Among the glorious abundance of Seattle writers, who even if they don't have a lot of sun in the sky aim at least for the sunshine of being published, Queen Anne resident Liz Gallagher has special cause to celebrate. Her story "Riding the Whale," about a girl seeing the family station wagon as a blue whale as it carries her on the family move from suburb to city, is published in the April 2004 issue of Highlights for Children.
Gallagher's two-page story has that elusive quality, charm,through a combination of craft, imagination, adventure and an instinct to swim towards the bright side.
When we met at a Queen Anne coffeehouse, Gallagher was full of enthusiasm for her craft, tempered by a crowded schedule. Some of her writing, including "Riding the Whale," is done in the middle of the night, since she works days on the support staff of Pacific Crest Montessori School and as a bookseller at All for Kids Books and Music. She is also working on her master of fine arts degree at Vermont College.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Gallagher finds "Seattle has a wealth of bookstores and people excited about literature," and likes that there are children's bookstores. Apparently the film "You've Got Mail," in which a chain bookstore puts one for chil-dren out of business, is based on a true story; she's heard that NYC no longer has bookstores just for kids.
Gallagher always wanted to be a writer, but it was during a session on books for children at the Denver Pub-lishing Institute that she realized this is where she wanted to head. She got a job at Highlights - in her opinion, the best publication for children in the country - where as an editor she viewed the field from the other side.
Each issue contains stories, puz-zles, poetry, riddles, jokes and cartoons, plus pages devoted to the children's own work and articles on topics like science, art, sports and different cultures.
"The founders started the magazine because they wanted to create something for kids all their own and not commercial," Gallagher said. Highlights is not run by commercials.
She attended a live American Idol concert and enjoyed it, but found the many ads disturbing. "I have a problem with advertising for young people, like serial commercials pounding you. Commercials make you obsessive about the product," as she was once obsessed with Cabbage Patch dolls. They're good dolls, but commercials don't help a child "differentiate between quality products and junk.
"Kids have enough influences in their life - they don't need someone trying to make money off them."
On the recent Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards Show, I noticed Britney Spears hardly got mentioned and asked if her influence is on the wane. At least at the Montessori school where she works, Gallagher replied, Spears is not so popular. "If anything, they're annoyed with Britney," whereas they love American Idol.
I asked Gallagher to recommend some favorite children's books to Queen Anne residents, and they are at the end of this article.
She finds there are a lot of good books out today, and prefers books not so much issue-oriented but with a strong story and characters that, in a nondidactic way, influence kids to good choices.
What kind of choices? "You shouldn't be part of anything that will hurt you," she said, "and to try not to hurt others."
And what kind of writing does she see herself doing in the future? "A lot of writers feel pressure to be literary. I don't. Books like 'The Princess Diaries' are really fun but won't win a Pulitzer."
She loves a spunky central character in a good coming-of-age story. She likes the challenge a person faces to figure out who they are; the struggle between the temptation to fit in and to be oneself. She's working on a novel and says, "I try to write the book I want to read."
About "Harry Potter," she started one book several times. "It's just not my thing, but it's great that it's a huge phenomenon. A lot of families do read-alouds with 'Harry Potter,' which is a good habit, and hopefully it has led a lot of kids to other books as well."
Gallagher's picks
"Feed," by M.T. Anderson, for ages 12 and up, is a classic, freshly retold coming-of-age boy-girl story, set in a future when people go so regularly to the moon the trip is passe. Each person's brain has a chip for instant messaging. A teenage boy dominated by his "feed" chip meets a girl who so cares about the world she challenges the feed. (Anderson, faculty head of Gallagher's Vermont College program, is rather like a rock star to Gallagher and is why she applied there.)
"Summerland," by Michael Chabon, for boys all ages, is a nice, hefty book like the last "Harry Potter." "Kids like having that brick to read," said Gallagher. A boy, who lives on a fictional island off Washington state coast and for whom the world is magical, goes on an adventure to find his father and ends up saving the world. According to Time, "Summerland" adapts Norse, Native American, American and Homeric myth plus Tolkien and C.S. Lewis "to teach the enduring lessons about finding strength within yourself." Chabon won a Pulitzer for "Amazing Adversities of Kavalier and Clay."
"Alice, I Think," by Susan Juby, features a home-schooled girl who goes to an alternative high school in town. The quirky narrator, as in "Bridget Jones' Diary," is more neurotic and clumsy than smooth and elegant. (Warning for parents: there is a casual sex scene, and Queen Anne Avenue Books puts the novel with adult fiction.)
Also for young adults is "I Capture the Castle," by Dodie Smith, described by the Los Angeles Times as "a sparkling novel, a work of wit, irony and feeling." I read it last fall and agree.
For younger girls, Gallagher likes the Judy Moody series and also, to a lesser degree, the Junie B. Jones series. The "Lemony Snicket" series appeals to the Harry Potter crowd; "Wrestling Sturbridge," by Rich Wallace, is a good, solid coming-of-age story for boys.[[In-content Ad]]
