Author creates fantasy for children
By LINDA BROWNING
Kansan Staff Writer
KU students of upper-level English courses are well acquainted with Paul Kendall, a visiting professor from Ohio State University at Athens. But his wife, Carol who creates dream worlds for children is just as accomplished in fabricating fantasy villages such as "Slipper-on-the-Water," and "Water Gap" as he is in making French and English kings come alive in his biographies.
Mrs. Kendall's first children's book, "Gammage Cup" won runner-up in the Newberry Award given by the American
Library Association. Its sequel, the "Whisper of Glocken," tells children how people get to be heroes even though they are cowardly in nature. The period is later in her second book, but she retains her five main characters. Her latest project is another fantasy exemplifying superstitions.
Writing ambition
Mrs. Kendall can remember saying in the fourth grade that she would one day write. She wrote a column in her high school paper and a little in college, but she graduated with majors in English and psychology and minors in French and philosophy.
Author at work Photo by Ron Bishop Mrs. Paul Kendall looks over manuscript.
Who's Whose
Pinnings
Diane Allen, Hutchinson sophomore majoring in elementary education, to Robert Costello, Overland Park junior, majoring in radio-television-film, Beta Sigma Psi.
Judith Bowker, Bonner Springs senior, majoring in secondary education, to Richard Jones, Northbrook, Ill., junior majoring in architecture, Alpha KappaLambda.
Pam Fankhauser, Lyons senior majoring in secondary education, Alpha Gamma Delta, to Clif Conrad, Bismark, N.D., senior majoring in history.
Engagements
Katie Keene, Springfield, Mo., senior majoring in chemistry, to Gary Tenner, Storrs, Conn., first year medical student at Vanderbilt University.
Linda Jones, Muldane freshman majoring in liberal arts to Terry Laws, Shawnee Mission junior majoring in microbiology.
Karia Koinis, Hobbs, N.M., junior majoring in physical therapy, Alpha Delta Pi, to Michael Martin, Wichita law student, Theta Chi. Diana Blew, Hutchinson sophomore majoring in elementary education, to Jack Kranz, Haven junior majoring in industrial arts at Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia.
She didn't think she had anything to say that hadn't been said before by a million other writers. When she took a close look at her first two novels, both mystery novels for adults, and realized that the main characters in both were 12-year old boys, she decided she could not only write best about children, but for children as well.
Of all the forms of writing she tried, she found fantasy to best suit her style.
KANSAN Features
She argues that fantasy is not just for kids, but many adults rely on this form to grasp a clearer understanding of several social issues.
"You can concentrate on simple folks, talk about basic things, and discuss people's meanness without having to flower over your basic premise," she said.
Conformity
Later she read David Riesman's "The Lonely Crowd" and found a theme she thought she could successfully handle through fantasy—conformity.
"Everyone seems to be shaping everyone else to fit into a pattern—everything for the group, in our schools, homes, everywhere," she said. "Schools seems to frown on the idea of cornering yourself away from the mass activity and trying to outdo Einstein, and this seems wrong to me," she added.
Because giants were hard to deal with from her point of view, she decided to use the little, "smallish" people in her children's books. "Naturally," she said, "these dwarfs have to be hidden, so in her first book "Gammage Cup" she was living near Bryce Canyon and heard that no one had ever penetrated it, and decided that was where her little people belonged.
Imaginary people
Her imaginary people, the minipins had to be hidden to isolate the fact that they were going no place too fast. Her social comment camouflaged by her humor gives her a chance to be actually realistic and logical. This is why her writing seems to appeal to adults.
Mrs. Kendall doesn't profess to have a hobby—"unless it be languages," she said. She has learned French and German on her own and Swahili from her married daughter, Carol, working for the Peace Corps in Kenya, Africa. She says she belabors a foreign language for lengthly periods because it is "relaxing."
Housework, writing and reading keep her more than busy, but she does manage to improvise cages for the miriads
of animals her younger daughter. Jill, captures and raises. Two guinea pigs, a parakeet, two turtles, and a wounded pigeon would keep a cagebuilder busy indeed.
Likes Kansas
Even before she moved to Kansas at the beginning of this semester, she had a hint how friendly Kansans were. "I received more fan mail from Kansas than any other state when I lived in Ohio," she recalled.
She and 13-year-old Jill are enamored over the Kansan
Alexander's
Mrs. Kendall called Lawrence the most "civilized" and friendliest community she has ever lived in. "I was surprised to find my mail delivered in a cute little three-wheeled van, to have my trash collected twice a week is great, and to grocery shop on wall-to-wall carpeting is luxury too good to be true," she said. "Jill has already informed us she will be sorry to leave Lawrence in June," Mrs. Kendall said, "and I will miss its cosmopolitan atmosphere myself."
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