Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/the-saturdays-and-more

Comment #2087

2010-10-02T00:52:43Z

Very much concur with your comments.

As a writer of books for teenage boys, my greatest influences are the authors I read as a child – Arthur Ransome, Enid Blyton, Elizabeth Enright, Edith Nesbit, Fae Hewston Stevens – to name a few).

I had no idea I was writing books about “free-range kids” until I discovered Lenore Skenazy's website!

The main characters of my Super-Twins series are considered quirky and a little weird by the current generation, but they would have fitted in perfectly in Elizabeth Enright’s day. They do lots of old-fashioned boyish things such as riding bikes, farm-work, boating, hiking and messing round with cars. But they also cook, perform in concerts and plays, read books, do their homework, listen to classical music, have hobbies and weekend jobs and are caring, compassionate and protective of eachother. They are respectful to their parents, teachers and other adults, but, nevertheless, free and independent thinkers.

Hmm… Never realised how out of touch with reality I was until now!

…or maybe it’s the "helicopter" parents who are out of touch.

At least, I’m in good company, though, as the most successful children’s writer of all time, J.K. Rowling, is a dyed-in-the-wool free-ranger!

Comment #2086

2010-09-27T23:12:56Z

Yes! We LOVE the Ransome books!

Comment #2085

2010-09-27T17:54:00Z

AND Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away!

Comment #2084

2010-09-27T17:51:52Z

Precisely why I enjoyed Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series as a child, read them to my children and happily re-read them now. I'll look up these books for my grandkids!

Comment #2083

2010-09-26T10:28:53Z

As always, nephews are welcome to borrow the books until the grandchildren are ready, but I'm afraid all or nearly all of them are presently at that in-between age: too old and sophisticated to enjoy them as kids, and too young to enjoy them as adults.