New Film on Children's Book Authors and Illustrators
By Judith Rosen
Jul 08, 2010
Jean de Brunhoff’s Babar stories, or more specifically Adam Gopnik’s interpretation of them as part of the common language of childhood in the New Yorker in September 2008, serve as both title and inspiration for an upcoming film on children’s literature, Library of the Early Mind, directed and produced by Edward J. Delaney and co-produced by Steven Withrow.
Although they began the film in spring 2009, Delaney and Withrow first met more than a decade ago, when the latter studied communications and creative writing with Delaney at Roger Williams University. Since graduation, Withrow has written several books about children’s literature, including Illustrating Children’s Picture Books (RotoVision), with Lesley Breen Withrow, and Toon Art. Delaney, a journalist and fiction writer who received a 2008 NEA literary fellowship, turned to filmmaking in 2006. His first documentary, The Times Were Never So Bad: The Life of Andre Dubus (2007), was an official selection of the Rhode Island International Film Festival. Writer Adam Gopnik was interviewed for the film, and also helped inspire it, with a 2008 'New Yorker' article about the Babar books.
So when the two Rhode Islanders got together over coffee shortly after Gopnik’s article appeared, the subjects of movies and children’s books came up. In the end they decided to create their own film that would combine their interests in both. “We wanted to do a film that would be interesting to people who may not have an interest in children’s literature,” says Withrow. “We wanted to describe how the writers and illustrators become artists and how these personal experiences really were the crucibles of the art they created.” Among the experiences he cites are: David Small’s difficult childhood, described in Stitches; Jack Gantos’s imprisonment as a young adult for smuggling hashish; and the burning of Nancy Garden’s 1982 novel, Annie on My Mind.
The three—Small, Gantos, and Garden—are among the 40 authors and illustrators interviewed by Withrow and Delaney for the film. “Because we were limited in terms of money, we confined ourselves for the most part to artists in New York City, western Massachusetts, and northern New England,” Withrow says. Not that that was a hardship given the talent pool in the Northeast, from Jeff Kinney to Lois Lowry and Chris Van Allsburg. In addition, Delaney and Withrow interviewed literary critics, including Roger Sutton, Anita Silvey, and Gopnik. Behind the scenes, booksellers like Carol Chittenden, owner of Eight Cousins in Falmouth, Mass., provided recommendations, as did other authors. In a few instances, Withrow and Delaney traveled further, going to San Francisco to interview Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket.
Delaney and Withrow are in the midst of editing the film down to 85 minutes for its debut this fall at the Askwith Forum at Harvard University’s School of Education. They made a conscious decision to focus on children’s book authors and illustrators whose intended audience is 12 and under. “We’re looking at stories that would have been some of the first stories read to you or the ones you read first,” Withrow explains. As for the 40 hours of material that doesn’t make the cut, that will be made available separately on educational DVDs sometime next year. In the meantime, Delaney and Withrow have posted the film’s first trailer on the film’s Web site.
Children’s literature is more important than ever in an increasingly fast-paced society, according to a panel of five authors and two filmmakers hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Brought together to view and discuss “Library of the Early Mind,” a documentary about the significance of children’s literature in modern culture, the panel began a discussion that was inspired by the film.
“The film speaks to the way that books open up a child’s creativity and imagination,” said author Padma T. Venkatraman, who participated in the discussion via videoconference from India.
“Fiction can do this in a way that nonfiction never can,” she added.
Steven Withrow, a co-producer of the film, said the goal of the documentary was to “make a film for people who aren’t quite giving children’s books their due.”
He said that literature for children provides them with an escape from the pressures of the future.
“I loved experiences with books that had nothing to do with my future,” he said. “This is the experience we write for—not to get kids into Harvard.”
The panel also rebuffed claims that the picture book has become obsolete, saying that the medium still has value in the face of technology.
Edward J. Delaney, director and co-producer of the film, dismissed the argument that children should forego picture books for more challenging chapter books.
“There are really some big ideas being spread in children’s books,” he said, including individuality, friendship, and the struggles of growing up.
Author Roger Sutton maintained that emerging technology cannot replace traditional books because it “is so dependent on print for its legitimacy.”
But panelists did not spare the children’s literature industry of criticism, saying that it had neglected important themes.
Author and illustrator Jerry Pinkney called for greater representation of interracial marriages, and author Lesléa Newman said more books should feature transgender children.
Lois Lowry, author of the children’s literature classic “The Giver,” praised the “parents and librarians and booksellers and teachers” who bridge the gap between writers and readers.
Michelle Y. Lee, an audience member and student at HGSE, said she thought the film “made people think about children’s literature in a very different way,” adding that she hopes children’s books will stay in their traditional printed form.
“I love holding a children’s book in my hands,” she said. “The pictures are so much different in a book than on a computer.”
The Rhode Island School of Design Illustration Department co-hosted a screening of "Library of the Early Mind," a new documentary about the world of children's literature, Wednesday night. The screening was the sixth in a series of 50 screenings across the country before the film is made more widely available next fall, according to the film's director, Edward Delaney.
The film offers an inside look at the many different aspects of children's books, featuring a stream of interviews with authors, illustrators and publishers. The first of its many poignant moments depicts Natalie Babbitt, author of "Tuck Everlasting," smiling at the camera. "I write books for children because my childhood was the most important part of my life to date," she says. "And I'm 72."
The film recounts some shocking statistics — for example, that people do 90 percent of their reading for pleasure before the age of eight. Author Grace Lin pointed out that children's books have to appeal to both kids and the parents and teachers who serve as filters for the literature that actually reaches children.
Delaney addresses other obstacles that children's book authors face, including the vocabulary, complexity of ideas and level of humor deemed appropriate for children. "It seems that publishers' idea is ‘we don't want the child to confront anything he doesn't already know,' " said Norton Juster, author of "The Phantom Tollbooth," in the film.
Delaney also takes on controversial issues in the history of children's literature, including the portrayal of African Americans and homosexuals over time. Nancy Garden — the author of "Annie on My Mind," which tells the story of a romantic relationship between two 17-year-old girls — recounts how she received a call one day telling her the book was being burned in Kansas City, Kan.
The book's burning and removal from the library prompted a lawsuit that Garden's supporters ultimately won. But in her interview, Garden points to the fact that, other than a select few books, most homosexual characters in children's books in the 50 years prior had either "committed suicide, been killed in a car crash, turned straight or been sent to a mental institution."
In a panel following the screening of the film, authors Babbitt and Chris Van Allsburg (author of "The Polar Express" and "Jumanji") and illustrator Mary Jane Begin, sat down with Delaney and his co-producer, Steven Withrow, to conduct a question-and-answer session with the packed auditorium.
One audience member asked the panelists what they believed might account for a decrease in the quality of children's books today. Van Allsburg cited the "peculiar economic model" of publishing houses as a reason. "If they would shorten up lists and accept that they could publish more (of each book) but fewer titles, that might improve quality," he said. "But this (current) situation is the reality of supply and demand."
Begin, who illustrated a 2002 edition of "The Wind in the Willows," also lamented the influence of marketing on publishers. "It happened maybe 10 years ago that they realized books could actually make a lot of money," she said. "Then marketing started determining what was on the covers of books," provoking a more aesthetic-based culture of book sales, she explained.
Babbitt told the audience she found Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" appealing as a child because "there is only one sensible character in the book" — Alice. "The adults are idiots," she said. "I liked that idea — and I grew up to find out that that's true."
Babbitt also recounted her experience with Disney during the production of the 2002 film version of "Tuck Everlasting," a process in which she was not involved. When she lamented the changes the studio had made to a creative executive at Disney, the executive told her the story had to be simplified. "Otherwise, children wouldn't understand," she recalled the executive telling her.
"It's a good thing I live on the East Coast, or I would have done something evil, " Babbitt said, smiling mischievously at the audience.
"The biggest danger we have is that we don't respect the intelligence of children," Babbitt added. "I don't know why we have all forgotten what it's like to be one."
"It was just everything I came (to RISD) for," said Sarah Lammer, a RISD sophomore majoring in printmaking, of the film and the panel. "I remember these people from reading ‘The Polar Express' and ‘Tuck Everlasting' — and they're here. It's just wonderful."
Karen Sung, a RISD sophomore majoring in illustration, said she had never thought of going into the field of children's book illustration until she saw the film. As a children's illustrator, "you are grabbing them at the very beginning stages of their lives," she said. "You become burned into their brains."
Withrow said that the film was intended for an "audience of people who have given up on children's books. They might see this as a reminder of something they've been missing for many years, or may not even be aware they're missing."