Several years ago I interviewed Jon Scieszka, author of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and so many other wonderful books. He had just started his campaign to get boys—universally known among librarians, parents and educators as reluctant readers—to read more books. He launched the site, http://www.guysread.com/ and has since edited several books of short stories by authors just for boys.
I'm a fan of Stephen Colbert, who seems to suceed at any cause he takes on. But I knew that as soon as I saw his interview earlier this year with famed children's author Maurice Sendak, that this time his cause would lead to a bad end. Colbert's complaint was that it's easy for celebrities to get their children's book published regardless of the quality, and he "wanted in." And so he presented Sendak with a ridiculous premise: I Am Pole (And So Are You), a silly little story about a pole trying to find a job. By Colbert's own admission, it didn't take long to write. Yet I'm sure I don't have to tell you that he quickly found a publisher, without even trying.
Last week an article in the Wall Street Journal declared that "Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?"...
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Here's the link to the article I was talking about. [...]
I had a great conversation with Jon Scieszka today. Yesterday [...]
