Reality vs fantasy in children’s fiction
The Dorothy Neal White Collection is a research collection of children’s books that were enjoyed by young New Zealanders before 1940. The Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection support the work of this and other children’s literature collections held in the National Library of New Zealand.
Date: Tuesday, 22 October, 2019
Time: 5:30pm for drinks and nibbles, 6:00pm talk
Cost: A gold coin donation from non-members is appreciated.
Location: Te Ahumairangi (ground floor), National Library, corner Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Thorndon
Contact Details: friendsdnw@gmail.com
‘Children don’t want fantasy, there’s no demand for it.’
When Eirlys Hunter finished her first Junior fiction manuscript in 1997, a publisher rejected it on the grounds that ‘children don’t want fantasy, there’s no demand for it.’ JK Rowling soon proved that publisher wrong, and since then there’s been an explosion in fiction for children that is set in worlds that diverge from the reality of their lived experience. Why is this?
In this informal talk Eirlys Hunter will discuss what fantasy is, and speculate on what fantasy can offer readers (and writers) that realism cannot.
The Dorothy Neal White Collection
The Dorothy Neal White Collection is a research collection of children’s books that were enjoyed by young New Zealanders before 1940. The Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection support the work of this and other children’s literature collections held in the National Library of New Zealand.
About the speaker
Eirlys Hunter has published seven books for children, and her most recent book ‘The Mapmaker’s Race was a finalist in the 2019 NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults. She teaches Writing for Children at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
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We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
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