Good Conversation! A Talk with Christopher Paul Curtis

Despite the interesting, insightful questions asked of the YA authors in this series, and the warmth and charm of the interviewees' answers, my in-print complaints of three years ago (A Talk with Richard Peck [VL-9/97]) are still valid: flat production values (including el-cheapo music and a stilted host), too little biographical detail, and no bibliography. Still, I'll admit that I enjoyed the latest production in the lineup, too, this time with the Newbery Award-winning author of Bud, Not Buddy and The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963. As in previous entries, we visit with the author in his home and, in this case, at the Windsor Public Library (about which he has endearingly kind things to say), learning how he became a writer, about his creative process and how he names his characters, and hearing him read from his work. Though a tad on the expensive side, the videos in this series are amiably recommended (even if the producers haven't addressed the shortcomings found in earlier entries). Among the 35 other authors profiled in the series are: Eve Bunting, Katherine Paterson, Phyllis Naylor, Chaim Potok, Lynne Reid Banks, Robert Cormier, and Madeleine L'Engle. Aud: I, J, H, P. (K. Glaser)