Dreams and Wishes: Essays on Writing for Children
198 pages
|Published: 1 May 1996
|Editions
|Details
This edition
ISBN: 9780689807367
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date: 1 May 1996
Description
Susan Cooper's sequence of fantasy novels has become a modern classic, internationally established on school and college reading lists and in the hearts of thousands of children. Writers of fantasy, says Cooper, deal in "myth, legend, folktale, the mystery of dream and the greater mystery of Time. With all that haunting our minds, it isn't surprising that we write stories about an ordinary world in which extraordinary things happen." This fascinating collection of essays, compelling reading for any parent, teacher, librarian, or booklover, contains 20 years of an author's reflections on the nature of craft, imagination, and her young audience. Some of the topics are focused on fantasy; others range from the theater to literacy, from poetry to war. Although Susan Cooper is also a gifted playwright and television screenwriter (Foxfire, The Dollmaker, To Dance with the White Dog), her novels for young adults contain her best work. Her concern for children's literature permeates Dreams and Wishes, making it a book that is both entertaining and disturbing. At the heart of Cooper's work is a passionate plea for the recognition, in an image-oriented world, of the all-encompassing power and value of the written word.