I am all excited to be headed up to Minneapolis to talk about wonder with education students, teachers, friends, lovers of children’s books–The Chase Lecture, Tuesday, April 16 at 5:00 p.m. at the Elmer L. Anderson Library (also known as the Kerlan). If you are in the area I would love to see you.
Wonder is so much more than “I wonder where I left my car keys.” It is awe, mystery, a spur to curiosity. We will consider all that, and more.
Here’s what Rachel Carson wrote about wonder in a book published posthumously:
If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from our sources of strengths. (The Sense of Wonder, 1998).
I’m looking forward to spending time with others who care about children’s literature, thinking about how we can best share with kids the beauty and mystery of the natural world.
For those who want to know who is mentioned in the talk, here is a list:
Carson, Rachel. The Sense of Wonder.Text copyright 1956. Photographs byNick Kelsh copyright, 1998. HarperCollins 1998.
Root, Phyllis, Liza Ketchum & Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Begin with a Bee. Illustrated by Claudia McGehee. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2021.
Martin, Jacqueline Briggs. Creekfinding. Illustrated by Claudia McGehee. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
_________________________. Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table. Illustrated by Eric Shabazz Larkin. Bellevue: Readers to Eaters, 2013.
_________________________. Farmer Eva’s Green Garden Life. Illustrated by Christy Hale. SanFrancisco: Readers to Eaters, 2024.
_________________________. Snowflake Bentley. Illustrated by Mary Azarian. Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Company, 1998.
Martin, Jacqueline Briggs & June Jo Lee. Chef Roy Choi and the Streetfood Remix. Illustrated by Man One. Bellevue: Readers to Eaters. 2017.
Sayre, April Pulley. Vulture View. Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. New York: Henry Holt, 2007.
Desmond, Jenni. The Blue Whale. Brooklyn: Enchanted Lion, 2015.
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass. Minneapolis: Milkweed, 2015.
George, Kristin O’Connell. Old Elm Speaks. Illustrated by Kate Kiesler. New York: Clarion Books, 1998.
Coy, John. My Mighty Journey. Illustrated by Gaylord Schanilec. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2019.
Ray, Janisse. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. Minneapolis: Milkweed, 2015.
Rush, Elizabeth. Rising Dispatches from the New American Shore. Minneapolis: Milkweed, 2019.
From WHEN DEATH COMES
. . .
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
. . . —Mary Oliver
And just for a treat, here is Claudia McGehee’s wonderful Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee Queen
