No.71 - Wolves (also including apologies and explanations from me)

Hello!

It's been a while since I updated this blog regularly and I feel like I've let myself and my readers down a bit. I'm sorry, let me explain....

When I started this project way back in 2016 I was doing my degree, in particular a children's literature module, so as you can imagine, children's books were constantly on my mind. I finished my degree the same year, and started an MA in children's literature that September. Unfortunately, my ongoing mental health problems got the better of me at the start of 2017 and I had to give up the MA. This meant that I was no longer immersed in children's books and so sadly I let this project slide a little. By September of 2017 I was feeling much more like myself again and enrolled on a Foundation course in art and design, something I had always wanted to do. This was a huge game changer for me in terms of my confidence and self belief, but put the breaks on this blog project some what! I didn't have much time to think about the book list, as I was very busy making things and having a fabulous time! Now that course has come to an end, I find myself feeling a little bereft, and I can feel the combined fear of adulting and no routine creeping up behind me. As a distraction from this, and as a way to prove to myself that I'm still an academically intelligent person, I have decided to start this project up again, and start writing some children's fiction of my own too.

So, lets crack on!

Today's book is the contemporary picture book, Wolves by Emily Gravett.

This is no ordinary picture book. It is an example of what is known as 'the postmodern picture book'. Now, if you're not a picture book nerd like I am, that basically means it's a contemporary picture book that pushes the boundaries of what we believe a picture book should be. It's not just a story and some pictures, it often plays with format, uses parody, breaks the picture plane, and in the case of Wolves uses self-referentiality. Sorry, still a bit geeky! Basically, Emily Gravett's Wolves is a story about a rabbit reading Emily Gravett's Wolves.

At the start of the book we see the rabbit get the book out from his local library, (West Bucks Public Burrowing Library, for those of you who like a pun). It's exactly what it says on the cover, it's a book about wolves. Now this is where it gets clever, this book is actually a non-fiction book in picture book clothing. Without you really realising you are learning loads of interesting facts about wolves! Did you know that they had 42 teeth, and jaws that are twice as powerful as a dogs? Well now you do! 

We follow the rabbit on a journey of discovery, as he walks, nose in book, from the library, past the pages of the book, and into the jaws of the wolf himself. The dust jacket reads "Too many rabbits believe everything they read in fairy stories. A wolf's favourite food is NOT small girls in red hoods.". This is, of course, a nod to Little Red Riding Hood. The rabbit is a more realistic snack for the wolf, but with the journeying that happens across the pages it is hard not to see the rabbit as a red riding hood type character. This book is great mix of realism and fantasy. 

The design of the book is fab too, and Gravett makes good use of the paratext, by that I mean the end papers. They show the in-book version of Wolves, as well as post cards, letters, takeaway menus, all featuring cracking rabbit-based puns! No doubt for adult benefit! I love picture books that do this, they're like little in-jokes between author/illustrator and adult, making the act of sharing a book with a child all the more enjoyable. There is also lots of references to Wolves being a library book, including a lovely double page spread of the inside of the book, complete with library reference card, and label covered in stamps showing when the book was taken out. These are lovely touches, that make you really believe that you are looking at another book. 

I also love the illustrations, which mix collage with hand drawn elements, giving the images depth, and help to break the picture plane, reinforcing the idea of a book within a book.

All in all, this is a really clever book. It references classic fairy tales, whilst conveying a original idea and maintaining a contemporary postmodern picture book design. It is fun and informative, with a little twist at the end, which made me laugh (no spoilers though!). A must read for all lovers of the picture book genre!

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up Fairy Tales by Berlie Doherty

No. 72 - The Worst Witch

This is me, aged 5 or 6, dressed up as the Worst Witch for World Book Day! An easy costume I suppose, it was basically my school uniform, with the addition of a sash and a small tiger (masquerading as Mildred’s tabby cat!)! Unoriginal you might say, but for me it was the perfect portrayal of a character that I loved.

Before I knew anything about Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione, I was having my magical education at Miss Cackles Academy for Witches, with Mildred and Maud. Like our favourite magical comrades, Mildred and Maud are often finding themselves in sticky situations and getting into trouble with a cast of magical teachers. The most formidable of all is of course Miss Hardbroom, who is just as mean as her name suggests.

The headteacher of the academy is the long suffering and rather sweet Miss Cackle, who is always disappointed to see Mildred in her office AGAIN.

Mildred Hubble, as Jill Murphy describes her, is ‘the Worst Witch’. She is always getting into scrapes, embarrassing herself in front of her classmates, casting the wrong spells and mixing the wrong potions. Delightfully, she is a real, flawed character, someone who makes mistakes, even though she is trying her very best. 

Although Mildred has her fair share of bad luck, Murphy is at pains to remind us that she has lots of friends and is well liked. At no point do we feel sorry for Mildred because she has a support network of friends behind her, including her wonderfully loyal bestie Maud. Maud is a dumpy little witch with glasses and bunches, and contrasts beautifully with the gangly, uncoordinated Mildred. They are the perfect double act.

There’s one more person you need to know about before I continue, and that is Ethel, who Murphy describes as being a bit smug and bossy! She is top of the class and so looks down on Mildred with great contempt. But this doesn’t bother Mildred, instead she has her ways of dealing with Ethel, which, in this book, involves turning her into a pig!

When I picked up The Worst Witch I couldn’t remember much about the story, but the characters were firmly imprinted in my head, and strangely so was the school song…. The tune, the words, everything. I can attribute that to either of two things,

1.       The audiobook, which I listened to a lot!

2.       The ITV children’s TV series – the original one, not the new one, not the Netflix one (apparently there is one), but the original one. We’re talking the same era as The Queen’s Nose, when children's TV was at it’s best!

Now I can’t remember which of these had the song in it, but I know that both these heavily influenced my love of the books and these characters. As always, as I started reading the book read itself to me, in the same phrasing, voices and nuances as the audiobook, something I always love when revisiting a book for this blog, as you’ll know. 

The story is short, but sweet, and has everything in it that you’d expect from a book set in a magical school. There’s broomstick flying, witch’s cats, potions class, people getting turned into animals, a threat to the cosy contentment of the school, and a Halloween celebration. Sound familiar, I think so. 

The story opens on the eve of the cat presentation, where all the first-year girls get presented with their witches familiar; a black kitten. Of course, Mildred being Mildred, ends up with the only tabby cat. After that there is a magical interlude, where we learn more about what the girls get up to at school, with Mildred and Maud accidentally creating an invisibility potion in a class test! As well as potions class there is also practice for the Halloween celebration’s broomstick flying display, which I love the sound of! Who wouldn’t pay to see a broomstick display team!? This is not so exciting for Mildred however, who after borrowing a spare broomstick from Ethel (alarm bells!!) for the display ends up bringing the whole team to the ground during the performance. Ethel of course, had tampered with the broom, a trick that seems quite popular with magical folk!

This is the low point in the story. Everyone is cross with Mildred for ruining the display, and disheartened she decides to run away. However, just outside the school grounds she encounters a coven of witches, led by Miss Cackle’s evil sister, who are intent on sneaking into the school and turning everyone into frogs! Mildred thinks fast, turning them all into snails and taking them back to school to show Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom. The story ends in true Philosopher’s Stone style, with Mildred being publicly praised for having saved the school.

I would thoroughly recommend this book, its sequels, and it’s TV adaptions to anyone, especially children aged between 6 and 11. This was magical education before it was cool; this was my Hogwarts. 

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up, 'Wolves' by Emily Gravett

No.73 - I Love You, Blue Kangaroo!

The blog hasn't really covered many picture books yet, but this is the second one running! I love picture books, the way the text and images can work together, or in some cases tell two totally different stories. For me, these are the most interesting, where the images can be read as one story, and the text as another, allowing for different abilities of reader, and of course a bit of imagination! However, there is no less value in picture books that are beautifully illustrated stories, where picture and text work together to tell the story and engage the reader or listener. A perfect example of this is Emma Chichester Clark's I Love You, Blue Kangaroo!

We've all had, or still have, a toy that we could never be without! Mine is Polo Bear, a white teddy with tartan ears and feet, and a little tartan bow tie! Polo has been on many an adventure with me, school trips away, holidays, and lots of other occasions too. He still sits at the end of my bed, and although he plays a much more static role to the one he did when I was a child, I know he'll always be there for me when I need him, and I sometimes still give him a little squeeze. Polo is my Blue Kangaroo. 

This picture book has become somewhat of a classic, published in 1998, it had been a constant influence on many children's bookshelves for the past 20 years. It is a story of love, friendship and unbreakable bonds. Lily, who I would say was about 4 or 5, loves her Blue Kangaroo, just as we've all loved our favourite toys. Every night she hugs him close and gives him all her love, until the Wild Brown Bear arrives. Lily now has to share her love with a new toy, and unfortunately poor Blue Kangaroo starts feeling a bit left out. Slowly more and more toys arrive for Lily from family and friends, until the Blue Kangaroo can barely fit into the bed each night! Then one night he is finally knocked out of bed! Feeling very sad he decides to snuggle up with Lily's baby brother instead. Like the Velveteen Rabbit in the last blog post, the Blue Kangaroo struggles to understand why he isn't always the toy of choice, and how he can become the favourite again. But to Lily the Blue Kangaroo will always be her favourite toy, and to use Margery Williams term, 'Real'. When faced with the idea of her brother having Blue Kangaroo Lily does something rather lovely. She gives her brother all her other new toys in return for having her kangaroo back. He will always be her favourite toy and she loves him dearly. 

As well as being a wonderfully endearing story, and having the loveliest illustrations, the story also uses lists and repetition to engage the reader or listener. When Lily snuggles up in bed each night her toys are listed, starting with the newest first and always ending with the Blue Kangaroo. This a wonderful device for encouraging 'reading' along. I can imagine the adult reader pointing to all the toys in the bed and naming each one with the child, using the repetition and rhythm of each name to help them remember what comes next. I love books like this, and think that this type of writing is especially valuable in encouraging a love of language and reading in the very young. 

Overall this is a very sweet book, with a touching sentiment. The illustrations are bright and bold, and the Blue Kangaroo, despite looking a little bit like a mouse, is very cute indeed! Coming to it as an adult reader I can totally understand the love that Lily has for her very favourite toy, and I bet if she were real, the 25 year old Lily would still have her Blue Kangaroo!

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up a firm favourite of mine, The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy. 

No. 74 - The Velveteen Rabbit

I'm back! I'm so sorry it's been so long since I posted anything here! I've been madly working hard for another qualification and getting my head around what happens after education (which, trust me, is super scary!).

Anyway, let's jump right into it! Today I want to talk to you all about the Margery Williams classic, The Velveteen Rabbit or When Toys Become Real. I had of course heard of this book, and knew it was somewhat of a must-read yet I had never actually read it. So I popped online and searched my local library catalogue. I could only find an abridged version of the story by Ruth Martin, more of a picture book style with lots of beautiful illustrations by Sophie Allsopp.

It was a really beautiful book, but I'm not sure I really enjoyed the story. I found the whole thing a little bit creepy if I'm honest!

When I was little I didn't like the idea of toys watching me, especially when I was going to sleep, so my poor old teddys had to often sleep with their faces to the wall! So as you can imagine a story about toys coming to life was not my ideal reading material!

The boy in the story, who remains unnamed, gets a toy rabbit for Christmas, but because he has so many other things too he doesn't really notice the rabbit. It's only in the absence of his normal china dog at bedtime that the boy discovers the rabbit.

I suppose if you truly analyse the meaning of 'realness' in this story it is all about love. A toy only becomes real once it has been really loved, and I'm sure we can all relate to this. We've all got a toy that we loved to absolute death as a small child, and probably still love even though it's balding and might only have one eye left. The point is that it's ours, and to us its more than just a toy, it represents our childhood.

The Velveteen Rabbit was not my cup of tea, and so writing about it has been hard. It might have something to do with when in was published, in the early 20s, or just that bizarre nature of the story, but I struggled to get anything out of it, despite it being a classic. The prose itself seems stilted and long winded, and the characters very two dimensional, and not particularly endearing. Unfortunately, i'm not sure this is a classic that has stood the test of time. Something along the same theme, such as the next book, 'I Love You, Blue Kangaroo', tackles the idea of 'realness' in a much better and more accessible way.

I suppose I won't love every book on this list, and there have been a few so far that I've not enjoyed (read about my feeling on 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' here). I try to give an honest review of what I read, and hope that that will inspire you to read the books on the list, either for yourself or with your children.

Thanks for reading, L x

Next time: 'I Love You, Blue Kangaroo' by Emma Chichester Clark