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Talk, Talk : A Children's Book Author Speaks to Grown-Ups
In TalkTalk E. L. Konigsburg presents a selection of speeches she has given over a period of 25 years. In her introduction to the first speech, and to the book as a whole, she "While each of my books has been written because I had a story I wanted to tell, these speeches were written because I had something I wanted to say. The audience for the former is children; for the latter, adults.... I recognize -- with a measure of amused detachment -- that some were written as a reaction to trends; others, to fads.I have given these talks in cafetoriums, auditoriums, and the public rooms of Holiday Inns. Even though I have not always been on a stage when addressing an audience, I have tried to set the stage. Between talk and talk, I have written passages connecting the speeches to the time in which they were written and to one another. And that is TalkTalk."Always a thought-provoking speaker, she has chosen nine speeches that capture the essence of her years as a writer for children. When brought together, they enrich one another and provide a chance to look back at what children's books have been, to observe where they are now and to offer an insightful look at what books may continue to mean to children in the years to come. Written by an outstanding author, these speeches, individually and together, represent a vision of the need for books and the role books have played and should continue to play in the lives of children.
- GenresNonfictionEssays
192 pages, Hardcover
First published May 30, 1995
About the author
E.L. Konigsburg
65 books1,549 followersElaine Lobl Konigsburg was an American writer and illustrator of children's books and young adult fiction. She is one of six writers to win two Newbery Medals, the venerable American Library Association award for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American children's literature."
Konigsburg submitted her first two manuscripts to editor Jean E. Karl at Atheneum Publishers in 1966, and both were published in 1967: Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the 1968 Newbery Medal, and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was listed as a runner-up in the same year, making Konigsburg the only author to win the Newbery Medal and have another book listed as runner-up in the same year. She won again for The View from Saturday in 1997, 29 years later, the longest span between two Newberys awarded to one author.
For her contribution as a children's writer Konigsburg was U.S. nominee in 2006 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children's books.
Konigsburg submitted her first two manuscripts to editor Jean E. Karl at Atheneum Publishers in 1966, and both were published in 1967: Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the 1968 Newbery Medal, and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was listed as a runner-up in the same year, making Konigsburg the only author to win the Newbery Medal and have another book listed as runner-up in the same year. She won again for The View from Saturday in 1997, 29 years later, the longest span between two Newberys awarded to one author.
For her contribution as a children's writer Konigsburg was U.S. nominee in 2006 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children's books.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 19, 2025
A collection of speeches given by one of my favorite children's authors over a twenty-five year period. Can get a little dry in places (I suspect they work better as speeches) and the references are a little dated but a worthwhile read for what she has to say about the importance of children's literature.
July 31, 2017
First, let me say that this book was very hard to find. My copy was actually a "reference book" from a library that looks like it was never even opened. I was intrigued to read it, since I really enjoy many of E.L. Konigsburg's books. This was a compilation of speeches she had written with introductions and commentaries before each one. The main point Konigsburg tries to get across is the importance of books in the lives of young children. This book was written in 1995, so I'm sure Konigsburg would be even more worried about the future of out children in today's world. I was very interested in reading about how the publication of children's books has evolved in her lifetime. I really enjoyed this book and enjoyed the feisty voice that Konigsburg has.
May 30, 2025
Book Review
Talk Talk
5+/5 stars
"If Eric Hoffer were a children's author..."
*******
This is a book by one of my favorite authors, EL Konigsburg. (Wow! Did this woman have a brain on her!)
Is essentially a book composed of speeches that she gave over the years after accepting her Newbery Awards, and it gives us insights into her mental architecture and her fascinating observations about children's literature-- among other things.
She is extremely quotable, and I highly recommend her work to parents who want clean and kosher things for their children.
The observations that hyper perceptive people (like this author) make are time independent--and that could explain how she is writing this (book of speeches) in the era of the VCR, but it still seems relevant today.
Even though the book is only a couple of hundred pages, it takes quite a while to read because a reader must digest every paragraph of this book.
That said, I will just give the reader the most profound quotes as they leapt out at this reviewer.
Verdict:
This book is definitely worth keeping, and rereading. And seeing what other insights and pithy phrases can be gleaned. (For the record, it works that way with her children's books, which have a fractal quality to them; as you age and zoom out, you will see the books from a different perspective.)
QUOTES
***
The Old Testament has been a more pervasive monument than either the Pyramids or Stonehenge: It is made of material stronger and more durable and more portable than stone - - language.
***
Language can join nations or separate them. 100 years ago, Oscar Wilde said, "We have really everything in common with American nowadays, except, of course, language."
***
When you adopt a word from another culture, a word that reflects another culture, it begins to shape yours. We adopted croissant, and our menus changed. We adopted glasnost, and our thinking about the Soviet Union changed.
***
There are evenings when I sit in the bathtub feeling sorry for adjectives. In a few years, I think they will be whittled down to two: "fantastic" and "unbelievable" for adults, and "neat" and "gross" for kids.
***
When language gets sloppy, thinking gets sloppy. Don't knock good sentence structure to me.
***
Don't tell me that "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." That commercial should have been banned for its bad effect on grammar long before it was banned for his bad effect on health.
***
There has always been something to offend someone, and there always will be. The subjects change, the words change, and so have the offended. Objections that were once the quirky comments of a single person have become agendas, and nowadays every agenda has behind it a group ready to mount a protest.
***
Fads infect subject matter and genre, and while they are in full blossom, they are so ubiquitous that it is hard to believe that they will pass, but they do. In this past quarter century, I have seen Batman come and go and come and go again. Ninja Turtles: here, there, everywhere - - yesterday. Trolls have come and gone and come and - - as of this morning - - are on the deeply discounted table at Kmart.
***
When a fad influences a genre, we get choose your own adventure books, the hula hoops of the '80s.
The current fad in marketing is the celebrity authored children's book.
***
It was inevitable, I suppose, that when the entertainment industry married into the publishing family, they would want children of their very own. They did not produce books, however. They produced book - products.
***
Broadening the base of allowable subject matter in children's literature preceeded broadening the base of allowable language.
It has always been so.
***
With some relatives, you can't explain anything that is not tax deductible.
***
The English language has more borrowed words than any other language - just like the borrowed cuisines in the restaurant of any large American city. English has a larger vocabulary than any other language - 1/3 larger than French, I believe - - and that, too, is American. Bigness is American.
***
English is vigorous because of its peasant roots. Take the matter of food: It is calf on the hoof, but veal on the table. Ox in the pasture, beef on the table. Sheep in the meadow, mutton on the table. The peasants handled it on the hoof; the Normans at table.
***
Other animals can have a tradition-- a monkey can teach all of his relatives and friends how to clean potatoes and even how to salt them by dipping them into salt water. But his transmission of that knowledge is dependent upon the presence of the potato and the salt water. The monkey can show, but he cannot tell.
***
An entire race can perish, but their culture - their recipe for salting potatoes - - can stay alive in libraries.
***
In the field of adult books there are many critics who have long ago lost sight of the reader. They began to review for one another. They have ceased being a service. They have become a self-service.
***
Don't the politically correct understand that what the unrewritten classics have to offer is what the naked David has to offer: a record of how a civilization felt about itself at a given time.
***
Galileo: the Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.
***
Einstein: the individual who has experienced solitude will not easily become a victim of mass suggestion. (Konigsberg: the art of being alone with vigor is a talent.)
****
Do you think that wearing a mask allows a person to be someone else, or do you think that a mask allows a person to be that which he really is?
***
There is a point beyond which accuracy does not matter. Even the brothers Chudnovsky would probably admit that a billion decimal places of π don't say too much more than good old 3.1416 did. There's a point beyond which accuracy may have rhythm but no meaning.
***
That which is exaggerated often tells a greater truth.
***
It is the role of masks to exaggerate. Who is to say which is the real Tammy Faye Bakker: the face? Or the mask?
***
How can we expect any child who has been wired by TV to take to books unless we have helped him build in the circuitry?
***
Their [author's grandchildren] big world is a small place-- the size of a television screen. My small world was a big place - my neighborhood.
***
Book characters are made up by authors. TV characters are made up by committees. "Murphy Brown" is a blend of writers, directors, producers, and the actress who plays her. Like a good bouillabaisse, the blend is more identifiable than the ingredients that make it.
***
(W.H. Auden) Rite is the link between the dead and the unborn.
*********
Side note: (p.148) Konigsburg references David Phillip Vetter. He was born and died inside of a bubble, and was the basis of the Seinfeld parody "The Bubble Boy."
Talk Talk
5+/5 stars
"If Eric Hoffer were a children's author..."
*******
This is a book by one of my favorite authors, EL Konigsburg. (Wow! Did this woman have a brain on her!)
Is essentially a book composed of speeches that she gave over the years after accepting her Newbery Awards, and it gives us insights into her mental architecture and her fascinating observations about children's literature-- among other things.
She is extremely quotable, and I highly recommend her work to parents who want clean and kosher things for their children.
The observations that hyper perceptive people (like this author) make are time independent--and that could explain how she is writing this (book of speeches) in the era of the VCR, but it still seems relevant today.
Even though the book is only a couple of hundred pages, it takes quite a while to read because a reader must digest every paragraph of this book.
That said, I will just give the reader the most profound quotes as they leapt out at this reviewer.
Verdict:
This book is definitely worth keeping, and rereading. And seeing what other insights and pithy phrases can be gleaned. (For the record, it works that way with her children's books, which have a fractal quality to them; as you age and zoom out, you will see the books from a different perspective.)
QUOTES
***
The Old Testament has been a more pervasive monument than either the Pyramids or Stonehenge: It is made of material stronger and more durable and more portable than stone - - language.
***
Language can join nations or separate them. 100 years ago, Oscar Wilde said, "We have really everything in common with American nowadays, except, of course, language."
***
When you adopt a word from another culture, a word that reflects another culture, it begins to shape yours. We adopted croissant, and our menus changed. We adopted glasnost, and our thinking about the Soviet Union changed.
***
There are evenings when I sit in the bathtub feeling sorry for adjectives. In a few years, I think they will be whittled down to two: "fantastic" and "unbelievable" for adults, and "neat" and "gross" for kids.
***
When language gets sloppy, thinking gets sloppy. Don't knock good sentence structure to me.
***
Don't tell me that "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." That commercial should have been banned for its bad effect on grammar long before it was banned for his bad effect on health.
***
There has always been something to offend someone, and there always will be. The subjects change, the words change, and so have the offended. Objections that were once the quirky comments of a single person have become agendas, and nowadays every agenda has behind it a group ready to mount a protest.
***
Fads infect subject matter and genre, and while they are in full blossom, they are so ubiquitous that it is hard to believe that they will pass, but they do. In this past quarter century, I have seen Batman come and go and come and go again. Ninja Turtles: here, there, everywhere - - yesterday. Trolls have come and gone and come and - - as of this morning - - are on the deeply discounted table at Kmart.
***
When a fad influences a genre, we get choose your own adventure books, the hula hoops of the '80s.
The current fad in marketing is the celebrity authored children's book.
***
It was inevitable, I suppose, that when the entertainment industry married into the publishing family, they would want children of their very own. They did not produce books, however. They produced book - products.
***
Broadening the base of allowable subject matter in children's literature preceeded broadening the base of allowable language.
It has always been so.
***
With some relatives, you can't explain anything that is not tax deductible.
***
The English language has more borrowed words than any other language - just like the borrowed cuisines in the restaurant of any large American city. English has a larger vocabulary than any other language - 1/3 larger than French, I believe - - and that, too, is American. Bigness is American.
***
English is vigorous because of its peasant roots. Take the matter of food: It is calf on the hoof, but veal on the table. Ox in the pasture, beef on the table. Sheep in the meadow, mutton on the table. The peasants handled it on the hoof; the Normans at table.
***
Other animals can have a tradition-- a monkey can teach all of his relatives and friends how to clean potatoes and even how to salt them by dipping them into salt water. But his transmission of that knowledge is dependent upon the presence of the potato and the salt water. The monkey can show, but he cannot tell.
***
An entire race can perish, but their culture - their recipe for salting potatoes - - can stay alive in libraries.
***
In the field of adult books there are many critics who have long ago lost sight of the reader. They began to review for one another. They have ceased being a service. They have become a self-service.
***
Don't the politically correct understand that what the unrewritten classics have to offer is what the naked David has to offer: a record of how a civilization felt about itself at a given time.
***
Galileo: the Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.
***
Einstein: the individual who has experienced solitude will not easily become a victim of mass suggestion. (Konigsberg: the art of being alone with vigor is a talent.)
****
Do you think that wearing a mask allows a person to be someone else, or do you think that a mask allows a person to be that which he really is?
***
There is a point beyond which accuracy does not matter. Even the brothers Chudnovsky would probably admit that a billion decimal places of π don't say too much more than good old 3.1416 did. There's a point beyond which accuracy may have rhythm but no meaning.
***
That which is exaggerated often tells a greater truth.
***
It is the role of masks to exaggerate. Who is to say which is the real Tammy Faye Bakker: the face? Or the mask?
***
How can we expect any child who has been wired by TV to take to books unless we have helped him build in the circuitry?
***
Their [author's grandchildren] big world is a small place-- the size of a television screen. My small world was a big place - my neighborhood.
***
Book characters are made up by authors. TV characters are made up by committees. "Murphy Brown" is a blend of writers, directors, producers, and the actress who plays her. Like a good bouillabaisse, the blend is more identifiable than the ingredients that make it.
***
(W.H. Auden) Rite is the link between the dead and the unborn.
*********
Side note: (p.148) Konigsburg references David Phillip Vetter. He was born and died inside of a bubble, and was the basis of the Seinfeld parody "The Bubble Boy."
April 14, 2016
I was hoping for a lot out of these speeches, as Konigsburg was the author of some of my favorite books as a child, including From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth. She's also one of the few authors I have ever written a fan letter to, and one of the even smaller crew who wrote back. These speeches she gave over several decades are interesting and insightful, but seem a bit dated in their approach--not surprising as the book was published in 1995, but it's hard to think today about the main threat to children reading books being television. Still, there is lots here to make one think, and some of her points have sparked other ideas in me that I hope to follow up on later. Worth a read if you are a big fan of hers.
Read
October 4, 2013Recent remark I read from someone bringing a 21st century viewpoint critizing an early 20th century work of art (come to think of it, complaining that a character living 100 years ago didn't have the same attitude as she does today...) made me note Konigsburg's comments (in this collection of essays and speeches) about politically correctness wanting to change words in classic literature:
"Don't the politically correct understand that what the unrewritten classics have to offer is what the naked David (Michaelangelo's sculpture that some put figleaves on) has to offer: a record of how a civilization felt about itself at a given time." (pages 166-7)
Re the "n-word" in Huckleberry Finn leading some school to remove the book from required reading list: "Nigger is a dinosaur of a word, of a thought. But suppressing books that tell about them will not alter the past". (page 54)
"Don't the politically correct understand that what the unrewritten classics have to offer is what the naked David (Michaelangelo's sculpture that some put figleaves on) has to offer: a record of how a civilization felt about itself at a given time." (pages 166-7)
Re the "n-word" in Huckleberry Finn leading some school to remove the book from required reading list: "Nigger is a dinosaur of a word, of a thought. But suppressing books that tell about them will not alter the past". (page 54)
May 3, 2010
Ms. Koningsburg seems like that terrifying and superlative English teacher whose every compliment and correction you'd commit to memory. She is dated but a pioneer, a fantastic thinker and a wonderful storyteller-- even in these talks. They are arranged chronologically and cover a heap of topics: children's literature, the middle ages, science, the creative process-- a really nourishing read. Especially excellent for teachers, writers, librarians and lovers of children's literature.
May 4, 2014
Who didn't love From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler? Written by the same author, these are Konigsburg's speeches from the late 60s through the 90s. With some interesting wisdom and insight about reading, learning, children, and writing, I thoroughly enjoyed this read.
June 30, 2008
A collection of talks given by Kongisburg dating from her Newbery acceptance speech into the 1990s. Enjoyable and insightful as to her preoccupations as a writer and mother, but nothing earth-shattering.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews