I am having a wonderful time re-living my time in Tibet, but that is only part of my days these days.
2012 has its own rhythms, joys and sorrows. And one huge sorrow came yesterday with the passing of Ellen Levine. Ellen was a good friend, a wonderful writer, passionate for justice for the powerless, the least, the lost. She was thoroughly engaged with life and full of joy. (I will never forget her delight in her snow pants the winter she came to Hamline). The world is a lesser place without her.
We can keep some of Ellen’s voice with us by keeping her books alive. Here’s a list from her website:
Picture Books
Henry’s Freedom Box
(which won a Caldecott Honor Award, announced during our Hamline winter residency, 2008. We were all much excited).
I Hate English!
Seababy: A Little Otter Returns Home (March 2012 !!)
Nonfiction
UPClose: Rachel Carson
Darkness Over Denmark: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews
Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories
A Fence Away From Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II
If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad
Novels
Catch a Tiger by the Toe
The Journal of Jedediah Barstow
In Trouble
Last fall, while battling lung cancer, Ellen talked about writing a controversial book like In Trouble at the Boston Book Festival.
Nothing erases loss. It’s a fact. Like a rock. But there are memories to throw up against it–of a life lived with courage, laughter, passion, and honesty. Thank you, Ellen, for all you gave us, all you taught us.
