Shutta Crum

It started off with a visit to Abbot School in Ann Arbor—2nd and 4th grades. So much energy, fun, and many good questions! I loved it. I left the older kids with snippets from SPITTING IMAGE and the new book I am working on, THOMAS AND THE QUEEN OF THE DRAGONS. “That’s so unfair,” they yelled, wanting me to continue reading. Unfortunately, I didn’t have all day just to read to them. Great kids. I hope to have some photos to post later.

Then I heard the Newbery winning writer, Cynthia Kadohata (Kira,Kira, 2005) speak at the Sarah Marwil Lamstein Children’s Literature Lecture at the University of Michigan. It was interesting to hear how she writes, so differently from the way I do. She started out in adult fiction. Therefore, sometimes, the move to writing what is appropriate for children can be difficult for her. I really enjoyed the photos/slides of her family and what led to the writing of several of her books. And I do completely agree—there is room in this wonderful great world of literature for books that spring from all sorts of backgrounds. She indicated that, at first, she wasn’t sure her books about Japanese-Americans would appeal to a wide range of readers. They certainly do!

On Friday, I visited Community High here in Ann Arbor, and spoke with a class of high school creative writing students. So earnest! And, again, so  much energy. I loved it—though I’m afraid I might have spoken really quickly to get everything covered that I wanted to cover. I do think I was able to reveal much of the joy I feel about writing for kids.

Today—Saturday—I heard our national Poet Laureate, Kay Ryan read at the new Art Museum opening. Her poems are gems of clarity, humor, and intelligence. She has a way of looking at subjects and making such fine, and sometimes, obvious connections.  E.g.; “it takes two points to make a distance.”  I was floored by the precision of her word choice, her use of some end rhymes (not the easy ones!), internal rhyme and slant rhymes (all almost unused by poets today). I loved her freedom from self-indulgence. A wonderful relief in this world of “me, me, me.”  She’s been compared to both Dickinson and Frost. (Not bad!!!)

About her work, J. D. McClatchy has said: “Her poems are compact, exhilarating, strange affairs, like Erik Satie miniatures or Joseph Cornell boxes. She is an anomaly in today’s literary culture: as intense and elliptical as Dickinson, as buoyant and rueful as Frost.”

At any rate—if you haven’t read any of our current Poet Laureate’s poems. Do! And read them with a little grain of salt, as her humor is often tongue-in-cheek. In fact she said she is all in favor of “distance, impersonality, and not learning new things.” Hah!  Loved it.

Next Monday, I have another school visit. This time to Cook Elementary in Midland. I’m looking forward to it. What a way to wind down National Reading Month!

I hope you have been busy reading this month. I am currently listening to Suzanne Collins’ Gregor the Overlander series, and A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Newbery winner Laura Amy Schlitz. I’m rereading Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake, and reading for the first time, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Well you can’t say my tastes are not eclectic!

Giddy and Glad to be a Writer!

Shutta