Once Upon a Time : My Life With Children's Books

Sheila Egoff

Description

In Once Upon a Time: My Life with Children's Books Sheila Egoff tells the story of her working life, from her early voracious reading, through all her significant contributions to libraries in Canada and to our national understanding of our own literature for children. She brings both a critical eye and a personal touch to this book, which reads as a memoir and as an account of important developments in Canadian writing and librarianship. In this time of cuts to budgets for books and for librarians, there is much here to reflect upon.

Sujets

• Disciplines
• Language Arts
• Teaching
• Lettres et linguistique
• Study

Informations

• Publié par: Orca Book Publishers
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781551437934
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Once Upon a Time My Life with Children’s Books

Sheila Egoff with Wendy K. Sutton

Once Upon a Time

My Life with Children’s Books

Sheila Egoff with ฀Wendy K. Sutton

Orca฀Book฀Publishers

Text copyright © 00 Sheila Egoff and Wendy K. Sutton

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Egoff, Sheila Once upon a time: my life with children’s books / Sheila Egoff with Wendy K. Sutton. Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-55143-335-4

1. Egoff, Sheila. 2. Children’s librarians--Canada--Biography.

I. Sutton, Wendy K II. Title.

Z720.E47A3 2005 020’.92 C2005-905802-1

First Published in the United States: 00 Library of Congress Control Number: 0030 Summary: Published posthumously,Once Upon a Time’s own storyis Sheila Egoff of her life as one of the world’s great experts on Canadian children’s literature.

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP), the Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council.

Cover design and typesetting: Lynn O’Rourke Cover Image: Getty Images Orca Book Publishers Orca Book Publishers P O Box 66 Station B PO Box 68 Victoria, BC Canada Custer, WA USA 8 6Ś 80-068 www.orcabook.com Printed and bound in Canada 08 0 06 0 •  3  

Acknowledgments

Here I would like to acknowledge assistance with this project from friends and colleagues: Kit Pearson, Kathryn Shoemaker, Wendy Sutton, Maggie de Vries, Judith Saltman and Tracey Wowk.

The Works of Sheila Egoff

e Republic of Childhood: A Critical Guide to Canadian Children’s Literature in English

Only Connect: Readings on Children’s Literature

Notable Canadian Children’s Books

e Republic of Childhood (second edition)

One Ocean Touching: Papers from the first Pacific Rim Conference on Children’s Literature (editor)

ursday’s Child: Trends and Patterns in Contemporary Children’s Literature

Worlds Within: Children’s Fantasy from the Middle Ages to Today

e New Republic of Childhood

Canadian Children’s Books: 799-939

Only Connect: Readings on Children’s Literature (second edition)

Some Paradoxes to Ponder

Children’s Literature

Books at Shaped Our Minds

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Contents

Wendy K. Sutton

That Enchanted Ground

Where Shall We Adventure?

Cha pter ThreeOnward into Fairy Land

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

By the Side of the Sea

As Happy as Kings

1

5

22

36

3

72

Up the Mountain-Sides of Dreams 88

Chapter Seven Till I Can See So Wide

After Words Other Little Children Shall Bring My Boats Ashore Books Mentioned

Note: All chapter titles forOnce Upon a Time are drawn from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child ’s Garden of Verses, a favourite of Sheila.

112

127 157

e quotations that appear at the top of pages throughout the book are drawn from Sheila’s writing.

Introduction

T hose of you who knew Sheila Egoff will understand how saddened I am to be writing this intro- duction without her collaboration, as this is her story. I will always remember our years of friendship with great affection and gratitude. Sheila was unique in that her life, from the age of eight on, was devoted to and involved with Canadian books and librarianship. Her death on May 22, 2005, created a large vacuum in the world of children’s literature and in the lives of the countless people who were influenced by her and came to share her passion for promoting quality in books for young people. Initially she was insistent that this book not be an autobiography, but little by little she conceded that the subtitle,My Life with Children’s Books,did promise the inclusion of more personal experiences and information than she had initially intended. Slowly at first and then with increasing enthusiasm and comfort, Sheila shared memories of her childhood in Galt, Ontario, her mother and brother, her school days, her varied library duties and experiences, alongside her discussion of the many books that she recalled with pleasure and admiration.