From: canele' <[email protected]>
To: [email protected] Date: Friday, April 23, 2010 Am6:18
Subject: to remove doubts “The Wednesday Wars＂Dear Mr. Schmidt,
How are you? You will be surprised to receive a letter from a perfect stranger, I’m a student of the Graduate Institute of Children Literature in National Taitung University, Taiwan. The study of my essay is your works “The Wednesday Wars” which winning the Newbery Medal. And the topic of my essay is “Youth, conflict, and the strength of reading.”
So hereby I make bold to ask three questions about “The Wednesday Wars”which are discussed in my essay.
1. What’s the reason “The Wednesday Wars” uses Shakespeare’s plays as biblotherapy?
Besides Shakespeare’s play is a required subject and your personal likes to the Rhetoric of Shakespeare, what’s the most important reason? And is there any special meaning for it?
2.There are five books which are“Treasure Island＂、“Kidnapped＂、“The Black Arrow＂、“Ivanhoe＂、“The Call of the Wild＂are in Holling extensive reading, I am curious about your first thought in choosing these books, May I ask why?
3.Although only two of your many works which are “Lizzie Bright and the
Buckminster Boy ” and “ The Wednesday Wars” are published in Chinese edition here in Taiwan, we know the materials in your works are bountiful and various. How do you have such constant imagination? Any suggestions to a new writer into the field of children literature?
I’m sure I’ll learn a lot from the letter I’m expecting from you, that would be my pleasure to get your response.
With kindest wishes, Yours truly, Veronica Wang
From: Gary Schmidt <[email protected]>
To: canele' [email protected] Date: Saturday, April 24, 2010 Am7:18
Subject: Re: to remove doubts “The Wednesday Wars＂
Dear Veronica,
Thank you for your note. And thank you for reading the book, and writing on it.
Shakespeare is in the book because I wanted to place the narrative in a time of war (here, the Vietnam War), and to have a middle grade kid reading Shakespeare and
applying the meaning of his plays--sometimes unusual meanings--to the life he is living.
I suppose this is most obvious in the February chapter, when _Romeo and Juliet_ is the play, and he is having trouble in his relationship with Meryl Lee. So, the plays are meant to act as foils for the action that Holling is living, and to give him insights into that action.
The books you mention--aside from being books that I read at that age and
time--suggest something about how Holling wants to see himself--as something of an adventurer, bold, and strong, and setting out for a journey into the unknown. Of course, at first he doesn't seem to be doing this; he's a kid who lives in a suburb. But in the last chapter, I hope, he sees that he is indeed heading out into a larger adventure.
On the imagination, the writer needs to always be on the look out for stories that surprise him or her, and which he or she wants to know more about. We write about what we want to know--and that can lead us into some surprising places.
Hope that helps!
Yours, Gary Schmidt
From: canele' <[email protected]>
To: Gary Schmidt [email protected] Date: Friday, April 30, 2010 Am10:25 Subject : A letter of appreciation
Dear Mr. Schmidt,
I was happy to get your e-mail date April 24. Thanks for your kind reply.
Being a reader, I am most grateful to you, especially when I received your prompt letter which answered the questions about my essay.
I would like to show my gratitude when you spare your precious time to instruct what I asked in the previous letter; in the meantime, I feel warm encouragement between lines of your letter. Such kind and generous manners are so much alike as my instructing professor Duh Ming-Cherng, who is the vice professor of National Tai - Dong
University. Both of you are so brilliant scholars and full of talent, and even of the similar age. You are the model I expect to reach for.
As your friend, Susan Felch, says “I think that his writing is also generous＂, I couldn’t agree more to it. Your works make readers feel the glory of humanity, sorrowful
sentiment in turbulent times, the juvenile enlightenment and growth, and also let us learn from the past.
It’s consistent with “The iceberg theory” of Ernest Hemingway. The seven-eighths of the iceberg down below makes not only Holling, but also me get much benefit . Such humanities concern is deeply felt.
Roland Barthes considers that “The death of the author” from your letter, I feel the author is not dead, but magically transformed into the words, and the words are spoken out from the characters.
The character, Holling, of The Wednesday Wars not only gains the strength of enlightenment from Shakespeare, but also turns it into wisdom.
I really appreciate your generous mind that you would instruct a student like me who you had never met, and hereby I am looking forward to your upcoming works which would no doubt catch the public’s eye.
With kindest wishes,
Yours truly, Veronica Wang