Reading each day's email that arrives through my website is always interesting, sometimes heartening, occasionally (sorry) annoying, often surprising.
Here is an excerpt from one that came today:
Respected Mam,
I am a teacher and administrator in Dr. Tobgyel School, situated in Thimphu, Bhutan, in this country for our Class X board exams we teach one of your master creation novel THE GIVER, it is in our syllabus and I am so happy to inform you that the students not only enjoy the novel written by you but they cherish each and every moment of the novel class reading your novel. As a teacher I am so thankful to you for giving me an opportunity to teach your creation, it is an life time opportunity to teach a novel like this.
It is a reminder of the role that a book takes on long after it is out of the hands of the writer. Recently, in anticipation of moving, I have been sorting and packing, and in some cases donating, foreign editions of books, and so I have been looking at copies of The Giver in Estonian and Hungarian and Hebrew and a zillion other languages (I don't even know what language they would be reading in Bhutan; Chinese, perhaps?) and thinking about all those young poeple out there, all of them pondering the same questions, worrying about the future they will all share.
These two are—(I think; sometimes it's hard to figure them out)—Vietnamese and Serbian.
It's truly overwhelming.
Most Bhutanese instruction is done in English - despite the evidence in this letter that it is a second language.
The young people I met in 2001 spoke almost colloquial English.
Arline
Posted by: Arline Sutherland | March 18, 2011 at 03:19 AM
Lois, I first read your book, The Giver, to my oldest child 13 years ago. I fell in love with it. I must say it is my favorite book of all time. Now I have the pleasure of reading it again to my youngest children. (I have 5 children.) What a delight to read it again and catch the things I missed before. Thank you for your insight, your tenderness, your wisdom in a world that seems just a little crazy. I love it all over again! Thanks for being a giver of wisdom and for helping us see our world full of color and possiblity!
Jan Phillips
Posted by: Jan Phillips | March 31, 2011 at 06:47 AM
hi Lois...
i m a student from Dr Tobgyel school from Thimphu, Bhutan n to inform u, we read ur novel in English n i must say that yr an awesome writer..
Dr Tobgyel is an english medium school so we dont have any trouble reading ur novel.
much love
from Bhutan
Posted by: Dolma Yangdon | April 01, 2011 at 08:48 AM