Tonight I went to a reading of "The Graveyard Girl" by Anna Myers at the Memphis Botanic Gardens. This is a book, mainly for older children, about the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis in the late 1800's. The story surrounds a girl who lived with her father at Elmwood Cemetery. The book is about her father who is charged with burying the dead and he eventually contracts the illness leaving the girl alone. I had never heard of this book until I was reading The Commercial Appeal one day and a chapter of the book was printed in it. The Commercial Appeal prints a new chapter every Tuesday and Thursday. I was surprised to find out that Mrs. Myers was actually born and raised in Oklahoma and the only connection to Memphis was her brother-in-law who is an Anatomy professor at the University of Memphis.
After reading the newest chapter this morning I was really looking forward to hearing her speak and read the chapter wondering if, in someone else's voice, the story would have a new and different meaning. I was disappointed to find that after waiting all day she decided not to read her book, but talk about writing it and her other 18 books. She had decided to write children's books because she loved to read and listen to all kinds of stories and she thought all children needed books written to suite their age groups. She also thought that teaching children to understand history was equally important so she decided to write in the genre of historical fiction. This type of writing has always peaked my interest, but this particular author used historical theories that had been generally accepted for decades but they had been proved false or flawed in one way or another. She did however act out some of her characters from her other books which I thought was interesting and this helped get into the head of some of the characters that you may have not gotten through simply reading the book. Even though she didn't actually read her book she provided great insight into why she writes what she does.
