M.E. KERR

1
M.E. KERR
Born Marijane Meaker on May 27, 1927 in Auburn,
Long Island, New York. Her mothers name was
Ida, and her father, Ellis R. Meaker, was a
mayonnaise manufacturer.
2
Authors life and style

• High school at Stuart Hall in Virginia, a
  boarding school
• Vermont Junior College (1945)
• University of Missouri (1946-49), majored in
  English literature 
• After graduating, moved to New York with college
  friends and found jobs at a publishing firms.
• Sold her first piece of fiction and established a
  career as a writer

3
Authors life and style

• Memories of her youthher antics growing up in
  upstate New York - life with her parents and two
  brothers, her escapades with her friends -
  platonic and romantic
• Experiences at boarding school and being part of
  a sorority
• Marijane was always in trouble, always the
  outsider, always looking for ways to express her
  voice, her identity

4
Primary relationship issues

• Parents-siblings
• Student-teacher
• Peer-friend
• Romance-first loves in general 
• Themes are serious ones, but Kerr cant help but
  inject humor into her writing  
• Perspective is always fresh and unique

5
the underdogthe outlaw character, the misfit

• Tolerance, prejudice, denial / acceptance of
  people with different backgrounds, beliefs,
  lifestyles and socio-economic status
• I was aware of social class ever since I went
  off to boarding school thinking I was rich until
  she met children of heads of international
  corporations. I was very, very surprised, and
  have always since paid attention to the haves and
  have-nots.

6
Gentlehands (1978)

• Young love
• Buddy takes sophisticated Skye to visit his
  handsome, aristocratic grandfather
• Rumor that Gentlehands, a Nazi war criminal, is
  in town
• Good and evil

7
Awards for Gentlehands

• Best of the Best Books 1966-1992, ALA
• Best Books for Young Adults, 1978, ALA
• ALA Notable Children's Books of 1978
• Best Children's Books of 1978, School Library
  Journal
• Winner, 1978 Christopher Award
• Best Children's Books of 1978, New York Times
• Cited for Margaret A. Edwards Award, 1993   

• Overseas Titles
• Sanfthand (German)
• Fluwelen Vingers (Dutch)

8
Sexuality and sexual orientation

• are topics touched upon and explored in varying
  degrees of detail though never explicitly
• Kerr has a way with words that is neither
  embarrassing nor patronizing when it comes to the
  subject of hormonal urges and desires

9
Deliver Us From Evie (1994)

• Sexual orientation
• Farm life in a small town
• Parents
• Siblings
• Identity
• Moving on

10
Deliver Us from Evie   

• awards honors
• 1995 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)
• 1995 Recommended Books for Reluctant Young Adult
  Readers (ALA)
• 1995 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
• 1995 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)
• 1994 Best Book Honor Award (Michigan Library
  Association)
• VOYA survey, 2000 Best Young Adult Novels of the
  90s, top 12 --National Council of English
  Teachers Assembly on Literature of Adolescents

11
YA responses to Deliver Us From Evie

• From Jessie Submitted Monday, December 22,
  2003
• I just wanted to voice how much I loved Deliver
  Us From Evie. I read it my sophomore year, as it
  was the only lesbian-themed book I could find in
  our school library.
• I can't even begin to say how much it meant to
  me to be able to identify with this book.... I
  loved that the parents were understanding...They
  acted the way most parents would...Trying to be
  supportive at times, yet dissaproving and not
  quite being able to understand. Thank you,
  Thank you, Thank you for writing this book.

• FROM ANONYMOUSI found deliver us from evie
  when i was 11 i think it was the first young
  adult book i read with a gay or lesbian character
  in it.
• later the book along with some others helped me
  realize more that i was not the only gay or
  questioning teen out there.
• it's reassuring to find a book with gay
  characters that are not portrayed as bad or
  doomed. just wanted to tell M.E. Kerr thanks for
  writing.
• i still go back and read parts of deliver us from
  evie when i don't feel all that great about
  myself.
• http//www.mekerr.com/

12
Boarding schoolSecret societies Social class
Ventriloquism, or (cultivating a separate
voice)
Mysteries

• FELL (1987)
• FELL BACK (1989)
• FELL DOWN (1991)

13
Realistic fiction
NIGHT KITES (1986) Family conflicts Brothers
AIDS Friendships Romance Career choices

• LITTLE LITTLE
• (1981)
• Dwarfism
• Class differences
• Physical differences
• Societal expectations

HELLO, I LIED (1997) Homosexuality Bisexuality
Rock Music
14
Religion, Religious Differences
Him She Loves? (1984) Henry Schiller, 16, his
family's move to Long Island and their new
German restaurant. Valerie Kissenwiser who is
Jewish (he is not) and whose father forbids their
dating.

• What I Really Think of You (1983)
• Daughter of a Pentacostal preacher
• Son of a television Evangelist

15
Historical fiction

• Slap Your Sides (2001)

Your Eyes in Stars (2006)

1933-1935 City and town life in
NYC Racism Patriotism Prisons prisoners
1939-1942 Conscientious objectors Friendshi
ps, family Brothers
16

• "When I think of myself and what I would have
  liked to have found in books those many years
  ago, I remember being depressed by all the neatly
  tied-up, happy-ending stories, the abundance of
  winners, the themes of winning, solving, finding
  - when around me it didn't seem that easy.

• So I write with a different feeling when I write
  for young adults. I guess I write for myself at
  that age."

17
I always wanted to be a writer. I think it was
the combination of my fathers reading and my
mothers gossiping. She began every conversation
with Wait until you hear this I would have
listened to my mother than a soap opera because
she made the small town so alive for me.
M.E. Kerr 1998
18
When I write for young adults

• I know theyre still wrestling with very
  important problems not feeling accepted
  prejudice, love all the things adults
  ultimately get hardened to, and forgetful of.  I
  know my audience hasnt yet made up their minds
  about everything, that theyre still vulnerable
  and open to suggestion and able to change their
  mindsGive me that kind of an audience any day!

Kerr and Michelle Koh, webmaster
www.mekerr.com 2004
19
M.E. KERR

• In 1993, Marijane Meaker received the ALAs
  Margaret A. Edwards Award for her lifetime
  achievement in writing for young adults
• Ashawagh Hall, where M. E. Kerr teaches
• classes in writing