Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Realism in Norwegian Children's Literature

[Gordon becomes a hobo.] Gordon and his family are passing through Copenhagen on their way to spend their summer vacation in Spain. Gordon gets left behind by accident at the train station in the Danish capital. He wonders if he'll spend the night alone at the station, but then he meets Klaus... Besides being a substance abuser, Klaus is homeless too. And so a night out of the ordinary commences. Recommended for kids 8-11.

Well they didn't make books like this when i was a kid. We had stuff like the "Bobbsey Twins" and their numerous dull adventures, Tarzan and Nancy Drew. Literature that could only be harmful if thrown with malice of forethought towards the facial region of some unsuspected person.

If you're into literature, fantasy, Jungianism, Tolkien and fairy-tales - you will love this essay by Ursula K Le Guin, taken from her 1979 collection of essays "Language of the Night" called The Child and the Shadow (pdf)
(page order reversed, start p. 6)

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