Karen Cushman
Newbery award-winning children’s book author
Karen Cushman In this troubled and troubling world, I am amazed at how much I have to be thankful for, starting with these two beloved people here,
Thank you to my readers, who make it possible for me to continue in this impossibly difficult, impossibly rewarding profession.
I hope your Thanksgiving is joyous and meaningful.
I was recently asked what I was reading, so I thought I’d share here as well. On my reading table (or iPad) now: Mary Carr, The Art of Memoir; William Saroyan, The Human Comedy; Annie Barrows, The Truth According to Us; Judy Brown, This is Not a Love Story; Erin Bowman, Vengeance Road. Have you read any of these books? Let me know what you think.
I just happened upon this splendid website for all things medieval: Medievalists.net, a website for people interested in the Middle Ages.
“We are creating an online resource for all things of the Middle Ages. Whether you are a medieval professor or a fan of video games with knights in it, this site will be for you.
On our site you can find articles, news, books, videos and more related to the medieval period.”
I don’t know who does it but I have already found it very helpful.
Here’s a sample from the website, an article about a “Byzantine-era map restored in Israel.”
“A Greek inscription preserved alongside one of the buildings exposed in the mosaic indicates that the place which is depicted is the settlement Chortaso, in Egypt. Although the Byzantine-era church that existed about 1500 years ago in southern Israel no longer exists, its mosaic floor has now been restored and shows a map revealing a scene of streets and buildings from an Egyptian town. According to Christian tradition, the prophet Habakkuk was buried in Chortaso. The appearance of this Egyptian city on the floor of the public building in Qiryat Gat might allude to the origin of the church’s congregation”
(photo: Nikki Davidov, Israeli Antiquities Authority)
Q. Some people feel that if the writer has lived through it, it can’t be termed historical fiction. Teachers are considering historical fiction to be anything before 2000, because their students didn’t live through those times. How do you feel about this? Is The Loud Silence of Francine Green historical fiction?
A. Jane Yolen says that children think a historical novel is about anything that happened before they were born. But that misses what I think is the most important attribute of a historical novel: it tells a story that could not possibly have happened in any other place or time, a story that results from the combination of character and circumstances. The character would not have been faced with the particular situation or issues at any other time. The situation springs from the period, focused through individuals. For example, The Loud Silence of Francine Green and the anti-communist hysteria of the late 1940s/early 1950s. Or Catherine Called Birdy facing an arranged marriage for her family’s gain. Or the science that made alchemy believable while superstition prevailed in Alchemy and Meggy Swann.
Moderator: How did the McCarthy Era affect you? When you were living through it, did you think of it as “an era”? Is that something we only create in hindsight?
Cushman: I am enough younger than Francine so that the only McCarthy I knew was Charlie McCarthy, Edgar Bergen’s ventriloquist dummy. Joseph McCarthy and his era really were not a topic of conversation in my high school and even most of my college years. I would say that eras are pretty much identified and described long after they have passed. Otherwise we go day to day, step by step, the best we can.
About Karen Cushman’s The Loud Silence of Francine Green, School Library Journal wrote, “This novel follows Francine’s eighth-grade year, from August 1949 to June 1950, at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles, a year of changes largely inspired by a new transfer student, Sophie Bowman. While Francine is quiet and committed to staying out of trouble, happy to daydream of Hollywood movie stars and to follow her father’s advice not to get involved in controversy, Sophie questions authority and wants to make a difference. Her questioning of the nuns’ disparaging comments about the Godless communists frequently leads to her being punished and eventually to her expulsion from school. Francine begins to examine her own values, particularly when an actor friend of Sophie’s father is blacklisted and Mr. Bowman loses his scriptwriting job. At the novel’s end, Francine is poised to stand up to Sister Basil, the bullying principal, and exercise her freedom of speech.”
JC Kato has won the 2015 Cushman Late Bloomer Award with her manuscript for Finding Moon Rabbit, the incredible story of Koko Hayashi, a ten-year-old girl who doesn’t follow rules, but must survive with her mother and sister in a Wyoming internment camp. JC said she’s been wanting to write this story ever since she married into the Kato family, and now she has. I chose Finding Moon Rabbit because the writing is strong and authentic, Koko is an intriguing and original character, and the subject matter is compelling and important. Well done, JC. I look forward to reading the finished book.
So all you over-fifties, think about applying. Next year I could be congratulating you.
I have been reading a lot lately since I don’t have a new book in the hopper and here are my favorites from the first half of this year.
Thanks to the generosity of the publishers, I read these first three in advanced readers copies:
Circling the Sun (adult), Paula McLain, Ballantine Books, July 28, 2015: an engrossing novel about Beryl Markham, aviator and lover of Denys Finch Hatton, who was the lover of Karen Blixen, who was Isak Dinesen. Fascinating.
The Hired Girl, Laura Amy Schlitz (MG), Candlewick,September 8, 2015: diary of a girl in 1911 who runs away to find a new, better life for herself. I got swept up in Joan’s search for adventure, meaning, and a promising future and finished the book in a day.
These Shallow Graves (YA), Jennifer Donnelly, Random House, October 27, 2015: mystery set in 19th century New York about love, lies, and dark secrets. How much is Jo Montfort willing to risk to find answers?
A Prince to Be Feared by Mary Lancaster, Amazon Digital, has been out since 2013 and how did I miss it until now? Vlad Dracula, Prince of Wallachia, the Lord Impaler, as a romantic hero? Yes! A Dracula story with plenty of love, war, revenge, and intrigue but no vampires? Yes! I climbed into the book and stayed there, alternately touched and frightened and angry, for days. I recommend it.
Q: What does “home” means to you?
A: We live in the woods, on an island. Coming home from the big city, I really experience the importance of place. The closer the ferry gets to the island, the more relaxed I feel. My shoulders let go, my head empties. This place is where I leave traffic and crowds behind and become more me. This place, this island, nurtures and supports me. It is, therefore, pretty odd that after 13 years, I don’t think of this place as home. Home is still the Bay Area, California, where Leah grew up, where we had three cats and a dog, where we were a family together.
Earlier I noted my favorite books about museums for adult readers. For young readers, I particularly enjoy Masterpiece by Elise Broach, in which James and a beetle named Marvin prevent a crime at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and, of course, everyone’s favorite museum novel, E.L Konigsburg’s From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler, also set at the Met.
Q. What are your favorite books about museums, written for adults?
A. Jane Langton, who also writes for children, wrote a series of very entertaining mysteries set in and around museums: Emily Dickinson is Dead (the Emily Dickinson House Museum in Amherst, MA); Dead as a Dodo (Oxford University Museum); and Murder at the Gardner (the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston). Here’s a listing of all of Ms. Gardner’s Homer Kelly mysteries.
