Likewise, it may be that I was looking for identity in the wrong place. In When Marnie Was There, Anna is on the outside, looking in, wondering how to fit in, all the while oblivious to the connections that surround her.
What I do know, or am beginning to realize, is that it is all so incredibly subjective: tastes, feelings, responses. My own children seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. Maybe it would've resonated with me then as it does now. That is a power I never would've expected from a children's novel.I don't know how I would've felt about this novel as a child. I had to step away from my reading of the text for a few minutes to compose myself. No other book we'd read together had prompted so many questions.Once the truth of the story draws near, it hits hard. At the end of every chapter or two, we as a family would theorize what was going on. Robinson fantastically doled out the mystery surrounding Anna's friend, Marnie, at just the right speed to keep things interesting without giving much away. But man, oh man, is this novel wonderfully paced and charactered. There are some strange happenings and some drama, but largely, it's about Anna and her struggles. This is the story of a girl, Anna, who is a bit of an outcast and who finds a friend in an unexpected place. It's true, not much happens, but it is an enchanting tale. For some children, it may be much too slow. When Marnie Was There is such a fantastic read. Yet I worried this children's story would be just like the rest. The trailer looked fantastic, however, and I thought it would be fun to read the book to the kiddos before we watched the movie. Prior to this, I'd never heard of the title or its author, Joan G. Was I missing something, some basic trait in myself that made deficient my understanding of a good story?When I first saw the trailer for Studio Ghibli's newest film, When Marnie Was There, I knew I'd found our newest family read.
Either way, book after book, I was disappointed with the action-begets-conflict-leading-to-more-action plot. Perhaps they were out there and I just couldn't find them. The authors of children's tales clearly knew nothing about creating round characters who develop or using language to further the plot perhaps they knew and just refused to utilize them. Though the stories were good, every one was guilty of being a story and little more. Had I missed much? I began to explore some of the titles I'd heard others rave about, some old and some new. I did read one or two Judy Blumes, but that was as close as I got to “good literature” until I was much older.Once I had children, my curiosity about children's literature grew. Mostly, I read Garfield and Choose Your Own Adventure. The books I read were not the classic adventures you may have read. I read for fun as a child, but not voraciously. I didn't grow up with a great love of reading like many of my contemporary readers and writers.
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