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Sleep, two, three, four!
Good Book
191 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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About the author
John Neufeld
30 books27 followers"I always wanted to be a writer. I started writing early, and badly, sending off short stories to national magazines when I was ten or eleven. They were all returned.
"But I kept at it. All through high school and college. Everything I sent out came back. Thanks but no thanks.
"I moved to New York and worked in a publishing house. I kept writing. In fact, I was fired from my first job for spending more time on my own projects than on the publishing house's.
"I wrote on.
"In 1968, an editor from a small California publishing house and I had lunch. She gave me an outline for a story she thought I could write well. I knew immediately I had to try.
"But what I wanted to do was write a short book, full of emotion and detail and excitement, for readers of all ages. I didn't know that Edgar Allan would be regarded as a children's book.
"It was.
"And when it was, everything fell into place. The minute Edgar Allan was launched successfully, I sat down to write Lisa, Bright and Dark. It, too, was a success so there was no turning back. Although I do write books for adults, the ideas that stimulate me always seem to come to me in the form of a story for young readers. I get ideas from everywhere: from the newspapers, from radio, from lunches and talks I have with friends.
"Right now, if I never get another idea, I have more story lines to work on than my lifetime probably permits."
Both Edgar Allan and Lisa, Bright and Dark, were selected as among the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times. Lisa, Bright and Dark was filmed for television, and aired as a Hallmark Hall of Fame on NBC-TV. Mr. Neufeld's other books have as recently as spring 2000 been cited as among the best of last year's Young Adult titles by the New York Public Library and YASLA.
(From: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/au...)
"But I kept at it. All through high school and college. Everything I sent out came back. Thanks but no thanks.
"I moved to New York and worked in a publishing house. I kept writing. In fact, I was fired from my first job for spending more time on my own projects than on the publishing house's.
"I wrote on.
"In 1968, an editor from a small California publishing house and I had lunch. She gave me an outline for a story she thought I could write well. I knew immediately I had to try.
"But what I wanted to do was write a short book, full of emotion and detail and excitement, for readers of all ages. I didn't know that Edgar Allan would be regarded as a children's book.
"It was.
"And when it was, everything fell into place. The minute Edgar Allan was launched successfully, I sat down to write Lisa, Bright and Dark. It, too, was a success so there was no turning back. Although I do write books for adults, the ideas that stimulate me always seem to come to me in the form of a story for young readers. I get ideas from everywhere: from the newspapers, from radio, from lunches and talks I have with friends.
"Right now, if I never get another idea, I have more story lines to work on than my lifetime probably permits."
Both Edgar Allan and Lisa, Bright and Dark, were selected as among the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times. Lisa, Bright and Dark was filmed for television, and aired as a Hallmark Hall of Fame on NBC-TV. Mr. Neufeld's other books have as recently as spring 2000 been cited as among the best of last year's Young Adult titles by the New York Public Library and YASLA.
(From: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/au...)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 6, 2020
I read this 35 years ago, so the 4 stars is for the impact it's had. I still think about it. It was my first Dystopian novel, set in an America I don't want to see. I've never forgotten it and with Hunger Games and Divergent, I would love to see it come around again.
March 20, 2025
I read this years ago when I was a kid but it affected me greatly. I'm sure it would seem quaint today and yet, there are things going on today that remind me of the book. I may have to go back and re-read it.
November 26, 2025
Read this years ago and it stuck with me.
I think this is an amazing read for young people.
May be a bit dated in its setting, but was way ahead of its time.
Going to re read it.
It is out of print & fairly hard to find.
I think this is an amazing read for young people.
May be a bit dated in its setting, but was way ahead of its time.
Going to re read it.
It is out of print & fairly hard to find.
July 7, 2010
This is the first book I ever read that made me think about teenagers as heroic...and government plots, what can and will go wrong, and so forth. I wonder if it's even in print? Today of course i would read Prayers for the Assassin, but this is how it began. The setting and players seem a bit quaint now (post Viet Nam era America, with Spiro Agnew as a villain), but the message of a whole country 'going to sleep' while the government (any government, right or left) takes over incrementally, still resounds. Not 5 stars, revised to 3, and worth a look just to see how 35 years ago, this one guy had a notion...
November 9, 2020
I read this years ago. Very good quick read
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews