Ruth
Park: A Celebration
Marcie Muir pays tribute to Ruth Park's writing for children and young adults
Ruth Park's books cannot always be easily found in children's libraries as they are so frequently out on loan. Naturally enough, most libraries have multiple copies of many of the books she published between 1961 and 1988 and they are still eagerly read. As well as overseas editions in England and America, they were frequently translated at a time when publishing for an international market was less widespread.
Ruth Park is an unpretentious writer despite the acclaim which she had continued to receive for her work ever since The Harp in the South (1948) was the prizewinner in the Sydney Morning Herald competition in 1946. She is a dedicated professional, and children's books are only a part of her extensive output. Yet writing for children has always been important to her, since her early training on the children's pages of a large newspaper.
Park also worked extensively for radio for many years at the early stages of her career, and accepted diverse projects such as writing storybook texts for local and overseas educational publishers. Some of her earliest successes resulted in a radio serial written before any of her children's books were published. This, of course, was 'The Muddle-Headed Wombat', that first appeared as a book in 1962 and continued until The Muddle-Headed Wombat Stays at Home was published in 1982. Not only was the serial successful for years as part of the children's session on radio, but the story in book form (with the distinctive and imaginative illustrations by Noela Young) had a following of its own. The books were reprinted many times: there would be 13 titles in the series, and the wildly exuberant adventures of Wombat and his friends continue to entertain young Australians. It is remarkable that neither her imagination nor her vitality seemed to flag, and that her books were just as popular at the end of the series as at the beginning.
What comes first for Ruth Park has always been the story, and this is the strongest element in her writing. She has a compulsive narrative skill and holds her reader's attention firmly throughout. Even when the plot at times seems improbable, or coincidence is stretched too far for credibility, the writing is so taut the reader urgently needs to know what happens next. This quality characterises all her writing and is one of the reasons for her great success. Children want entertainment in their reading, and the story is what holds their interest most effectively. She also has a wonderful ear for dialogue. It reveals moods and feelings as well as the information being exchanged by the characters and is entirely in keeping with the person who is speaking. She must always have had a good ear and she admits she listens to children speaking. When writing Playing Beatie Bow (1980) she talked to 13-year-old girls, watching and listening to them to catch some idea of their reactions, preoccupations and expressions. She loves and understands children, having had five of her own, and has always enjoyed writing for them.
Some of Park's books are imbued with her love of history, and she inspires her readers with her own romantic vision of the past. In Playing Beatie Bow it is the imaginative power of the book which draws such a strong response. Her technique in creating the time slip is adroit and, once Abigail finds herself in the poor tenement area of late nineteenth century Sydney, the reader is spellbound by the atmosphere Park evokes. The story tightens its grip and carries one along powerfully. It is no wonder, as the diversity of awards it has won shows, that the book was so successful with readers in many countries. To be chosen for the best children's book of the year award in both Australia and the United States, and runner-up for the Guardian Prize in Britain, as well as gaining other distinctions, was remarkable. Some readers may have found the ending a little pat and sentimental, but this helped its popular appeal. Certainly the book had achieved a wide circulation before the film was shown in 1986 and has flourished ever since. A recent check with Penguin Australia showed the paperback edition alone has sold almost 300,000 copies.
Ruth Park has earned our respect for her other children's books, including Callie's Castle (1974), the first to be illustrated by her daughter, Kilmeny Niland. The great popularity of all these, including the Muddle-Headed Wombat (1962-82) series has made her name known to children all over Australia. The imaginative power in Playing Beatie Bow has endowed it with enduring qualities, and it may well prove to be one of the children's books of our era to continue to delight readers for many years to come.
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