美国国家公共电台 NPR Kate DiCamillo, Chronicler Of The Hard Truths Of Youth

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

It's been 18 years since a book called "Because Of Winn-Dixie" changed author Kate DiCamillo's life. It was the first of her string of bestsellers for young readers, ranging from picture books to novels. Now DiCamillo has a new novel out, "Louisiana's Way Home." Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr reports her success is based on a determination to tell her readers the truth.

EUAN KERR, BYLINE¹: It's Saturday evening in St. Paul, and 400 parents and children have gathered for the launch of Kate DiCamillo's new book. The event was organized by the Red Balloon Bookshop, which hosted the launch of "Because Of Winn-Dixie." She told the audience she wrote that book right after moving to Minnesota from Florida.

KATE DICAMILLO: When I moved here, I knew that it was cold, but I thought, how cold can it be?

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Laughter).

DICAMILLO: And I literally² - this is true. I didn't have a jacket when I moved here, and I didn't have socks.

KERR: And she didn't have a dog, so she wrote one and named it Winn-Dixie. She told a crowd she didn't always want to be a writer.

DICAMILLO: When I was growing up, I wanted to be a veterinarian until something very unfortunate happened in a vet's office involving somebody's German shepherd and their eye falling out, and me outside, vomiting³.

KERR: At the book signing afterwards, she bonded⁴ with one of her young readers over their four-legged friends.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: So you're not a cat person, or you are a cat person?

DICAMILLO: You kind of picked up on it. No, I'm allergic⁵ to cats.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: OK.

DICAMILLO: And I like to make jokes about...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah.

DICAMILLO: ...Cats and, you know?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah.

DICAMILLO: But, I mean, I would never hurt a cat.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah.

DICAMILLO: And I'm sure you're going to tell me you've got a cat that's as good as a dog. No, you're not? OK, great.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I'm a dog person.

DICAMILLO: You're a dog - do you like cats?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah.

DICAMILLO: Yeah, right. You and I are on the same page, yeah.

KERR: With her red reading glasses perched atop her now-gray curls, DiCamillo is not much bigger than most of her young readers. Her friend and fellow author Julie Schumacher is struck by how DiCamillo seems to understand them.

JULIE SCHUMACHER: She has a sort of childlike frankness when she talks to them. And she will point at people and tell them to sit down and be quiet if she needs to, but she'll also connect to them one-on-one in a way that I think many other writers of children's lit who never had children were able to do as well, going back to C.S. Lewis.

KERR: That's right. Despite having written 25 books for youngsters, DiCamillo doesn't have children of her own. But she vividly⁶ remembers being one and not being taken seriously.

DICAMILLO: And it happened all the time because I looked like the kind of kid that should be patted on the head and, you know, sent to an orphanage⁷. But I was actually very sarcastic⁸.

KERR: She still is, and she knows her readers can take it.

DICAMILLO: One of the things that I love about interacting with kids is I get that chance to, like, see them as individuals and not to condescend⁹ to them. And that comes back to that whole larger thing about writing and telling the truth.

KERR: Her stories don't hold back about the hard truths of life. Julie Schumacher, who is also a professor of English at the University of Minnesota, says DiCamillo often writes about individuals - some human, some animal - facing the world alone.

SCHUMACHER: There is no beating around the bush. The characters suffer. There's great suffering in these books. There's great loneliness, a sense of abandonment that pervades¹⁰ everything she's written.

KERR: It's very much a part of DiCamillo's new book, "Louisiana's Way Home." It's the story of the orphaned¹¹ Louisiana Elefante, who lives with her eccentric grandmother. Early one morning, Granny tells Louisiana they have to leave immediately to escape a family curse.

DICAMILLO: (Reading) So I got in the car, and we drove away. I did not think to look behind me. How could I have known that I was leaving for good? I thought that I was caught up in some middle-of-the-night idea of Granny's and that when the sun came up, she would think better of the whole thing. This has happened before. Granny has many middle-of-the-night ideas.

KERR: DiCamillo's stories aren't just for young people, said reading specialist Betsy Kelly at the launch of "Louisiana's Way Home."

BETSY KELLY: So many adults just want to read those books because they really are quality literature with depth and such amazing plotlines. And so a lot of adults love her books, too.

KERR: Despite legions of fans, Kate DiCamillo says she is sometimes scared by the unlikelihood of her success. Even though she comes across as a smart aleck, she admits to being timid. So she wants to send a message to her readers.

DICAMILLO: Guess what. You're going to be OK. And I didn't always believe that when I was a kid.

KERR: Kate DiCamillo's books may be filled with hard truths, but there are always moments of hope and joy. For NPR News, I'm Euan Kerr in St. Paul, Minn.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE DIP'S "SOLSTICE")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

3 vomiting   

吐

参考例句：

• Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting. 症状有腹泻和呕吐。
• Especially when I feel seasick, I can't stand watching someone else vomiting." 尤其晕船的时候，看不得人家呕。”

4 bonded   

n.有担保的，保税的，粘合的

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee.威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• This adhesive must be applied to both surfaces which are to be bonded together.要粘接的两个面都必须涂上这种黏合剂。

5 allergic   

adj.过敏的，变态的

参考例句：

• Alice is allergic to the fur of cats.艾丽斯对猫的皮毛过敏。
• Many people are allergic to airborne pollutants such as pollen.许多人对空气传播的污染物过敏，比如花粉。

6 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

7 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

8 sarcastic   

adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的

参考例句：

• I squashed him with a sarcastic remark.我说了一句讽刺的话把他给镇住了。
• She poked fun at people's shortcomings with sarcastic remarks.她冷嘲热讽地拿别人的缺点开玩笑。

9 condescend   

v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑

参考例句：

• Would you condescend to accompany me?你肯屈尊陪我吗？
• He did not condescend to answer.He turned his back on me.他不愿屈尊回答我的问题。他不理睬我。

10 pervades   

v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• An unpleasant smell pervades the house. 一种难闻的气味弥漫了全屋。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• An atmosphere of pessimism pervades the economy. 悲观的气氛笼罩着整个经济。 来自辞典例句

11 orphaned   

[计][修]孤立

参考例句：

• Orphaned children were consigned to institutions. 孤儿都打发到了福利院。
• He was orphaned at an early age. 他幼年时便成了孤儿。