Empowering Adolescent Readers: Intertextuality in Three Novels by David Almond

In Skellig, Kit’s Wilderness, and Clay, David Almond employs various types of intertextuality to enrich his narratives. Through the use of allusion, adaptation, collage, and mise-en-abyme, he encourages his adolescent readers to seek out precursor texts and to consider the interrelationships between these texts and his own. By so doing, he demonstrates the respect he has for his readers and empowers them to become active makers of meaning.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: A Culturally Specific, Subversive Concept of Child Agency

This article is a critique of Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry with regard to its positioning of the child subject. I propose that the novel contrasts classic works of children's fiction by following a trajectory of child agency, which is enabled through the novel's racial specificity. The adults in the novel teach the children, but they do so in a way that encourages autonomous action. Subversive child agency is enabled in the novel through the demystification of history and the unveiling of power structures. In the process, the child characters become agents of resistance.     

Sympathy for the Devil

Since Melvin Burgess published his first childrens book, The Cry of the Wolf (1989) he has had the reputation of being a powerful and challenging writer, discussing issues that many other writers have shunned. But it was with Junk (Smack in the US) in 1996 that he became a notorious media figure. This Carnegie winning novel showed teenagers not only taking drugs, but enjoying them, and sex, too! As a whole, though, this book also showed the dangers of hard drugs, and did anything but glamorise addiction. The book was also innovative in using multiple narrative voices, so that moral certainties are continually being challenged, shown to be but partial. Burgess continued this technique in Bloodtide (1999), which is undoubtedly his most powerful book yet (a second volume is on its way), updating the Icelandic Volsunga saga in a bleak, futuristic London. Lady: My Life as a Bitch (2001) and Doing it (2003) also brought much media attention, both dealing explicitly with teenage sex. These are the main books that Burgess talks about in his article. However, his range is far wider, and his other texts should not be forgotten: he has written several novels for younger readers, a picture book, The Birdman (2000) and an excellent novelisation of the film Billy Elliot (2001). His ability to write gripping, absorbing stories with memorable characters is always foremost, whatever other issues might be addressed.     

With a straight eye: An interview with Charles Causley

Charles Causley is one of the most distinguished contemporary British poets. He was born in Launceston, Cornwall (in South-Western England), where he still lives. During 1940–46 he served on the lower deck in the Royal Navy, an experience which still influences his poetry. In 1967 he was awarded the Queen's Medal for Poetry. In 1977, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Exeter and, in addition to awards for different collections of poetry, he was further honoured (in 1986) by the Queen for his services to poetry. He is an experienced and very popular performer at poetry readings. Much of the following interview, recorded in December, 1987, grows out of his long experience as a teacher of young children in his home town.Brian Merrick teaches English and Drama in the School of Education, Exeter University. He is coauthor (with Geoff Fox) of the widely circulated article, Thirty Six Things to do with a Poem,CLE, 12(1), Spring 1981, and coauthor (with Jan Balaam) ofExploring Poetry: 5–8 (NATE Publications, 1987).     

An interview with John Christopher

John Christopher is a well known, prize-winning writer. His adult novelThe Death of Grass was runner-up for the International Fantasy Award when Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings won first prize. Similarly his children'sTripods trilogy,The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, andThe Pool of Fire, were all runners-up to the Guardian Award, whileThe Guardians won the Guardian award for 1971. HisSword trilogy, The Prince in Waiting, Beyond the Burning Lands, and The Sword of the Spirits, has been reissued by Puffin in a single volume. Some critics, such as John Rowe Townsend (inWritten for Children), have accused John Christopher of an underlying pessimism, or of male chauvinism. Christopher has not replied to these criticisms. He prefers to let his books speak for themselves. Unlike other writers who keep a high public profile, he has not spoken at conferences on children's literature or published essays which present or defend his point of view.Early in 1983 I wrote to John Christopher. What began as a simple fan letter developed into a series of questions, which he was kind enough to reply to at length: from this correspondence, with John Christopher's agreement, I have compiled the interview which follows.He has published articles on C. S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles (Cle 25), Patricia Wrightson's Wirrun trilogy, and on aspects of language education. He recently completed a graduate diploma in children's literature.     

The Curious Incidence of Novels About Asperger's Syndrome

Since Asperger's Syndrome was formally recognised in 1994, several novels featuring characters with the syndrome have appeared. Bill Greenwell's article discusses these books in providing a context for a closer consideration of the British publishing sensation of 2003, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The reasons for the success of this suburban comedy, Greenwell argues, include the consequences for the reader of Haddon's choice of the sufferer from Asperger's as narrator, especially the generation of unconscious humour and the range of literary forms he uses to tell his story. Nicholas Tucker adds an Afterword from his perspective as an educational psychologist as well as a literary critic, finding in the novel a rich mixture of heroism, mystery and love mediated through narrrative ingenuity.     

‘A Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven’: His Dark Materials, Inverted Theology, and the End of Philip Pullman’s Authority

This article argues that Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials may be read as a series which attempts to assault the Christian doctrine of God. We believe that this demonstrably accords with Pullman’s personal views, and that, through his story, he seeks to foster such views in his readership. However, the accuracy of his attack falls short of its intended mark when it is examined alongside classical Christian theology. The Authority which Pullman’s narrative destroys is actually more akin to the Christian view of the devil than he is the divine, and the victories of Will and Lyra—as a new Adam and Eve—have strong resemblances to the victories which Christianity claims for Christ and Mary. Pullman’s narrative, therefore, becomes an inversion of his deicidal intention rather than an inverting and revolutionary destruction of theology.

“Thank Goodness the Goose Is Here”: Creativity and Women's Writing in Eudora Welty's The Shoe Bird

Thank Goodness the Goose is Here examines Eudora Welty's only children's book, The Shoe Bird, and suggests that this text uses animal characters to explore women's authorship. Gloria the goose, whose character has been seen as stereotyped and silly, represents, in my reading, the inventive and courageous aspects of women's authorship, while Arturo, the methodical and precise parrot demonstrates that writing as a woman calls for the ability to use language in new ways even if this means ignoring established rules of language use. Drawing on Hélène Cixous's work with the l'écriture féminine, this article locates in Gloria evidence of the creativity and fortitude required to write as a woman in cultures where written language has conventionally been seen as the domain of men. This article examines how The Shoe Bird plays with common Welty themes of memory, extinction, and entrapment to emphasize Gloria's inventive use of language to redefine the space of the shoe store and the subjectivities of the birds. Connections are also drawn between Gloria the goose and creative women who emerge in some of Welty's texts for adults. Although reviewers and critics have not extensively examined The Shoe Bird, this text provides rich commentary about how women can use language to change their worlds.     

Fate and Fortune in a Modern Fairy Tale: Louis Sachar's Holes

Louis Sachar's Holes, first published in 1998, is an impressive example of how the themes and motifs of one of the oldest genres, the fairy tale, live on in contemporary children's fiction, and thus provide authors with an alternative to gritty realism' as a means of presenting to young readers the harshest of topics and environments. This article shows how Sachar adapts some of the characteristics of fairy tale, such as magic objects and formulae, stereotypical roles and repeated motifs, within a story set in a desert penal establishment for young offenders. Because of this blend between fantasy and realism, the provision of the novel with a fairy tale ending by means of a number of otherwise unbelievable coincidences, does not overtax the reader's credulity, but rather endows the novel with a positive message about the qualities of the human spirit.     

C. Walter Hodges: A Life Illustrating History

C. Walter Hodges first came to prominence as the author/illustrator of Columbus Sails in 1939, which the Junior Bookshelf hailed as The best book never to have been awarded the Carnegie Medal. Widely acclaimed for the treatment of its subject matter, its powerful narration, and accompanying dramatic line illustrations, Columbus Sails was the first of a number of vivid historical novels written and illustrated by Hodges, including The Namesake (nominated for the 1964 Carnegie Medal), The Marsh King (1967), and The Overland Launch (1969). He is internationally recognised both for his indispensable and learned books about the Elizabethan theatre (for which he gained the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration in 1964) and his vital illustrations to other authors' texts. This timely article is based on interviews and correspondence between the author and Hodges, and traces and celebrates the latter's life and career as a writer, book illustrator, teacher, and scholar.     

Meaning Making and “The Learning Paradigm”: A Provocative Idea in Practice

Amidst the considerable literature published on institutional change in undergraduate teaching and learning, an article co-authored by Robert Barr and John Tagg in 1995 stands out. The authors offered a vision and —perhaps most importantly—gave it a memorable name, the Learning Paradigm. From Teaching to Learning—A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education is the most frequently cited article in the history of Change. In this article, Barr blended his voice with colleagues who helped initiate Learning Paradigm programs at a public university and in a liberal arts college setting. Through multiple forms of inquiry, including discourse and metaphor analysis, they interpreted the shift from teaching to learning and speculate about its future.     

“Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me”

This paper is a rejoinder to John Wilson's piece Power, Paranoia, and Education which appeared inInterchange in 1991. Following a brief summary of Wilson's piece, I criticize his article under two major headings: some reactions to his psychological claims and terminology, and Wilson's style and form of argument. I conclude by offering some alternative work and observations in the same area, but from quite a different standpoint.     

“A sense of the spoken”: Language inThe Owl Service

Alan Garner'sThe Owl Service has continued to attract critical attention since it won the Carnegie Medal in 1967.CLE is delighted to add to the debate with two pieces which complement each other, and which both consider the issue which has most divided critics: the resolution to the novel in which the seemingly less sympathetic Roger (rather than the Welsh boy, Gwyn) is enabled to save the beroine, Alison. Readers may agree with our second contributor, Andrew Taylor, that the book needs to be re-explored.Alan Garner's fourth novel,The Owl Service (1967), won both the Carnegie Medal and The Guardian Award. The story concerns the relationships of three adolescents in an enclosed Welsh valley. Alison and her step-brother Roger are English, staying in the farmhouse used by Alison's family as a holiday home for many years. Gwyn, who is Welsh, is the son of the cook, Nancy. The three are caught up in a reenactment of one of the tragic and violent legends from theMabinogion—as, it emerges, generations have been before them, often with fatal consequences. Some of the bruised participants in previous enactments of the legend are present as adults as this particular cycle of the frightening legend begins.This article focuses on the varieties of language use which occur in the text, providing fresh insights into the crafting of the novel. Lockwood's study is of particular appropriateness at a time when the new National Curriculum in England and Wales requires students to develop knowledge about language, that is, to become more aware of how language works in a variety of texts.Michael Lockwood taught in Middle Schools in Oxfordshire for eight years before taking up his present position in the Faculty of Education of the University of Reading. His research interests are in the areas of Children's Literature and Teaching and Learning in the field of Knowledge about Language.     

Little Women, Good Wives: Victorian Constructions of Womanhood in the Girl's Own Annual 1927

The Girl's Own Annual 1927 displays a distinctly Victorian construction of womanhood which was at odds with the views of modern girls in the 1920s. This article examines the tensions created by these differing social expectations and focuses on the intergenerational debate about the role of women in work and marriage. It suggests that the magazine's aim was consistent with government policy at the time and represents a last ditch effort to influence and control the behaviour of a rebellious generation, in an attempt to restore the prewar social order.     

Getting lost in a book: The gnomes and the reader in BB'sLittle Grey Men novels

BB is the pseudonym of the English writer and naturalist Denys James Watkins-Pitchford. He was born in Lamport, Northamptonshire, in 1905 (his father was Rector of this small village), and he still lives in the county. He was educated privately and studied art both in Paris and at the Royal College of Art in London. His accomplished drawings and scraper-board illustrations are a feature of his books. BB's adult and children's books are marked by his extensive knowledge and love of the English countryside; Wild Lone(1938), the story of a fox in the fox-hunting country of Northamptonshire, and Manka(1939), which traces the life of a wild goose, were followed in 1942 by The Little Grey Men,which won the Library Association Carnegie Medal. Its sequel, The Little Grey Men Go Down the Bright Stream,was published in 1948. After seventeen years as Art Master at Rugby School, BB became a freelance author and illustrator in 1947. His autobiography, A Child Alone(1978) is only one of a number of more recent books which show him still writing, as evocatively and penetratingly as ever. Christopher Ringrose is Principal Lecturer in English and American Studies at Nene College, Northampton. He has published articles on Canadian poetry, literary criticism, the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the nature books of BB.     

The novels of Patricia Wrightson

Patricia Wrightson is an Australian writer whose first novel was published in 1955. She has produced six other novels and a collection of short stories and poems for children-Emu Stew (1977). Her best-known novel,I Own the Racecourse (A Racecourse for Andy), was runner-up for the 1968 Australian Children's Book of the Year Award. She has made a special study of the Aboriginal nations of S. E. Australia and feels that in her novels she responds to places and people.Betty Gilderdale, born and educated in England, has an Honors degree in English. She has lived in New Zealand for the last ten years and has been a lecturer in English at North Shore Teachers College, Auckland, for most of that time. She was a founder member and president of the N.Z. Children's Literature Association.     

The Cay Theodore Taylor

Cle continues its series of accounts of classroom practice with books that teachers have found successful as class readers with their students.Stephen Wicks is Head of the English Department at Camborne Comprehensive School in Cornwall. He has chosen an American novel, Theodore Taylor'sThe Cay, which he reads with classes of thirteen-year-old boys and girls drawn from the whole ability range.Barbara Hall is in her second year of teaching at The Woodrush Comprehensive School, near Birmingham. She teaches Stan Barstow'sA Kind of Loving to classes of average ability who are taking the Certificate in Secondary Education in English Literature.     

Kids can learn first aid

Four-year-old Tony is playing outside in his yard. His mother is down in the basement clearing out some cupboards. Tony decides to go exploring in the hedge at the side of the yard. He trips and falls on a broken bottle that is lying underneath the shrubs.Lory Freeman has taught first aid to children and conducted workshops for educators on teaching first aid. She is the author ofA Kid's Guide to First Aid, It's My Body, andLoving Touches (Parenting Press).