Creating Books – starting
with the paper
“Bag
Babies and the Secret of Civilization”
by Elizabeth Whitehouse
Listen to the program
now
in RealAudio© format
(requires free RealAudio© player)
originally
broadcast on WSKG Radio’s
OFF THE PAGE
Tues.,
March 22 at 1 & 7 pm
Because
it’s the first thing we encounter in our
meeting with books, the world of children’s
literature can have a special hold on us for all our
days. We may even interpret and express our grown-up experience
in terms of the wonders and wishes of childhood. Some of
the adventures of Elizabeth
Whitehouse and her real-life family have turned up
in the action of children’s books. “Ogham in
Orkney” is about a trip by the adventurous Jensen
Family to Westray in the
Orkneys, harshly beautiful and sparsely-populated islands
in the north of Scotland.
Ms. Whitehouse’s newest
book is “Bag
Babies and the Secret of Civilization”. It
is a Jensen Family adventure that begins in their hometown
of Corning, NY (the
setting and detail is real – all the way to the
call-letters of the local public radio station). One
of the children – with help from the family dog – has
discovered an odd creature that seems to have fallen
out of the sky.
I ran into the house yelling, “Dad, Dad, I found
a fairy, or maybe an elf, or maybe a pixie, I don’t
know, but it’s tiny and it lives in bag. Dad!”
The grownups, of course,
are initially skeptical, but inside the bag is a little
guy who, we soon learn, is one
of many Bag Babies that have been separated and scattered
around the world by the wicked witch Wilhelmina. If the
Bag Babies can be reunited they will reveal “the
Secret of Civilization”. It takes a big effort, but
the Bag Babies are all brought to Corning, and the book
does reveal the secret. As Elizabeth Whitehouse tells their
story, and with Theo Aldridge’s illustrations, Bag
Babies are both cute and profound.
And tiny. Elizabeth likes
to work in miniature. She produces gift books of personal
messages as small as one inch by
one inch, some of them printed on paper she made herself
(she’s author of three books on how to make paper).
From 1993 to 1996 she managed “miniscula” on
Market Street in Corning, believed to be the world’s
smallest bookstore (6’ x 10’ exterior).
She is also a publisher. Whitehouse Books deals in technical
topics, especially related to glass, while Perpetua publishes
books for young people.
Elizabeth’s forthcoming books include “Sushi
for Lunch”, about bullying and the appreciation of
diversity, and “The Black Boys”, which is set
in western Australia..
To
join with Bill
Jaker in the discussion of children’s literature
and the book business from wet wood pulp to appearance
on bookstore shelves, call during the live 1:00 PM broadcast
to 1-888/359-9754 or post a comment here or
e-mail directly to WSKG.Radio@gmail.com.
On
April 5, Bill Jaker’s guest on OFF
THE PAGE will be Cornell University emeritus professor
of literature James McConkey, whose newest book of essays
is “The Telescope in the Parlor”.
Listen to the program
now
in RealAudio© format
(requires free RealAudio© player)
