Below is a screenshot of Ma'am Lalaine's facebook post this afternoon. I could not share it due to some settings. I asked for permission and she allowed me to share it in my feed.
Ma'am Lalaine was my professor in Comparative Literature 172 (Children's Literature), an elective I took during my third year as an undergraduate. Back then, I was adamant to the idea of a children's literature, especially here in the Philippines. All I knew was folktales and myths equal children's literature. Period. I'm into the "serious" type of literature then, more of on how to represent and emancipate the masses.
But with Ma'am Lalaine's lectures, class discussions, and class readings, I began to think that children's literature is beyond folktales and myths. It also has classic and contemporary works! Harry Potter was the craze then. (Age reveal, haha!) And serious themes can be tackled, with or without the fantastique usually read in children's literature. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 is etched forever in my heart since that semester. Also, seeing in class the film adaptation of 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑧𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝑧 directed by Victor Fleming enamored in me the beauty of print-to-screen adaptations. Reading Rene Villanueva's "Nemo, Ang Batang Papel" sealed my love for the course.
When I graduated from college and started to work, I saved some of my salary to buy children's books. Most of them from Booksale which sells second hand books. I devoured titles for children because I was deprived of these due to the dire economic condition of our family. I thought then that I will write also for children, especially Filipino children. I only wrote two or three pieces -- but that was it. (That's another story.)
I still love to read children's literature up to this day.
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