by Gail Carson Levine

Heroines Overcome their Demons

I’m usually a happy-ending writer, and I’ll probably go on being one. My worlds have troubles and villains, but I control the balance, so that my heroine stands a chance of overcoming her demons. However, the danger for me is that as our real world becomes more grim, my imagined worlds and my happy endings may no longer feel honest.

Since the terrorist attacks, I find myself thinking about things I’d like to put into a story, such as the terrible effects of religion and nationalism on human history. I’m hoping to take them on, delicately avoiding didacticism.

Gail Carson Levine lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and is the author of Ella Enchanted, Dave at Night and many other books.

 

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How Books Tell the World’s Bad News to Children

The articles in this special section:

Beware Sentimental Tripe

by Jane Yolen

Truth Soothes

by Susan Rich

Heroines Overcome their Demons

by Gail Carson Levine

Children: Stronger Than We Think

by Shira Geffen

Bad News from the Start

by Ellen Handler Spitz

Every Child Imagines Orphanhood

by Gail Hareven

Kaddish as Magical Incantation

by Susie Morgenstern

Cry for Someone Else

by Esther Rudomin Hautzig

History Helps

by Karen B.Winnick

Struggles of Underdogs

by Sonya Sones

Transmitting Determination

by Dorit Orgad

No Brainwashing

by Yehudit Kafri

Hope After the Holocaust

by Ruth Minsky Sender

Pain Is a Teacher

by Julius Lester

Forget Bibliotherapy

by Johanna Hurwitz

War in a Picture Book?

by Fran Manushkin

Discovering Hatred

by Leslea Newman

Don’t Plant Seeds of Despair

by Sami Michael

Between Hopes and Reality

by Etgar Keret

The Power of Anger

by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso