Real People, Victorian Children’s Periodicals

Real People (3:51) Real stories – real lives – real people. We often meet them in biographies. Perhaps we’re inspired by their examples to move through our own hard times. Individuals who are seemingly ordinary, but accomplish extraordinary things. Today, Jessica Verzello of the Worlds Awaiting team, visits with children’s book author, Jen Bryant, who often writes about such real and inspiring people – some we’ve heard about, others, not. Jen shares how she chooses the people to spotlight in her books. They often find her, she says, or she comes upon them accidentally. Bryant is an award-winning author of picture books, novels and poems for readers of all ages. Her books include The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus; A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams; The Trial (1935 Lindbergh kidnapping trial), and Georgia’s Bones (celebrating the life of artist Georgia O’Keeffe). Jen Bryant has taught writing and Children’s Literature at West Chester University and Bryn Mawr College and gives school and public lectures throughout the year. Victorian Periodicals (13:42) Up next, Rachel Wadham talks with Jamie Horrocks, BYU English Professor, an expert in Victorian literature and culture, who focuses on Victorian Children’s Periodicals. These periodicals were forerunners of today’s magazines that serialize stories in sequential editions. Jamie Horrocks researches Victorian aesthetics and the intersection of literature and art, especially in the late nineteenth century. She has published on Oscar Wilde, Vernon Lee, Virginia Woolf, and the Aesthetic Movement. Book Review (24:57) We finish up the show with a book review from Joella Peterson, Children’s Services Manager at the Provo City Library. She introduces a picture book entitled The Princess and the Warrior written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh.