They Read, They Won

September 2006 Specail Advertising Section

Sonja Nelson, 12, Minnetonka
Favorite author: Roald Dahl
What she’s reading now: Small Steps by Louis Sachar
What she wrote about The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place: Art isn’t always useful. It isn’t always amazingly beautiful either. Art is simply something that someone creates. It doesn’t have to perform a function and it doesn’t have to look incredibly good. If the people who create artwork find it worth their time, and they want to do it, they should go right ahead and do it! Through the voices of many characters, including Margaret Rose and her mother, E.L. Konigsburg is trying to show that art only has to be meaningful to its creator.

The towers were a creative way for the uncles to help them deal with their changing surroundings. Both uncles had their own unique talents. They combined these talents to create the towers. Parts of their history were fit into the towers, such as watch parts and porcelain pieces. Even though the towers had no function, they were worth creating and worth the time.  The towers were definitely art.   

Alix Knutson, 10, Woodbury
Favorite authors: Frances O’Rourke Dowell, Kate DiCamillo, and Blue Balliett
What she’s reading now: Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, Double Dutch by Sharon M. Draper, and Dovey Coe by Frances O’Rourke Dowell
What she wrote about The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place: Let’s say Uncle Alex and Uncle Morris were in an art show showing their towers, and there were two judges. One judge was looking for perfection and didn’t care about creativity, thought, or doing it for fun, he just wanted perfection. The other judge was open to art and looked at things in different ways like the creativity. He would probably like the towers while the other judge wouldn’t like them because the colors didn’t match perfectly. If you were thinking that the towers should be perfect and the colors should blend perfectly you wouldn’t be letting the real feel of art come to you, so you probably would think that it was not art.

If people were voting which [of the above] smiles was cooler most people would probably pick number one because they didn’t look at number two long enough and in different angles. Number two isn’t perfect, but it is more creative and unique.

Michelle Miller, 11, Woodbury
Favorite authors: Ann M. Martin, Melissa J. Morgan, Liz Kessler, and Jamie Suzanne
What she’s reading now: Eleven Kids, One Summer by Ann M. Martin, Bathing Ugly by Rebecca Busselle, Camp Confidential: Jenna’s Dilemma by Melissa J. Morgan, and Just A Summer Romance by Ann M. Martin
What she wrote about The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place: Art has to come from the soul, otherwise, what do you have? If Da Vinci didn’t have any soul, Mona Lisa would just be some lady with a smile. Art should have a feeling it gives people, such as a painting of a day at the park should give you a cheerful glow inside. A rough but delicate painting of an ocean during a storm could give you a sad but somehow a graceful sense. So yes, the towers are art because they gave the countless people an unexplainable feeling. Art can be anything, from grand towers to an elegant lady who is called Mona Lisa.

I think some of the best artists are the kids like Margaret because they see the world with such beauty and wonder—as if nothing could go wrong. Kids have so much passion inside of them, but so many people don’t know that…I think the outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place aren’t really outcasts but wonderful people who unlike many people have a lot of soul and know how to use it.