Sound Advice..and Personal Reactions

I enjoyed reading SOUND RESOURCES, Julie's last post, and the various sites that she recommended for sound theory in writing, particularly in younger children's stories. Written Sounds, Rhyme Zone and Rhyme Weaver are all fun, informative and tickle the ear.

But it was the discussion of the thesaurus that got me thinking of that great literary tool that was first published in 1852 and has been used by students and writers ever since. I love my old copy which my father used as an engineering student at MIT. This worn book with covers falling off is an old friend and as I flip through it  I remember my Dad's stories of using at MIT in the prewar years.

My Dad loved reading, especially poetry, but also was deep into the sciences. Many of his fellow students did not have the same literary appreciation. It just wasn't in their DNA. Each year the engineering students were required to take a humanities class. When the professor would give an assignment that called for a review of a book or poem he would say, "Do a personal review. Give me your personal reaction." The classmates would come to my Dad and say, "Pete, what does he mean? Personal reaction?" They had different talents and their heads and ideas dwelled in abstract thought, scientific equations and structural components, not personal reactions. Dad would give them his best personal advice, using various tools, including the thesaurus.  

Most of us children's authors can't build bridges, satellites, or computers, but we can use the building blocks of our craft to make good literature for children with intriguing sounds and fun rhymes by using sound effectively and using these inventive websites for sound ideas as well as our thesaurus.