Marion Dane Bauer's Blog, page 14

A Freudian Slip

It was one of those amusing Freudian slips. Last week I posted a quote on this blog from Kelly Barnhill’s Newbery acceptance speech and dated the speech as having been delivered in 1987.  Kelly would have been fourteen years old in 1987.  I don’t know her though she lives in my community, but when the […]

The post A Freudian Slip appeared first on Just Thinking.

Books are Powerful

Books are powerful.  For good or ill.  They can literally rewrite a person’s sense of themselves, and they can rewrite the world around us. Kelly Barnhill (from her 2017 Newbery Medal Acceptance speech)

The post Books are Powerful appeared first on Just Thinking.

The End Lies in the Beginning

There are certain writing topics I return to in this space many times.  I return to them partly because I believe they are important and talking about them can be helpful to all of us who write.  But I return to them, also, because I keep rediscovering them for myself, year after year after year. […]

The post The End Lies in the Beginning appeared first on Just Thinking.

Attempt Something Unknown

Let me say to the writers out there:  attempt something unknown.  Attempt something that is dangerous to you.  No, even more:  attempt something impossible.  After all, how do we expect our books to change the lives of our readers if they don’t change our own lives, first? M.T. Anderson

The post Attempt Something Unknown appeared first on Just Thinking.

Me, Too

The man was my godfather and my family physician.  I “loved” him, because I was supposed to love him.  My mother revered him. He terrified me.  He was gruff, sarcastic, and critical in sudden unexpected bursts.  And yet, trailing after my mother and her awe, I climbed the stairs to his exam room, located above […]

The post Me, Too appeared first on Just Thinking.

Waking Up

The business of story is waking up. –   Martin Shaw

The post Waking Up appeared first on Just Thinking.

When Love Conquers Death

The Christmas my son, Peter, my first child, turned three was, of course, the first time he was old enough to make sense out of the Santa story.  And being the child he was, Peter made too much sense out of it. “Mommy,” he said to me when I came into his bedroom on Christmas […]

The post When Love Conquers Death appeared first on Just Thinking.

Truth of a different kind

Children who have been told the truth about birth and death will know, when they hear about Kris Kringle and Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas and the little babushka, that this is a truth of a different kind. Margaret Mead

The post Truth of a different kind appeared first on Just Thinking.

Riding Piggy Back

The best and most satisfying reason for writing a picture book isn’t just that they are fun to write, which they are.  They are sometimes enormously difficult, too, but still fun. It isn’t that they are short, either, though short has its own blessings.  And its own challenges.  I am often reminded of Mark Twain’s […]

The post Riding Piggy Back appeared first on Just Thinking.

Language

Language attempts, among other functions, to describe reality. But then, in a turnabout, it actively shapes and creates how reality is seen. Language limits the perception of reality. Jon Rappoport

The post Language appeared first on Just Thinking.