Suzy Davies's Blog: Book News, page 10
February 16, 2019
February 15, 2019
Schools Strike in U.K in Protest for Climate Change Action
I'm delighted to see young folks getting involved in Climate Change action.
It's great that young people are leading the way on Climate Change.
It is my hope that my Middle-Grade Children's Book, Snugs The Snow Bear, will help inspire very young minds to be the leaders of the future on environmental issues.
It's great that young people are leading the way on Climate Change.
It is my hope that my Middle-Grade Children's Book, Snugs The Snow Bear, will help inspire very young minds to be the leaders of the future on environmental issues.
February 14, 2019
February 10, 2019
The Year of The Pig - Luna The Moon Pig!
How wonderful! Just look at Sheila Graber's marvelous animation celebrating The Year of The Pig and of course, "Luna The Moon Pig"
https://twitter.com/sheilagraber/stat...
https://twitter.com/sheilagraber/stat...
February 4, 2019
January 28, 2019
Joharis Window by Suzy Davies
Did you know you can preview the Kindle version of my book?
Here's the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7780...
Here's the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7780...
January 26, 2019
Suzy Davies Recommends
The demands of writing have meant I haven't always reviewed the many books I have read.
However, there are some books that are so compelling, you could not possibly read them without comment!
So this is the beginning of my list of recommended Children's Reads for 2019.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/create...
However, there are some books that are so compelling, you could not possibly read them without comment!
So this is the beginning of my list of recommended Children's Reads for 2019.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/create...
How Reading Fantasy Books Helps Develop Children's Imaginations and why this is Important.
Sometimes, people overlook the value of reading fantasy to children because of our obsession with a hierarchy of knowledge that places “realism” above “fantasy” and “science” above “art.”
We want to cram our children’s heads full of facts, such is our banking system of education. But this is not what education is about.
Although my brain is more artistic than scientific, I value science and hope that my books will help to develop the imaginations of scientists in the making as well as budding artists. And I think they will! For nothing that has ever been invented by a scientist has been invented without an imaginative brain. And nothing created by an artist is created without the capacity to envision something out of the ordinary.
Although both my children’s books are based in reality, they are full of modern parables, tales within tales. This kind of fantasy is created at metaphorical level in the text and allows for a multiplicity of meanings and scope for children’s imaginations. It is through exploring the many threads that combining of metaphors can create, that children learn to innovate for themselves.
Learning to put unusual things together at metaphorical level helps "out of the box" thinking.
Older children will also learn to reason. Not all possible meanings in a text are equally valid. They will use logic and reason to uncover what is the most likely interpretation of the book or what the author intended the meaning to be. And they will have opinions of their own.
Some time ago a reviewer of “Snugs The Snow Bear” seemed to misunderstand why I had mentioned The Northern Lights in my snow bear tale, and gone into some detail describing them. They, of course, were a metaphor for the supernatural magic of the snow bear, and were meant to indicate that he should be free to show up like them, as part of nature, part of the environment and natural beauty of the world.
At another level, an older child might interpret these lights as triggers to fantastic memories of home, a kind of analogy to the way in which memory operates like cinema - a series of flashing images before one’s eyes, that can be fleeting and transitory. Of course, at a more literal level, The Northern Lights immediately conjure up the snow bear in his natural environment.
A quirky metaphor in Snugs The Snow Bear is an egg-timer. I will not reveal the literal meaning in the text here. But at metaphorical level, it may be interpreted to represent the “sands of time” running out on climate change.
Children’s books that are written clearly and simply mean very young kids can read them and enjoy them. Those that also have rich layers of meaning allow older children and adults to enjoy them, too.
It is my belief that imagination is like a muscle. Use it often enough, and you will develop it.
If we are to see future generations of artists, scientists, great thought leaders and innovative business people in the making, they will need imagination in bucketloads.
Children’s books are a rehearsal for life. Through fantasy, children can learn to problem solve, put themselves in the position of the characters and develop an imaginative empathy for others, including animals.
Rather than dumbing down and short-changing our kids, we should be posing questions about the world around them for which they can seek answers and solutions.
This does not mean our books have to be dry and boring. On the contrary, through being entertained, children will surprise us with the discoveries their imaginative minds make.
We want to cram our children’s heads full of facts, such is our banking system of education. But this is not what education is about.
Although my brain is more artistic than scientific, I value science and hope that my books will help to develop the imaginations of scientists in the making as well as budding artists. And I think they will! For nothing that has ever been invented by a scientist has been invented without an imaginative brain. And nothing created by an artist is created without the capacity to envision something out of the ordinary.
Although both my children’s books are based in reality, they are full of modern parables, tales within tales. This kind of fantasy is created at metaphorical level in the text and allows for a multiplicity of meanings and scope for children’s imaginations. It is through exploring the many threads that combining of metaphors can create, that children learn to innovate for themselves.
Learning to put unusual things together at metaphorical level helps "out of the box" thinking.
Older children will also learn to reason. Not all possible meanings in a text are equally valid. They will use logic and reason to uncover what is the most likely interpretation of the book or what the author intended the meaning to be. And they will have opinions of their own.
Some time ago a reviewer of “Snugs The Snow Bear” seemed to misunderstand why I had mentioned The Northern Lights in my snow bear tale, and gone into some detail describing them. They, of course, were a metaphor for the supernatural magic of the snow bear, and were meant to indicate that he should be free to show up like them, as part of nature, part of the environment and natural beauty of the world.
At another level, an older child might interpret these lights as triggers to fantastic memories of home, a kind of analogy to the way in which memory operates like cinema - a series of flashing images before one’s eyes, that can be fleeting and transitory. Of course, at a more literal level, The Northern Lights immediately conjure up the snow bear in his natural environment.
A quirky metaphor in Snugs The Snow Bear is an egg-timer. I will not reveal the literal meaning in the text here. But at metaphorical level, it may be interpreted to represent the “sands of time” running out on climate change.
Children’s books that are written clearly and simply mean very young kids can read them and enjoy them. Those that also have rich layers of meaning allow older children and adults to enjoy them, too.
It is my belief that imagination is like a muscle. Use it often enough, and you will develop it.
If we are to see future generations of artists, scientists, great thought leaders and innovative business people in the making, they will need imagination in bucketloads.
Children’s books are a rehearsal for life. Through fantasy, children can learn to problem solve, put themselves in the position of the characters and develop an imaginative empathy for others, including animals.
Rather than dumbing down and short-changing our kids, we should be posing questions about the world around them for which they can seek answers and solutions.
This does not mean our books have to be dry and boring. On the contrary, through being entertained, children will surprise us with the discoveries their imaginative minds make.
January 21, 2019
Are The Characters Writers Create Aspects of Themselves?
It’s common in real life for people to project and attribute their own characteristics, reactions, and feelings onto others.
For example, if we idealize someone or feel a magnetic attraction towards them, it may we be because they fulfill some emergent potential or positive characteristic we already have. Thus our heroes and heroines may well hold the key to our anima or animus or our ideal selves.
If our characters are negative, it could be a way that we subconsciously avoid these attributes, responses or emotions we do not want to confront in ourselves or take ownership of.
For example, the very things that irritate us about other people are quite often the shadow aspects of ourselves. He/she’s mercurial, we think, and sure enough, we are too. Our protagonists or anti-heroes may well reflect the darker side of our personality that we repress.
Writing may be, therefore, a way we leak or project hidden aspects of ourselves, positive and negative, onto the characters we create.
It may also be a way that we dramatize, act out or perform these aspects of our personality hidden below the surface.
You may write something, and then see an echo of a character or their life in you and your life. It may take a while for you to recognize its significance.
Mastery of writing and being a writer means that you have a very clear idea of who you are as a person. This I/me that is the self as a subject/object has boundaries. This person knows where the I finishes and you begins. This is especially true with the authorial voice. One wrestles with characters so they do not sound like “the author talking,” and so they are distinct and recognizable as persons in their own right/write.
I believe that authors say a great deal about themselves in the books that they write. You can know their life's preoccupations and the kinds of people that inhabit their worlds by reading their books. However, you need to look for recurring themes and patterns in their work to read between the lines.
If you analyze your own writing over years, you will see subtle shifts in the themes and characters of your books which may well reflect some aspects of your life and your own character which are always in process.
This is the difficulty; just when you think you know someone, they have changed. And this is true with writers and the people they meet. We do not write in a vacuum. We do not live in a vacuum. People will influence us. People will change us in subtle and unequal ways. We will try to emulate those whom we love and admire. Even our enemies will change us. And we will affect others.
There may be aspects of ourselves to which we are blind. Writers are all on a journey towards self-discovery. Does this mean we are journeying towards a clear picture of the self at its very core? Or does it mean that writing is a great way of discovering who we were yesterday?
Food for Thought:
“I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.”
― Virginia Woolf, The Waves
For example, if we idealize someone or feel a magnetic attraction towards them, it may we be because they fulfill some emergent potential or positive characteristic we already have. Thus our heroes and heroines may well hold the key to our anima or animus or our ideal selves.
If our characters are negative, it could be a way that we subconsciously avoid these attributes, responses or emotions we do not want to confront in ourselves or take ownership of.
For example, the very things that irritate us about other people are quite often the shadow aspects of ourselves. He/she’s mercurial, we think, and sure enough, we are too. Our protagonists or anti-heroes may well reflect the darker side of our personality that we repress.
Writing may be, therefore, a way we leak or project hidden aspects of ourselves, positive and negative, onto the characters we create.
It may also be a way that we dramatize, act out or perform these aspects of our personality hidden below the surface.
You may write something, and then see an echo of a character or their life in you and your life. It may take a while for you to recognize its significance.
Mastery of writing and being a writer means that you have a very clear idea of who you are as a person. This I/me that is the self as a subject/object has boundaries. This person knows where the I finishes and you begins. This is especially true with the authorial voice. One wrestles with characters so they do not sound like “the author talking,” and so they are distinct and recognizable as persons in their own right/write.
I believe that authors say a great deal about themselves in the books that they write. You can know their life's preoccupations and the kinds of people that inhabit their worlds by reading their books. However, you need to look for recurring themes and patterns in their work to read between the lines.
If you analyze your own writing over years, you will see subtle shifts in the themes and characters of your books which may well reflect some aspects of your life and your own character which are always in process.
This is the difficulty; just when you think you know someone, they have changed. And this is true with writers and the people they meet. We do not write in a vacuum. We do not live in a vacuum. People will influence us. People will change us in subtle and unequal ways. We will try to emulate those whom we love and admire. Even our enemies will change us. And we will affect others.
There may be aspects of ourselves to which we are blind. Writers are all on a journey towards self-discovery. Does this mean we are journeying towards a clear picture of the self at its very core? Or does it mean that writing is a great way of discovering who we were yesterday?
Food for Thought:
“I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.”
― Virginia Woolf, The Waves
January 16, 2019
Book News
"The Flamingos Who Painted The Sky," our new picture book is NOW fully available to bring in #Christmas #sunshine, #flamingo #sunsets, and #happiness #worldwide Illustrated by the talented Shirin Mass ...more
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