Continuing my post of February 12th - in that same 1969 interview, E.B. White also said this about writing for children:
"Some writers for children deliberately avoid using words they think a child doesn't know. This emasculates the prose and, I suspect, bores the reader. Children are game for anything. I throw them hard words, and they backhand them over the net. They love words that give them a hard time, provided they are in a context that absorbs their attention. I'm lucky again - my own vocabulary is small compared to most writers, and I tend to use short words. So it's no problem to write for children. We have a lot in common." p. 147.
Hm-m, do you think today's MG readers are as open to "hard words" as readers of the past? I suspect the answer might lie in whether they are reading something that "absorbs their attention." Do you agree?
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Don't Write Down, Write Up, Part II
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I completely agree! My son called my daughter a "miscreant" when he was only three! "Where did he hear that from?" I asked in shock. "Ice Age 2," came the reply!
ReplyDeleteNot only does it emasculate the prose, it patronizes the reader. What was Madeline L'Engle's quote? If it's too difficult for adults, write it for kids... Granted, that wasn't about vocabulary, but the premise of kids being able to handle more than we think, is the same.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about today's readers versus readers from the fifties/sixties--readers that weren't shaped by technology and instant everything including attention spans. Yet the flip side is Corey's comment about her daughter picking up language from Ice Age 2...
This is a good post that opens up an interesting discourse.
Yes, I have evidence right at home that today's MG readers are open to hard words! My 7- and 10-year-olds loving using--and misusing--new words that they either read or heard on TV or in adult conversation. It amazes me how easily they can figure out the meaning of the words from the context of what they're reading or hearing. Let 'em rip!
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo a MG novel, and she used words like equivocating. I say use the word you want/need to use. D**n the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! Studies have shown that the more words kids hear in their preschool years, the better their vocabularies and language skills. It works the same way with reading vocabulary... kids have to be exposed to great words to make them part of their repertoire.
ReplyDeleteI don't even think about "vocabulary" when I write. What is important to me is if the words written are true to the character. I think it's important to give our readers credit -- no matter their age.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with JA (and EB White) I don't think about vocabulary while writing. I think about finding the right word. If the right word is a "difficult" one, then so be it. Kids will either figure it out, look it up, or skip over it. At some point they'll run across the word again and remember.
ReplyDeleteLooks as though there's a consensus growing here . . . use the word that's best for the situation and the character, even though it may be a "hard" one.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Gale! (part one and two) I think kids are game for anything - how else do you learn vocabulary? I know I felt that way as a child reader and now as a writer. When the right word comes along - you go with it.
ReplyDeleteReading vocabulary is usually ahead of spoken vocabulary, so if we're writing the right word and it happens to be a "hard" word, we're not only helping a child raise her reading vocab but also her speaking vocab, even if she doesn't speak that word.
ReplyDeleteGale,
ReplyDeleteReally liked your presentation of E. B. White's interview and his advise to "write up, not down."
Children love language and a discussion like this reminds me of the famous quotation,
"The limits of my language are the limits of my world."
Eileen