WGLT interviews me about Alice in Wonderland's 150th anniversary

Thanks to Judy Valente for putting together a smart, charming piece about the 150th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Judy has done so many interesting and intriguing radio pieces for WGLT. Whenever she has interviewed me, it has been a good experience and she always makes me sound much better.

Here's a link to the interview. https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2015/10/alice-wonderland-turns-150/WGLT's Charlie Schlenker took this photo of me and aa selection of Alice books. 

Peter Pan play marks 110th anniversary

Tonight is the 110th anniversary of J.M. Barrie's play "Peter Pan" first being performed. Laura Kennedy, the local NPR station WGLT, interviewed me about Peter Pan and its multitude of forms that Barrie created. Thanks to Laura Kennedy for being such a great interviewer and making me sound so good.

Here's the link to the interview.http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2014/12/05436_12-26PeterPanWEB_040330.shtml

In the interview, you will hear how Peter Pan is linked to the legendary Victorian Pantomime's that filled theaters with laughter during the holiday season. I also talk about how Barrie befriend a family of boys and then based much of the Peter Pan story on playing with them as well as missing his younger brother, David, who died in childhood. Barrie published numerous versions of the story in adult novels, as a play, as a novel for children and more.

Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers & ISU connections, an interview on WGLT

Thanks to Judy Valente for her delightful interview of me on WGLT about Mary Poppins as both a delightful filmJulie Andrews as Mary Poppins and P. L. Travers, author of the book and a popular children's book as well as a small, but interesting connection of ISU to P. L. Travers. Judy is such a great interviewer.

Disney's Mary Poppins film was released 50 years ago this week. As we learned in the recent Disney film Saving Mr. Banks, P. L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins series, was never happy with the adaptation. Pamela Travers was opinionated, but thoughtful, and certainly had a wide range of interests including Zen Buddhism and mytical Sufism. 

In the WGLT interview, Judy asks why Mary Poppins, the film, has such a long-standing appeal with both adults and children. I think that it is partly because Travers understood that children whose lives are in even a small amount of dissarray fantasize about order and everything working out. But it is also because Walt Disney understood the humor and charm of the story and could add the studio's magic to make it wonderful entertainment. Finally, the film causes adults to not only reflect back on their childhood but to consider how they are as parents; are they fulfilling their own hopes and dreams for their family?  The film is more complicated than we perhaps realized when we saw it as children, but that, in turn, makes seeing it again just as fulfilling.

Thanks, again, to Judy Valente for the opportunity to thoughtfully reflect on the delightful film as it turns 50.

On The Wizard of Oz, films new and old and the books

James Franco as The WizardIs James Franco right for the Wizard in Disney's new film Oz: The Great and Powerful -- that's a question Laura Kennedy asks when she interviews me in a podcast about The Wizard of Oz films and books.  Here's a link to the podcast on WGLT (our local NPR station), which aired Friday, March 8.  You can hear my answer as well as information about the film of the new Oz and my thoughts on political allegories in the original books.

I also chatted about The Wizard of Oz with Jim Fitzpatrick on WJBC, the Voice of McLean County, two weeks ago.  Jan Susina with The Wizard of Oz bok

The media interest reflects, I think, that there's a genuine excitement about a new film based on The Wizard of Oz books. So far, the film is getting mixed reviews -- see reviews by Richard Roeper in The Sun-Times (reviewing instead of Roger Ebert) or Mahnola Dargis in The New York Times.  Yet, as Laura Kennedy points out in the podcast, the original MGM film was also somewhat panned by the critics.  But it gained a following through its own technological twist, aired repeatedly at Easter time on TV networks, that Baum would have appreciated.  Those annual telecasts insured that the film was cemented in children's imaginations and subconsciousness.  So whatever the critics think, our family is still going to see the film and be captivated.

And, I'm looking forward to teaching The Wizard of Oz in my children's literature class this spring.

File under O-Z.

Interview about Lewis Carroll book on WGLT

Jim Browne's interview of me about Alice in Wonderland and my book, The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature is airing today (12/24).  Here's a link to the WGLT newsroom with the interview from the radio and another excerpt.  Thanks to Jim Browne for making me sound good!

And, as I said in the interview, Alice in Wonderland is a great Christmas gift.  Altho Carroll told the story first in July to the Liddell family in 1862, he gave an illustrated manuscript copy (Alice Underground) to Alice Liddell at Christmas in 1863. The book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with John Tenniel's drawings, was published for the Christmas season in 1865. And it's still available in bookstores