Today was another day on my course looking at children’s literature. I love the course and the writing we’re being shown.
This morning we were looking at the techniques writers use to reveal their characters. One example, aimed at 9 -12 year-olds, was the opening section from Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick. In a few short pages she describes the gang at the core of the book, introducing them to us through the main character by showing us what he thinks of them. Then she uses the gang’s words and behaviour to tell us more about the main character himself. The descriptions are so skilful and quick that they caught my attention with only a few lines.
After looking at Dread Wood and other examples, we were asked to think about books we’d read ourselves. How did they introduce us to their protagonists?
My book, my only recent read, was Demon Copperhead by Barabara Kingsolver. Not a children’s book, but with a growing child at its core. I opened the book up again and started to look. The voice came at me loud and original – self-deprecating, real, urgent. It’s the voice of the ‘I’ of the story, Demon Copperhead. He’s the “little blue prizefighter” who took me from the minutes before his first breath, right to the end of the book. Branded by his birth as the “Eagle Scout of trailer trash”, and orphaned not many years later, life in his struggling community was never going to be easy. Could have all been miserable, made me walk away, but there was that voice that carried me towards the risk, the race over potholes to the end.
How did Barbara Kingsolver do it? I’m not sure exactly, but she made it look easy. All I have discovered is that it’s not.
Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023
The Phraser 