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Children's Literature

Children's literature

Basic characteristics

There is some debate as to what constitutes children's literature. In general, the term comprises both those books which are selected and read by children themselves, as well as those vetted as 'appropriate for children' by authorities (including teachers, reviewers, scholars, parents, publishers, librarians, bookstores, and award committees). Some would have it that children's literature is literature written specially for children, though many books that were originally intended for adults are now commonly thought of as works for children, such as Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, or Huckleberry Finn. The opposite has also been known to occur, where works of fiction originally written or marketed for children are given recognition as adult books. Witness that in recent years, the prestigious Whitbread Awards were twice given to books marketed as children's books: Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass, and Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. The Nobel prize for literature has also been given to authors who made great contributions to children's literature, such as Selma Lagerlöf and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Often no consensus is reached whether a given work is best catagorized as adult or children's literature, and many books are multiply marketed in adult, children's, and young adult editions. Additionally, there is some debate whether non-fiction is literature (and a separate debate over whether non-fiction should be called non-fiction or informational). While the ALSC has an award specifically for non-fiction, the Sibert Medal, non-fiction books have also occasionally won prestigious awards which are usually reserved for fiction (for example, Russell Freedman's 1988 Lincoln: A Photobiography won the Newbery Medal). Many authors specialize in books for children. Other authors are more known for their writing for adults, but have also written books for children, such as Alexey Tolstoy's The Adventures of Burratino, and Carl Sandburg's "Rootabaga Stories". In some cases, books intended for adults, such as Swift's Gulliver's Travels have been edited (or bowdlerized) somewhat, to make them more appropriate for children. An attempt to identify the characteristics shared by works called 'children's literature' leads to some good general guidelines that are generally accepted by experts in the field. No one rule is perfect, however, and for every identifying feature there are many exceptions, as well as many adult books that share the characteristic. (For further discussion, see Hunt 1991: 42-64, Lesnik-Oberstein 1996, Huck 2001: 4-5.) Publishers have attempted to further break down children's literature into subdivisions appropriate for different ages. In the United States, current practice within the field of children's books publishing is to break children's literature into pre-readers, early readers, chapter books, and young adults. This is roughly equivalent to the age groups 0-5, 5-7, 7-11 (sometimes broken down further into 7-9 and pre-teens), and books for teenagers. However, the criteria for these divisions are just as vague and problematic as the criteria for defining children's books as a whole. One obvious distinction is that books for younger children tend to contain illustrations, but picture books which feature art as an integral part of the overall work also cross all genres and age levels (as can be seen with the Caldecott Honor Book Tibet: Through the Red Box, by Peter Sis, which has an adult implied reader). As a general rule the implied reader of a children's or young adult book is 1-3 years younger than the protagonist. (counter example: Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, not necessarily written for children, but co-opted by a child and young adult audience)

History

Because of the difficulty in defining children's literature, it is also difficult to trace the history of children's literature to a precise starting point. In 1658 Jan Ámos Komenský published the illustrated informational book Orbis Pictus; it's considered to be the first picture book published specifically for children. John Newbery's 1744 publication of A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, sold with a ball for boys or a pincushion for girls, is considered a landmark for the beginning of pleasure reading marketed specifically to children. Previous to Newbery, literature marketed for children was intended to instruct the young, though there was a rich oral tradition of storytelling for children and adults; and many tales later considered to be inappropriate for children, such as the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, may have been considered family fare. Additionally, some literature not written with children in mind was given to children by adults. Among the earliest examples found in English of this co-opted adult fiction are Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur and the Robin Hood tales. See also Children's Literature Timeline and Children's Literature Canon.

Series

The success of a book for children often prompts the author to continue the story in a sequel, or even to launch into an entire series of books. Some works are originally conceived as series: J. K. Rowling has always stated in interviews that her original plan was to write no fewer than seven books about Harry Potter, and some authors, such as the prolific Enid Blyton and R. L. Stine, seem incapable of writing a stand-alone book. In several cases, series have outlived their authors, whether publishers openly hired new authors to continue after the death of the original creator of the series (such was the case when Reilly and Lee hired Ruth Plumly Thompson to continue The Oz series after L. Frank Baum's death), or whether the pen name of the original author was retained as a brand-nom-de-plume for the series (as with Franklin W. Dixon and the Hardy Boys series, Carolyn Keene and the Nancy Drew series, and V. C. Andrews and the Flowers in the Attic series).

Scholarship

In recent years, scholarship in children's literature has gained in respectability. There are an increasing number of literary criticism analyses in the field of children's literature criticism. Additionally, there are a number of scholarly associations in the field, including the [http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/chla/index.html Children's Literature Association], the [http://www.irscl.ac.uk/ International Research Society for Children's Literature], and [http://www.reading.ac.uk/circl Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media] (CIRCL), and [http://www.ncrcl.ac.uk/ National Centre for Research in Children's Literature Joshua Williams].

Awards

Some noted awards for children's literature are:
- United States: the major awards are given by the American Library Association Association for Library Service to Children. They include the Newbery Medal for writing, Caldecott Medal for illustration, Sibert Medal for informational, Wilder Medal for impact over time, Batchelder Award for works in translation, Coretta Scott King Award for work by an African-American writer, and the Belpre Medal for work by a Latino writer.
- United Kingdoms and Commonwealth: the Carnegie Medal for writing and the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration; the Nestle Smarties Book Prize; and the Guardian Award.
- Internationally: the Hans Christian Andersen Award

References

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External links

- [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/results?subject=Children Children's eTexts] at Project Gutenberg
- [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/results?locc=PZ More Children's eTexts] at Project Gutenberg
- [http://book.awardannals.com/genre/children/ Most Honored Children's Literature]
- [http://vintagechildrensbooks.com/ Vintage Children's Books]
- [http://antislavery.eserver.org/childrens Historic antislavery literature for children, at the Antislavery Literature Project]
- [http://www.gutenberg-museum.de/index.php?id=29 Books for Children at the Gutenberg-Museum Mainz (Germany)]
- Literature Category:Literature ja:児童文学

The Prince and the Pauper

The Prince and the Pauper is an 1882 book by Mark Twain that represents his first attempt at historical fiction. The book, set in 1547, tells the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive father in Offal Court, London, and Prince Edward son of Henry VIII of England. Due to a series of circumstances, the boys accidentally replace each other, with Tom Canty brought into the palace, and Prince Edward attempting to escape from the clutches of Tom's father. Finally Edward attaches himself to a discredited nobleman, Miles Hendon, who offers to help him return to the palace. Meanwhile news reaches them that King Henry VIII has died and Edward is the rightful king. After a series of adventures, including a stint in prison, Edward manages to exchange places with Tom just as the latter is about to celebrate his coronation. Tom is eager to give up the throne, but the nobles refuse to believe that the beggarly child is the rightful king, until he produces the Great Seal that he had hidden before leaving the palace. Later, Miles is rewarded with a raised noble rank of an Earl and the unique family right to sit in the presence of the king. Much of the humor in the book originates in the two boys' inability to function in the world that is so familiar to the other, although Tom soon displays considerable wisdom in his decisions. In many ways, the book is a social satire, particularly compelling in its condemnation of the inequality that existed between the classes in Tudor England. In that sense, Twain abandoned the wry Midwestern style for which he was best known and adopts a style reminiscent of Charles Dickens. Though not as popular among critics as Twain's other works, the book foreshadowed the author's successful forays into historical fiction with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The book was later adapted for the stage in an episode that involved Twain in a serious lawsuit with the playwright. It was also the basis of several films, one of which, released in 1937, starred Errol Flynn (as Hendon) and twins Billy and Bobby Mauch as Tom Conty and Edward Tudor respectively. The film was originally intended to coincide with the coronation of King George VI, but its release was delayed and it was first screened the following year in 1937. The book was also adapted by The Walt Disney Company into a 24-minute short film starring Mickey Mouse, which was released in 1990 and screened with The Rescuers Down Under. In some of these versions, Prince Edward takes the precaution of carrying identification when he assumes Tom's role; an idea whose effectiveness varies depending on the version.

External links

- [http://www.mtwain.com/The_Prince_and_the_Pauper/index.html The Prince and the Pauper] - searchable, indexed e-text.
- [http://mark-twain.classic-literature.co.uk/the-prince-and-the-pauper/ The Prince and the Pauper] - in easy to read format over 94 pages.
- Prince and the Pauper Prince and the Pauper Prince and the Pauper Prince and the Pauper

Fiction

, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology.]] Fiction is storytelling of imagined events and stands in contrast to non-fiction, which makes factual claims about reality. A large part of the appeal of fiction is its ability to evoke the entire spectrum of human emotions: to distract our minds, to give us hope in times of despair, to make us laugh, or to let us experience empathy without attachment. Fictional works—novels, stories, fairy tales, fables, films, comics, interactive fiction—may be partly based on factual occurrences but always contain some imaginary content. The term is also often used synonymously with fictional prose. In this sense, fiction refers only to novels or short stories and is often divided into two categories, popular fiction (e.g., science fiction or mystery fiction) and literary fiction (e.g., Victor Hugo or William Faulkner). Fiction is largely perceived as a form of art and/or entertainment, although not all fiction is necessarily artistic. Fiction may be created for the purpose of educating, such as fictional examples used in school textbooks. Fiction is also frequently instrumentalized by propaganda and advertising. Fiction may be propagated by parents to their children out of tradition (e.g. Santa Claus) or in order to instill certain beliefs and values. Fables with an explicit moral goal are not necessarily targeted at children, however. Fiction may over time blend with factual accounts and develop into mythology. Many atheists perceive religion as no different from any fictional tale, whereas members of religious groups typically explain their beliefs with faith and claim they are fundamentally different from fictional tales (although they may call other religious views fictional). The sociological school of constructivism argues that every view of reality is fundamentally a construction of the self and that a safe distinction between fact and fiction is impossible, whereas the philosophy of naturalism holds that reality can be approximated and truth can be demonstrated through usefulness, allowing the distinction from fiction. Fiction has often been the target of censorship or boycotts, escalating into book burnings or bans. Extremist regimes like the Taliban have been even more prohibitive, restricting all reading to religious texts. There is an ongoing debate regarding sexual content in fiction and whether or not juveniles can be safely exposed to it; opponents of fiction with sexual content typically label it pornography. The Internet has had a massive impact on the distribution of fiction, calling into question the feasibility of copyright as a means to ensure royalties are payed to copyright holders. Also digital libraries such as Project_Gutenberg have come into being which make public domain texts more readily available. The combination of inexpensive home computers, the Internet and the creativity of its users has also led to new forms of fiction, such as interactive computer games or computer-generated comics. Countless forums for fan fiction can be found online, where loyal followers of specific fictional realms create and distribute derivative stories. Through open writing systems like wikis, collaboratively written fiction is also becoming possible (see the [http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikifiction Wikifiction] initiative). Fiction is a fundamental part of human culture, and the ability to create fiction and other artistic works is frequently cited as one of the defining characteristics of humanity.

Elements of fiction

- antagonists
- conflicts
- climax
- characters
- plots
- protagonists
- resolution
- structures
- subplots
- themes
- fictional character
- suspension of disbelief

External links

- [http://book.awardannals.com/genre/fiction/ Most Honored Fiction] at the Book Award Annals
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- ja:フィクション

Whitbread Awards

The Whitbread Book Awards are among the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary awards. The awards are named after and funded by Whitbread plc, a leading British leisure company. The awards, launched in 1971, are given both for high literary merit but also for works that are enjoyable reading and whose aim is to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. As such they are a more populist literary prize than the Booker Prize. One of the main events in the British literary calendar, they are sometimes announced as if they are the first of the year's literary prizes, whereas they are actually the last.

The Process

Currently each year winners are chosen by five separate judging panels picking from different shortlists in five different categories The categories are:
- Best novel
- Best first novel
- Children's
- Poetry
- Biography Each category winner receives £5000. One of the category winners is selected as the "Book of the Year" and given a further £25 000. The overall Whitbread book of the year is chosen by a judging panel that comprises five judges from the previous category round and four new ones. The category winners do not have to be British but must be resident in the UK for at least six months of the year.

Book of the Year Award Winners

- 2004 - Andrea Levy, Small Island
- 2003 - Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
- 2002 - Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
- 2001 - Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
- 2000 - Matthew Kneale, English Passengers
- 1999 - Seamus Heaney, Beowulf
- 1998 - Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters
- 1997 - Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid
- 1996 - Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level
- 1995 - Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- 1994 - William Trevor, Felicia’s Journey
- 1993 - Joan Brady, Theory of War
- 1992 - Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!
- 1991 - John Richardson, A Life of Picasso
- 1990 - Nicholas Mosley, Hopeful Monsters
- 1989 - Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Early Visions
- 1988 - Paul Sayer, The Comforts of Madness
- 1987 - Christopher Nolan, Under the eye of the clock
- 1986 - Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World
- 1985 - Douglas Dunn, Elegies
- 1984 - James Buchan, A Parish of Rich Women
- 1983 - John Fuller, Flying to Nowhere
- 1982 - Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill
- 1981 - William Boyd, A Good Man in Africa
- 1980 - David Lodge, How Far Can You Go?

Complete Winners and Nominees

2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996 - 1995 - 1994 - 1993 - 1992 - 1991 - 1990 - 1989 - 1988 - 1987 - 1986 - 1985 - 1984 - 1983 - 1982 - 1981 - 1980 - 1979 - 1978 - 1977 - 1976 - 1975 - 1974 - 1973 - 1972 - 1971

External links

- [http://www.whitbread-bookawards.co.uk/ Whitbread Book Awards] official web site
- [http://book.awardannals.com/award/whitbread/anovel/topbooks Most honored Whitbread Book Award shortlist books]
- Category:Literary awards

The Amber Spyglass

The Amber Spyglass is the third and final novel in the His Dark Materials series, written by British novelist Philip Pullman, and published in 2000. The Amber Spyglass won the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year award, a prestigious British literature award. The Amber Spyglass deals most strongly with religious and metaphysical ideas, depicting the foreshadowed re-enactment of Milton's Paradise Lost, and finally elaborating upon the nature of Dust.

His Dark Materials

The three books of the His Dark Materials trilogy are: :1. Northern Lights :2. The Subtle Knife :3. The Amber Spyglass The trilogy is set in a multiverse. The third volume moves between a large array of diverse worlds, most notably our own, Lyra's, Ci'gazze, the world of the Mulefa, and the world of Asriel's fortress.

Adaptations

On Radio

The entire trilogy was dramatised on BBC radio in the United Kingdom.

Theatre

A theatrical version of the three books was produced by Nicholas Hytner as a two-part, 6 hour performance for London's Royal National Theatre in 2004.

On Film

A film adaptation, titled His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, is slated for release in 2007 by New Line Cinema, supposedly as the first of three films. See the [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385752/ IMDb] website for more information.

Plot Synopsis

Brief and Introductory

This book deals with Lyra and Will's quest into the Land of the Dead to overcome death, the overthrow of The Authority by a force lead by Lord Asriel, the sealing of the passageways between the worlds by the angels, and the destruction of the Subtle Knife. Other plotlines in the novel involve Mrs. Coulter, Lyra's mother, as she goes on a self-employed mission to find out about Metatron, The Authority's Regent, and at the same time do all she can to protect Lyra. Also, there is the story of the scientist, Mary Malone, who must play the serpent for Eve (Lyra), but in the meantime inhabits the world of the mulefa, a race of wheeled beings with a diamond-shaped spine. While there, she constructs the Amber Spyglass of the title, which allows anyone looking through it to see Dust, which to most beings is normally invisible to the naked eye. Further subplots include that of a priest who is trying to assassinate Lyra, and the story of Balthamos, an apparently homosexual angel who disappears early in the book but reappears and dies in the chapter "Over the Hills and Far Away". (Regarding Balthamos and Baruch's apparent homosexuality, Pullman has stated that since they are angels, they are in fact sexless, despite having chosen male human forms. Clearly, they love each other, but their love is entirely asexual.) Having overcome death, and fallen in love, Lyra and Will discover that the cutting between universes with the Subtle Knife depletes the world of Dust, and are faced with some difficult choices; reversing their achievement by resealing the Land of the Dead to leave a way between their own worlds; one of them moving to the world of the other to be together, but severely cutting the lifespan of the one who moves; or abandoning each other by sealing themselves in their own separate worlds.

In High Detail

Reading the following will severely reduce the enjoyment of then reading the books. Lyra has been taken by Mrs Coulter to a distant land and a recluse cave. Therein, Lyra is kept drugged, in an enchanted sleep. Coulter tends to her and cares for her (and keeps her dormant) like a true mother. There is some genuine motherly emotion in her. Coulter is controlling with lies a village of simple people below, who bring her food. The messenger for this food is a little girl named Ama, whom Mrs Coulter allows to see the sleeping Lyra. Ama wants to please Mrs Coulter, so she gets a cure for afflictions of unending sleep, and brings it to the cave secretly. However, in doing this, she sees that Coulter is in fact keeping the girl asleep. She realises Coulter is not so wonderful. In Lyra's dreams, a set of chapter-interspersed and highly dissected excerpts, she dreams that she is in the Land of the Dead, talking to her dead best friend, Roger. She promises to come to save him, and she knows she can do it because Will will help her. Roger asks her why she's so sure, and she replies, "Because he's Will." In Cittàgazze, Will is being escorted by the two angels who found him, to Lord Asriel. The angels are named Balthamos and Baruch. They are lovers, extremely passionate lovers, but angels are asexual (although Balthamos did state that Baruch was a man before and he was not before they became Angelic). Will says that he will not take any Knife to Lord Asriel until they've rescued Lyra, and the angels have to assent, for humans are in fact much more powerful creatures—having real flesh. Besides, Balthamos and Baruch are of a low order of angels. Baruch locates Lyra, by flying. At that moment, they see in the sky, the Chariot. They are attacked by the archangel Metatron, the Authority's Regent. Metatron is the most powerful of all angels, and is now the effective ruler of heaven, for God is old and frail. They closely escape, cutting into another world to do so. The angels explain Angels to Will. God is not a God. He is an angel. He was the first angel that ever existed. For a long time, the multiverse contained only unconscious matter, but then when matter began to understand itself, it condensed into Dust, and angels were born. Once the second angel was born, the first, 'God', told it that it had created everything, including the angel. This continued, and 'God' created his Authority. When some angels discovered the truth, they rebelled against God—the great rebellion—but God won, and the rebels were cast out. Now, Lord Asriel is reviving that rebellion against the lies and oppression of the first angel. Baruch, the stronger of the two angels, must go to Lord Asriel right away. They have something vitally important to tell him. Balthamos will stay with Will to help him find Lyra. They part. Balthamos takes the shape of Will's dæmon to disguise him, and they begin to walk through Lyra's world. The climate there is changing due to the rent in the sky made by Asriel. Iorek Byrnison the armoured bear has had to move his melting snow-kingdom. Baruch reaches Asriel's fortress—though he has been attacked by angels loyal to God, and he is weak. Asriel brings him in, and Baruch explains that God no longer rules heaven, but Metatron. Instead, God is kept locked inside a crystal chamber, inside the Clouded Mountain—or the Chariot—a vast floating mountain that is the Authority's headquarters and governing point. It is a multidimensional airborne fortress that passes constantly through the multiverse. Metatron, as ruler of heaven, thinks that humans are getting too independent—being conscious and all—and he wants to directly intervene—to set up a permanent Inquisition, to make heaven's oppression absolute. Baruch finally tells Asriel where Lyra is being held by Mrs Coulter, and that Will Parry is journeying towards her to save her. Then he dies, with Balthamos' name the last on his lips, before he dissolves into the air. A sect of the Magisterium (the Church), called the Consistorial Court, know where Lyra, the next Eve, is being held. They send out a small army to go to kill her. Alongside this, they know that there is also a woman who is playing serpent. Mary Malone. Just as the serpent in the Adam and Eve story tempted Eve into Original Sin, Mary's role as the serpent will be to tempt, and cause Lyra to commit her second Original Sin. Therefore, they also send an assassin called Father Gomez after Mary Malone; not to kill her, but to follow her, for her path must inexorably cross with Lyra's: then to kill Lyra. Back in Lord Asriel's Adamant Tower, his huge fortress, he sends out a small army of gyropters to where Lyra is being held, to counterattack the army of zeppelins from the Consistorial Court. He also sends two Gallivespian spies specifically to Lyra. Gallivespians are tiny humans that fly on dragonflies and have deadly poisoned spurs in their heels. Because of their size, they are the best spies. The two spies that he sends are called the Chevalier Tialys, and the Lady Salmakia. Meanwhile, Will and Balthamos disguised as his dæmon draw closer to Lyra's position. In a town, at the port, they see that a group of armoured bears are fighting with the men. Will takes initiative and, loudly, calls the whole thing to a standstill. Instead of fighting, he proposes, he himself shall challenge the head bear to a duel. The whole clearing is deadly silent. The head bear laughs, for he could crush Will with one blink of an eyelash. Will agrees it is an unfair fight, so he suggests that the bear hand over one piece of his armour to Will, to make it fair. The bear is enraged, and does so. However, Will takes out the Subtle Knife and shreds the rock-hard helmet to pieces, then looks the bear in the eye. The bear surrenders. Of course, the bear is none other than Iorek Byrnison, fleeing with his race from his melting kingdom. When Will explains that he is a friend of Lyra's, the bear becomes friendly, because he is very affectionate towards Lyra (and Lyra only, of all humans, apart, perhaps, from his dead friend Lee Scoresby). Will travels with Iorek towards the Himalayas where Lyra is being held. So Will, Iorek and Balthamos, Asriel's army, and the Church's army, are all coming towards where Mrs Coulter is holding Lyra asleep. Amidst all this, Mary Malone steps through a window into another world, and finds herself, after much walking, in a strange land. The only conscious beings on the planet are strange elephantine creatures with diamond-shaped spines, called Mulefa. They travel by attaching round seed-pods to their feet, and then use them as wheels. These Mulefa have a complex culture, language, and a large village; in all ways, they are people. Mary learns to communicate with the Mulefa, and on occasion consults her Chinese divination device, the I Ching, and it tells her to stay with them. She becomes particularly friendly with a female zalif (Mulefa word for a single Mulefa) called Atal. Atal explains that roughly 30,000 years ago, Mulefa were not conscious. Then, one day, in Mulefa legend, a serpent told a female zalif to try on a seedpod. When she did so, she became conscious, and could suddenly see Dust—though the Mulefa call Dust by the name of Sraf; they see it as golden flecks that fill the world. Once the Mulefa began to use the seed-pods for wheels, they began to see the sraf, and became conscious. Meanwhile, Will reaches Lyra's cave. There, Will goes straight to see Mrs Coulter, and she is too much for him—she instantly asserts her female control. She explains she's keeping Lyra asleep to protect her from the Church; her claims are plausible, just, but Will does not believe her. She also mentions Will's mother—his sick mother whom he loves but has left behind in the care of his piano teacher—this comment was designed to throw him, and it does. He leaves. He will use the same method that he used to steal the alethiometer off Sir Charles Latrom. He will cut a window directly over to where Lyra is sleeping, and rescue her. At night, he does this, and finds the cave empty. He has met with the girl Ama, and using her cure for unending sleep (a herb), they wake Lyra. Will is just cutting a window back into another world, when suddenly Mrs Coulter is there. She's holding a gun, and for a moment, Will sees the face of his own mother in hers. A tidal wave of emotion thrills across him as he slides the Knife into the air, and a moment later it seems to catch onto something, and cracks into seven pieces. The Knife is broken. He's at gunpoint. The two Gallivespian spies, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, fly into the cave, and hold Coulter and her monkey-dæmon at poisonous-spur-point. They are locked into an impossible stalemate. Outside, the forces have clashed, and a deadly battle is going on. The two Gallivespians break the stalemate, and Will and Lyra escape the cave with them. Balthamos flees in cowardice. Will cuts into another world, he and Lyra go through, the two spies follow, and they leave the battle behind. The battle ends, and Mrs Coulter is captured by Lord Asriel's forces. She is taken back to Lord Asriel's Adamant Tower, where she meets Asriel. She tries to learn as much as she can of his blasphemous actions, but he is controlling her as much as she thinks she's controlling him. There is also a certain ambiguous warmth, or absence of coldness developing in her, though we don't know what to make of it. Coulter however escapes by stealing a special craft, and flies of to tell the Consistorial Court of the Church about everything she's learnt. Asriel is quick; he sends his chief Gallivespian spy, Lord Roke, after her, and Lord Roke manages to get into her craft. Back with Will and Lyra, the two Gallivespians want to take Will and Lyra to Lord Asriel, primarily to deliver the Subtle Knife, Æsahættr, to him. Will does not let them know that the scabbard at his side contains only shards; instead, he uses the assumption that he has the Knife, to do what they want to do. Instead, they want to mend the knife, and do something quite outstanding. Thinking about things, Will and Lyra realise that humans are tripartite beings. They have a body, a soul, and a mind. The body is what dies at death, and so too does the soul—the dæmon—but the mind, which can think about both the soul and the body, does not. It goes to the land of the dead: in Lyra's dreams, she'd dreamt of the Land of the Dead, and Roger. Assuming it truly exists, and that their revelations are correct, they determine to go to the Land of the Dead: Lyra wants to say sorry to Roger for leading him to his death, and Will wants to see his father. They find Iorek, who has resettled his kingdom where it is still cold. He is an expert with metal, and only because it is Lyra that is asking does he agree to mend the Knife. It is a tough process, but successful. Before they leave, Iorek warns Will that the Knife has a power of its own, and to be wary. Also, the sly Gallivespian spies become ever the more irritated with the two children, but gain a small respect for them too. They begin cutting through worlds until they find the Land of the Dead—or the World of the Dead. Eventually they, quite astoundingly, find it, perhaps by fate—for Lyra's great fate indeed involves the World of the Dead. They find processions of ghosts in a colourless dull town roaming towards a port. In this town, the Suburbs of the Dead, many people are simply waiting around in dilapidated huts, to die. The strange thing, however, is that every person has an accompanying 'Death'—a physical embodiment of the end of their life. Apparently, these 'Deaths' are like Dæmons—they are always there, whether you can see them or not. When Lyra becomes infuriated with the single-mindedness of the Chevalier Tialys, the passion drives her suicidal, and by this sudden emotion, her Death appears to her. It agrees to guide her to the true Land of the Dead. There they go. They come to the port, where a Charon-like skeletal boatman awaits dead passengers. Lyra's Death leaves, and she knows that the next time she sees him, it'll be the end of her life, many many years in the future. For now, however, they get into the boat. There's a problem. Dæmons cannot cross this metaphysical river; it is a law like gravity: insurmountable. Lyra must leave her beloved dæmon Pantalaimon, or just 'Pan', behind on the shore, and they cry out to each other as the boat draws away. The connection between human and dæmon gets wrenched on with unbearable pain, but eventually it snaps; this is different however, to the Gobblers' incision; it was consciously done, and represents a newer strength and freedom of soul. Nevertheless, it is torturous as the image of Pan disappears under the mist. Of course, at the same time, though it is invisible, Will, Tialys and Salmakia all have their dæmons torn out too; the boat ride to the Land of the Dead is as painful as any death itself may be. Back with Mary Malone in the world of the Mulefa, she is taken to see Sattamax, the oldest and wisest Mulefa. He explains that 300 years ago, the seed-pod trees started to sicken and die. Without the seed-pods, the Mulefa would not be able to see the sraf, the Dust, and that would stop them from being conscious. It is imperative that they stop the seed-pod trees from dying, but they do not know how. Sattamax asks Mary to help them, and she agrees, though doesn't know how she will do it. She does, however, make a device by which to see sraf. She noticed that there was a special lacquer in this world that had a polarising effect on light. She spends long hours creating two sheets of this lacquer, and then experimenting with them. She discovers that when they are just the right distance apart, looking through them, she can see the sraf, the Dust, the Shadows, the golden particles. To fix this distance, she fashions the whole thing into a telescope-like instrument, an amber spyglass. She begins her investigations by climbing up one of the seed-pod trees to see what was going on up there. Using the amber spyglass she sees that there are vast Dust-streams in the air, all flying off into the distance. At the top of the trees, there are large flowers with open petals. It is clear that the Dust, the sraf, is meant to be caught by the flowers, so that the sraf may nourish the tree, and may in turn infuse the seed-pods with the sraf by which the Mulefa become conscious. However, the sraf is not falling into the flowers, but it being dragged off sideways by some unknown force, so that only the odd particle gets into the tree to keep it alive. But what is it that is making all the Dust fly away? Will and Lyra, with the Chevalier Tialys, and the Lady Salmakia, arrive at the Land of the Dead. They are outside its gates, and all around them, harpies fly and screech. As they try to enter, one particular harpy soars at them. It asks them questions, but when Lyra lies (her speciality), the Harpy can see straight through it. Every lie of hers makes it screech louder with more fury. They escape this and enter the Land of the Dead, a vast, dull, dark, forsaken valley, populated with the non-physical ghosts of every being that ever lived. There is no heaven or hell. On death, every single being ends up in this one dismal wasteland, to be haunted by harpies for eternity. It is the job of the harpies to screech truth. They know every single bad thing everyone has ever done, and they make sure that every single ghost is reminded of all of their mistakes as often as possible. All in all, it's a thoroughly miserable place. Like angels have lust for real flesh, and like witches revel in it, the ghosts immediately flock to the living forms of Will and Lyra, and the two Gallivespians. They are not hideous but piteous wisps of dead lives, many of them children. Lyra is overcome with compassion and pity. She does not just want to find Roger anymore. If she can, she wants to free every ghost from this hell. A ghost who was once a religious zealot cries out that this valley is in fact heaven, and that Lyra is an agent of the Devil, breeding malcontent. More of the ghosts, however, are persuaded to follow Lyra and Will as they browse through the dead, with a grand purpose they don't even know. And eventually Lyra finds Roger, and she apologises to him; he is overjoyed to see her. Will and the Gallivespians try to think about how to get the dead out of this place (for whenever they cut into another world, they are too deep underground for the window to lead anywhere). In the meantime, Lyra comforts the ghosts by telling them stories about her physical life (that all the ghosts wish they'd used better). She tells them about Jordan college and all her adventures. They, and the harpies, listen intently. When Lyra stops, the harpies want more: her outpouring of truth nourished and fed them, and they liked it. Thus, the answer is struck upon. The harpies will lead Will and Lyra, and, indeed, all of the ghosts, to the highest point in the Land of the Dead. There, Will will cut into another world: an exit from the land. Finally, rather than tormenting people, the harpies will ask every entrant to the valley to tell them the story of their life: that will feed the harpies, and in return the harpies will guide those people out of the Land. In other words, people should live their lives to the absolute full, so that they have an excellent, true story to tell the harpies on death. This is agreed on, and the guidance to the highest point begins. Back in Lyra's world, Mrs Coulter reaches the Consistorial Court of the Church, where she is placed under arrest. She tells a certain Father MacPhail about Will and Lyra, and Asriel. That night, Lord Roke, who had hidden with her, reveals himself to her. They become allies of a sort. The same night, a young priest comes in sneakily, and steals the locket that Mrs Coulter wears around her neck. He takes this back to Father MacPhail, followed by Lord Roke. Roke learns that the locket contains some of Lyra's hairs (a sentimental emblem not expected of Coulter), and that, using a special new type of quantum bomb, the hair will be used to kill Lyra. In short, they will blow up the hair, which they will link to where it has come from—Lyra—who will in turn be blown up, no matter where she is. The device also needs a lot of energy, in other words, it requires an incision, a separation of dæmon and human; and Mrs Coulter will be the victim. Of her own procedure. They travel to a special place (Saint-Jean-les-Eaux) to detonate the bomb. There, Coulter and Roke manage to break free and begin to fight. There are witches there too. Pandemonium sets in. At the last moment, Father MacPhail puts himself into the incision device, determined to sacrifice himself to kill Lyra, even though his own dæmon is pleading with him to stop. Nevertheless, he detonates the bomb. Lord Roke dies killing a witch who was about to kill Miss Coulter. Lord Asriel rescues his former lover in a powerful craft. Back in the Land of the Dead, the ghosts of Lee Scoresby and John Parry suddenly appear beside Lyra and Will. There is no time for greetings. They quickly instruct Will to find in Lyra's hair where a lock has been cut off. He is to remove the frayed ends, and quickly put them into another world. He does this, and not a moment later, the bomb explodes, creating a vast abyss, a gaping hole of nothingness, an explosion of the gap between worlds. It is infinitely deep, and through the abyss lies the void, the nothingness beyond all worlds. It is a terrifying prospect, especially when Lyra nearly falls into it, but is rescued by a harpy. And then it's time for greetings. Lee and John tell Will and Lyra that their dæmons have made their way to the world of Lord Asriel's fortress; that is where they await; that is where Will and Lyra must go. At last, they reach the highest point, and Will cuts a large window into another world. The first ghost to ever be freed from the Land of the Dead is Roger, who, as his atoms dissolve into nature, giggles with glee, or relief. A happy goodbye. And so, the procession of ghosts, all prepared to face oblivion, begin to walk out of the Land of the Dead, to redistribute themselves across the multiverse they miss, once more. Will and Lyra, exhausted, fall asleep. Father Gomez, the assassin sent after Mary Malone, makes it into the world of the Mulefa. He's constantly on her tail, and both she and he are constantly drawing closer to Lyra; his assassination will be soon. Lord Asriel takes Mrs Coulter back to his fortress, his Adamant Tower, and there they discover that the Clouded Mountain itself, the Chariot driven by Metatron, is drawing on their position—to attack. Asriel gathers his entire army. They have now, already, learnt of the incredible thing that Will and Lyra have done in the Land of the Dead: freed it. Will and Lyra are now the top priority. Asriel knows their dæmons are somewhere close, on this world, and he orders his army to protect them at all costs. Asriel and Marisa talk. Asriel in fact wants to preserve Dust forever, not destroy it. He does not think 'sin' as the Church defines it is bad. Like the angels desire flesh, 'sin' is no more than enjoyment of life. Without such 'sin' there'd be no story to tell the harpies. It is not really 'sin', it is in fact freedom. If the Church destroys Dust, which they think is Original Sin, that freedom will be lost forever, and the Authority's oppression will dominate all worlds. The great, final battle begins. Some of the ghosts, including John Parry and Lee Scoresby, are not ready to meet oblivion. They will strain to hold themselves together, and join Asriel's army: for only a being without a dæmon, such as a ghost, can fight with a Spectre; and Spectres indeed shall be attacking Asriel's army. Will opens a window into Asriel's world, where the battle is raging, and the army of ghosts charge. Will and Lyra run through as well. Tialys and Salmakia, who by now are dying, for the Gallivespians are short-lived creatures, also go through into this final battlefield. Will and Lyra, to their horror, realise that they can now almost see the Spectres: they must be on the brink of 'growing up'. Once they can see the Spectres, they can be killed by them. They rush off to find their dæmons. In the meantime, the angel Xaphania shows Lord Asriel where the abyss made by the bomb has blown a hole in the mountain. Within, Dust is visible in the air, and ghosts are parading past. At the same time, Mrs Coulter sets off in a craft for the Clouded Mountain. Landing on it, she manages to trick the first angel guard she sees into bringing her directly before Metatron; God. She quickly learns she has a great power here, for all angels desire flesh greatly, and male angels desire the flesh of beautiful women particularly greatly. Metatron is a male angel. Pretending to be in awe of his majesty and brilliance (which is in fact particularly good), Coulter explains to Metatron that she will take him to Asriel—to kill him. In the process of this, she makes sure her female powers take over him, so that he is overcome with desire. She puts every fibre of her being into this final ultimate lie of hers: to trick God. She and Metatron fly to the abyss where Lord Asriel is. There, Coulter instructs Metatron to wait whilst she speaks to Asriel, to set him at ease, to prepare the ambush on him. However, she is indeed fooling Metatron. Coulter has been a cold and evil woman for three books, but love prevailed within her. Her emotions for Lyra were always genuine, though her actions strange. She had a black heart with a tiny mustard-seed of compassion in it, and with Lyra in her arms, that mustard-seed grew until is suffused her whole being. She and Asriel, lovers reunited, know what they must do. They must kill Metatron to save Lyra, even if it means their own deaths. And they know that only oblivion awaits them, but the final love that breaks through is the driving force of their greatest act. Metatron comes round the corner, and both lovers attack him. The struggle is vicious, and Lord Asriel's skull is smashed to pieces. They drag Metatron over the infinite abyss, but Metatron's wings are too strong: he flies. Only Asriel is weighing him down. With a final call of her name, Marisa Coulter jumps and grabs onto Metatron's legs, and the three beings hurtle into the abyss. Will and Lyra run. The Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia have died. High above, a group of angels (under attack by cliff-ghasts) is carrying a crystal chamber. The angels are killed, and the indestructible chamber falls to the ground, where Lyra and Will find it. Within it, they find an angel whose age is of such epic proportions so as to be indescribable. He can't even talk. He is the first angel. God. Will uses the knife to open the chamber, and then the slightest gust of wind blows against God's infinitely frail form, and he dissolves into the air, with a final look of relief. The children had no idea who he was. They continue. They see Iorek in battle, and he bids his final farewell to Lyra. They keep running, and at last come to where their dæmons are being protected from Spectres by the ghosts. Both of their dæmons are in the same form, so they don't know (peculiarly) which one is which. Will accidentally picks up Lyra's dæmon, and Lyra Will's, and in doing so they each feel the shock of another human touching your soul. There is no time to think of this though, for a divine battle is taking place. Will cuts into another world, and he and Lyra jump through with their dæmons. At the last moment, Will is face to face with the ghost of his father, from one side of one world, to another. Previously, John Parry told his son to be a fighter, but Will says to him now that he isn't cut out for it. John Parry tells his son 'well done', and he and Lee Scoresby dissolve into the wind. Will closes the window. He and Lyra immediately fall asleep. They wake the next day, and their dæmons have gone again: they have become independent creatures now, and they are resentful at having been abandoned. However, Will and Lyra are not too bothered running around after them right now. Will exclaims that he feels like he's got about a year of dirt on him, so he and Lyra take it in turns to wash in the river. And then some Mulefa arrive. On the backs of the Mulefa, they travel across the land to meet Mary Malone. Will is introduced, and Lyra is overjoyed. They are still utterly exhausted at their three-book epic of an ordeal, so they fall asleep again. Mary in the meantime goes to check out something the Mulefa are alerting her to. It is the opening into this world, that Will made, from the World of the Dead. An endless procession of ghosts is streaming out into the air, and dissolving. The Mulefa have made the area beautiful, declaring it the most sacred of all. One ghost-woman approaches Mary and says, "Tell them stories." She is referring, of course, to the harpies. Then she dissolves, and Mary is confused, and awed. She returns to the children, now set to 'tell them stories'. First, they tell her all about their entire story. Then, she begins her own. She gave up being a nun because she saw it as constricting. Love, for instance, was a place like China: it existed, but you didn't necessarily need to go there. However, there was once someone she loved, though she didn't even realise it. It was a young boy, when she too was very young, who fed her a small piece of marzipan one time at a party, and she never forgot it. She realised that China, or, love, was too good a place to miss out on, just to be a nun. This had all come into perspective when abroad once she had met a man, and it had been incredibly easy to talk to him. He made her happy. That night by the beach, she chucked her crucifix into the sea. She could not throw away every pleasure of the world just to serve a God. So Mary gave up her religion in favour of that memory of marzipan: of love. This whole story affects Lyra profoundly, and silently. She even feels the effects of it physically, and she blushes. That night, Mary visits the seed-pod trees once more. Suddenly she realises that the wind, the moon, and every force of nature, is opposing the outflowing of the sraf. Nature is trying to stop the sraf from leaving. 300 years ago, when the seed-pod trees started dying, the Subtle Knife was first made, and Spectres were first seen. Before returning to the Mulefa village, Mary sees Father Gomez, the Church assassin. Luckily, he does not find Lyra and Will, for they are not sleeping where he looks. He leaves. The next day, Will and Lyra go out over the hills and far away, to find their dæmons. Father Gomez follows them. They spot their dæmons hiding from them, but don't want to let them know they can see, so they keep on moving, looking for them in silly places. Eventually they come to a forest, which they are entering when Father Gomez high above lines up his sniper rifle for a shot to Lyra's head. At that precise moment, he is attacked by something invisible. When he called out 'who is there?', the reply is, "My name is Balthamos." Balthamos drags Gomez far away, but is becoming weaker. Suddenly Gomez breaks free and punches wildly. However, Balthamos' weak angel-form provides no resistance to his swing; it throws Gomez to the ground instead, where his head smashes against a rock, and Balthamos holds his head under the river, drowning him. Then Balthamos calls his lover Baruch's name, and dissolves into the air. Will and Lyra enter the luscious forest, safe. In a beautiful clearing, they sit down to eat the food that Mary has packed them. As they are sitting them, quiet and calm, Lyra hesitantly takes a piece of fruit in her hand, and then puts it up to Will's lips. Instantly, Will recognises the semblance to Mary's story of marzipan, and he knows precisely what Lyra has meant. He trembles at the thought of it, and Lyra trembles as well, as he puts his hand to hers to keep it steady. Then, like two moths bumping together, as gentle as that, their lips touched. In a moment they find themselves passionately kissing, saying at last that they love each other. And so the prophecy completes. Mary played serpent by telling them the story of marzipan, tempting Lyra to think about Will differently. She plays the second Eve, offering fruit to Will's lips, jumping from the innocence of her childhood, to adulthood when they realise the wholly adult notion of love. She again commits the Original Sin, but it is glorious. And with this final ascension to full consciousness, enhanced by the sudden love infused within them, Dust begins to flock to them in such quantities, that, through Mary's amber spyglass, they would seem to glow like fire. If you had to divert a stream, but had only one pebble, where would you put it? Will and Lyra's sudden pull on the Dust-streams caused that redirection, and suddenly the Dust of the Mulefa world began to fall directly downwards once more, infusing all life, including the tree-pods, with its conscious essence. That night, Lyra and Will's dæmons meet the witch-Queen Serafina Pekkala. She names Will's dæmon Kirjava. Serafina also meets with Mary, and tells her that she too has a dæmon, an alpine chough. The next day, Lyra and Will reunite with their dæmons. They are now both deeply in love, and spend every second of the day together. They are told by Serafina that the Gyptians are coming. They have travelled far, and finally at the end of the story are coming to pick Lyra up and return her to her world. Will can of course go with her. But therein lies a dilemma. They were told by Will's father's ghost that a human cannot stay apart from his home world for very long. John Parry had been away for maybe ten years, and it withered him away. If either Will or Lyra went to stay in the other's world, they die far too soon. Then, of course, Will has his mother to care about. Lyra decides to ask the alethiometer, but to her horror, she can no longer work it. With her fall from grace, she's lost the negative capability, the unconscious innocence that enabled her to read it so easily originally. She cries, but Will comforts her. What can they do then, to be together? The alternative is to keep jumping between worlds to be together. At this point the angel Xaphania comes to them and explains that it was the windows between world created by the Subtle Knife that was causing the Dust to leak away. In the microscopic gap between each window lies the non-existence of the abyss, and into this, the Dust leaks. Every window open causes the all-essential Dust to deplete. Furthermore, every single time the Knife cuts a hole into the worlds, a part of the void in between escapes into the word: that nothingness that escapes is a Spectre. For every cut, a Spectre is created. In other words, they cannot keep opening and closing worlds, for they'd be throwing Spectres across the multiverse. Instead then, keep just one window open. A secret one, that they could go through every now and then. To be together. This is also impossible because not enough Dust is made in the worlds to counterbalance the loss of any more than one open window; and there can only be one open window: the window that makes the exit from the Land of the Dead. Will and Lyra, desperately in love, realise that their separation, which shall begin tomorrow, is inescapable. Xaphania tells them there is a way to cross between worlds without the Knife, but she does not tell them. Will shows Xaphania how to close a window. The angels will henceforth go around until every single one is closed, apart from the one in the Land of the Dead. This will also realign the multiverse, which had been slipping apart. What must Will and Lyra—and people in general—do? Dust leaves the world at the Land of the Dead, but it is made through consciousness. By living full lives, teaching others about love and compassion and morals, and wisdom, the essential Dust of the multiverse can carry on to let life be aware of itself. But Will and Lyra cannot be together. The angel leaves, and Will and Lyra, and Pantalaimon and Kirjava, are left on the beach under the sky, to spend their last hours together. Will places his hand on Pantalaimon, momentously, and Lyra does the same to Kirjava. And they know, that from that moment on, their dæmons would never change form again, fixing at last into the forms of a pine marten (Pan), and a cat (Kirjava). crucifix crucifix The next day, the Gyptians arrive, and Lyra is set to go back to her world. Will is set to go back to his. Briefly, Lyra comes into Will's Oxford, and there they visit the Botanic Garden. Within, there is a bench, and it exists in both Lyra's world and in Will's. Will and Lyra make a pact. Every year, at precisely the same time and day—midsummer's day at noon—they will both go to sit on this bench, for an hour. That way they will know that somehow they are still together. They agree, and they will do it every single year for the remainder of their lives. Then they part. Will and Mary remain in our world, reality. The Knife must be destroyed. By thinking of Lyra, Will's emotions overflow in the way they did the last time the Knife broke, and again this time it shatters. The Subtle Knife is destroyed. Mary has been taught how to see her dæmon by Serafina, and she and Will are now the only two people in our universe to have dæmons. Will accepts Mary's offer to stay with her, and help him out. His prospects of future are bright, even though he has lost Lyra. "Being cheerful starts now," he tells himself. He assents with a cheerful "Yeah!" Back in Lyra's world, three weeks later, Lyra, a changed girl, is back in Jordan College. She relates her story to the Master and Dame Hannah, in part, on the condition that they believe her, accepting that she's been a liar before. At the last, she agrees to dedicate her career to alethiometry; she wants to learn it again, if, this time round, the hard way. She will study with Dame Hannah. The trilogy concludes with Lyra upon the bench in the Botanic Gardens. She and Pan speculate on things. There was something they had now to build. It was for what their parents sacrificed themselves. For what this was all about. And they know the answer: "The Republic of Heaven."

External links

- [http://www.bridgetothestars.net BridgetotheStars.Net] fansite
- ISBN 0345413377 (American paperback edition) Amber Spyglass Amber Spyglass Amber Spyglass Amber Spyglass

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (ISBN 0099450259) is a novel by Mark Haddon. The title is a quotation of a remark made by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1893 story Silver Blaze. The story is written as the first-person narrative of Christopher Boone, a teenage boy living in Swindon.

Main character

Christopher Boone, a fifteen-year-old boy, is the main character in the book. Christopher goes to a school for children with special needs. Though there is no explicit mention of his special need in the book, the publisher's blurb on the back cover of the book says that he has Asperger's syndrome, a form of "high-functioning" autism. Despite his autism, he is a mathematical genius, a skill that sets him apart from other students and even most adults.

Plot

Christopher discovers the dead body of his neighbour's dog, speared by a garden fork, and decides to investigate. He is severely limited, however, by his own fears and difficulties interpreting the world around him. Throughout all his adventures, Christopher writes a book about the happenings and his experiences, and the book he writes is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. The story sees Christopher meet people he has never met before (even though they live on the same street as him) for the purposes of his investigation into the death of the dog. He eventually discovers that Mr Shears, who used to live opposite his home, had an affair with his mother, whom he believes to be dead as his father explained to him that she died of a heart attack. He chronicles this and other discoveries in his book, and his father becomes rather angry at him when he discovers and reads the book. He hides the book and forbids Christopher to continue any investigation. In the search for the hidden book, Christopher discovers a series of letters from his mother, which his father had hidden. Christopher concludes that she is still alive and that his father had lied to him. At this point, his father admits that he was the one who killed the dog. He states that the reason that he did so was because, after Christopher's mother left, Mrs. Shears took care of both of them and moved in with them, but he got angry at her for putting the dog above him and Christopher. Following a heated argument, Christopher's father killed the dog. Christopher then starts fearing that his father may also try to kill him, and so, for the rest of the story, he embarks on a most adventurous journey to London, where his mother lives.

Other

Haddon weaves into the book several concepts from contemporary research and theory on autism; for instance, one incident described in the book is in fact a recreation of a famous experiment regarding theory of mind. The book also contains a few logic puzzles, such as a description of the famous Monty Hall problem, perhaps as an attempt to give the readers some insight into the mind of a compulsive mathematician. Haddon also includes the extremely unlikely incident of seeing four yellow cars in a row.

Trivia

The chapters, instead of numbered in order, such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...are numbered using prime numbers only, so the first chapter is Chapter 2, followed by Chapter 3, then 5, then 7, then 11 and so on.

External links

- [http://plus.maths.org/issue27/reviews/book4/ A review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time]
- [http://www.maa.org/reviews/dogincident.html Another review, this one from the Mathematical Association of America]
- [http://www.powells.com/authors/haddon.html An interview with author Mark Haddon] Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are prizes instituted by the will of Alfred Nobel, awarded to people (and also to organizations in the case of the Nobel Peace Prize) who have done outstanding research, invented groundbreaking techniques or equipment, or made outstanding contributions to society. The Nobel Prizes, which are generally awarded annually in the categories listed below, are widely regarded as the supreme commendation in the world today. As of November 2005, a total of 776 Nobel Prizes have been awarded (758 to individuals and 18 to organizations). However, a few prize winners have declined the award. The prize is occasionally awarded to those who persevered through critical moments in a process despite the risk of failure. There may be years in which one or more prizes are not awarded; however, the prizes must be awarded at least once every five years. The prize cannot be revoked. Since nominees must be living at the time they are nominated, it is very rare that the prize is awarded posthumously.

Prize categories

- Nobel Prize in Physics (decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry (decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (decided by Karolinska Institutet)
- Nobel Prize for Literature (decided by the Swedish Academy)
- Nobel Peace Prize (decided by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, Stortinget)
- Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, sometimes referred to as the Nobel prize in economics, was not a part of Nobel's will. It was instituted in 1969 by Sveriges Riksbank, the Bank of Sweden. Since this prize has no foundation in Nobel's will, and is not paid for by his money, and it is technically not a Nobel Prize. However, it is awarded together with the other Nobel prizes.

The prizes and the ceremony

The prizes are awarded at formal ceremonies held annually in the Stockholm Concert Hall and the Oslo City Hall on December 10, the date that Alfred Nobel passed away. However, different committees and institutions that serve as selection boards for the prizes typically announce the names of the laureates in October. Each award can be given to a maximum of three people per year. Each prize constitutes a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money. The monetary award is quite large, currently about 10 million Swedish Kronor (slightly more than one million Euros or about 1.3 million US dollars). This was originally intended to allow laureates to continue working or researching without the pressures of raising money. In actual fact, many prize winners have retired before winning, and many Literature winners have been silenced by it, even if younger. If there are two winners in one category, the award money is split equally between them. If there are three winners, the awarding committee has the option of splitting the prize money equally among all three, or awarding half of the prize money to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the other two. It is customary (but not mandatory) for the recipients to donate the prize money to benefit scientific, cultural or humanitarian causes. Since 1902, the King of Sweden has formally awarded all the prizes, except the Nobel Peace Prize, in Stockholm. King Oscar II initially did not approve of awarding grand national prizes to foreigners, but is said to have changed his mind after realising the publicity value of the prizes for the country. The Nobel Peace Prize is given in Oslo, Norway, by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Starting in 1901, it was initially given by the President of Norwegian Parliament, until the Norwegian Nobel Committee was established in 1904. Its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget), and it is entrusted both with the preparatory work related to prize adjudication and with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. Its members are independent and do not answer to lawmakers. Members of the Norwegian government are not allowed to take any part in it.

Nobel's Will

The prizes were instituted by the final will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, industrialist, and the inventor of dynamite. Alfred Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. The last one was written on November 27, 1895 — a little over a year before he died. He signed it at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on November 27, 1895. He was shocked to see how his invention of dynamite was used for violent purposes and wanted the prizes to be awarded to those who served mankind well. It is said that this was motivated by his reading of a premature obituary of himself, published in error by a French newspaper who mistook Alfred for his brother Ludvig when Ludvig died, and which condemned Alfred as an 'angel of death'. So in his will, Alfred left 94% of his worth to the establishment of five prizes (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace) for "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." It states: :"The whole of my remaining realisable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: :The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. :The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by the Caroline Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not." Although Nobel's will established the prizes, because his plan was incomplete and due to various other hurdles, it took five years before the Nobel Foundation could be established and the first prizes awarded in 1901.

The nomination and selection process

Each year there are 100 to 250 nominees for each prize. Although anyone can be nominated, not everyone can nominate someone for a Nobel Prize. For example [http://nobelprize.org/ the website of the Nobel Foundation] says that in the case of the peace prize the following people may nominate:
- Members of national assemblies and governments of states
- Members of international courts
- University rectors
- Professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology
- Directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes
- Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- Board members of organisations who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- Active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
- Former advisers appointed by the Norwegian Nobel Institute Similar requirements are in place for the other prizes. However, unlike many other awards, the Nobel Prize nominees are never publicly announced, and they are not supposed to be told that they were ever considered for the prize. These records are sealed for 50 years to avoid turning the awarding of the prize into a popularity contest. The strictly enforced deadline for postmarking of nominations is February 1. Self-nominations are automatically disqualified. Only living persons may be nominated for the Nobel Prize. This has sometimes sparked criticism that people deserving of a Nobel Prize did not receive the award because they died before being nominated. In two cases the prize has been awarded posthumously to people that were nominated when they were still alive. This was the case with UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld (1961, Peace Prize) and Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1931, Literature) — both of whom were awarded the prize in the years they died.

Criticism of the prize

:Main article: Nobel Prize controversies The prize has been criticized over the years, with people suggesting that money, influence and fame are more important than actual achievements. The most famous case for this was in 1973 when Henry Kissinger won the peace prize for bringing peace to Vietnam, when the War in Vietnam did not end until two years later.

Lack of a mathematics prize

A common legend states that Nobel decided against a prize in mathematics because a woman he proposed to (or his wife, or his mistress) rejected him or cheated on him with a famous mathematician, often claimed to be Gösta Mittag-Leffler. There is no historical evidence to support the story, and Nobel was never married. However, there are more credible reasons why Nobel may have chosen not to recognize mathematics. At the time, mathematics was not considered a practical science from which humanity could benefit (a key purpose for the Nobel Foundation), and there was already a well known Scandinavian prize for mathematicians. The existing mathematical awards were mainly due to the work of Mittag-Leffler, who founded the Acta Mathematica, which a century later is still one of the world's leading mathematical journals. Through his influence in Stockholm he persuaded King Oscar II to endow prize competitions and honor distinguished mathematicians all over Europe, including Hermite, Bertrand, Weierstrass, and Poincare. The Fields Medal is widely considered an equivalent substitute for the "missing" Mathematics Nobel Prize. Some even consider it more prestigious, as it is awarded less frequently.

Other prizes

Some fields without a Nobel prize have instituted prizes of their own, most of which are not as well-known: the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, the Polar Music Prize, the Fields Medal in mathematics; also the Abel Prize in mathematics, presented by the King of Norway, the Pritzker Prize in architecture, the Turing Award in computing, the Wollaston Medal in geology, the Templeton Prize in religion, and the Schock Prizes in logic and philosophy, mathematics, visual arts and musical arts. The WTN X Prizes, for technological solutions to pressing global needs, announced in 2004 by the World Technology Network, are in a sense a continuation of the wishes of Alfred Nobel. In his will Nobel opened the door to technological awards in both chemistry and physics, but he did not leave instructions on how to divide the recognition between science and technology. Since the deciding bodies in these domains have been more concerned with science than technology, it is not surprising that the Nobel Prizes have gone to scientists rather than to engineers, technicians or other inventors. The Kyoto Prizes are awarded in three categories: Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy. The Millennium Technology Prize is an international award for outstanding technological achievements. The Right Livelihood Awards (also known as "Alternative Nobel Prizes") are awarded to persons who have made important contributions in areas such as environmental protection, peace, human rights, health etc. In 2002 the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an international prize for children and youth literature, was instituted in honour of Swedish children's book author Astrid Lindgren. The Kavli Foundation will begin awarding prizes in Astrophysics, Nanoscience and Neuroscience every two years from 2008. The Dan David Prize, also valued at about 1.3 million US dollars, is awarded every year in three categories - the past, present, and future. The humorous Ig Nobel Prize is a parody which annually honours research "that cannot or should not be repeated".

External links

- [http://nobelprize.org/ Nobelprize.org] — Official site
- [http://nobelprizes.com/nobel/nobel.html The Nobel Prize Internet Archive]
- [http://www.kva.se/KVA_Root/swe/awards/nobel/index.asp The Nobel Committees] of the [http://www.kva.se/ Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]
- [http://info.ki.se/ki/nobel_en.html The Nobel Committee] of the [http://www.ki.se/ Karolinska Institute]
- [http://www.svenskaakademien.se/ENG/ The Swedish Academy]
- [http://www.nobel.no/ The Norwegian Nobel Committee] Category:Nobel Prize Category:Prizes Category:Swedish organizations Category:Science zh-min-nan:Nobel Chióng ko:노벨상 ja:ノーベル賞 simple:Nobel Prize th:รางวัลโนเบล

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer (Yiddish: יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער or יצחק בת־שבֿעס זינגער) (November 21, 1902 or July 14, 1904 - July 24, 1991) was a Nobel Prize-winning Jewish writer of both short stories and novels.

Biography

Isaac Bashevis Singer was born Icek-Hersz Zynger in Radzymin, near Warsaw in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. His father was a Hasidic rabbi and his mother, Bathsheba, was the daughter of a rabbi. Singer later used her name in his penname "Bashevis" (son of Bathsheba). His brother Israel Joshua Singer also was a noted writer and was the first and greatest literary influence on his younger brother Isaac. Singer grew up in the Yiddish-speaking poor Jewish quarter of Warsaw, where his father acted as a rabbi, judge, and spiritual leader, and in Bilgoraj, a traditional Jewish village or shtetl. Singer entered in 1920 the Tachkemoni Rabbinical Seminary, but then returned to Bilgoraj, where he supported himself by giving Hebrew lessons. Though his rabbinical studies would remain a strong influence on him, he longed to be a part of a literary community. In 1923 he moved to Warsaw, where he worked as a proofreader for the Literarische Bleter, edited by his brother Israel. The older brother contributed to the younger brother's spiritual liberation and contact with the new currents of seething political, social and cultural upheaval. Singer made his debut with Satan in Goray which was first published in Poland in 1932. It was written in the style imitative of medieval Yiddish chronicle and tells the story of the events surrounding the 17th Century false messiah Shabbatai Zvi. The people in this novel, as elsewhere with Singer, are often at the mercy of the capricious infliction of circumstance, but even more so, their own passions, manias, superstitions and fanatical dreams. In his later work The Slave (1962) Singer returned again to the 17th Century in a love story of a Jewish man and a Gentile woman. To flee from anti-Semitism, and to follow his brother, Singer emigrated to the U.S. in 1935. He separated from his first wife Rachel, and son Israel, who went to Moscow and later Palestine. Singer settled in New York, where he started writing as a journalist and columnist for The Forward, a Jewish newspaper. He wrote nearly all his work in Yiddish and often used the penname Warshofsky. In 1940 he married Alma Haimann, a German emigrant. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1943.Throughout his career, Singer would continue to be a contributor and supporter of The Forward, which remains in existence today as a weekly. Throughout the 1940s, Singer´s reputation began to grow among the many Yiddish-speaking immigrants. After World War II and the near destruction of the Yiddish-speaking peoples, Yiddish seemed a dead language. Though Singer had moved to the United States, he believed in the power of his native language and knew that there was still a large audience that longed to read in Yiddish. In an interview in Encounter (Feb 1979) he claimed that although the Jews of Poland had died "something - call it spirit or whatever - is still somewhere in the universe. This is a mystical kind of feeling, but I feel there is truth in it." Singer's work is undoubtedly much indebted to the great writers of Yiddish tradition such as Sholom Aleichem, but is much more modern in approach and has been shaped by his experience in America. His themes of witchcraft, mystery and legend draw on traditional sources, but they are established in modern and ironic way. They are also concerned with the bizarre and the grotesque. Singer published 18 novels, 14 children's books, a number of memoirs, essays and articles, but he is best known as a writer of short-stories which have appeared in over a dozen collections. The first collection of Singer's short-stories in English Gimpel, the Fool, was published in 1957. The title story was translated by Saul Bellow and published in 1952 in Partisan Review. Stories published in Daily Forward were later collected among others such as My Father's Court(1966). Later collections include A Crown of Feathers (1973), with notable masterpieces in between, such as, The Spinoza of Market Street (1961), or, A Friend of Kafka (1970). The world of his stories is the world and life of East European Jewry, such as it was lived in cities and villages, in poverty and persecution, and imbued with sincere piety and rites combined with blind faith and superstition. It appears to include everything - pleasure and suffering, coarseness and subtlety. We find obstrusive carnality, spicy, colourful, fragrant or smelly, lewd or violent. But there is also room for sagacity, worldly wisdom and humor. One of Singer's most prominent themes is the clash between the old and the modern world, tradition and renewal, faith and free thought. Among many other themes, it is dealt with in Singer's big family chronicles - the novels, The Family Moskat (1950), The Manor (1967), and The Estate (1969). These extensive epic works have been compared with Thomas Mann's novel, Buddenbrooks. Like Mann, Singer describes how old families are broken up by the new age and its demands, from the middle of the 19th Century up to the Second World War, and how they are split, financially, socially and humanly. Throughout the 1960s Singer continued to write on questions of personal morality. One of his most famous novels (due to a popular movie remake) was Enemies, a Love Story in which a Holocaust survivor deals with his own desires, complex family relationships, and the loss of faith. His feminist story, "Yentel," was also made into a popular movie, starring Barbra Streisand. Thanks to the film, the story has had a wide impact on culture. Singer's own relationship with religion was complex. He regarded himself as a skeptic and a loner, though he still felt connected to his Orthodox roots, and ultimately developed his own brand of religion and philosophy which he called a "private mysticism: Since God was completely unknown and eternally silent, He could be endowed with whatever traits one elected to hang upon Him." After being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1978, Singer gained a monumental status among writers throughout the world, and his reputation with non-Jewish audiences is now higher than that of any other Yiddish writer. Singer died on July 24, 1991 in Miami, Florida, after suffering a series of strokes.

Vegetarianism

Singer was a prominent vegetarian for the last 35 years of his life and often included such themes in his works. In his short story, The Slaughterer, he described the anguish that an appointed slaughterer had trying to reconcile his compassion for animals with his job of slaughtering animals. He felt that the eating of meat was a denial of all ideals and all religions: "How can we speak of right and justice if we take an innocent creature and shed its blood". When asked if he had become a vegetarian for health reasons, he replied: "I did it for the health of the chickens." In the preface to Steven Rosen's "Food for Spirit: Vegetarianism and the World Religions" (1986) singer wrote, "When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. It is inconsistent. I can never accept inconsistency or injustice. Even if it comes from God. If there would come a voice from God saying, "I'm against vegetarianism!" I would say, "Well, I am for it!" This is how strongly I feel in this regard."

List of novels

Note: the publication years in the following list refer to English translations, not the Yiddish originals (which often predate their translations by ten or twenty years).
- The Family Moskat (1950)
- Satan in Goray (1955)
- The Magician of Lublin (1960)
- The Slave (1962)
- The Fearsome Inn (1967)
- Mazel and Shlimazel (1967)
- The Manor (1967)
- The Estate (1969)
- Elijah The Slave (1970)
- Joseph and Koza: or the Sacrifice to the Vistula (1970)
- The Topsy-Turvy Emperor of China (1971)
- Enemies, a Love Story (1972)
- The Wicked City (1972)
- The Hasidim (1973)
- Fools of Chelm (1975)
- Naftali and the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus (1976)
- Shosha (1978)
- A Young Man in Search of Love (1978)
- The Penitent (1983)
- Yentl the Yeshiva Boy (1983)
- Why Noah Chose the Dove (1984)
- The King of the Fields (1988)
- Scum (1991)
- The Certificate (1992)
- Meshugah (1994)
- Shadows on the Hudson (1997) see books: Aleksandra Ziółkowska "Korzenie są polskie", Warszawa 1992 Aleksandra Ziółkowska Boehm "The Roots Are Polish", Toronto 2004

External links

- [http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1978/index.html 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature]
- [http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1978/singer-bio.html Nobel biography]
- [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/783obafc.asp What Yiddish Says] article from The Weekly Standard
- [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1096259488459&p=1006953079969 An American exile] article from The Jerusalem Post
- http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ibsinger.htm
- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/singer_i.html
- http://www.wbur.org/arts/2005/48687_20050101.asp Singer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Issac B Singer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Isaac Bashevis

Association for Library Service to Children

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) is a division of the American Library Association. Its members are concerned with the profession of children's Librarianship. The ALSC chooses the recipients of some of the world's most prestigious annual children's literature awards. They include the Newbery Medal for writing, Caldecott Medal for illustration, Sibert Medal for informational, Wilder Medal for impact over time, Batchelder Award for works in a foreign language (not English), Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video, and the Belpre Medal for work by a Latino writer.

External links

[http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberymedal.htm ALASC Home Page]

Newbery Medal

The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children of the American Library Association (ALA) to the author of the most outstanding American book for children. The award has been given since 1922. Together with the Caldecott Medal, it is considered the most prestigious award for children's literature in the United States. It is named for John Newbery, an 18th century publisher of juvenile books. The Newbery Medal was designed by Rene Paul Chambellan in 1921. The Newbery Medal is not to be confused with the Newbery Honor citation, which is conferred annually to worthy runners-up.

Newbery Medal recipients

- 1922: Hendrik Willem van Loon, The Story of Mankind
- 1923: Hugh Lofting, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
- 1924: Charles Hawes, The Dark Frigate
- 1925: Charles Finger, Tales from Silver Lands
- 1926: Arthur Bowie Chrisman, Shen of the Sea
- 1927: Will James, Smoky the Cow Horse
- 1928: Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Gayneck, the Story of a Pigeon
- 1929: Eric P. Kelly, The Trumpeter of Krakow
- 1930: Rachel Field, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
- 1931: Elizabeth Coatsworth, The Cat Who Went to Heaven
- 1932: Laura Adams Armer, Waterless Mountain
- 1934: Elizabeth Foreman Lewis, Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
- 1934: Cornelia Meigs, Invincible Louisa
- 1935: Monica Shannon, Dobry
- 1936: Carol Ryrie Brink, Caddie Woodlawn
- 1937: Ruth Sawyer, Roller Skates
- 1938: Kate Seredy, The White Stag
- 1939: Elizabeth Enright, Thimble Summer
- 1940: James Daugherty, Daniel Boone (book)
- 1941:

Children's literature

Basic characteristics

History

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The Prince and the Pauper

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Fiction

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Whitbread Awards

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Book of the Year Award Winners

Complete Winners and Nominees

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The Amber Spyglass

His Dark Materials

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Main character

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Nobel Prize

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Nobel's Will

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Lack of a mathematics prize

Other prizes

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Isaac Bashevis Singer

Biography

Vegetarianism

List of novels

External links

Association for Library Service to Children

See also

External links

Newbery Medal

Newbery Medal recipients