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when I was 9 I wrote jean little a fan letter. not only did she write me back two full pages in size 12 font single spaced, she called my house to talk to me https://twitter.com/GuelphToday/status/1247282071082373120">https://twitter.com/GuelphTod...
things I love about her work
- young, disabled protagonists
- gay girl undercurrents (I don& #39;t know if she was gay or not, but)
- & #39;lonely loser kid finally finds friendship& #39; plots
- loving wholesome vibes
- had her characters plug other authors (katherine paterson, dickinson etc)
- young, disabled protagonists
- gay girl undercurrents (I don& #39;t know if she was gay or not, but)
- & #39;lonely loser kid finally finds friendship& #39; plots
- loving wholesome vibes
- had her characters plug other authors (katherine paterson, dickinson etc)
if you haven& #39;t read jean little& #39;s work and feel like curling up with a children& #39;s novel that whooshes by and makes you cry (in a warm wet way), here& #39;s my short list
from anna: her most beloved book. a shy, prickly, lonely, bullied, visually impaired 9yo girl (inspired by jean little& #39;s own childhood) immigrates with her family from germany to canada in the 1930s and, thanks to a caring teacher, slowly starts to unfold https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780064400442">https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780...
& #39;from anna& #39; touches on real disability history — like & #39;sight saving classes& #39; (circa 1920s) intended to make education accessible to visually impaired children and prevent eye deterioration. here& #39;s a 1923 photo of students in a toronto class, weaving baskets like anna did!
another photo of a sight saving class in toronto& #39;s orde street school — check out how big and legible that chalk writing is
honestly one of my favorite parts of & #39;from anna& #39; is how it describes her sisters having thick, beautiful braids — but anna& #39;s hair is thin and wispy and the bows just fall off. fucking real
there& #39;s also a lot of wonderment towards objects and materials in the book. like I always loved this excerpt: & #39;the crayons were big and bright. they looked inviting. the teacher put paper on the desk, rough, cream-colored paper. lovely paper for drawing. six pieces, at least!& #39;
but the thing I love most about & #39;from anna& #39; is how she slowly overcomes the shame she feels toward her own body — her sense of being awkward and ugly and incapable
next up: mama& #39;s going to buy you a mockingbird. a 1980s story of a boy losing his father to cancer, but finding his way through thanks to a blossoming friendship with tess, the school outcast — a tall girl in ill-fitting clothes who shares his love of cats #algoliaQueryId=dbdd3885b87ed052fa8bca375776dd05">https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/mamas-going-to-buy-you/9780143187875-item.html?ikwid=mamas+going+to+buy+you+a+mockingbird+by+jean+little&ikwsec=Books&ikwidx=0 #algoliaQueryId=dbdd3885b87ed052fa8bca375776dd05">https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/boo...
& #39;mama& #39;s going to buy you a mockingbird& #39; was jean little& #39;s struggle book — she wrote it while losing the last of her vision. she couldn& #39;t see her typewriter so she rigged up a system with dictaphones and jacks and patch cords and tapes
after & #39;mama& #39;s going to buy you a mockingbird& #39; came out jean little spent six months saving & fundraising to buy SAM, an early 1980s voice-to-text DOS hardware add-on she read about in the toronto star. it was invented by david kostyshyn, a blind developer from hamilton (pictured)
