Can I believe the magic of your sighs?

Did you know it was Gerry Goffin, not Carole King, who wrote the lyrics to "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"? That's just one of the fun facts I've picked up in listening to King's new autobiography called, what else, A Natural Woman. Her stories about working for hit factory Aldon Music (not in the Brill Building, by the way) resonant with Amazon.com's attempts to control book-producing and -selling from the top down, and her anecdote about getting a flunking grade for her record "It Might As Well Rain Until September" from the kids on American Bandstand reminded me of certain Best Books for Young Adults meetings I would prefer to forget. One bonus of the audiobook edition of A Natural Woman is that King, as narrator, sings whenever a a song lyric pops up in the text. I'm hoping she's going to talk about her and Goffin's controversial "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss),'" featured on this week's Mad Men.

For more on boys and girls, take a look at Hilary Rappaport's "On the Rights of Reading and Girls and Boys," which will be published in the May/June issue of The Horn Book Magazine but which we've put online now for all you engaged in the most recent guys'-reading debate.
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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didnthearitfromme

View the wonderful movie "Grace of My Heart" based on Carole King.

Posted : Apr 22, 2012 12:58


Lisa Yee

I was debating whether or not to get this audiobook. Guess I will now.

Posted : Apr 16, 2012 06:28


~mwt

Thanks for the link. I'd really like to see boy/girl book label buried forever.

Posted : Apr 13, 2012 05:22


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