tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post5885199520534716549..comments2024-03-17T16:24:40.322-05:00Comments on American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL): Laura Ingalls Wilder: "All I have told is true..."Debbie Reesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14972409006633565859noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-39206379135730461152008-07-15T12:11:00.000-05:002008-07-15T12:11:00.000-05:00Children do take what happens in books literally. ...Children do take what happens in books literally. Last year I was on a short visit to Switzerland to go to Heidi country with a little girl who believed every word of the story, no matter how often we reminded her-- to protect her from disappointment-- that it was a story, not a true book. When we walked up the path to the fake village of Dorfli, she wanted to know with every step whether Heidi might have stepped on the same footprint of grass.<BR/><BR/>I'm a full-immersion reader, myself. I still take everything I read literally, even as I know with my adult mind to measure it against various standards of reality.<BR/><BR/>What writers do is shape the books they write, even when it's nonfiction. I have a friend who wrote a memoir of her husband's death and her early widowhood. I wasn't in the final draft. "How could I not be in the book, I was THERE!!!!" I practically shouted. So she wrote me in-- presumably without changing the shape of what she wanted to tell. She has many many friends (and siblings, and relatives various). Not everyone and not every event was in the book, they couldn't be. I have been thinking ever since about the selected nature of nonfiction, and memoir; and fiction; and memory, and reality. Books are made artifacts.<BR/><BR/>Sorry for the long post, especially as I'm not ready to draw conclusions.<BR/><BR/>Miriam B.<BR/>Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal LibraryLower Elwha Klallam Tribal Libraryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14560230947188469053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-27272427772772507822008-07-08T05:00:00.000-05:002008-07-08T05:00:00.000-05:00I think one of the key points in what Debbie & oth...I think one of the key points in what Debbie & others are saying is that LIW seems to remember things differently at different times, and reports things differently in her books than in other venues. Besides, LIW has acknowledged that she fictionalized.<BR/><BR/>I recall that as a child I took the descriptions of life she depicted in the Little House books literally, believing they were essentially autobiography. It was only as an adult that I became aware that these were works of fiction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-22492619129380694472008-07-06T18:42:00.000-05:002008-07-06T18:42:00.000-05:00Is it misrepresentation if that's how she remember...Is it misrepresentation if that's how she remembered things?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com