“You
become a reader by reading the literature, not by reading the handbooks about
it.” – Aidan Chambers
Born on this date in 1930, Chambers
is a British author of children's and young-adult novels. He won both the
British Carnegie Medal and the American Printz Award for his wonderful Postcards
from No Man's Land (1999). And for
his "lasting contribution to children's literature" he won the
biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002.
First a teacher and
an Anglican Priest, Chambers started putting
down his stories – and several plays – to share with his students. In 1967, he left both teaching and the priesthood to concentrate on writing, lecturing, and editing.
Chambers gained a reputation for
straightforward writing that treats his young readers with both respect and the
understanding that they can comprehend the same difficult world and ideas that
adults deal with. He has written several books for teachers and librarians on
the topic, including The Reading
Environment and Tell Me: Children,
Reading and Talk. He also has been
encouraging for young readers to become young writers and to treat their ideas as
great starting points for sharing their thoughts and experiences.
“When you are in your teenage years
you are consciously experiencing everything for the first time," he said. "So adolescent
stories are all beginnings. There are never any endings.”
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