. I really hope the Printz and Schneider, and USBBY's outstanding books for children with disabilities list committees all have their eyes on this one. 

Wild Things! Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsey Bird, Julie Danielson and Peter Sieruta

I was lucky enough to get to see Julie's terrific sneak peak of this forthcoming work in April at the President's Program luncheon at ALLA, but I was happy to see the ARCs in full effect at Annual. Regaling us with some lesser-known wrinkles informing the personalities and titles that tend to be sugarcoatted today, I think Wild Things! would be a great addition to any children's literature course syllabus. But so far from dry, it's also a must-read for any kidlit enthusiast, and this very humble piece of the interwebs will be part of the blog tour in August, so stay tuned.

And, from Harper Collins, I snagged the book I was most thrilled about coming out this fall, How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran -- it's bawdy, funny, wise, and liberated, and I think anyone who has read Moran's two terrific earlier books will notice its more than a wee bit autobiographical. And I really hope the Alex committee has its eye on this one 

Notice all three have this sort of antic graphic design going on for cover art. A little fey, but I like it!

I rolled off of ALA Council, which was bittersweet. I am so glad I served there the last three years, peeking behind the organizational curtain at the behemoth that is ALA and networking with librarians with radically different concerns. Oh, I have other things going on -- the Odyssey, Freedom To Read Foundation unit liaison for YALSA, EMIERT board, and another two-year stint on the USBBY board of directors, plus ALLA, of course -- but I am looking forward to being able to attend some sessions Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday mornings of Conference and Midwinter, go to those fab publishers' breakfasts, or just sleep a little later...

I did a little bit of a panel presentation the Monday of Annual. It was YALSA's Teen Spaces 201, organized by the dynamic Maureen Hartman, with maker space and at-risk youth from Minneapolis PL and visionary architect Margaret Sullivan. (My slides.)

In other news, I've been working on my departmental revisions for my dissertation, after passing my defense last month...so much work done, lots left to do, so I pushed back graduation for another semester, meaning time to get both departmental and university reader changes in by the end of October. There is daylight at the end of this tunnel, fingers crossed just a few months ahead, too, but you can go ahead and cal me Dr. Stephens...

I left for my actual non-working, non-conferencing vacation just after the Fourth, to Key West, my favorite island, with its forested state park beaches, bicycle transport, independent movie theater, vegetarian-friendly eateries, top-notch new-and-used bookstore, and populations of roaming chickens and six-toed cats. The literary history there is pretty fascinating as well -- we're already planning next summer's trip down.

I'm in DC right now for the #anew14 Annenberg-Newseum Educators Workshop. It's fun to meet some new people, especially teachers as into history and current events as I happen to be...then next week I'll be in Amherst, for what my husband has been teasing me is "Emily Dickinson summer camp," an NEH workshop on the poet and her life and times. I am reconsidering all future enterprises requiring you to bring your own linen, though -- logistical nightmare. 

Summer learning FTW!