Stephanie Croston

    Richard Peck, the luncheon speaker at the Plum Creek Literacy Festival Oct. 6, said he had to quit teaching to communicate with the young.
     "That was 36 years and 36 books ago," he told a group of about 600 educators, librarians and other guests.
     He was an English teacher until English became language arts, which is "English without homework or grammar," he said.
     Peck said William Golding's The Lord of the Flies inspired his generation of writers.
     "It was a fearful metaphor for the parent-free family," he said. "The more influence the young have over what they learn, the less they learn."
     Today seems to be a golden age of books for children. In fact, a children's book called The Higher Power of Lucky was discussed in The New Yorker magazine, but not because of the story. Instead, it was because it used the word "scrotum."
     "A bit of banning never hurt a book," Peck said.
     He described censorship as "the paralyzing fear of parents."
     He said it's harder to be young today than it was in the past because the family and its communication has begun to disintegrate.
     "The family is only as strong as the stories they tell," Peck said. "A peer group is never a family."
     He said people read fiction to find a family.
     "A writer is like a greeter at Wal-Mart. It has no benefits, but you never have to retire," he said.
     His mother used to read to him, but today's parents say there's no time to read to a child. They also have no patience with hyperactive children.
     "I wanted to be hyper, but my mother wouldn't let me," he said.
     In fourth grade, Peck read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, which became his favorite book and is still on his writing desk. He said Twain said and his work taught him that "humor is anger sent to finishing school."
     "Writing is the craft of listening, gathering stories and the rhythm of speech," he said. "There are no answers, just stories."