Madeline

July 30, 1999

i’m hoping you can help…..

i received my b.s. in children’s lit and i really hoped to continue at grad school in the same subject. my hopes were to attend a school on the east coast, but i went there for a conference and soon found that i was very uncomfortable there. the conference, however, was incredible (cormier, lowry, wells, meddaugh, gantos, and others) and it only sparked my interest in children’s lit more. but i lack direction! i keep thinking that you are the one who would know what to do. there are only 4 other schools i know of that offer a grad degree in children’s lit, and one of them only offers it in he summer (for 3-5 years!). should i forego school and focus on some other outlet to continue learning and feeding off of lit? if so, what? i’m really serious about this, and i’m also serious in saying that it’s nearly impossible for me to find someone to help me along the path (i live in northern michigan — so if i want help with direction i have squirrels and fish….they don’t come in handy for this particular dilemma).

i appreciate any advice you may have.

thank you so much,

madeline

What do people do with advanced degrees in children's literature, and why do you want one? What do you do with your bachelor's degree? I can't advise you, really. My interest in the field is completely subjective and personal, disorganized and non-methodical, and I plan to keep it that way. I have a degree in Art from Bard College, and if I had it to do over again, I think I'd rather have done History or something like that...the four or five things I found out about art between the ages of 17 and 22, I probably would have found out anyway.