Lit Chick Corner gets "Lost in Lexicon"

Welcome to ‘The Lit Chick Corner!’ (ie. ‘literary chick corner or LCC). This weekly column is dedicated to all those hardworking, and often unrewarded, authors out there who are promoting their work. So be it fiction or non-fiction, the aim of this column is to introduce the public to some of the writing available outside of the traditional publishing arena.

And coming soon, watch out for “The Lit Chick Show” (LCS) - a blog that will be run as a virtual TV show, featuring video interviews and commentary on authors and their work.

This week, LCC catches up with children’s author Pendred Noyce and her book Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers. In Noyce’s own words, the book is about: “Thirteen-year-old cousins Ivan and Daphne, who follow a treasure hunt into a magical land where words and numbers run wild. After the cousins overcome a plague of marauding punctuation, grateful villagers beg them to take on a more difficult task—finding the lost children of Lexicon, who have wandered off, enchanted by lights in the sky. The cousins travel among word and number villages, solving problems and gathering clues. When they themselves are kidnapped, held and mesmerized, they have to use all their wits and courage to try and help the lost children get home.”

LCC asked Noyce why she chose to write this kind of book. “The books that have meant the most to me in my life were those I read as a child.” Noyce said. “I decided to write in the tradition of the books I loved, where the reader is invited into a world where he or she must get by on wits, bravery, and kindness. I also built in a lot of word and number puzzles because I wanted to make Lost in Lexicon a book that my son Damian would especially enjoy.”

According to Noyce, Damian loved the book; and she went on to describe her audience for this kind of fiction. “Lost in Lexicon is meant for bright, curious kids, aged 9-13 and their families. Adults seem to enjoy it as much as children do, and I think it would make a great choice for a parent-child book club.”

Lost in Lexicon is a highly interactive book and Noyce explained a little about some of her characters. “Daphne is daring, brave, and affectionate. She loves animals and language; mathematics makes her anxious, however, and she wants to be a poet. Her cousin Ivan is more deliberate, very loyal and responsible. He likes math and doesn’t care for writing.”

LCC learned that a lot of the book’s colour comes from the characters the kids find in Lexicon. Readers meet the Mistress of Metaphor, who mixes metaphors in a huge pot, and Emily, the talking thesaurus who adopts Daphne. They run into the wise little Poetry Master and the fiercely chauvinistic <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Noun Man. They encounter grammatical bees, who sting when they hear bad grammar. Then there is Zeta, the eccentric Mathemystical, who lives in a maze underground, and her large, kindly and stumbling son Bran, who accompanies the cousins into the Land of Night. These are just some of the characters and they sound wonderful.

Of course, one cannot have such lovely characters without some not-so-lovely ones. LCC asked Noyce to explain about any ‘baddies’. “Most of my characters mean well in their own way, but the reader should beware of characters who want to control children absolutely—or conversely, those who want to leave them entirely on their own. I want my readers to think about such questions as how much freedom, and what kind, they need to grow up happy. Who or what is trying to control them? In the story, the most effective controllers are the welcoming, kindly-seeming Nomologists, Timothy and Vera.”

Noyce has been told that her book seems to take a ‘satirical swipe’ at technology and LCC asked if she had something against technology. “I love technology and use it every day,” Noyce explained. “But I do worry that we’re raising a generation of children who expect always to be plugged in and entertained. I want to remind them that freedom and growth come from active involvement in the world. I want to urge them to throw off the earphones, turn off the screen and go outside, where they can play with friends, make up their own games, and hold onto childhood a little longer.”

This brought a nostalgic sigh from LCC columnist, Sylvia Massara, who could relate to the good old days of childhood when all one needed for a great game or story was an old and rickety house obscured by high and mysterious-looking trees. This made her think lovingly of Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. But back to the interview!

They say that every book has a little of its author in it and for this information LCC asked Noyce about her background. “From childhood I wanted to become a writer, but a long spell of life-threatening asthma in my late teens awoke an interest in medicine,” she said. “I trained at Stanford University and the University of Minnesota, and went on to practice internal medicine in East Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. At the same time I married a medical school classmate and started a family. My father’s sudden death a few years later gave my career another turn. In his honour, the family set up the Noyce Foundation, which supports mathematics and science teaching and learning across the US. I became deeply involved in math and science education reform in Massachusetts and nationally; and after the birth of my youngest child, I stepped back from practicing medicine. During the years of medicine and education reform, I still wrote intermittently, including one unpublished adult novel. But once my older children headed off to college, I decided it was time to return seriously to my first love, writing. I needed something big to fill the hole left by departing children!”

It seems that says it all. Lost in Lexicon promises to be a book that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike. It certainly sounds like it can create that ‘parent-child’ bond (or book club) Noyce mentioned earlier. Interested readers can download the first three chapters for free by visiting the book website, www.lostinlexicon.com. The book itself can be found on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and should be widely available in bookstores.

Lastly, the Lexicon website has games and activities, character snapshots, a tour through Lexicon, a book club guide, and suggested lesson plans connected to the book. Readers will find links to Daphne’s blog, where she writes about interesting words, and Ivan’s, where he poses intriguing math problems. There’s also a link to Noyce’s own blog, where she writes about parenting, family, and education. Beyond that, interested teachers or parents can reach her by writing to info@tumblehomepress.com to schedule a virtual author visit to their classroom or book club via Skype.

LCC finished the interview by asking what was next for Noyce. She replied, “I plan four books in the Lexicon series. Right now I’m finishing work on the second one, The Ice Castle, where Ivan and Daphne follow their younger cousin Lila back into Lexicon. I’m also working on a young adult adventure called The Beechwood Flute and sketching out a mystery for younger readers. After that, we’ll see!”

About LCC’s writer: Sylvia Massara is a novelist based in Sydney, Australia, and the author of ‘The Other Boyfriend’ and ‘The Soul Bearers’. She is also the co-host of the soon-to-be-released ‘The Lit Chick Show’. For more information or to contact Sylvia, please visit her website.