The voice of Literature news and reviews of latest books

In VOX LIT August 2019 :

IN THE FREE BOOK LOVERS' MAG VOXLIT ON-LINE THIS MONTH:

***A PLETHORA OF PLEASURES FOR SUMMER***

The mid-summer issue of Voxlit offer you both serious and fun articles on a variety of topics. Emotions feature strongly, and we also look into a bit of literary history. Plus of course all our usual features.

Kyrian Lyndon takes up the banner in the fight against prejudices in her mind-provoking piece on ‘fighting hate with love’. And, continuing our exploration of emotions, we have a fascinating interview with life coach and author Michael Hsu, who introduces us to his unique understanding of emotional sensibility which underpins his new book.

We explore the history of children’s literature on this page, and in our Authors at Work section we have a light-hearted look at the activity of one contemporary prolific writer and compare his efforts to great authors from the past.

Our old friend Rob Burton treats us to the latest installment of his youthful adventures in Southern Africa and in our Excerpts and Articles page we’ve dug up an old comic short story from Voice of Literature editor James Gault.

Of interest to authors as well as readers, The Writers’ Notes section offers some interesting suggestions on how authors build their writing teams. And The Writers’ Think Tank this time looks at how different novelists approach their work.

Marie-Rose Wiseman is back again in our more serious literary criticism section. She’s looking at a book where the ending is given away at the beginning, and showing how the author contrives to keep us engrossed until the end.

Finally, we have reviews of 6 books, new and not so new, in our book review section.

We hope anyone with an interest in reading or writing will find something well worth a read.

If you do, share it with your friends. Enjoy and have a good summer.

Click for these other ARTICLES

Kyrian Lyndon on spreading the love

The Writer's Think Tank

Part Six of Rob Burton's travels in Africa

Authors at work - the prolific author of the year

Marie-Rose Wiseman on giving away the ending yet keeping up readers' interest

Interview with life coach and author Michael Hsu

Old Tom - a short story by James Gault

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JOIN US!!! We always welcome new contributors Click here to find out more

Brave Wings e-zine

Kyrian Lyndon is one of our regular contributors who also produces an online magazine about books and writing called Brave Wings. Although we share some articles with her publication, her focus is slightly different from ours. Kyrian is an engaged writer who speaks to our emotions and our sense of justice, and these values influence her work as a writer, poet and editor of her magazine. I am sure you will I am sure you will find some new and interesting pieces in Brave Wings which are well worth a read. Find it by clicking here:

Contributed by James Gault.

Book Reviews

One of our author friends has just had a terrible review of his book. The review was unjust and unfair but that is not the real problem. The reviewer throws out criticisms willy-nilly without any explanation or reference to the contents of the novel. The review is useless to potential readers, to other authors and to the author himself. And not because it was a damning review; any author who writes badly is entitled to criticism, although this wasn't the case here. The review would have been just as useless had it only said – great read, enjoyed it immensely, five stars. An information void!

In the Voice of Literature, we try our best to offer you quality reviews that will help readers to decide if a book is for them and that will offer unexpected insights into the work.

And book reviews, like books themselves, are fair game for criticism. If you don’t like any of our reviews, let us know why. We want to improve.

FREE E-BOOK

Enjoy Books Better with Voxlit is now available for download here and is completely free. It you want to improve your writing or reading experience, these pieces from previous Voxlit issues could be just what you need.

CLICK THIS PICTURE FOR THE VOXLIT BOOKSHOP LINKS TO ALL BOOKS BY OUR CONTRIBUTORS

History of the Genre
Children's Fiction

Children’s author Cressida Cowell, famous for the ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ story and many other children’s books, has been appointed the UK’s Children’s Laureate. In a recent TV interview, she described her main goal in the role as one of encouraging children to start reading for themselves. In support of this worthy ideal, we at The Voice of Literature present this quick survey of children’s book form the past until now. Perhaps parents will find something there that will take the heads of their offspring out of the mobile phone and tablet and thrust instead between the covers of the old-fashioned printed tome.

Pre-twentieth century

Early children’s books were not aimed at entertainment. They were moralistic and religious works aimed at influencing blank young minds and forming them into ideal citizens. Allegorical fairy tales by Aesop, The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson were favourites. But in the middle of the nineteenth century the emphasis turned from the didactic to the amusing, and children’s books aimed at entertaining young people started to make an appearance. It may now be that the classic children’s books I grew up reading in the 1950’s are no longer in fashion, but some of them surely must still have some appeal to the modern child. Tom Brown’s Schooldays, Alice in Wonderland, Tom Sawyer, the Water Babies, Kidnapped, Peter Pan … all hang around in my memory and their insidious influence creeps to the fore now and again. Are modern kids missing all that? Shame!

The last 100 years

All those old books mentioned above are very worthy, and fit exactly with the draughty corridors of my old nineteenth century school building and the creaking crooked figures of my not-much younger teachers trying to instil the notion of great writing into their charges. But under the bedcovers I was also reading more modern stuff. Famous Fives and Secret Sevens. Still readable today, I have seen my own granddaughter devouring End Blyton along with her cornflakes and muesli.

The greatest phenomenon ever in children’s literature was Harry Potter, which consumed children all over the world. But even before that, we began to see the sophistication of young people’s reading habits as definable genres appeared, each with their followings. Without a doubt, fantasy has become the fashionable genre of the twenty-first century with almost every young aspiring novelist dabbling in the world of the unreal. But who started it? Authors writing for young people like J R R Tolkein with The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, Phillip Pullman and CS Lewis. Detective mysteries, a follow up from Enid Blyton’s work, are represented by Anthony Horowitz and his Alex Rider series. And let’s not forget the humourists, like the much loved Roald Dahl, one of my personal favourites.

Good luck to the new Children’s Laureate in her campaign. If you want to help her out by giving some books to children you know, clicking this link will help you find some of the best.
Contributed by James Gault.

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