This text provides a literary and/or cultural context for each of Wolff's novels for young people, discusses the characters in terms of the plot and style, analyzes particularly literary elements as appropriate, and summarizes critical response.
Virginia Euwer Wolff 's profoundly moving young adult literature includes the explorations of mental slowness in Probably Nick Swansen, musical giftedness in The Mozart Season, racial prejudice against the Japanese in Bat 6, and culminating in her Make Lemonade Trilogy Make Lemonade, True Believer, and a work yet in progress, about the compassionate persistence of a young teen struggling to escape inner city poverty. The first chapter introduces author Virginia Euwer Wolff, an Oregonian by birth, and, after several years on the East Coast to attend Smith College, then following her husband's theatrical career, by choice. Her knowledge of and interest in both music and theater are evident in her writing, as she explores various aspects of language to catch the rhythms and tones of her characters and to present their stories with the immediacy of dramatic performances. Her writing also reflects her literary expertise, honed by years of teaching and critical reading. The five following chapters each provides a literary and/or cultural context for each of Wolff's novels for young people, discusses the characters in terms of the plot and style, analyzes particularly literary elements as appropriate, and summarizes critical response. The point of each chapter is to attract readers and enrich their experience of each work. Reid has not only analyzed each novel and researched salient aspects independently, but also submitted a draft to the critical response of Virginia Euwer Wolff, which results in a more accurate book than many similar critiques. Young readers, teachers, and professionals in the field of young adult literature should find this survey and analysis of Wolff's books useful in their work and valuable as an aid to thoughtful reading. Readers of ALL ages will enjoy Wolff's work and benefit from this literary analysis.
“This title is not only a useful tool for educators but also an outstanding example for students of how a writer such as Reid can examine and tie together the multitude of threads that are woven throughout a single author's entire body of work.”
Although two critical studies of two different authors may be regarded, at first sight, as unlikely bedfellows to reside within one book review, Lois Stover's Jacqueline Woodson and Suzanne Reid's Virginia Euwer Wolff do fit together...each offers a sound biographical-critical author study characteristic of the Scarecrow Studies. Each draws reasonable conclusions about the relationship between writers' lives and the texts they write and each is passionate about her subject, a woman author who is highly regarded as a 'writer to read' in young adult literature....In each of these Scarecrow Studies in Young Literature, the authors meet the series expectations of demonstrating how a writer's life and attitudes influence the writer's craft and how the craft has evolved in each successive novel. Jacqueline Woodson and Virginia Euwer Wolff have each produced a body of work that is distinctive in its contribution to literature written for young adults. Children's Literature Association Quarterly
VOYA
Suzanne Elizabeth Reid is an assistant professor at Emory & Henry College in southwestern Virginia where she teaches courses in literature for children and young adults, Great Books, and teacher preparation. She is the author ofPresenting Cynthia Voigt andBook Bridges: Strategies for Teaching ESL with Children's and Young Adult Literature.
Virginia Euwer Wolff 's profoundly moving young adult literature includes the explorations of mental slowness in Probably Nick Swansen, musical giftedness in The Mozart Season, racial prejudice against the Japanese in Bat 6, and culminating in her Make Lemonade Trilogy Make Lemonade, True Believer, and a work yet in progress, about the compassionate persistence of a young teen struggling to escape inner city poverty. The first chapter introduces author Virginia Euwer Wolff, an Oregonian by birth, and, after several years on the East Coast to attend Smith College, then following her husband's theatrical career, by choice. Her knowledge of and interest in both music and theater are evident in her writing, as she explores various aspects of language to catch the rhythms and tones of her characters and to present their stories with the immediacy of dramatic performances. Her writing also reflects her literary expertise, honed by years of teaching and critical reading. The five following chapters each provides a literary and/or cultural context for each of Wolff's novels for young people, discusses the characters in terms of the plot and style, analyzes particularly literary elements as appropriate, and summarizes critical response. The point of each chapter is to attract readers and enrich their experience of each work. Reid has not only analyzed each novel and researched salient aspects independently, but also submitted a draft to the critical response of Virginia Euwer Wolff, which results in a more accurate book than many similar critiques. Young readers, teachers, and professionals in the field of young adult literature should find this survey and analysis of Wolff's books useful in their work and valuable as an aid to thoughtful reading. Readers of ALL ages will enjoy Wolff's work and benefit from this literary analysis.
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