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A review by just_fighting_censorship
Boys and Girls Forever: Children's Classics from Cinderella to Harry Potter by Alison Lurie
2.0
1 1/2 Stars
Overall, this was a disappointment. These have to be the least scholarly literary essays that I've ever read (also the least interesting). These felt like research papers written by a high school freshman.
For the most part they were pretty direction-less providing surface level biographies of authors and a brief summary of their notable works. The literary criticisms were an inconsistent mix of shallow interpretations and opinions passed on as facts.
There really isn't anything in this book that you can't find on Wikipedia and the writing style is about the same.
There was a tie for most horrendous between Lurie's essay on Dr. Seuss and JK Rowling. I can excuse some of the faults within the Rowling/Harry Potter essay because this was written in 2003, a time when Harry Potter was a bit more "scandalous" and most of the articles written about it mentioned fundamentalist Christians. However, I was expecting literary criticism, not a fluff article for Time Magazine.
Her article on Dr. Seuss is a sad representation of the author. Her observations often state the obvious except for when she is shamefully reaching. The elephants in "Oh the Places you Will Go" represent Republicans because they are elephants.... Really? Internet Creepypastas have more supporting evidence!
Overall, I just found these essays to be of the basest quality. They weren't interesting or well crafted. To make matters worse I didn't feel that the author cared. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of passion for the subject matter. Often I finished an essay and thought, what's your point?! Apparently each essay was meant to illustrate that children's authors "prefer the world of young people to the world of adults". First off, no. You did not properly illustrate this 'theory'. Second, does this even qualify as a theory? I'm going to write a book about how chefs love cooking and painters love art.
My suggestion is that you skip this one.
Overall, this was a disappointment. These have to be the least scholarly literary essays that I've ever read (also the least interesting). These felt like research papers written by a high school freshman.
For the most part they were pretty direction-less providing surface level biographies of authors and a brief summary of their notable works. The literary criticisms were an inconsistent mix of shallow interpretations and opinions passed on as facts.
There really isn't anything in this book that you can't find on Wikipedia and the writing style is about the same.
There was a tie for most horrendous between Lurie's essay on Dr. Seuss and JK Rowling. I can excuse some of the faults within the Rowling/Harry Potter essay because this was written in 2003, a time when Harry Potter was a bit more "scandalous" and most of the articles written about it mentioned fundamentalist Christians. However, I was expecting literary criticism, not a fluff article for Time Magazine.
Her article on Dr. Seuss is a sad representation of the author. Her observations often state the obvious except for when she is shamefully reaching. The elephants in "Oh the Places you Will Go" represent Republicans because they are elephants.... Really? Internet Creepypastas have more supporting evidence!
Overall, I just found these essays to be of the basest quality. They weren't interesting or well crafted. To make matters worse I didn't feel that the author cared. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of passion for the subject matter. Often I finished an essay and thought, what's your point?! Apparently each essay was meant to illustrate that children's authors "prefer the world of young people to the world of adults". First off, no. You did not properly illustrate this 'theory'. Second, does this even qualify as a theory? I'm going to write a book about how chefs love cooking and painters love art.
My suggestion is that you skip this one.