Blueprints for Life

I recently learned that Dianna Wynne Jones is terminally ill. I'm sure this news is as sad for many of you as it is for me. She is one of the most cherished writers of my childhood and is largely responsible for my surviving middle school without loosing my sanity. If you want to send an email of appreciation to Dianna that her friends will read to her you can do so here.

Here's a link to an essay of hers about all the odd questions people ask her about writing children's fantasy. I've read and reread this essay many times with great enjoyment, and my favorite passage is the one where she explains that every good children's book is "a blueprint for dealing with life." I'd go further and say that every good novel is a blueprint for dealing with life. If it isn't that's only because grownup readers have gotten too ossified to learn from novels -- or because grownup writers have gotten too wrapped up in their own cleverness to remember why they started writing in the first place.

Thank you, Dianna, for some of the best Blueprints for Life I've ever read. I am so grateful that I got to read your books. And I so look forward to sharing them with my children and my grandchildren.