Welcome to Lizard Motel: Children, Stories, and the Mystery of Making Things Up, A Memoir [Hardcover]

Barbara Feinberg (Author)

Book Description

Welcome to Lizard Motel is a completely original memoir about the place of stories in children's lives. It began when Barbara Feinberg noticed that her twelve-year-old son, Alex, who otherwise loved to read, hated reading many of the novels assigned to him in school. These stories of abandonment, kidnapping, abuse, and more-called "problem novels"-were standard fare in his middle school classroom. Alex and his friends hated to read these books. As one of them said, "They give me a headache in my stomach." So Feinberg set out to discover just what these kids were talking about.

She started to read the books, steeping herself in novels like Chasing Redbird, Bridge to Terabithia, The Pigman, and more. She consulted librarians, children's literature experts, and others, trying to get a handle on why young-adult novels had become so dark and gloomy and, to her mind, contrived.

What she found both troubled and surprised her. "In the middle of the 1960s," observed one children's literature expert, "political and social changes leaned hard on the crystal cage that had surrounded children's literature for ages. It cracked and the world flowed in."

Welcome to Lizard Motel documents this dramatic change in the content of young-adult novels but does so in a uniquely touching memoir about one family's life with books, stories, and writing. Feinberg's examination of the problem novel opens her eyes to other issues that affect children today-such as how they learn to write, how much reality is too much for a young child's mind, and the role of the imagination in children's experience.

Quirky, moving, serious, and witty, Welcome to Lizard Motel is one of the most surprising books about reading and writing to come along in years. Not only does it explore the world of children and stories, but it also asks us to look at how our children are growing up. Feinberg wonders if, as a society, we have lost touch with the organic unfolding of childhood, with that mysterious time when making things up helps deepen a child's understanding of the world. This memoir will reacquaint readers with the special nature of children's imaginations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

***Starred Review*** When her son's seventh-grade teacher said a "good book should make you cry," Feinberg started to wonder. After she noticed her son's reluctance to read school-assigned novels—Newbery Award–winning books like Creech's Walk Two Moons or Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia—she read them herself and discovered the "problem novel," a "subgenre of the realistic adolescent novel," which often features a youngster facing horrible difficulties—incest, domestic abuse, rape, death or disease of parents, etc.—without the aid of any sympathetic adult, without "recourse to fantasy." Educators push these parables, Feinberg says, believing children need to abandon fantasy and learn to "cope" with reality. This campaign starts quite young, as Feinberg found when her daughter invited her to her second grade's "publishing party." Listening to these children reading their "memoirs"—as if eulogizing their own childhoods—Feinberg began to question the philosophy behind the Calkins writing workshop system used in so many schools. Why do children need experts to tell them how to write about the world, she wondered? Yes, it's good to learn to observe the world closely, but Calkins's "orchestration of the poetic moment" struck Feinberg as too didactic. Rarely can teachers reject the curriculum's "problem novels," nor can they refuse the Calkins system. But Feinberg, who's spent years working with children in a creativity workshop she designed, has the independence and experience to raise important questions. Her critique, delivered in the palatable form of a chatty parenting memoir, should stir some much-needed controversy, especially among "progressive" educators.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

This is a sweet memoir by the mother of a 12-year-old boy who began to wonder why her son didn't want to read what he was assigned for school. These were critically lauded books like Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia and Sharon Creech's Chasing Redbird. So, with some time off during the summer, she decided to read some of them and do some research into the current "philosophy" of children's books. Feinberg started with Terabithia and discovered that although it is beautifully written, the conclusion left her with a feeling of bleakness and despair. Then a children's librarian gave her a copy of Children's Literature in the Elementary School, which says that "Realistic fiction helps children enlarge their frames of reference while seeing the world from another perspective." At first, Feinberg spends a lot of time deconstructing this concept, but she soon digresses to subjects like the after-school program she runs called Story Shop, and her daughter's ear surgery. The digressions are entertaining, and are eventually connected to the theme of children's literature, but in a wordy and roundabout way. This is a very personal story, more exploration than analysis, and though it's a quick read, it leaves readers wanting more substance.–Marlyn K. Beebe, City of Long Beach Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807071447
• ISBN-13: 978-0807071441
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,195,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, September 20, 2004

By 

J. Britt (Sonoran Desert) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Welcome to Lizard Motel: Children, Stories, and the Mystery of Making Things Up, A Memoir (Hardcover)

I confess that I began this book expecting a somewhat academic discussion of modern young-adult literature. Had I paid more attention to the cover I would have had a better idea what to expect. It's interesting, then, the extent to which this book does have academic chops; the myriad quotes and excerpts from assorted writers and psychologists are well documented at the back of the book.

But make no mistake; the book is a ultimately a series of personal observations on "problem" books as they relate to the reading experience of Ms. Feinberg and her children. The presentation is subtle; Feinberg does not have a bone to pick, and does not drown the reader in polemics. Rather, she presents numerous reflections on the value and purpose of books targeted at young people, gradually making a case against heavy-handed, message-laden "realism."

It is well-written, engaging, and thought-provoking. You do not have to be a parent (I am not) to enjoy this book, just someone interested in the intersection of art, culture, and cognitive development. If you *are* a parent, then it may also have tremendous practical value.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lovely, unusual book, September 29, 2004

By 

Amsel1219 (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Welcome to Lizard Motel: Children, Stories, and the Mystery of Making Things Up, A Memoir (Hardcover)

This fascinating book addresses two issues close to my heart: reading AND writing by kids. Long before my children were assigned "problem novels" to read, they were asked to conform to the writing system Feinberg criticizes, to write non-fiction "memoirs" and rewrite and edit them, starting in first grade. This was the entire focus of their writing experience in elementary school, and it was engineered by adults from beginning to end. The emphasis was entirely on the PRODUCT and certainly not on a playful, imaginative process. The result is that my two wonderfully imaginative kids despise "writing", and are convinced they can't "do it." I wish they could have been nurtured in the author's Story Shop instead. As for the problem novels, which for my older son began in earnest in 7th grade, he soon came to identify English class with unbearably depressing reading assignments, with very little relief for years to come. Feinberg correctly recognizes that while some of the books are very well written, more variety in assignments is in order. I am thrilled that she has finally challenged the status quo in such a beautifully written book.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it!, September 23, 2004

By 

J. Etkin (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Welcome to Lizard Motel: Children, Stories, and the Mystery of Making Things Up, A Memoir (Hardcover)

This is a great book - witty, provocative, original, and quirky in the best way. I literally couldn't put it down. It's also going to draw a lot of ire (it already has) from many quarters. But as a parent, I whole-heartedly agree with Feinberg's observations about a range of educational issues. For anybody trying to raise literate, creative children, under constant assault from a culture which has lost the natural love of reading and writing, this book is a breath of fresh air.