Natalie Babbitt (the wife of
one of my old bosses, and the author of “Tuck Everlasting”) is a
terrific person who writes and illustrates pretty good books. She was featured in a documentary
called “Library of the Early Mind” a few years ago. Some of the
documentary’s participants complained about the publishing industry. Natalie,
being smart, did not complain about it, probably because it's like being an
oxygen breather complaining about breathing oxygen.
Instead,
she talked about her own love of books.
“I write books for children,” she said, “because my childhood was the
most important part of my life to date.
And I'm seventy-two.” Later she
talked about her love of “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,” noting that Alice
was the smartest person in the book, and that the adults were “idiots.” “And,”
she added, “I grew up to find that that's true.”
That’s
one of those sharp little zaps you get from a really smart observer. Myself, I didn't
read the Alice books until high school, and I was immediately taken with
Alice's brisk businesslike manner, and how she deals with the various kinds of
nonsense around her. She can be brusque,
as with the Queen of Hearts; she can be nannyish and mothering, as with the
White Queen; she can be sweet and sentimental, as with the White Knight. Alice,
at the age of seven, is the only really adult-acting person in either book.
Children
are generally not surprised by this. Children love their books. I know I loved
mine.
“Once
a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I
answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I
lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I
wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother
and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of
the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original
Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”
So:
you really liked that John Grisham novel, did you?
Let’s
see you eat it.
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