‘Children’s books today aren’t wild enough, says Maurice Sendak’

Picture and news from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/19/childrens-books-not-wild-maurice-sendak?INTCMP=SRCH

Most people believe that anything about children should be safe, innocent and kind. Parents are therefore trying hard to create a friendly and nice environment for their kids. The same situation happened in kids’ book industry. Stories in such kind of books are always describing the world around us as a friendly, safe one even though in the reality world this is not always true. That’s why the audience would feel surprised to see the news article ‘Children’s books today aren’t wild enough, says Maurice Sendak’ written by Alison Flood of the Guardian.

The topic of this news article is not as hitting as those relate to breaking news. However it does hooked me in because of the fresh and conflicted idea. That is—children’s book should reflect the way our world truly is rather than a fairy friendly one. This article is very good because it can lead the public to think and discuss about the right education for the kids. Also, it can help Maurice Sendak to sell his children’s book series.

From my point of view, I think this news article is more like an article which aims to promote Sendak’s new book. Since the only news in this article is about Sendak’s opinion towards children’s book. And quotes in this article are all from Sendak. However the way Allison Flood adopts to promote is quite good. If she is just describing how good the author’s book is then the news article would become boring. Instead, she finds a newsworthy angle about Sendak’s work and then writes a news article. The advantage of doing so is on the one hand, she promotes the new book and on the other hand, this angle can make the public think about the topic of children’s education deeply.

'Outcry over Hamlet novel casting old king as gay paedophile'

Pictures and news link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/08/outcry-hamlet-novel-gay-paedophile?INTCMP=SRCH

Hamlet novel is one of the classics and that’s why I felt so surprised when I saw the news title ‘Outcry over Hamlet novel casting old king as gay paedophile’ on the website of the Guardian. The news itself is about a small American publisher were criticized by its audience because of publishing a version of Hamlet novel which described the Old King Hamlet as a homosexual person. Even though a small publisher and the criticism from its audience is not a big topic, however, as I mentioned before since Hamlet novel is one of the classics and it has been familiar with most of the people around the world, then this news could be count as newsworthy because of its prominence and human interest value.

The goal of news is to inform, educate and make the public discuss. From this aspect, this piece of news is quite successful because it informs audiences about different version of a classic work and also leads the discussion of the public. That is: should we bring our bias into art work such as classic books appreciation? The author of this news piece represents a conflicted view between a different version of a classic novel and its audience. The thing is, if this new version has nothing to do with gay staff, would it become more acceptable by the public? Also, is this thing itself a discrimination toward homosexual group? In one word, this news works well because of its implication on our society.

Even though the goal of this news piece is to educate and lead a discussion among the public, it adopts an interesting, relaxing form. What the news article concentrate is the discrimination toward homosexual group however instead of long tedious discussion it connect this topic with the Old King Hamlet. Audiences would feel surprising and intriguing and thus they will read this piece of news from the start till end.

'9/11 children's colouring book angers US Muslims'

Pictures and news link: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8630417638156893104




This is another news article written by Allison Flood from the Guardian. The title of this news article is ‘9/11 children’s colouring books angers US Muslims’. It’s a very good title since it can hook the audience and keep them reading this article. Since, according to the public, colouring books for children are very innocent thing, how it could angers US Muslims? This is exact the reason for why I decide to keep reading.

The news article itself is not such grabbing as news articles about disaster, war, crime, etc. However, I think this news article is also very interesting because of the conflicted factor in it. Firstly the two subjects in this article is children’s colouring book, and the other is US Muslims who feel ‘disgusting’ about this book because of the misleading and maybe discrimination content in it. Secondly, Allison Flood presents two conflicted view toward the content of this book. This is a balanced structure which could show unbiased opinion and also because of the two conflict view toward a single issue, the audience would feel interesting. After exam the factors of this article I consider this news article as a human interest article.

Allison Flood is very skilful at writing good news article about books and new media publishing. If she’s just describing the content of these books and try to promote these books to the audience then her news article would be very boring. However, in her news article she relates a certain book to a recent news topic and then brings a totally new angle to the audience. So each time I read her news article I feel totally obsessed about the new idea she brings to us and also feel that I have the interest to read the books she described in her article.