Comments on: Something that was, for a while forgotten: or Happy Publication Day, East of the Sun.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:10:20 +0000

Wouldn’t that have been amazing. And thank you. So glad you like it. Have always strived to do beautiful things. I think it easy to do dark, miserable work. So much harder to celebrate life and beauty, but at the end of the day it has its own rewards. The kind that aren’t found in a cup of gold.

By: John Ward

John Ward — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:04:41 +0000

That is a beautiful story, Jackie, and a beautiful book. Just finished reading it now. I think the homeless girl spent the gold the bear gave her and all went well for a bit (though not perhaps as wonderfully as she had imagined when she was poor and thought if only she had money) but then she fell on hard times again and ended up a serving girl in a troll queen’s castle…

By: Jackie

Jackie — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 15:02:41 +0000

Thanks Manda. This is why the story of the Glasgow Girls on Woman’s Hour hit me, because what they did was just so good and also brave. Brilliant girls. Meanwhile, glad you are liking it. I want to do more writing. All I need is more hours in the day.

By: Manda Scott

Manda Scott — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 14:07:01 +0000

I have just begun to read this passionate, heartfelt book – and I, too, wondered what became of the homeless girl who was given a mug full of gold by a magical bear. I have only let myself read the first chapter, but I am struck by the poetry of the prose, and by the fluid, aching depth of the despair felt by the asylum-seeking family. And the images, of course, are just heart-breakingly beautiful.

Thank you…

By: Tammie

Tammie — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:43:41 +0000

hello Jackie,
your book, this book arrived in the mail today, it is lovely. I love it’s size and am thrilled with all the tiny and full page illustrations! I look forward to reading it. Such a perfect Valentine’s gift to myself.

thank you in advance!

By: Jackie

Jackie — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:13:14 +0000

Thanks Sue. Let me know any typos you pick up.

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:53:40 +0000

Jackie, East of the Sun, West of the Moon is stunning, really stunning. Thank you x

By: Kathy Kenney

Kathy Kenney — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:06:38 +0000

How interesting that the teacher who wasn’t familiar with materials she was sharing with her class would criticize you for including something she hadn’t taken the time to read. Besides missing the responsibility to prepare, she really missed the chance t0 talk to her students about issues that may have been unfamiliar to some of them.

I haven’t seen the book yet, my copy is on the way, but suspect you will tell this story well and will illustrate it beautifully.

Don’t let the naysayers get you down, you have too many fans for them to make a dent.

By: Christina

Christina — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:17:52 +0000

I’m so looking forward to receiving my copies. My girls are 8 and 11, and it’s a struggle sometimes, trying to find the balance between that strong parental urge to protect them and let them hang onto the innocence of childhood a little longer, and allowing them to learn what they need to learn about how the world works, that everything isn’t always rainbows and lollipops, but they can still live and be happy and find beauty and joy. For the 2nd half of 2012 I worked in the library of a school that sounds much like your Birmingham one, Jackie, and I saw the same heart wrenching things. Children who often have such potential, but are ‘behind the eight ball’ before they’ve even started because their home circumstances are so awful, so utterly unsympathetic with learning. Children who, indeed, knew all too well about drugs and quite possibly prostitution too. Children who struggled with alcoholic parents, with being passed around among relatives and never having a proper home, with missing school because carers couldn’t or wouldn’t get them to school. Children who will slip through the cracks, no matter how hard the teachers try, because there were so little resources available. Heartbreaking.

By: Nick Green

Nick Green — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:59:29 +0000

It really is the most fleeting of references to prostitutes / drugs, isn’t it? My son probably wouldn’t even notice the words if I read it to him.

Mild compared to ‘The Horse and his Boy’ by C S Lewis, in which it is strongly implied that the Calormene Prince wishes to kidnap Queen Susan to make into his slave/courtesan. He doesn’t use the words ‘prostitute’ or ‘sex slave’ of course, but the sense is glaringly obviously, right there in one of the best-loved childrens’ series of all time.