18 minute read
KidLit
Illustration by Noah Woods
Reading powerful literature lights up far more of the brain
BY CHERYL BARDOE
Whether nestled in a lap to hear a book read aloud or sprawled across the couch lost in a novel, young readers explore many of life’s possibilities with children’s literature. Research shows that reading powerful literature lights up far more of the brain than just the centers that interpret the written word. Sensory details, powerful characters, and vivid metaphors also stimulate cortexes responsible for perceiving smell, texture, and motion. Choate alumni are among the bestselling and critically acclaimed authors whose literary art helps young readers reflect on the challenges of their times to better understand themselves and their world. Here are half a dozen alumni who have chosen to light up the brains of our youngest readers.
Respecting childhood's earliest emotions
Reeve Lindbergh ’63 first began writing for children when she was a second-grade teacher. Noticing how rhyme and rhythm helped struggling readers, she penned short stories and poems to support her students. Publication came later, after Lindbergh had left teaching to raise her own family. Lindbergh’s work underscores how children experience a full range of emotions, from silly to serious. “It’s important for children to be treated with respect,” she says. “They can handle a lot.”
As the youngest child of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, Reeve herself grew up in one of the most recognized families of the 20th century. Her father’s transatlantic flight and the tragic kidnapping and death of her oldest brother transpired more than a decade before she was born – yet are both topics on which Lindbergh has fielded questions throughout her life. Lindbergh’s mother, who was an internationally bestselling author, often suggested that she write down her ideas. Lindbergh also recalls being encouraged by her teachers at Rosemary Hall. In addition to 19 books for children, she has now published 10 works for adult readers.
Her first book, The Midnight Farm, published in 1987, depicts a mother and child counting the animals who are tucked in for the evening. After observing the family dog, horses, sheep, chickens, and deer, the text concludes:
"Here is the dark in the midnight farm, Safe and still and full and warm Deep in the dark and free from harm In the dark of the midnight farm."
Lindbergh wrote these words as she sought solace after her two-year-old son died: “I myself was looking for things that would light up the dark.” Lindbergh explains her dedication to lilting lines and plots that address children’s fears in the context of home and community: “When children first learn to read, it is a time of great adventure. To balance that, children also appreciate a sense of coziness.” The key to addressing real-life issues, Lindbergh says, is to be direct and ground the concern in the child’s frame of reference. “Children are very perceptive and don’t need to be protected from what is natural.”
–REEVE LINDBERGH ’63
Lindbergh’s picture book My Little Grandmother Often Forgets, published in 2007, portrays a child who helps his grandmother find her glasses, her ring, her teacup, and a host of other items. The story was inspired by Reeve’s watching her own mother experience dementia in her 90s. “I wrote this story to show that affection and connection are still present,” she says, “even when grandparents aren’t who they have been in the past.”
Extending children's sense of themselves in the world
When Jamie Lee Curtis ’76 published her first book in 1993, she had already won multiple Golden Globe awards and was famous for her roles in Halloween, Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, and dozens of other film and television credits. More than two decades later, she has added to her résumé more awards and more starring roles, plus contributions as a humanitarian and activist relating to education and health. She also has become a bestselling children’s book author, with 13 titles and a reputation for exuberant text that engages young readers in complex topics that permeate modern society. “I’ve always believed that children have a much greater sense of the difficulties of life and basic human issues than adults give them credit for,” Curtis says.
Curtis’s first book, When I Was Little: A Four-Year-Old’s Memoir of Her Youth, began when her own four-year-old commented with an air of maturity about her distant past in diapers. That inspired Curtis to brainstorm a list of child-centered milestones – simultaneously simple and momentous – that separate being a baby or toddler from being a kid. “I realized that what I had written was a book for children about self-knowledge and self-hood,” Curtis says.
Ever since, each of her books has highlighted something essential to growing up, with titles like, Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods that Make My Day; I’m Gonna Like Me: Letting O a Little Self-Esteem; and It’s Hard to Be Five: Learning How to Work My Control Panel. Curtis’s work also encourages children to contemplate their connections to a broader society. This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From invites readers to consider their own family histories and ponder what they would pack into a single suitcase to emigrate to a new home. Me, My Selfie and I: A Cautionary Tale, published in 2018, shows that the best things happen when cell phones are turned off. “Children need to hear all kinds of stories,” Curtis says. “They need stories of great courage and tenacity and fortitude as well as stories of imagination and that make us laugh.”
The daughter of one of Hollywood’s most famous couples, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Jamie came to Choate for her senior year of high school to be closer to her mother, who had been cast for a Broadway show in New York City. Curtis describes herself as an underachieving student throughout her school career and says, “I am grateful to those teachers who were kind to me at a time that was very difficult.”
Amidst her many accomplishments, writing books for children is one of Curtis’s greatest delights. “I believe that art is a great healer and unifier, a great comfort and way to communicate,” she says. Combining her belief in the power of art and her commitment to respecting and investing in children, Curtis describes the final lines of The Human Race as among “the best contributions to the universe that I will ever get to make.” She challenges young readers to:
“… make friends and love well, bring art to this place. And make the world better for the whole human race.”
Connecting middle grade readers to STEM
Tonya (Chen) Mezrich ’91 credits Choate with shaping her as a writer. “It was inspirational to be in a community where writing was important,” she says. “I was surrounded by teachers and students who were amazing writers.” Mezrich recalls being impressed that the Choate library had a whole section of books written by alumni. She felt honored when former English teacher Trevor Peard recommended an essay of hers for a contest. “That made me think, maybe I could do this writing thing,” Mezrich says.
Before following a literary path, however, Mezrich became a dentist. Then she became a jewelry designer. Then she launched a fashion collection of women’s clothing. Along the way, she married Ben Mezrich, who has built a career writing narrative nonfiction such as the bestselling Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. From the beginning, Ben appreciated Tonya’s writing abilities. She became a resource for discussing his works in progress and he encouraged her to submit her own writing for magazines. As the couple’s children grew, the Mezrichs were inspired to create the Charlie Numbers Adventures, a series for middle-grade readers.
In this series, brainy kids apply their skills to overcome obstacles to beat carnival games, recover stolen moon rocks, and uncover the truth about mysterious fossil finds. The Charlie Numbers Adventures tap into the nationwide celebration of “maker” culture in recent years, which follows trends to blend STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) topics in education.
Since the first Charlie Numbers book was released, the Mezrichs have become official co-writers. They collaborate together on an outline, then Tonya drafts the manuscript, which they take turns editing. She estimates that she folded more than 50 paper airplanes to understand the nuances of that activity before writing about a paper airplane contest in the book. “We want readers to feel like they are right there in the story,” Mezrich explains. “I was living an experience in order to write about it.”
–PHILIP NEL ’88
Recognizing and remedying bias in KidLit
Although not himself a children’s book author, Philip Nel ’88 has devoted his career to the study of children’s literature as an English professor at Kansas State University. “Children’s books are the most important books,” he explains, “because we read them when we are in the process of figuring out who we are and who we want to become.”
A firm believer that children’s books offer wisdom, beauty, hope, and insight for readers of all ages, Nel fondly recalls becoming fascinated with Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon books as a teen. At Choate, Nel gained an intrinsic appreciation for knowledge that has served him well as a college professor. “Choate made me into a better student,” he says, “because I discovered that all learning is worth your time.” Nel’s most recent book, Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature and the Need for Diverse Books, was published in 2017 amidst a longtime movement that has recently gained momentum. The conversation had been ongoing for decades when, in 2002, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin began tracking representation of characters of color in children’s literature by annually reviewing more than 3,000 books, the vast majority of which were published in the United States. For years the numbers barely changed. Then in 2014 Walter Dean Myers, author of more than 80 books for children and young adults, heightened visibility for the issue with a New York Times essay titled, “Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books?” That same year, authors Ellen Oh and Melinda Lo launched the We Need Diverse Books campaign. Since then the number of significant characters who are people of color has more than tripled, going from 8 percent in 2013 to 28 percent in 2018. In recent years, children’s books are also presenting a wider spectrum of gender experiences, such as Jessica Love’s debut 2018 picture book Julián Is a Mermaid, which depicts a young boy dressing up as his favorite magical creature.
With at least 50 percent of U.S. school children nonwhite, children’s literature still remains far from a balanced representation. Nel believes the most powerful impact will come as more people of color become creators of children’s literature. According to the CCBC, the number of books written by authors from diverse backgrounds went from 7 percent in 2013 to 21 percent in 2018 – although African American and Latino authors remain underrepresented in this growth. “It’s vital for the authors of a lived experience to tell their own stories,” he says.
Kid TV
BY LORRAINE S. CONNELLY
Bringing all the subtleties and nuances of life to our youngest audiences with Peter Hirsch ’86
Peter Hirsch ’86 knew he wanted to be a writer ever since he was in eighth grade. When he came to Choate Rosemary Hall, he says, that passion “was encouraged and shepherded along the way.” A strong English and drama student, Peter and classmate Mark Leydorf collaborated on a one-act play that was selected for the first Connecticut Students Playwrights Competition. President of his sixth form class, and art editor for The Lit, he earned the School Excellence in English Award. His English teacher remarked: “Simply put, [Peter] is a fresh and independent thinker. Moreover, his imagination is a formidable resource as well.” Since 2001, Hirsch has used that formidable imagination as head writer of the PBS Kids’ program Arthur, which recently wrapped up its 25 th and final season, and now of Molly of Denali, a new PBS children’s series, one of the first to have a Native American lead.
After majoring in Buddhist Studies at Harvard, Peter returned to his native New York City to work on his playwriting while working part-time as a security guard at a children’s-wear building in the garment district managed by his realtor father. When he was offered the opportunity to write children’s scripts for PBS, he thought it “was a good gig and I could make a living and continue with my playwriting passion.” Soon, though, Hirsch became enmeshed in the life of Arthur, the anthropomorphic aardvark, and realized he could explore in his children’s scripts all of the great themes of the plays he most admired. He says, “All of the subtleties and nuances of life – the jealousies and insecurities that are at the heart of all great literature – could be explored and boiled down to 11-minute scripts that even a child could understand.” Hirsch and his writers explored King Lear’s test of love in one episode in which DW, Arthur’s younger sister, has a moment where she is willing to give up all of her toys to the friend who loves her best.
Says Hirsch, “All children are natural storytellers and story vessels. The gold standard in children’s programming is to create stories that are entertaining as well as challenging.” And Hirsch has been active in raising the bar. With more kids spending time with screen media, selectivity is key. In an effort to help families curb kids’ use, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released numerical screen limit guidelines – “no more than an hour a day of high-quality programming for kids under 6,” – suggesting that parents “co-view” these shows to help their children “understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.”
With the Arthur series wrapping up, Hirsch has a new opportunity to help children understand the world around them through an exploration of indigenous cultures in the Molly of Denali series. (Coincidentally, alumna Liz Walbridge ’07 is a digital associate producer of the Molly of Denali series at WGBH in Boston.) Molly, the series lead, is a 10-year-old Athabascan girl who hopes to maintain her culture’s old ways while leading a thoroughly modern life. Having just returned from a recent visit to Alaska, Hirsch says the series will not shy away from the “undeniable effects of climate change.” Hirsch acknowledges that TV is a powerful medium and has a growing responsibility, one that he does not shoulder lightly. The dramatic weight of Hirsch’s role as head writer is somewhat Shakespearean in itself.
Teen readers value complexity and hope
After years of writing and producing for film and television, Abdi Nazemian ’94 published his debut novel, The Authentics, for young adults in 2017. Highlighted by People Magazine, Bustle, and Booklist, the work is also scheduled to be adapted for a television series. The story follows 15-year-old Daria, who is proud of her Iranian-American heritage. While the specifics are distinct, the core themes reflect a common experience for contemporary teens, particularly living under the constant glare of social media. “Our society places a lot of emphasis on façade and perfection, rather than letting people see our vulnerabilities,” Nazemian explains. “Making your way through those emotions is part of figuring out your identity.”
Nazemian is grateful to Choate for the opportunity to spread his creative wings. He fondly recalls student-directing a scene from No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre, and an entire production of Christopher Durang’s Baby with the Bathwater. “I was amidst a group of students who were pushing to be more creative,” he says. “It turned into what was likely the best experience of my early life and set me on the course for my career today.”
Compared with the highly collaborative process of screenwriting, Nazemian finds writing books to be a more solitary venture – but still very gratifying. “Writing for young adults is exciting because your audience engages with art in a different way,” he explains. Nazemian is also eager to help more readers find themselves reflected in literature – an experience that he didn’t have himself, growing up as a gay Iranian-American. He is proud that a student recently wrote an article for her school magazine saying that reading The Authentics made her feel “seen.” In building the world for this novel, he strove to show many different lenses for Iranian-Americans. He also encourages readers to seek out more stories and perspectives. “I lean into telling the most specific story possible, so that no one thinks I’m trying to represent a whole community,” he says. Abdi’s most recent book, Like a Love Story, was named one of the New York Public Library’s 2019 best 100 books for kids (see review on p. 60). Set in the early 1990s, it highlights the grassroots response to the AIDS crisis. He observes that contemporary teens are on the forefront of activism relating to gun violence, climate change, and other issues. “This book explores the question of how do we face the world when it seems like it is crumbling around us?” Nazemian says, “Historically conditions have improved when people came together through love and demanded better. It’s exciting to consider how the era I grew up in is relevant to teens today.”
–ABDI NAZEMIAN ’94
Stories that resonate around the globe
Katherine Marsh ’92 began writing Nowhere Boy, about a 14-year-old Syrian refugee, in 2015 when her family spent a year living in Brussels. She arrived just as a downtown park became an impromptu refugee camp less than two miles from where European Union leaders from 28 nations gathered in their parliamentary chamber. “The refugee crisis was happening all around us,” Marsh recalls. “People were on the streets with signs, neighbors went to the park to help, and they set up a tent city.” By the time Nowhere Boy was published in 2018, the United Nations was reporting that refugee numbers had reached unprecedented levels worldwide. Marsh’s writing has received critical praise for its thoughtful exploration of this topic, and her book has already been translated into 16 languages, including French, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Spanish, Polish, Greek, Korean, Chinese, and Farsi.
“Kids are the future, so it’s important for them to be part of this conversation,” Marsh says. “Books that present real life to kids are an invitation for them to become their best selves.” Nowhere Boy interweaves the story of Ahmed with that of 13-year-old Max, whose family has relocated from the United States for his father’s work. Both boys are lonely, homesick, and struggling to find their footing. When they become friends, they learn from each other about different ways of being brave. “Every kid is an outsider somewhere,” Marsh says.
Marsh applied to Choate because she wanted to study Russian, a language spoken by two of her three immigrant grandparents. She feels fortunate to have completed a Choate term abroad in Moscow in 1991, during the last few months of the Soviet Union, with the Cold War almost over. Marsh describes the atmosphere as one of increasing openness, combined with a historical sense of being enemies. “I was thrilled to have that experience,” she says. “That time cultivated in me a sense of being able to look past many things to see people as individuals.”
Marsh’s time at Choate set her on the path to being a political reporter, and she applied her journalistic skills to writing Nowhere Boy. The novel required “an immense amount of research,” she says, ranging from reading stacks of policy reports to interviewing Syrian families, and an unaccompanied minor who had arrived in Brussels.
Marsh is currently working on a new project that combines a sense of adventure with a storyline that examines how girls and women use their voices. For her, writing each book is a unique experience, with characters and plots that spring from a place of utter passion. “The best stories come from questions that I want to explore,” she says. “I want to create books that have a lasting quality; books that entertain and also have nuggets of truth that kids find on their own.” Marsh also gives a shout-out to other children’s book author alumni from her class, Ian Lendler and Kristen Kittscher. ■
Cheryl Bardoe teaches writing in Choate Summer Programs. She is an award-winning children’s book author. Her most recent book, China: A History, (Abrams) has been praised by reviewers at School Library Journal, Booklist, and The Washington Post.
