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Center for the Study of Children's
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Transcripts for November 1999 Programs #46-67 |
Program #46
November 1, 1999 -- Carl Orff's Music for Children
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture.
You're hearing a section from one of the most delightful musical albums ever made for young people -- Carl Orff's "Music for Children," which was first released in the late 1950s. We wore out two copies of this recording around our household and always expected that there would be a CD version to replace our scratched up records by the time we became grandparents. That day is soon approaching and this incredible music is still unavailable to the general public.
Carl Orff, the German composer, was born in 1895 and and died in 1982, He is best known for his sensuous, sensual Carmina Burana, a dynamic celebration of ancient medieval music and song about life and love and loss and love. But it's not generally remembered that, through the 1920s and 30s, until his work was halted by the Nazis, Orff developed a highly sophisticated approach for teaching music to children through rhythm and poetry, dance and simple instruments. Orff began with the human voice, and with the earliest songs that that voice sings in childhood -- nursery rhymes, street calls, game songs, and lullabies. His central idea was to find the music in the simplest things, in that which is overlooked and forgotten. Orff also believed that children themselves should learn to make beautiful music from these basic elements.
"Music for Children" was a testament to this form of expressiveness that Orff thought was a birthright; children do all the singing, play all the instruments, and they let us marvel as they build their compositions from familiar, straight-ahead rhymes, to lyrical chorales and polyrhythmic cascades, until we reach a sublime conclusion -- on that would sweep our family away with sheer delight, day after day. If you have young children or grandchildren or nieces and nephews about, look for this album at your used record store or at golden oldies sales, and if you find it, don't ever let it out of sight or ear shot. Make tapes for the nursery, the car, the cabin, the kitchen; and let its pure magic wash over you and yours.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media. For more information about the programs, visit our web site at w w w . recess . ufl . edu
Program #47
November 2, 1999 -- Rita Smith "Lost and Found" Essay: Word
Lists
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Program #48
November 3, 1999 -- "Good Grief the Leaf" A Story about Change by
Barry Stuart Mann
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. New seasons mean change, but sometimes, we just want to stay where we were. Barry Stuart Mann, the winner of this year's National Storyteller of the Year Contest, held in Columbus Ohio over the Labor Day Weekend, has a story about this: it's called "Good Grief the Leaf."
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Program #49
November 4, 1999 -- "Getting Connected: An Internet Conversation
Koren Stembridge
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. Today, we're talking with Koren Stembridge, our internet correspondent, about some tools for parents to help then help their chidlren use the internet safely and effectively.
At the public library where I work, some of the most challanging questions I answer are from students who are doing school research projects. And more often than not, it seems, teachers are actually requiring students to use the Internet as a component of their research. Ultimately this is a good thing - the Internet is a fabulous resource. But who is helping these kids find good, reliable, current information when they go online? Here's an example.
Last week a frustrated mom came into the library with three kids in tow. Her 5th grader needed to know how to make candy, her 8th grader was doing a report on a popular rock band, and her high school junior was studying the creation of the universe. Sounds easy? Maybe not. She had already tried using the Internet at home - by typing simple keywords into a popular Internet search engine she learned a few things:
1) Candy is often a scantily clad woman, rather than a confection.
2) Websites about popular topics such as rock bands are often done by fans (not official sources) and may be inaccurate or out of date.
3) Typing in the phrase Big Bang will find you many pages that do not discuss the creation of the universe!
So what is a parent or teacher to do? How do you help your student find quality resources on the Internet?
First: Find out if your library has a website. Many public libraries offer links to homework resources, as well as access to the library's catalog and magazine databases.
Second: Bookmark a few really great homework sites. The Multnomah County Library has one of the best homework sites online with subject specific homework help for every imaginable topic. Another essential homework site is the Internet Public Library, sponsored by the University of Michigan's School of Information - the IPL has special areas for both children and teenagers.
Finally: Try search engines that are designed especially for kids. Some of the most popular are Yahooligans, Ask Jeeves for Kids, and LycosZone. These child-friendly engines link only to sites that are appropriate for kids and they also have great entertainment value and visual appeal.
Remember, it's not enough for kids to use the Internet. We have to teach them to use it well. Links these sites and others may be found on the Recess! website.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media. For more information about these programs visit our web site at w w w . recess . ufl . edu
Program #50
November 5, 1999 -- Elaine Needelman Media Review: Pokemon, the
Movie
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Program #51
November 8, 1999 -- National Chemistry Week
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. This is National Chemistry Week. My father was an inorganic, analytical chemist. "Inorganic" means metal, he tells me -- and that's what he worked with all of his adult life -- those red-hot lines of alloys that ran through the assembly lines of the factories in Chicago where we lived. He began his career, though, tinkering in the garage. "I almost blew it up," he told me. When I asked him what the experiment was, he began to hem and haw a little -- "Oh," he said, "I was probably adding an acid to a base." But when I pressed him he started to confess, sheeplishly, that it was probably gunpowder -- what most of the red-blooded, twelve year old kids with a bent for science like himself during the 1930s discovered that they could make with a few simple ingredients that you could then easily buy from the drug store down the block.
With me chemistry meant submarines that could race around the bathtub on a charge of bicarbonate of soda and chunks of coal that would sprout brilliant crystals if you drenched them in ammonia and blueing. My daughter's middle school fascination with chemistry yielded a volcano made from paper maché with free flowing lava -- again, baking soda was part of the mixture, along with red food coloring. You can bet a lot of table tops were ruined by that science project. But however you want to put it, whether you're talking polymers or C-9, H-8, 0-4, chemistry is alchemy. Like those medieval philosopher-mystics knew from the start, it's all about turning the dross, the insignificant bits and pieces of our livesinto something extraordinary and, if you were lucky, something transcendent. For instance, if you process regular old crude oil in a certain way, you get gasoline; refine it further and you have the raw materials for baggies or computer keyboards. If you can separate the hydrogen from the oxygen molecules in water and harness the hydrogen you will have pulled off one of the biggest tricks of all -- unlimited, inexpensive, non-polluting energy. Have your reluctant young scientists check out the web site of Bill Nye the science guy, or watch his popular public television show for children. He knows that chemistry is the ultimate magical act: fascinating, dizzying, spellbinding magic.
Recess is a co-production of The University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media. For more information about the programs visit our web site at w w w . recess . ufl . edu
Program #52
November 9, 1999 -- Shelley Frazer Mickle Remembering
Pinocchio
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. Later this month it's the birthday of the Italian writer Carlo Collodi. Today Shelley Frazer Mickle offers a Remembering that grows out of his most famous creation -- Pinocchio.
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Program #53
November 10, 1999 -- Jim Haskins Review: "Stretch Your Wings" --
Famous Black Quotations for Teens
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. Today, to mark the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jim Haskins, himself the author of two books about Dr. King, has this review of "Stretch Your Wings -- famous Black Quotations for Teens.
Words of wisdom. That's what we all need, whether we're in our teens or our fifties. We need words of hope, consolation, advice; we need to know that we are not suffering alone, that others have been in the same place we're in, and that they have found a way through their trials and tribulations and are here to tell us how they did it -- with sympathy or humor, great oratory or gentle insight.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we are remembering today, knew in his soul what words could do. And he was a master of crafting them in order to find the poetry in a simple expression of encouragement. Here's what he said about not giving up or resting on accomplishments: "We've come a long way, but we've still got a long, long way to go. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. But by all means, keep moving."
This quotation, along with many more by Dr. King and other African American leaders, celebrities, artists, and intellectuals are packed into a small, new volume that's titled: Spread Your Wings: Famous Black Quotations for Teens. Janet Cheatham Bell and Lucille Usher Freeman, who have compiled these quotations, are well aware of how vital it is for teens to have these nuggets available to them in a form they can easily use and afford (the book costs about half the price of the average C.D.). It's a book for browsing, for the sake of surprise and serendipity. Open one page and you might read Frederick Douglas' ringing words: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." Turn to another and the actor, Damon Wayans remembers: "I would draw a circle on a piece of paper and my mother made me feel like Van Gogh."
Jesse Jackson exhorts the reader: "Always know there is unlimited power in a developed mind and a disciplined spirit. If your mind can conceive it and your heart can believe it, you can acheive it." Or stop and listen to the joy in Gwendolyn Brooks' remark: "When I was a child, it did not occur to me, even once, that the black in which I was encased would be considered, one day, beautiful . . . . I had always considered it beautiful. I would stick out my arm, examine it, and smile."
Don't wait for some special occasion to buy this book for a teenager in your family: let him come home and find it nonchalantly lying on his desk, or tucked into her bookbag, because, as the Akan proverb tells us: "Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden."
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media.
Program #54
November 11, 1999 -- Elaine Needelman Media Review: Premier of Sesame
Street
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. There are few television shows that have been more important to more children than Sesame Street, which celebrated the premier of its anniversary yesterday. Here is Elaine Needelman, a Sesame Street kid herself, with some reflections about the program.
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Program #55
November 12, 1999 -- Rita Smith Lost and Found Essay: Robert Louis
Stevenson, with a reading by Fiona Barnes
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. Here's Rita Smith with some thoughts about the famous Scotish writer, Robert Louis Stevenson.
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Thanks to Fiona Barnes for her reading from Stevenson's poems.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media. The shows this week were written by John Cech, Elaine Needelman, Rita Smith, and Koren Stembridge, with research help from Mary Showstark. For further information or to contact us visit our web site at w w w . ufl . edu
Program #56
November 15, 1999 -- National Children's Book Week
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture.
National Children's Book Week has been celebrated in November since 1919, thanks to the spirited leadership of Frederic Melcher, the editor of Publisher's Weekly at the time, who argued that such an annual event was necessary because it "put the cause of children's reading squarely before the whole community and, community by community, across the whole nation. For a great nation is a reading nation." These are still fine and firey words, eighty years later.
The theme of this year's celebration is: "Plant a Seed . . . Read!" -- an apt metaphor, because reading is one of the primary ways for rooting the imagination. Even books for very young children need to keep this in mind, instead of dismissing toddlers and preschoolers as a rather passive audience, only in need of a few brightly colored images to keep it occupied. The new crop of baby and toddler books are full of surprises. Not only have old standards like Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny been adapted for the very young, along with board book versions of the Curious George stories, but gifted artists like Rosemary Wells, in her Max and Ruby books, have been producing mini-masterpieces for years with her simple texts that celebrate the daily complexities of young childrens' lives with deep sympathy and generous good humor.
This year, Ship Ahoy, by Peter Sis updates the premise of Harold and the Purple Crayon, with the wordless adventures of a boy who, while consigned to the couch while his mother is vacuuming, invents a fleet of sailing craft to take him on a journey of the imagination. Chuck Murphy's clever Bow Wow and Black Cat, White Cat play with shapes and gestures using pop-up pages of dogs and cats to make the learning of these basic concepts a surprising game. But perhaps the most beguiling of them all is The Very Lonely Firefly, by Eric Carle -- the same artist who did one of the posters for Book Week this year of a tulip lost in a tome. The firefly is in search of his own kind and after a series of adventures with other night lights and some pretty scarry animals, he finally finds what he is looking for, and when you turn with a child to that last, ingenious page, with its tiny flickering lights, you'll have helped to plant that seed of the imagination.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media.
Program #57
November 16, 1999 -- National Children's Book Week
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture.
On the second day of National Children's Book Week, we're harvesting a wonderful crop of picture books that follow the week's theme: "Plant a Seed .... Read." In the most literal of ways, that's what the writer Sarah Stewart and the artist David Small are doing in their recent Caldecott Honor Book, The Gardener. It's the story of a girl, Lydia Grace, who is sent away from the family farm by her parents to live with her unsmiling Uncle Jim in the city, to help him out at his bakery. The book is set during the Depression of the 1930s, and is told in the form of letters that Lydia Grace writes home. She may have been taken out of the country, but you can't wash away her green thumb, and soon she has planted seeds in every nook and cranny she can find around the shop, turning the grimness of her experience into radiant blooms of promise and hope that even transform glum Uncle Jim.
Sector 7 by David Wiesner has taken the Book Week theme into the stratosphere, seeding the clouds. This is a breathaking fantasy about a boy who's transported from the top of The Empire State Building where he's gone on a school field trip, to a celestial factor y where clouds are produced, in all the familiar shapes and sizes. But the clouds are tired of the old blueprints, bored with being just another cumulus or cirrostratus. With the boy's creative help they outfit themselves in new shapes -- as exotic tropical fish and other deep sea creatures. Wait until you see the sky above Manhattan when it's under the sea.
But perhaps the most intriguing of all these book-plantings is Westlandia by Paul Fleischman, illustraed by Kevin Hawkes. It's about a kid named Wesley who gets picked on because "he alone in his town disliked pizza and soda . . . found professional football stupid . . . [and]refused to shave half his head, the hair style worn by all the other boys, despite his father's bribe of five dollars." Instead for his summer project, he decides to found his own civilization in suburbia "based on a staple food crop." His crop is a strange fruit that tastes like "an entrancing blend of peach, strawberry, pumpkin pie and flavors he had no name for" and the plant gives him food, shelter, clothing, paper, ink, as well as bug lotion and sun screen. It's a wonderful premise, with a remarkable mythic quality that says that it is possible to grow anything if you have the right seeds, and you know where to dig.
Program #58
November 17, 1999 -- Shelley Frazer Mickle Remembering National
Homemade Bread Day
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. Today is National Homemade Bread Day, and Shelley Frazer Mickle has some thoughts about the subject that have stuck with her for a long time.
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Program #59
November 18, 1999 -- National Children's Book Week
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. If your household is looking for some books that will take you to the next level after Harry Potter, let me say just two words Phillip Pullman. Well, maybe I'd better use more than two. Phillip Pullman, like J. K. Rowling, is an author from the UK who has also taken up that time-honored English tradition of fantasy writing and done something unbelievably good with it. Something that will plant all sorts of seeds, no matter what week you read it in.
Pullman has published the first two volumes of a fantasy trilogy that has developed a following fans just as fervid, if not as large, as those that have championed the Harry Potter books. Pullman's books are set in an England that might have been, had we not discovered electricity, gasoline, or atomic energy -- it's a curiously retro place, where people travel in dirigibles and burn oil lamps. But what makes it even more compelling is the presence of animals called daemons, who are the embodiment of a key element of their owners' character. Our daemons are in flux during childhood, changing form until we settle on our true adult nature; but we cannot be separated from our daemons without great soul-searing loss. In the first volume of the trilogy, The Golden Compass, we follow the adventures of Lyra, the daughter of the powerful Lord Asriel, who discovers that she has the innate power to operate a strange device -- the golden compass -- that will tell her the answer to any questions that she asks it. What she wants to learn about is what her father is trying to keep secret from her and the rest of the world -- his discoveries in the artic Northern Lights, of a rift in the cosmos.
The second installment, The Subtle Knife, which was published two years ago, plays dramatically with the idea of parallel worlds, as Pullman introduces a boy from our own present, Will Parry, who finds his way into another reality where he meets Lyra. Together these two quick-witted, courageous young people go in search of Will's father, also an explorer like Lyra's, who had been lost years ago, armed with a knife they have found that can cut through any material.
The third book in this series, The Amber Spyglass, is due out next spring, and many of us can't wait to see what will grow this time from Pullman's complex, fertile imagination.
Program #60
November 19, 1999 -- World Rights of the Child Day
This is Recess and this is John Cech. It's the end of Children's Book Week, and we have been talking about some of the new books that are ready to be planted in our children's lives. But for there to even be books in our children's hands -- books to summon wonder, kindle curiousity, feed a hungry imagination, or soothe a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day -- some fundamental things should ideally be in place for all children.
The United Nations realized nearly 40 years ago that we had to make the effort to guarantee children certain rights, just as governments granted them to their fully enfranchised adult citizens. And so, fourty years ago this weekend the UN adopted the Declaration of Children's Rights, as an attempt to raise international consciousness and ultimately to effect international actions. We thought that today, the day before World Rights of the Child Day, when these rights are so often and so sadly ignored, we wish to add what we can to this awareness.
Here, then, are the Rights of the Child, read by the children of our area:
The right to affection, love and understanding
The right to adequate nutrition and medical care
The right to free education
The right to full opportunity for play and recreation
The right to a name and nationality
The right to special care, if handicapped
The right to be among the first to receive relief in times of
disaster
The right to be a useful member of society and to develop individual
abilities
The right to be brought up in a spirit of peace and universal
brotherhood
The right to enjoy these rights regardless of race, color, sex,
religion, national or social origin
Our deep appreciation to Jerre Conner for all her efforts coordinating this program and to the children who lent their voices to this reading. Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media. The shows this week were written by John Cech and Shelley Frazer Mickle, with research help from Mary Showstark and Samantha Murrell. For further information or to contact us visit our web site at w w w . ufl . edu
Program #61
November 22, 1999 -- "Cool Sites for Cold Days" Koren Stembridge on
the Internet
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture.
Here come those cold, wet, winter Saturdays! Here come the cries of "I'm bord!"and "There's nothing to do!" But take heart parents, and grandparents, friends and neighbors, because on days like these, the Internet is our friend!
I know, I know, in your perfect fantasy little Jimmy sits quietly on the sofa, aphgan tucked neatly under his feet, reading your childhood copy of Treasure Island. Heck, I'm a librarian, that's my fantasy too! But face it, kids today want a party -- they want to be entertained -- they want to logon!
Instead of feeling guilty, help the kids in your life by pointing them to websites that are intelligent, creative, and interactive. And keep reminding yourself that they are reading while they are online!
Here are a few wonderful, interesting, educational, and above-all entertaining Internet sites for kids.
To find anything from Arts and Crafts, to Pokemon, to Zebras visit Berit's Best Sites for Children. Compiled by Canadian Librarian Berit Erickson this page includes links to over 1200 sites!
Jump over to PBS for links the Teletubbies, Sesame Street, Arthur, Wishbone, and Zoom. Or try Nick Jr.'s site for Blues Clues.
Science kids will love Bill Nye the Science Guy's site with crazy experiments and silly science songs. Or check out San Francisco's Exploratorium Science museum.
Harry Potter fans will want to visit, Scholastic Press where they may test their wizarding knowledge. And athletes can dream of sunny spring days at Sports Illustrated for Kids online magazine.
And Remember School House Rock? Those crazy little educational cartoons that air on Saturday mornings? If you're still not convinced the Internet is fun, try singing "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly get your Adverbs Here" with the child in your life!
It's not enough for kids to use the Internet. We have to teach them to use it well. Links to all the sites mentioned may be found on the Recess! website.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media.
Program #62
November 23, 1999 -- Shelley Frazer Mickle Remembering The Invention
of the Pencil Sharpener (J.L.Lowe, 1897)
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. The first pencil sharpener was patented one hundred and two years ago today by J. L. Lowe. Shelley Frazer Mickle is here to tell us how that invention changed her life.
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media.
Program #63
November 24, 1999 -- Rita Smith "Lost and Found Essay"
Frances Hodgson Burnett
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. Here's Rita Smith with a "Lost and Found Essay."
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM
and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media.
Program #64
November 25, 1999 -- Thanksgiving: Princess Red Wing Interview from
1981
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. Today is Thanksgiving, which was, for the native Americans who helped the Pilgrims, one of a cycle of five thanskgiving festivals. The late Princess Redwing, who you will hear on this 1981 interview, was a well known storyteller throughout New England. She was also the Squaw Sachem of the Wampanoag nation -- a position of great respect -- and a direct descendent of King Phillip, one of the Wampanoag's greatleaders. Here is Princess Redwing's account of the first Thanksgiving.
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media.
Program #65
November 26, 1999 -- Elaine Needelman Media Review Thanksgiving
Movies
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of
the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. The multiplexes are already filled up with this year's family films for the holidays, and Elaine Needelman has some suggestions that might save you some time in line.
The transcript for this program is currently not available.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media. The shows this week were written by John Cech, Elaine Needelman, and Rita Smith, with research help from Mary Showstark. For information about these programs or to contact us, visit our web site at w w w . recess . ufl . edu
Program #66
November 29, 1999 -- Lost and Found Sound First Talking Book
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture. Listen to this:
(sounds of a lamb and a cow)
Perhaps you think you're hearing a recent recording of farm animals, but this is really a very rare children's book from the late 19th century called The Speaking Picture Book. It is one of those many novelty books that were produced near the end of the last century by such geniuses of paper engineering as the German artist Lothar Meggendorfer, whose pop-up books sell in the thousands of dollars today if you can find them. Very few of these books survive in working order because the children who received them as presents usually played them to bits. Which is why it's so rare for a very of this book, with its nine color plates, each with an arrow in the margin that points to a little ivory nob on the side of the book that you can pull to get the sounds of the lamb and cow, which you've heard, but also the donkey
(donkey braying)
the goat
(goat's bleating)
and a very unusual rooster
(rooster's crowing)
The book was produced by Theodor Brand of Germany and was eventually sold in English, German, French and Spanish editions. The one you're hearing is about a foot tall, nearly ten inches wide, and several inches thick, with a red cloth cover and a golden wooden sound box that has a carved, gold-painted opening to release the sounds. It costs around $2,000 now, if you can find it, but it was expensive even then in the days before Speak and Spell and sound chips. After all, it was, as the book said in its introduction:
Meant for children good and mild
Not for the rude and naughty child
who cries and stamps with rage.
But you, I know, deserve this treat
So side by side upon the seat
We'll turn each pretty page.
"Yes listen!" the book goes on, "For each creature talks
Just as you hear them in your walks
As if they all were real.
(sound of the cuckoo)
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media.
Program #67
November 30, 1999 -- Hans Christian Andersen First Book of Fairy
Tales, December 1, 1835
This is Recess and this is John Cech. We're talking about some of the things that are happening in the world of children's culture.
Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the publication in 1835 of the first volume of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, Told for Children. Andersen called it his first booklet; in it were "The Tinderbox," "Little Claus and Big Claus," "The Princess and the Pea," and "Little Ida's Flowers." Of these four stories, three were "tales that I had heard as a child," Andersen wrote, " either in the spinning rooms or dung the harvesting of the hops." Only the tale of Little Ida was an original story, for a little girly by the same name, the daughter of apoet friend of Andersen's. He wanted to keep "the presence of the storyteller" in the language, and you can hear the verbal swagger in the first line of "The Tinderbox": "A soldier came marching down the road: left . . . right! Left . . . right! He had a pack on his back and a sword at his side. He had been in the war and he was on his way home. "
Andersen is 30 when he writes this, and already he has been through his own kind of wars -- born the son of a poor washerwoman and a melancholy cobbler from the Danish coastal town of Odense, he'd had to endure the grinding poverty of his childhood and youth, the desperate, depressing struggle for a lad from the wrong social class to climb the ladder of literary success, the unhappiness in his romatic life, the restless travelling. He was, he informs us, the ugly duckling, the lowest in the town's pecking order , the brunt of crude jokes and coarse criticism. Famous as he would later become, he never quite got over those early traumas, or the later scars. But they became the fuel that drove his fantasies and gave substance to his stories. "Most of what I have written," Andersen says in his autobiography, The Fairy Tale of My Life, " is a reflection of myself. Every character is from life. I know and have known them all."
The tales came out this way for the next thirty-some years, a handfull a year, but soon they were pouring out, and in the end Andersen wrote 156 "tales and stories," a dozen or so of which are among our best-known fairytales. Perhaps the key to his success was, as he told a friend early on, lay in the fact that he could "seize an idea for the adults -- and then tell it for the children while still keeping in mind the fact that mother and father are often listening too, and they must have a little something for thought." Indeed they do: like remembering being ugly ducklings too.
Recess is a co-production of the University of Florida's WUFT-FM and the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media.
