“The books we enjoy as children stay with us forever -- they -- have a special impact. Paragraph after paragraph and page after page, the author must deliver his or her best work” (qtd. good reads). Albert Sidney Fleischman, an American author who did most of his writing in San Diego, was in the fifth Grade when he was influenced by magic. Even though Sid Fleischman was not able to fulfill his dream of becoming a great magician, he did create magic by making it the theme of all of his books. During his lifetime, Fleischman won numerous awards such as the Newbery Award in 1987 and the Boston Globe – Horn Book Award in 1979. Unfortunately, Albert Sidney Fleischman died on March 17th, 2010, in Santa Monica, California (Fox 1). Though Sid Fleischman was both a prosperous and an influential American author, he wrote many children’s novels and plays about magic, such as the Whipping Boy and The 13th Floor: A Ghost Story. His magic would always be with his books and would mystify the History of American Literature.
Albert Sidney Fleischman was born on March 16, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. His memoir, The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer’s Life, Fleischman was influenced by the magic he had seen and heard about when he was in the fifth grade. For Fleischman magic had been the thing that he used to deal with everyday, sometimes he preformed magic shows to children and sometimes he would write them in his novels. When he was a child his entire family moved to San Diego, and that place is where he spent most of his childhood and his writing. During World War II San Diego served as a nesting place for the U.S Navy (Fleischman Abracadabra 23). Seamen would often come to his father’s store to buy different necessities for a sailor. Neighboring his fa...
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14 March 2014
Works Cited
Fleischman, Sid. The 13th Floor: A Ghost Story. New York: Greenwillow, 1995. Print.
Fleischman, Sid. The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life. New York: Greenwillow, 1996. Print.
Fleischman, Sid. The Whipping Boy. New York: Greenwillow, 1986. Print.
Fox, Margalit. "Sid Fleischman, Children's Author, Dies at 90." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2010. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.
Mudd, Steve. "Albert Sidney Fleischman." Albert Sidney Fleischman. Children's Literature Network, Web. 29 Feb. 2014.
McLellan, Dennis. "Sid Fleischman Dies at 90; Newbery Medal-winning Children's
Writer." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
"Sid Fleischman Quotes." Goodreads. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
"Sid Fleischman." Scholastic Teachers. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
"Sid Fleischman." Sid Fleischman. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
As a child, Ray Bradbury loved to read fantasy novels. Inspired by his favorite writers, he longed to become a fantasy writer himself. Bradbury lived during the Great Depression with very little money, therefore he could not put himself through school. Instead, Bradbury went to the library every other day for ten years. During this time, he realized that he wanted to pursue his dream of becoming a writer. To get money, Bradbury started publishing his works in a newspaper. Because he wanted practice, he used several pseudonyms to make it look like he had several authors publishing their stories in his newspaper, but in fact, it was written entirely by Bradbury himself. “Bradbury uses [his] stories not only to entertain, but to cause readers to think about their own lives” (Clark, Tracy). He focused more on the message of his story than the popularity of it. “When ask...
Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron. New York: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1961. Print
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was plagued by calamity throughout his life. Although he was born into a wealthy family in Indianapolis, the Great Depression hit his father, a well-known architect, and his mother, daughter of a well-off family, hard. Vonnegut was pulled out of private school, his father lost his business and quickly spiraled into depression, and his mother became an alcoholic. These difficulties in his early life introduced Vonnegut to man’s isolation, which would later become a theme in many of his works. However, Vonnegut found his refuge from his ho...
Born in 1920, Ray Bradbury was influenced by Edgar Allen Poe during his early years, and he began writing horror stories when he was twelve. His family moved from Waukegan to Los Angeles in 1934 since his father found a job that paid enough money to support the family. He attributed to some incidents his lifelong habit of writing every day: “He began writing stories at the age of fifteen and in 1937 he joined the Los Angeles Science Fiction League. In 1938, he published his first short story, Hollerbochen's Dilemma” (Telgen 140). Later then, he wrote science fictions and that became his major writing style gradually. His works were highly recognized after his 1950 success: “When The Martian Chronicles was published in 1950, Bradbury was hailed as a sophisticated science fiction writer” (Telgen 140). His other work includes Dark Carnival, which was his first published work, included several stories. Another example work is Martian Chroniclesis, a fiction that talks about some experiences and weird thinking that immigrants bring from the Earth to the Mars. His mo...
Mark Twain once stated, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” (Brainy Quote). Despite the imaginative challenges children are faced with in reality, they are able to cope with the advantage of time and mental resilience. Stephen King in his essay, "My Creature from the Black Lagoon" from the Wake Tech English 111 Reader, compared the idea of imaginative strength in children and in that of adults to see who would better fit the horror genre audience. Stephen King recalls one particular time from his past that sends shivers down even the hardest of spines.
Zipes, Jack. Fairy tales and the art of subversion the classical genre for children and the process
Angel Flores wrote about magical realism in a way that was hard for me to understand.
Faris, Wendy B. "Scheherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 163-186.
Judy Blume is recognized as a world famous children’s book author after selling over 85 million books around the world. It could be said that, “if she writes it, they will come”, since millions of young girls and young adult women pour over her words with fervor. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a popular legend based on the town of Hamelin in Germany where a colorfully dressed man plays his pipe to lure rats, then later children, to their doom in the river. Blume has in essence captivated her audience for decades with her “pipe”, which is simple, easy to read texts covering topics for which tweens and teens have an insatiable appetite. However, instead of giving thoughtful, moral and entertaining books to impressionable minds, Judy Blume has
Faris Wendy B.. "Scheherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction" Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Wendy Faris and Zamora. Duke University Press, Durham and London,1995.163-190.
By 1930, Bukowski’s family had settled in South Central Los Angeles where his father and grandfather had previously worked and lived but by the 30’s, but Bukowski’s father was often unemployed. During Bukowski’s early childhood, he was shy and anti-social and constantly ridiculed at school for his German accent, his clothing and as a teenager for his severe case of acne; although he was praised for his art work from his teachers, he suffered a battle with dyslexia. Sadly, his home life was not well, either. In his autobiography, Ham on Rye, Bukowski brings the reader to understand that he was repeatedly abused both physically and mentally by his father, beating him for the smallest offence imaginable, while his mother stood by, watched, and agreed with his father. (Miles).
Faris, Wendy B. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2004. 24 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. 21
B.F. Skinner was born of a father who was a lawyer who worked for the local railroad and a stay at home mother in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Skinner’s parents were Presbyterians and were of the middle working class background. Skinner went to the local school in town where both of his parents attended as children themselves. Skinner read for pleasure as a student because he described his father as “a sucker for book salesman.” Many have spoken with Skinner about his childhood, which he describes as “a happy one.” Skinner labeled his upbringing and home life as “warm and stable.” During Skinner’s youth, he also showed a high interest in building things. He built wagons, model airplanes, and other makeshift items, which exemplified his mechanical intellect.
and Other Greats : Lessons from the All-star Writer's Workshop. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.
Most authors tend to write their books in an enthusiastic fashion. Daniel Handler, on the other hand, has a gloomy writing form, showing the not-so-nice things that can occur to people. For example, the three Baudelaire orphans in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Siblings who just lose their parents in a fire that engulfed their house in flames and have to deal with the nuisance known as Count Olaf, a villain after their enormous inheritance. Handler wrote the thirteen books in the series under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket.