Books That Changed How I Saw The World , Part 1: Bruce Coville
I just found this again, and I wanted to post it here, so I'll have a copy I can get to easily. Also, now that I think of it, I feel like doing a series of these posts (eventually), talking about what books/authors changed the way I saw the world or my place in the world. I think this would be a good place to start.
I sent an e-mail to/signed the guestbook of Bruce Coville's website, as I have been a fan since childhood. I just found his posting of and reply to it and wanted to share it. I cleaned up the spelling and punctuation a bit here, but that's all.
My original e-mail was as follows:
Dear Bruce,
One of my earliest memories of my forays into the realm of books beyond Dr. Seuss was reading Into the Land of the Unicorns. I later re-discovered you with My Teacher Flunked the Planet at age twelve. I remember that it had a huge effect on me. I still get sad and angry when I read the passage where the aliens are telling the children about how our planet could be, compared to how it is now. I remember crying the first time I read about the mother trying to nurse her dead baby, the warehouses full of food, and the all the children who die every year because they aren't given vaccinations that cost less than the price of a meal at a fast food place.
Thank you for writing about such important issues in a way that reaches right into kids and touches them so much. I really loved your short stories "Old Glory" and "Am I Blue?" They are some of the most thought provoking stories for kids I've ever come across. I am slowly working my way through your entire body of work, and, my, is it a big body. It is going to take me some time, as I am in college right now and don't have as much time for reading anything besides my textbooks; but I look forward to experiencing them. I eagerly await The Last Hunt, as the series has been a favorite since I first read it as a young child. Have a lovely winter, and I hope you remain inspired and free of writer's block, whatever project you're working on.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008 at 6:53:00 PM
Mr. Coville was kind enough to reply as follows:
Bruce Coville replied on Tuesday, December 16, 2008:
Hi-
I'm sorry I didn't answer this sooner - with everything going on around here, sometimes the guestbook gets away from me. Of all my books, I think FLUNKED THE PLANET is the one of which I am most proud, because it has more of what I believe about the world in it than anything else I've done . The research for it was painful - I cried more than once just realizing what a pathetic, unnecessary mess we have made of things.
The praise for the short stories is most welcome, too. Those two tales mean a lot to me.
I'm working hard on HUNT right now and, happily, not feeling blocked at all!
BC
For those that don't know, My Teacher Flunked the Planet is his children's book about a group of aliens that take a group of kids on a whirlwind journey around the planet, in hopes that they will find out why we humans have made such an atrocious mess of things here on Earth, before the planet is destroyed by the intergalactic council so we don't spread our "disease" to the rest of the universe. It has some of the most heart-wrenching atrocities on the planet described in it in a way that, miraculously, won't give children nightmares, but very well might give them to the adults that read the book. I still fight back tears when reading it.
The two short stories mentioned are "Old Glory" and "Am I Blue?" found in Oddly Enough and Odder Than Ever respectively; or together in the combined release Odds Are Good, all by Bruce Coville.
"Old Glory" is a story set in the USA of the future told through the eyes of a boy who doesn't understand why his grandfather is bent on causing a tempest in a teapot over the passage of a new law. He does what he believes and has been taught is his duty, and sells out his grandfather to government hit men when he tries to publicly protest their installment by burning a flag.
"Am I Blue?" is a piece about a boy who is confused about his sexuality and is being harassed by another boy for "being a little fag". When his Fairy Godfather appears, he wishes first that he could have an accurate form of "gaydar", and then that everyone could be bestowed with this new sixth sense for one day. This "gaydar" manifests itself in shades of blue that tint everyone, the shade varying in accordance with the degree one is attracted to one's own sex. Needless to say, all hell breaks loose the next day when the world figures out who is gay and who is not, with pinpoint accuracy.
I think it is so very important to tell children about the realities of this very beautiful, but very fucked up world we live in, in a way that they can understand and relate to. I admire and respect Mr. Coville because he has both the skill to do it well and the fortitude to do it at all, when he could very well be ostracized and/or reviled both by his publishers and by his readers and their parents. He tells these things in such a straightforward, poignant manner that it stays with the reader. He also doesn't shove a moral stance or a political platform down the reader's throat, which is refreshing, but he does make you think about the subject at hand. Why did this happen? How did this happen? Is this actually happening now in the real world? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What makes it bad or good?
The resonance of his writing is one of the most powerful elements of his work and a large part of what makes it so thought provoking. I found that these pieces in particular have haunted my mind and, at a very young age, made me reconsider my beliefs and my ideals. I think that this is one of the best ways to reach young kids: to give them a problem that they can relate to, and then let them decide what they think about it.
I'm tired and beginning to ramble, but my point is that these works changed the way I saw my life and my place in the world drastically at a very young age. If you haven't read these, your local library should have copies. Go get them and read them. If you're ashamed or embarrassed to be seen in the kids' section, that's what the hold shelf is for; Put them on hold and get them and read them.
You have your marching orders; Go.
I sent an e-mail to/signed the guestbook of Bruce Coville's website, as I have been a fan since childhood. I just found his posting of and reply to it and wanted to share it. I cleaned up the spelling and punctuation a bit here, but that's all.
My original e-mail was as follows:
Dear Bruce,
One of my earliest memories of my forays into the realm of books beyond Dr. Seuss was reading Into the Land of the Unicorns. I later re-discovered you with My Teacher Flunked the Planet at age twelve. I remember that it had a huge effect on me. I still get sad and angry when I read the passage where the aliens are telling the children about how our planet could be, compared to how it is now. I remember crying the first time I read about the mother trying to nurse her dead baby, the warehouses full of food, and the all the children who die every year because they aren't given vaccinations that cost less than the price of a meal at a fast food place.
Thank you for writing about such important issues in a way that reaches right into kids and touches them so much. I really loved your short stories "Old Glory" and "Am I Blue?" They are some of the most thought provoking stories for kids I've ever come across. I am slowly working my way through your entire body of work, and, my, is it a big body. It is going to take me some time, as I am in college right now and don't have as much time for reading anything besides my textbooks; but I look forward to experiencing them. I eagerly await The Last Hunt, as the series has been a favorite since I first read it as a young child. Have a lovely winter, and I hope you remain inspired and free of writer's block, whatever project you're working on.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008 at 6:53:00 PM
Mr. Coville was kind enough to reply as follows:
Bruce Coville replied on Tuesday, December 16, 2008:
Hi-
I'm sorry I didn't answer this sooner - with everything going on around here, sometimes the guestbook gets away from me. Of all my books, I think FLUNKED THE PLANET is the one of which I am most proud, because it has more of what I believe about the world in it than anything else I've done . The research for it was painful - I cried more than once just realizing what a pathetic, unnecessary mess we have made of things.
The praise for the short stories is most welcome, too. Those two tales mean a lot to me.
I'm working hard on HUNT right now and, happily, not feeling blocked at all!
BC
For those that don't know, My Teacher Flunked the Planet is his children's book about a group of aliens that take a group of kids on a whirlwind journey around the planet, in hopes that they will find out why we humans have made such an atrocious mess of things here on Earth, before the planet is destroyed by the intergalactic council so we don't spread our "disease" to the rest of the universe. It has some of the most heart-wrenching atrocities on the planet described in it in a way that, miraculously, won't give children nightmares, but very well might give them to the adults that read the book. I still fight back tears when reading it.
The two short stories mentioned are "Old Glory" and "Am I Blue?" found in Oddly Enough and Odder Than Ever respectively; or together in the combined release Odds Are Good, all by Bruce Coville.
"Old Glory" is a story set in the USA of the future told through the eyes of a boy who doesn't understand why his grandfather is bent on causing a tempest in a teapot over the passage of a new law. He does what he believes and has been taught is his duty, and sells out his grandfather to government hit men when he tries to publicly protest their installment by burning a flag.
"Am I Blue?" is a piece about a boy who is confused about his sexuality and is being harassed by another boy for "being a little fag". When his Fairy Godfather appears, he wishes first that he could have an accurate form of "gaydar", and then that everyone could be bestowed with this new sixth sense for one day. This "gaydar" manifests itself in shades of blue that tint everyone, the shade varying in accordance with the degree one is attracted to one's own sex. Needless to say, all hell breaks loose the next day when the world figures out who is gay and who is not, with pinpoint accuracy.
I think it is so very important to tell children about the realities of this very beautiful, but very fucked up world we live in, in a way that they can understand and relate to. I admire and respect Mr. Coville because he has both the skill to do it well and the fortitude to do it at all, when he could very well be ostracized and/or reviled both by his publishers and by his readers and their parents. He tells these things in such a straightforward, poignant manner that it stays with the reader. He also doesn't shove a moral stance or a political platform down the reader's throat, which is refreshing, but he does make you think about the subject at hand. Why did this happen? How did this happen? Is this actually happening now in the real world? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What makes it bad or good?
The resonance of his writing is one of the most powerful elements of his work and a large part of what makes it so thought provoking. I found that these pieces in particular have haunted my mind and, at a very young age, made me reconsider my beliefs and my ideals. I think that this is one of the best ways to reach young kids: to give them a problem that they can relate to, and then let them decide what they think about it.
I'm tired and beginning to ramble, but my point is that these works changed the way I saw my life and my place in the world drastically at a very young age. If you haven't read these, your local library should have copies. Go get them and read them. If you're ashamed or embarrassed to be seen in the kids' section, that's what the hold shelf is for; Put them on hold and get them and read them.
You have your marching orders; Go.