By Doris Smith
Author Gregory Maguire appeared on the Bedford TV News with hosts Jenn Puhle and Dawn Kociubes on Monday evening, June 1. In addition to books for children, Mr. Maguire is known for his book Wicked, which has enjoyed great success as a Broadway play. He is also one of the founders of Children’s Literature New England, which enjoys an international audience and has held annual week long institutes on children’s literature with authors, illustrators, librarians, publishers and reviewers meeting not only in the US, but in Canada, England and Ireland.
This year is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice in Wonderland. Gregory decided to revisit this favorite book to see what would happen if he went to Wonderland as an adult. His resulting novel After Alice (on sale October 2015) starts when Alice’s friend, Ada, sees her friend, Alice, go down the rabbit hole and follows. Meanwhile Ada’s older sister realizes she is missing and raises an alarm connecting Wonderland back to life in Oxford, England After Alice is set in the world of Lewis Carroll, but is Gregory’s story written in the style of the Victorian era.
Gregory Maguire was raised in Albany, New York by parents who were, as he describes, “scared of life” and so restrained their children. The library became his window onto the world. He says that he was brought up not only by his father and stepmother, but also by a bevy of librarians. “What can I take from this story that I can use in my life” is his approach to literature. He feels that the stories we hear or read in childhood are all references that we can identify and share together.
The Bedford TV news is broadcast at 6 pm every Monday, and is aired several more times during the week. All of Bedford TV programs are archived on the station’s YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/BedfordTVMA.
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