Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Author Gary Soto: Why I've Stopped Writing Children's Literature

A beautiful and heartbreaking article featured on The Huffington Post discusses why Gary Soto has moved away from children's literature.

Some of the passages that reverberate with me the most:

"Instead, mother explains tenderly their move by saying that the family wants another kind of life for themselves, a yard for instance. Migration makes sense for them, just as migration from Mexico to Chicago, Houston, New York City and my hometown of Fresno also makes sense for others. Life is not stagnant."

"Marisol returns to my book "A Simple Plan." She opens it again, reads another poem, and sees enough there to take it to the front counter. The young woman takes my book home, me the lost father who brought her to life.
I have stopped writing children's literature. At my age, the genre is too dangerous."

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