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For Children You Must Do It Better

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For Children You Must do it Better by Elsie Locke The text of the lecture delivered by Elsie Locke on being presented with The Margaret Mahy Award 1995 by the New Zealand Children's Book Foundation. I am very happy to have this opportunity to share with you some of my experiences and thoughts about children's literature. I am happy too that this valuable occasion has been created, in the name of our most original and outstanding author, Margaret Mahy. We've come a long way since I took up writing for children as a serious career. This choice of occupation didn't count for much in the public mind, and not only in New Zealand, as I found when I went to the Pacific Rim Conference on Children's Literature in Vancouver, Canada. That was nineteen years ago. We had a hilarious session when just about every author present had a funny story to tell about put-downs. Like: "Oh, so you've written a children's book? A little more practice and will you be writing one for us?" And there was a very dignified librarian from Toronto who said, "Imagine the reaction when I'm asked what is my area of professional expertise, and I reply, 'Picture books!'" Somewhere I picked up the comment of the Russian author Samuel Marshak, when asked how to go about writing a book for children he said: "You proceed just as you would for adults - only you must do it better." Elsie Locke For Children You Must Do Better 9 How true. It's a privilege and a great responsibility to write for I met and talked with Tom several times and I'm sad that he can't children. There is difference of course, in that we have the young be here with us tonight. I'm sad too about another loss that most of audience in our sights as we write. We need to see into those young you may not know about. minds - and the interesting thing is that if children enjoy our books, I returned from Vancouver fired up on three different counts. One so will the adults. was the realisation that there was very little interchange of books We often get told, even now: if you like writing for children, you among the Pacific Rim countries represented at the Conference. The can't be properly grown up yourself. That's meant as a sling-off, but I books that came our way were almost exclusively from Britain and think it's a compliment. I'm sorry for people who've entirely lost Europe, the United States and Australia. Even recent Canadian books their sense of wonder at the amazing world we find ourselves in. And were almost unknown here. for the writer - the child we know best is the child we once were, and However I failed - to arouse interest among publishers and book she links us with the children of today. distributors; business wasn't geared to making risky forays into Back to Vancouver ... Here we were, more than 600 of us, and we untried areas. And, with the speech of the writer from Peru still all thought children's books were important and I actually met echoing in my ears, I tried in vain to obtain copies of children's Americans who were professors of children's literature! We in New books from Latin America. Nobody had got round to publishing Zealand have come a long way since then: children's literature has a English translations. place in our Universities too, theses are acceptable, Secondly, I had seen in British Columbia the excellent system of writers-in-residence have been appointed in both Universities and placing fully-trained teacher-librarians into every school, their work Colleges of Education. Ah, recognition! Serious studies have gone integrated into classroom activities and backed by comprehensive alongside a lively burst of fine publications, the enlisting of many district resource centres able to supply material for special projects. I first rate artists as book illustrators, and increasing appreciation by even talked with a young woman who serviced a number of small young readers and the adults who buy the books. scattered schools in the northern territories, among the Inuit and The Children's Book Foundation has played a part in this, and I other indigenous peoples; she flew her own small aeroplane from want to pay tribute to Tom Fitzgibbon and the other enthusiasts who place to place. I wrote and spoke about this system at every got it going - many of them present here today. opportunity and discovered that there were others in New Zealand independently pursuing similar aims. It took a long time, though, before even a modest beginning was made to train and place the 10 1996 NZCBF Yearbook Elsie Locke For Children You Must Do Better 11 teacher-librarians - and then the Government chopper of the 1980s overseas and never distributed in New Zealand; and those that were descended. It didn't slice away everything - it couldn't destroy the published in New Zealand went out of print too quickly.) dedication and enthusiasm already aroused, but it certainly set back a 3) To publicise what is available. (I had found that even teachers very promising trend. buying for their school libraries didn't know where to find New Thirdly: I was convinced that we needed more realistic Zealand books, which were generally shelved by booksellers in the encouragement for producing our own children's books, in much general mass.) wider variety. I had seen prizes of five thousand dollars, no less, 4) To attend to the special needs of Maori and Polynesian children, presented by the Canada Council for the children's books of the year, whether resident in New Zealand or in the Islands. (We had to one in French, one in English. At that time, support given to recognise that these children also needed books arising from within publishers from the Literary Fund was rare and meagre, and for their own lifestyles and cultures, but their homelands were too small authors the only tangible recognition of excellence was the Esther to support a publishing industry.) Glen Award, conferring honour and glory but no useful cash. I have kept no record of any response from the Arts Council, but After much talking here and there, drawing in the ideas of other responses were positive from the New Zealand Book Council, from people, I published an article in the Listener (1.8.78) saying that we PEN and from the Literary Fund - this last telling me of the likely needed some sort of children's book foundation - yes, we did use this introduction of the Children's Publication Fund as a project for the very name. This brought a good response and I was invited into Year of the Child - 1979. And in that same special year the Choyea further discussions. A year later I wrote to the Queen Elizabeth II Bursary was established with its first award to Lynley Dodd. Indeed, Arts Council saying that I had found interest among leading everyone told me of things happening, but still there was no members of PEN, Teachers' College staffs, librarians, teachers and Foundation to provide a central focus and to fill the gaps. And writers, and setting out four objectives that could be pursued. personally I was well aware that as an independent writer I was not 1) To stimulate the writing and illustrating, and to assist the in any strategic position, and that I lived in the wrong place. publishing, of the kinds of books our children need, judged on Many people were interested, but nobody offered to take the quality and content rather than commercial viability. (picture books initiative. for young children were the most obvious lack.) But now, onto the scene came an enthusiast who was in a strategic 2) To keep in print and on sale those books of enduring worth position and who lived and worked in the Wellington area. She was which might otherwise disappear. (Some fine titles were published Phyllis McDonald, head of the School Library Service. She gathered 12 1996 NZCBF Yearbook Elsie Locke For Children You Must Do Better 13 supporters around her, and there came a special occasion in given space or time by School Publications, now re- named Learning Wellington when all kinds of book people had gathered, the perfect Media, and by the "Ears" radio programme. Some excellent books occasion for some gentle diplomacy. During the social mixing time have emerged from within those cultures to delight us all. Deals with she sighted Sir John Marshall, who after his retirement from overseas firms have enabled our publishers to issue some very fine Parliament had published the stories he'd invented for his children, picture books. And good bookshops now display the New Zealand The Adventures of Dr Duffer. "How about asking Sir John if we could books in a special section. nominate him for President?" she whispered. And she did just that, Now, to change tack: here are my criteria for a good children's and Sir John said "Yes". book. I returned to Christchurch feeling jubilant. So was it All Go from First Criterion: then on? No. There is no happy ending to this story. Very soon If it's fiction, it should tell a good story. If it's poetry, it should afterwards Phyl wrote to tell me she had been found to have terminal make the eyes shine and the ears tingle. If it's non-fiction, it should cancer.
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