Gosh, I Miss The Library!

Oh Hermione, I really wish I could! 

So, one thing that I've missed during lockdown is going to the library. The library has always been a constant for me. Where ever I've lived I've belonged to the library, and trips have been part of my weekly routine for as long as I can remember, especially growing up. I rely on the library to help me find the books for this blog, and for my own personal reading. I love hunting down a book I'm after either on the shelf, or online on the library catalogue. It's like being a detective! And one of the nicest feelings is knowing I have book waiting for me at the library, like a long lost friend. I love books, I just can't help it! But what happens now we can't go to the library? In the biggest time of doubt I've ever experienced in my life! Hermione's advice just doesn't cut it anymore! 

I rarely buy books theses days, and if I do I generally buy secondhand real, paper books. Call me old fashioned, but I love the tangible nature of a real book (and they smell nice too!). As well as libraries being out of action, I've obviously been unable to visit any bookshops, so I've had to begrudgingly embrace the world of the eBook. I rarely buy eBooks because they baffle me somewhat. You can't see how far you are through a book and I find it hard to measure my progress any other way. I like to sit down with a book and see that I've read a few millimeters or a centimetre on a good day! I can't get my head around a percentage! Numbers are not my thing! So, very reluctantly I've been buying kindle books for this blog over the past few months in order to keep the blog up and running, and it's been a very strange experience. Luckily children's books are never too expensive (no cheeky VAT), but not having the convenience of free books at the library has been very weird indeed! In some ways I resent having to buy these books, but what I resent more is having to read them electronically. You loose out on the full book experience, it just becomes another screen you have to engage with during your day, which is frankly, rubbish!

I don't know what the fate of our libraries will be after COVID-19. I can understand why there is no way they can reopen yet, but with budget cuts and popularity reducing the number of libraries in the UK anyway, I worry that COVID might be the end of libraries as we know them. What will happen to them now? Will they become entirely obsolete? I really hope not! Will the only people using them be me, and an old lady who enjoys a large print Mills and Boon? Probably... Will they become online catalogues, where you order up what you want, in a click and collect style shopping experience? Or will they go online entirely? 

And libraries are not just about books you know! If we loose the physical library building we loose baby and toddler groups, story time session, computer access, lego clubs, repair shops, and all those other lovely things that happen in our local libraries. I so, so hope that in the post-COVID world we still retain some of what makes a library so special, even if it has to change a bit. 

Thanks for reading, L x

7 Ways To Keep the Children Busy and Learing During Lockdown!

Hi there!

I hope you're all doing well!

I wanted to share some resources with you that have been popping into my email inbox over the past few weeks.

1.  The Happy News - A fantastic, quirky, smiley newspaper full of handpicked positive news from around the world! You can subscribe to the paper itself, but I was also sent an activity pack for kids, full of positive news, and a blank sheet for them to create their very own Happy News! You can access this pack, and read more about subscriptions here!
2. Caboodle - This is a loyalty scheme by National Book Tokens. Just register and you can start collecting points with them straight away by entering competitions and playing games. Once you start collecting points they'll send you all kinds of exclusive content, other competitions and lots more lovely bookish stuff. There's a children's section and lots of for grown ups too! Explore Caboodle here!
3. Family Zone - I think I've mentioned this in one of my last posts, but I thought I'd pop the link in again for those who might have missed it. Family Zone is an area on the National Literacy Trust's website especially for children from 0-11. It is full of fun activities that will have your children learning and improving their literacy and reading skills without even realising! Take a look here!
4. Puffin Books - Their latest newsletter has a brilliant activity pack for children, full of fun activites based on favourites such a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. There's also a brilliant new podcast which went down well with the smaller ones in my family, and lots of must read book recommendations. Download the activities, and learn more about the other bits here!
5. Harry Potter with Audible - Queen J.K Rowling has been amazing once again and relaxed the copyright laws on the first Harry Potter Audiobook read by Stephen Fry, and allowed Audible to let everyone listen to it for free! I can't think of a better way to get through lockdown! Go on, listen!
6. Harry Potter at Home - If the free audiobook has ignited your children's imaginations, why not go and check out the new resource from The Wizarding World - Harry Potter at Home. Especially put together for the lockdown this website has all kinds of extra reading, facts about the Harry Potter books, quizzes, puzzles, crafts, and lots more to help you explore the world of Harry Potter. How amazing is that! You can find the Harry Potter at Home Hub here!
7. The World of David Walliams - David Walliams's website is full of hoards of fun activities, games, and downloadable puzzles based on his much-loved books, that will keep your kids busy for hours! There are also free audio books and live story time videos too! Check it out here!

Right, so that's my rundown of the latest activities and resources I could find to keep your families busy, keep boredom at bay, and secretly teach them things too, during lockdown!

Thanks for reading, Lx

Ps. Flour Babies by Anne Fine is up next!

A Year of Reading

Happy New Year everyone!

Sitting in front of the tele on Boxing Day night I realised that it had been a whole year since I had watched the countdown of the top 50 children's books that inspired this blog, and my reading journey began!

On Jan 6th 2016 I embarked upon this project for real, and began subjecting you all to my reviews and ramblings! A whole year on and I've managed to read just over 10% of the list, which I think is pretty good, seeing as its been a part time reading challenge alongside my usual yearly book intake. So I'm 13 books down and there are many more exciting titles left to explore, such as Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls, This is Not my Hat by Jon Klassen and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S Eliot. I'll admit that I have slowed down rather since the start of my MA in October, and I've not been devouring the books as quickly as I was during the summer. Carrie's War by Nina Bawden has been waiting patiently on my shelf for the last month! It's the next book on the list so I need to read it to get going again. I'll get on it soon! I am hoping that over the next few months I will rekindle my excitement for this project! I have promised myself that I will read more! I have also promised myself that I will keep a list of all the books I read this year, as I always seem to forget what I've read and when.

I've got a few more exciting things planned for Little Bookworm this year. I am hoping to expand what I write about, maybe a bit of critical theory, maybe a few interviews, maybe a bookshop tour or two, who knows. I just know that I should start exploring and experimenting with what I do here and hopefully good things will come of it! There has even been talk of starting a YouTube channel, so watch this space!

Anyway, this was just a quick post to mark the anniversary of my project I suppose. I'm planning another post, coming soon, about the books I received at Christmas, the ones I gifted, and I might even touch on the lovely adaptation of Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt too. And then of course there will be a post coming soon about Carrie's War!

Thanks for reading. L x

No.88 - The Adventures of Captain Underpants!

Captain Underpants stands for "all things pre-shrunk and cottony!" and fights crime using y-fronts! Created by friends Harold and George, the comic book hero comes to life when they hypnotise their school Principle so he believes that he is in fact the pant-clad superhero! Dav Pilkey's wonderfully silly story The Adventures of Captain Underpants is the only book I know to claim to have both 'Wedgie Power' and 'Flip-o-Rama', and what a difference that makes! No, honestly! This is a classic book for reluctant readers! The good smattering of toilet humour is an instant attraction! This particular story includes as rubber dog poo, a evil villain in a nappy who falls foul to said poo (no pun intended), and a good amount of references to pants! It is also full of practical jokes, general mischief and downright silliness. The perfect combination!

When my boyfriend came over on Friday afternoon he found me at my desk whisking off emails to various people and having a think about my upcoming essay (more about that another day). Whilst I finished my admin he picked up the copy of The Wind in the Willows that was on my desk and proceeded to read excerpts to me, with all the voices! This was of course hilarious, so we decided to find other things he could read. We decided that The Adventures of Captain Underpants should be next! He'd read it when he was small and was keen to relive the adventure! So we snuggled up in my room and spent the whole afternoon reading. It was lovely! I faintly remember having read this book when I was small, but I wasn't sure, so I came to it with hardly any prior knowledge. It was great! I think having it read to me, complete with a myriad of American accents (!), made it all the better. I can't imagine having put that amount of animation or expression into it had I read it quietly to myself. He made it really enjoyable! 

So just for you, here is a taster of Martin reading Captain Underpants. George and Harold have just been busted by their Principle for causing havoc at a school football game, uh oh! (If you can't see the video below then you can watch it here)

I asked Martin why the Captain Underpants books appealed to him when he was small?

" I immediately found the idea of it really funny. I loved reading them because I loved the style and the humour and how the illustrations would tell their own mini stories in tandem with the text, like George and Harold changing around the letters on the school signs to make rude and silly phrases. For small books a huge amount was contained in them. The stories were hugely eventful, and each book would include an issue of George and Harold's Captain Underpants to read as part of the story (which resonated with me as a boy because I saw myself in that. I too loved writing). There was also a cool section in each book called Flip-o-rama which involved flipping a page back and fourth to animate two images which was loads of fun. I think the best part of Captain Underpants was that they were just plain funny and I remember the books were a good way of bringing me and my peers at primary school together, as we had that humour in common. "

I too remember these books being a huge hit with boys when I was growing up, and to be fair they probably still are. It has been proven that boys come to reading in a different way to girls, and that often they are slower to pick up the reading bug. The Captain Underpants books seem to be the remedy to this. My experience is that once hooked boys seem to devour the whole series, and come out of it wanting to read. I showed just the cover to my cousin Archie, who's five, and he was instantly interested, I didn't even need to read it! These, and other series that attract boys like magnets, should be treasured! We need more!

I would thoroughly recommend The Adventure of Captain Underpants to any one who fancies a laugh! It is the perfect book for reading aloud and will delight children and adults alike!

Thanks for reading, and listening! L x

Next up Carrie's War by Nina Bawden.

No.89 - Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is best known as the flying nanny with the talking umbrella portrayed by Julie Andrew's in the famous Disney musical of 1964. But the real Mary Poppins was actually created 30 years before by Pamela Travers, or P.L Travers, as she was known. Travers wrote the first Mary Poppins book, which is the one that I have been reading, in 1934, but she went on to write 7 more tales of the English nanny and her magical adventure, the last of which was published in 1988.

The Disney film is based on the first four books, Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Comes Back, Mary Poppins Opens the Door, and Mary Poppins in the Park. However, when I say based, I really mean very loosely indeed! From reading just the first book here are some differences I have spotted:

1. Bert is a peripheral character, not like Dick Van Dyke's cockney (!?) lead. 

2. Jane and Michael are not the only Banks children! There are also Barbara and John, the baby twins. 

3. Mary Poppins is not as lovely as Julie Andrews makes her out to be!

4. She is also not as posh as Julie Andrew makes her out to be!

5. The adventures in the book are so much more exciting than those in the film!

I could go on! 

Really the film and the books are non-comparable. They are so different from each other that I can see why Travers got so upset when she saw the film for the first time, and why she was so against selling the film rights in the first place. I love the musical, but I also really enjoyed the version of Mary portrayed in this book. She's a bit tougher on the children, a huge liar when it comes to admitting that she's magic and she really very very vain, but she is also wonderfully charming! I think the children both adore her, but are also quite scared of her too! 

As i've already said, the adventures in the book are far more exciting than anything that happens in the film. The laughing tea party on the ceiling is taken from the book, and they do 'Feed the birds, tuppence a bag'! The chalk painting excursion is also featured, although it is only Bert and Mary who go, and there are no race horses! But the Banks children and Mary Poppins also get up to some other great things too! When Michael gets up on the wrong side of the bed and is ghastly to everyone Mary takes them around the world in a minute. At each compass point they meet an animal from that part of the world who gives them a gift. In the original book these were people from each part of the world but this was deemed un-PC and they were changed to animals in the later editions. Mary Poppins also introduces the children to a very tiny, old lady made of butterscotch who runs a sweet shop with her two daughters. They later help Mary put paper stars back in the night sky. The children also take a night time trip to the zoo, where they find people in the cages and the animals roaming free, fully personified. The final story, which I think is lovely, is that of Maia. The children and Mary Poppins are out christmas shopping where they are met by a little girl. She is Maia, one of the seven Pleiades stars, known as the Seven Sisters. She has come down to earth to buy christmas presents for her sisters, and Mary Poppins and the children agrees to help her. Travers' original tales are truly charming, and certainly magical!

Last week I read a particularly interesting essay by Maria Tatar called A Thousand and One Tales, and in she refers to Lois Lowry's term 'Elsewhere'. Tatar explains that: 

'Elswhere is found in fairytales and fantasies - it is everything from "Once upon a time" to Wonderland, Narnia, Oz, Neverland, and Hogwarts... Elsewhere is a zone that... [gives] us what could be rather than what should be. It opens up perils and possibilities, creating an alternate world where magical thinking is validated and affirmed...' *

This got me thinking. 

If Narnia is 'Elsewhere', then the wardrobe must be the portal to 'Elsehwere', and if "Once upon a time" can transport us to these magical places, then maybe a person could too. I think Mary Poppins can be seen as a portal to Tatar and Lowry's 'Elsewhere'. Without her the children could not experience the magical events that occur in the book. She transports them to these places using her own magical powers. Magical thinking is both 'validated and affirmed'* in Mary Poppins's world. However, when they are back in reality she denies that any of the magic actually happened. Tatar suggests that 'The reality principle is soundly defeated in Elsewhere, if only to show that it is inescapable in our ordinary lives.'*. Mary Poppins' behaviour is the embodiment of this statement. By denying that anything magical ever happened, she actually makes the magic more magical and the reality even more real. Its a pity that Disney ironed out these extremes in a way. Although the magical nature of the musical is all well and good the actual stories have their mysterious sides too, which add to their appeal. 

With the current trend to remake the classic Disney films, I would love to see a film that really embraces the true nature and magic of P.L Travers books. In 2014 there was a hoax suggesting that Tim Burton was to remake the story, and frankly I would have loved to have seen that! However, I have discovered that there is new Mary Poppins film, Mary Poppins Returns, planned for release in 2018, starring Emily Blunt as our beloved nanny, so all we can do is wait, hope and watch this space! 

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up is The Adventures of Captain Underpants! A favourite of many so I have heard!

*Tatar, Maria, (2009) "A Thousand and One Tales" from Hearne, Betsy and Trites, Roberta Seelinger, A narrative compass: stories that guide women's lives, pp.39-46 (particular quotes from p. 43), Urbana, Illinois, University of Illinois Press.

The Lost Beatrix Potter Story: The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots

Last week marked a historic moment for all lovers of Beatrix Potter's classic animal tales. A new story was posthumously published, one that had lain forgotten for around 100 years! Beatrix Potter had written The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots in 1914, over 10 years after her first children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published, but it never became more than just a manuscript. Some suggest that the advent of the First World War may have, among other things, interrupted the completion of the Kitty story, which was found with only one illustration and here it is.

It is a charming tale about a cat who enjoys poaching! Kitty or Miss Catherine St Quintin (as she likes to call herself!) likes to don a 'gentleman's Norfolk jacket and little fur-lined boots' and brandish an air-gun at every opportunity! The story follows her as she sneaks out at night to go hunting, switching places with another black cat called Winkiepeeps, so as not to arouse the suspicions of her doting owner. Here she encounters a range of wonderfully personified characters, some a little more familiar than others! She picks up her gun from her friend Cheesebox the cat, and then accidentally shoots Mrs Tiggywinkle (thankfully she only hits her bag of washing!)! She then tries to shoot mice, crows and sheep, before coming across two naughty poaching ferrets Slimmy Jimmy and John Stoat-Ferret, who are pleasingly clad in flat-caps and waistcoats. The two ferrets are after rabbits and it is here that our famous friend Peter Rabbit makes an appearance! Kitty stalks Peter for a while, but luckily doesn't shoot him because 'he was wearing such an elegant jacket' (in true Beatrix Potter style!). The story is not yet over for Kitty however, as she soon finds herself caught in a poachers trap! How ironic! Mrs Tiggywinkle saves her and we are told that she gets away 'with the loss of one toe'! Potter has often been praised for not talking down to her readers and this clearly shows it! Children's literature critic Peter Hollindale once called Potter a 'post-fabulist naturalist', suggesting she was keen to focus on the realities of the natural world, whilst also taking inspiration from the animal fable genre. She doesn't shy away from the consequences of poaching, especially when Mrs Tiggywinkle turns up (alive) in a bag full of furs, half eaten rabbits and a cat's tail! In the end Kitty gives up poaching and establishes a life as a genteel cat, having tea parties and only associating with respectable animals.

Discovered with just the one illustration, a new illustrator had to be found in order for this little gem to be unleashed on the world! What would happen to The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots without it's trademark drawings? 

Cue national treasure Sir Quentin Blake! 

I love Quentin Blake's illustrations! From Roald Dahl's stories, to his own poetry, and even his murals for hospitals, his art is full of a playfulness and joy! I recently had the opportunity to choose one of his illustrations for an exhibition at my local art gallery. You can see my choice Parrot's Toast here! 

Now, like many people, despite my love of Blake's gorgeous illustrations I was wondering how this slightly crazy, vibrant style was going to fit with the calm and genteel style of Potter's writing. I had no need to worry! Yes, they are scratchy and full of movement, and not at all like Beatrix's delicate, soft animal drawings, but this is not a negative point by any means! You just need to look at the cover to see how well he has portrayed the slightly bizarre character of Kitty! Although strikingly different to Potter's portrayal, the slightly mad glint in Kitty's eye seems to work so well with her character! She was almost too serious before!

It's so lovely to see Potter's story interpreted in a different way. The format of the book has remained in keeping with the original stories with the words and pictures on opposite pages, like windows into this secret animal world. Blake's illustrations are fitting to the story and he has interpreted the characters we know and love extremely well, so that you feel you are looking at the same character despite style differences.

All in all it is a beautiful homage to the world and writing of Beatrix Potter. 

Thanks for reading , L x

No. 91 - Saffy's Angel

In the last week or so i've had so many ideas for this blog that I think my head might explode!! I've made lists of things that i'd like to try out, so hopefully there'll be a lot more than just book reviews happening in this space soon! If you read my last post about books vs films then you'll have got a little flavour of things to come, including more engagement with children, and topics other than the books that i'm reading. I'm really hoping to expand what Little Bookworm is about! 

Anyway, today is another review. This time its number 92 on my list, Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay.

The title seemed familiar and when I read the synopsis I realised that i'd read this book when I was younger, so I was quite interested to see how I would feel coming back to it as an adult. The story is about Saffy, a 13 year old girl who goes to Italy in search of a stone angel left to her in her Grandfather's will. I can't remember my exact opinion of this book from when I was small, but i'm afraid to say that as an adult reader I found the story a little thin, which is a shame. However, what I absolutely love about this story is Hilary McKay's characterisation!

The story centres around the Casson family, a loveable, but truly chaotic family of six. Bill and Eve Casson are artists, and their three children, Cadmium (Caddy), Indigo and Rose are all named after paint colours, which is a really lovely touch. Saffron (Saffy) is adopted, she is the daughter of Eve's sister, who died in a car accident whilst living in Italy. Her name does not appear on the paint chart in their kitchen, and this was how she discovered that Bill and Eve were not really her parents. McKay deals with the concept of adoption in a gentle and sensitive way by placing great emphasis on the closeness of the Casson family children, including Saffy. She refers them as a pack. They all stick up for each other, each offering their own individual strength to family life, and this is how they muddle along together.

Each character has their own individual quirky nature, making them wonderfully endearing, and this is what I love about this book! Caddy, the eldest, is scatty, away with the fairies a lot of time, and breeds Guinea Pigs in the front garden! She dreams of studying Zoology at university and going to work in Africa, just as soon as she manages to pass her A Levels. Then there is Indigo, the only boy of the pack, he has dreams of becoming an Arctic explorer once he's faced his fears and feels brave enough to leave his sisters. He spends a lot of time sitting on the outside edge of his window sill confronting his fear of heights! The smallest Casson child is Rose, known to her siblings as Permanent Rose, because she was very poorly as a baby but now she's not going anywhere (coincidently, it's also a paint colour). She loves art, and is always painting something, somewhere in the house; she also eats paint which her mum believes made her a stronger baby! Mum Eve, spends all her time painting in her shed and unfortunately sometimes forgets she has children to look after, hence the need for the Casson kids to stick together. Their long-suffering dad Bill spends most his time in his London studio, escaping the chaos that is his family! And finally there is Saffy, not a true Casson, but loved by them all the same. She is much calmer than the others and has a bit more of a grasp on reality. As you can see McKay has excelled in creating characters that really grasp the readers attention. By giving so much background and character information within the story readers can identify with the characters in the best way possible; as if they were their family or friends, or even themselves. Even I found myself wishing that I had a sister like Caddy, and thinking wouldn't it be nice to live in a house like theirs. However, realistically I don't think my nerves could take it!! I'm more like Bill Casson than i'd care to admit!

Despite being a fairly ordinary story of a teenager on a journey of personal discovery, McKay manages to create a whole extraordinary domestic world in which it can happen. From the house itself, to what's for dinner, the Casson's slightly dysfunctional home life is a joy! I am pleased to say that there are three more books in the Casson family series, and despite not loving this story, I feel compelled to read the next books to find out what happens to these wonderful characters as they grow up! The Casson family is not a family you can forget about quickly!

Thanks for reading! L x

Next up is The Brilliant World of Tom Gates by Liz Pichon.

Books vs Films

Is it better to read the book or see the film? Or is there merit in both? For years now I've always slightly considered film adaptations of books inferior to the books themselves, in particular films of children's books! It upsets me greatly that a child might only know who The Cat in the Hat or The Grinch is because they've seen the films! I can't bear the thought of children not exploring the books I loved when I was little, or worst still, not even knowing they exist! Children these days seem to watch a lot more films, and they seem even more readily available with on demand viewing and digital downloads common in most houses (don't even get me started!). I suppose i'm just really scared that the book will go extinct and the children of today will grew up not knowing the pleasure of getting lost in a book, instead of screen.

The only film adaptation of children's stories that I can remember when I was a child were the Disney films, and as I now know, these were grossly different to the texts from which they took their names! You only have to watch the film Saving Mr Banks to see what liberties Walt Disney took with author's original works! If you haven't seen this film, its about P.L Travers, creator of the wonderful Mary Poppins, and the struggle she went through when Walt Disney 'Disney-fied' her beloved books. Its well worth a watch! Anyway, if adaptations were around they were more than likely to be on the tele, but I don't seem to remember there being that many, which I suppose is why I'm biased towards the book! I read, A LOT, and so books were a huge part of my childhood. 

Anyway, recently i've come to realise that the adaptation may not be so bad after all, and frankly I shouldn't be such a book snob! The more I thought about the film/TV adaptation vs the book I realised that I too was guilty of enjoying film or TV before book. I actually don't think I would have read a lot of the novels i've read if it wasn't for the BBC! I read Tess of the D'Urbevilles after watching the tele adaptation, and the same can be said for Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), The Ladies Paradise (Emile Zola), and Cider with Rosie (Laurie Lee). And of course i'd be lying if I said i'd read all the Harry Potter books before i'd seen the films! The films actually inspired me to read the books! Often i've enjoyed an adaptation on the tele or seen a really good film version of a book, my first thought is 'I need to read this!', so this left me wondering whether seeing a film could also inspire a child to read a book? I could deal with that! Maybe film adaptations might not be the route of all evil after all.....

If you know me you'll know I have a Lilia (7) and an Archie (4), my little second cousins. When I went to see them the other day they were buzzing about having just seen the brand new film adaptation of The BFG. It is the must-see film of the summer holidays and they told me it was great! I was very pleased to hear that having seen the film Lilia was now keen to read the story, so we grabbed the book and started reading, taking it in turns. It was really lovely to see her engaging with the story and the characters. I think having seen the film, and therefore now knowing the story, she was able to enjoy the book more and have a greater understanding of Dahl's tale. Below is a drawing she did of the BFG himself, after we read his description in the book. I love it!

So could seeing the film of a book actually encourage children to read and enhance their understanding and enjoyment of a story? Absolutely! I've certainly got a more open mind on this subject now. I think children will always eventually find these books, even if they've seen a film adaptation. In fact seeing the film may even make them seek out the book! As much as on demand tele allows for films to become a regular event, I think reading will still play a huge role in the lives of children. So, to answer my original question, there's certainly merit in both film and book and whatever sparks a child's imagination and gets them reading, i'm for it!! 

Thanks for reading, L x

No.92 Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

I was totally prepared to hate this book. I'd convinced myself that I didn't like American children's fiction, let alone American teen fiction! And did you really expect me to enjoy a book that seemingly mixed the American high-school genre with a no doubt dodgy take on classical mythology?

Low and behold I opened the book and was greeted by a self-centred, troubled teenager telling me not to read on if I believed I was a 'half-blood' too; at this point I nearly gave up on the whole thing! However, remembering that I had pledged to read 100 books, and giving up on number 92 would be ridiculous, I ploughed on! And i'm really glad I did! 

Yes, it was a bit cheesy, yes it was somewhat predictable, and yes, it had a slightly dubious take on Greek mythology, but i'll admit Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief was a real page turner and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it! 

The story is narrated by Percy Jackson, a twelve year old boy who discovers that he is a demigod or half-blood. It turns out that Percy's mum had a fling with the Greek god Poseidon and Percy was the result! As I said the story has an interesting take on Greek mythology! However dubious, everyone whose anyone in Greek mythology features in this book! Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Dionysus, Ares, Medusa, to name but a few. And Percy finds himself face-to-face with many a mythical creature too, he fights the Minotaur, the Furies, Cerberus the three-headed dog (think Fluffy in The Chamber of Secrets), and a Chimera. Therefore, its a good job he goes to stay at Camp Half-Blood. 

Camp Half-Blood is a summer camp that teaches children like Percy how to do what a demigod should do; it is like Hogwarts for children who are half Greek god. It is run by headmaster and alcoholic Dionysus the god of wine, his deputy Chiron, a centaur, and some Satyrs (half goat, half man). Percy's best friend Grover, whom he met at his last school turn out to be one of these Satyrs, apparently putting trousers and trainers on completely disguises goat legs! Anyway, as well as Grover, Percy makes another friend, Annabeth, daughter of Athena. Like her mother Annabeth is known for her intelligence, logic and reason; she is somewhat of an intellectual, with a thirst for knowledge and a cool head in a crisis. Sound familiar? Yes I thought so too. Annabeth sounds very much like Hermione Granger don't you think? Once i'd picked up on this it was really hard not to see Percy as a Harry type character and Grover in some ways as Ron (it didn't help that i'd imagined him with ginger hair!). Although Percy has a mother (who dies temporarily) and a father who is a god, he spends a lot of time in boarding schools giving him a hint of the orphaned boy character, a well used protagonist in much children's literature, from Dicken's Oliver Twist to our beloved Harry Potter, and lots of other characters in between. Riordan uses this stereotype to endear his readers to Percy, making us feel a little sorry for him, as well as backing him in his fight against evil. The main plot of the story involves Percy and his friends going on a quest to return Zeus's Master Bolt to the god after it is stolen. 

Here are my high points from the quest:

• Percy has a really cool pen that turns into a sword! 
• Medusa owns a garden gnome emporium! Somewhere she can sell all the people she has turned to stone of course. 
• Percy encounters a water-bed salesman who is in fact a mythological creature.
• Demigods and other mythological creatures communicate through 'iris-messaging', which is like video-calling through a rainbow.
• The underworld is situated in a recording studio in L.A.

I would actually recommend this book! It was a fun, enjoyable read, with a creative twist on the stories and characters of Greek mythology. 

Thanks for reading, L x

In other news I have set up a facebook page for this blog! I'm planning to fill it with articles and other interesting things that are children's lit related. If this sounds up your street then click here to take a look! Thank you! 

No.95 - Inkheart

Hello!

Firstly, I'm so sorry it's been so long! I've busy finishing my degree, but that's done now (hooray!) so I'm pleased to say that I can get back to reading for this project again!

I cannot understand why Inkheart by Cornelia Funke is not further up the list!? 95 out of 100 seems awfully low for such a good book! It deserves to be so much higher! It is a great read; a gripping, exciting, enticing and beautiful novel for ages 12+. It is a book within a book, a story within a story. Inkheart is not only the name of Cornelia Funke's novel, but the name of the book around which the story centres.

Have you ever wished the characters in a book would come alive and you could be part of their story? I know I have! But what if those characters were the baddies... Not sounding so nice now is it! For father and daughter, Mo and Meggie, this is their reality. When Mo reads Inkheart aloud the evil dictator Capricorn and his men appear out of the fantasy novel, changing Mo and Meggie's life forever.

I don't want to give too much away, as its a wonderful, interwoven story, and my description of what happens wouldn't fall close to doing it justice! You should all just go and read it instead!

What I can tell you is:

It is set in the Italian hills, in several little villages, which you can easily summon up in your imagination from the writing, which is lovely. I found the setting wonderfully refreshing, as so many books seem to be set in either the UK or America. It was really nice to explore a more European setting.

If you love books then this story is definitely for you! The humble book is treated like the most precious of jewels, and the words inside like priceless gold thread. Mo restores old books, taking care of them like sick and injured people. In turn his daughter Meggie has a similar affinity with them, keeping all her favourites in a secure box that she takes with her wherever she goes. They both have a habit of stroking a book before they open it, in a kind of greeting I suppose, which I think is a lovely thing and might even take to doing myself!!

There is a quote from another story at the beginning of every chapter. Funke has quoted the likes of Kenneth Grahame, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson and even Shakespeare to name but a few! Each quote she chooses foreshadows the contents of that chapter, linking her story with so many others, which I think is a really nice touch.

There is magic in this story! There are people disappearing in and out of books, there are fairies, and trolls and people made of glass. J.M Barrie's Tinkerbell even makes an appearance!

There are some really nasty characters too. Evil Capricorn for a start; and then some of his men are pretty horrible, for example Basta is someone you wouldn't want to meet on a dark night!

Inkheart is a fantastic tale of good and evil, with an edge that will entice any book lover. You feel the ups and downs of every character, and the heroine Meggy is a brave and powerful force! I would recommend this book to everyone, its been my favourite on the list so far. And, whats more, Inkheart is the first of a trilogy of books; Inkspell and Inkdeath are certainly on my 'to read' list now!

Next up, A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, which, if the cover is anything to go by, could be quite bizarre......

Thanks for reading, L x

No.96 - War Boy

I was told after my last post that I should have shown you all my lovely little copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately it was quite tricky to show the gold edged pages in a photo, but here is my little book anyway! I love the slightly camp cover illustration! 

                                    

Anyway, to this post's book, War Boy by Michael Foreman, a memoir of the author's wartime childhood. This is really beautiful book! The illustrations are wonderful, and the observations are funny and moving. I reminds me of Laurie Lee's classic Cider with Rosie, with it's village anecdotes, vibrant characters and naive charm. It's a favourite of mine, and well worth a read! 

War Boy begins with Michael remembering a bomb that came through the bedroom ceiling, 

I woke up when the bomb came through the roof.

It came through at an angle, overflew my bed by

inches, bounced up over my mother's bed, hit the 

mirror, dropped into the grate and exploded up

the chimney. It was an incendiary. A fire-bomb.

This introduction is poetic in both structure and style. It is a vivid image that you can see instantly in your mind's eye. You are catapulted straight into wartime Britain, and the rest of the story follows in the same way. Each page contains more illustration than text and this makes the story really engaging, as the words are not only written, but drawn and painted across the page. Foreman uses a mixture of single line drawings, wartime graphics, full page inky spreads, and delicate colour illustrations. Each page contains something different. The landscape orientation of the book gives the illustrations more room to tell the story, which is lovely! 

The story is full of lots of little anecdotes about life in wartime Suffolk. Having lived near there as a child I recognised the place names which was nice, it was all rather familiar! I particularly liked the stories about the corner shop that his mother owned. As a toddler he used to sit in the window like some kind of display, and eat the sweets out of their jars! The shop seemed to be the heart of the village, a place where the soldiers and sailors could go for a cup of tea, a cigarette and a chat! Again, Foreman has illustrated this beautifully, in particular the grumpy old lady trying to get to the counter for her shopping! 

This book is full of little gems, all illustrated in the most wonderful way. It is brilliant and touching story of life during the Second World War from a child's perspective, but it's also peppered with interesting facts about the troops and defences put in place on the Suffolk coast too. I'd thoroughly recommend Michael Foreman's War Boy to any child, or indeed anyone, wanting to learn a bit more about WW2.

Thanks for reading, L X

Next up is no. 95, Cornelia Funke's Inkheart. I've read the first few pages already and it's promising to be a really good read, so I'm quite excited! But... it's a huge book and I've got lots of stuff going on and another grown up book on the go too (Chocolat by Joanne Harris, I recommend it!), so I apologise in advance for the inevitably long wait for the next post! I may pop in a few other posts in the mean time about other things children's book related, so fear not!

No.97 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

I opened the pages of my little gold edged copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with hazy memories of the musical whirling around my head. Judy Garland skipping arm in arm with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion down the yellow brick road, rainbow coloured horses and of course the ruby slippers. And I've been humming 'If I only had a brain' for weeks now!

I'll admit to not really looking forward to reading this book. There were bound to be books on the list that I just wasn't going to get on with and I was convinced that this would be one of those. Written in 1900, I was expecting the language to be dense and dry, full of moral teaching and sensible advice for children, like other books of this period. However, I was pleasantly surprised! It's actually beautifully written and Baum doesn't lecture his readers at all. The plot moves at a good pace, with Dorothy being blown away on the first few pages, which was much quicker than I had expected! I was expecting pages of waffle about her life in Kansas, but I was pleased to get straight into the adventure.

Like most fairy stories, the original has its fair share of gruesomeness and I'm pleased to report that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is no exception! The Tin Woodman gives a lovely account of how he became a tin man by chopping off all his own limbs!! Given an enchanted axe by the Wicked
Witch of the East he then proceeds to accidentally cut off his arms, legs, head! Then to add insult to injury he manages to cut his own torso in half too! But luckily he gets each part sorted out by a tin smith and all is good! He is also not adverse to using his axe skills to save Dorothy and the others, chopping the heads off most of the enemies they come across! Another macabre touch are the pins that Oz puts in the Scarecrow's brain, which are supposed to show his sharp mind, but just protrude out of his scalp in a rather grim way when we he thinks too much! See the illustration below....

There are certainly a few things that are very different to the film. For example, there are no rainbow horses... they are all green. Also Dorothy's adventure was not a dream at all, but a real occurance! She arrives home find a new house has been built and that her aunt and uncle presume she has died! But far more shocking than that is that there are no famous ruby slippers in L. Frank Baum's book!! The shoes that Dorothy uses to get home to Kansas are in fact silver! They were changed to red in the film to show up in Technicolour! I guess silver slippers just weren't glamorous enough for Hollywood.

Thanks for reading X

Next up is Michael Foreman's War Boy, which I can't wait to write about! It was brilliant!

No.100 - The Adventures of Tintin

              

I'll admit to never having read a Tintin book, seen the animated series or watched the fairly recent film adaptation, so I was intrigued to read a Tintin story. Having tried to track down the earliest Tintin book Tintin in the land of the Soviets in the Cornwall library system and drawing a blank, I settled for the earliest one I could find, Tintin in America, published in 1932 and it was brilliant!

Not knowing anything about Herge's creation, apart from what he looked like, and of course that he had a faithful pooch sidekick called Snowy, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the story was written in a comic book style! The cute and simply drawn characters of Tintin and Snowy raced across the frames and kept the pace of the story quick and exciting. I was an avid reader of the Beano as a child so it was rather nostalgic to return to the visual world of the comic. 

Written in the 1930s, this story was not awash with political correctness as you can imagine, and stereotyping was the order of the day! During their adventure through America Tintin and Snowy encounter Italian American Mobsters, who all speak with cheesy Italian accents, wield guns, wear sharp suits and an assortment of different hats. He also meets a whole tribe of Red Indians or Native Americans as we'd say, who again speak in stereotypical stilted English, refer to Tintin as 'paleface' and have silly names like Big Chief Keen-Eyed-Mole, and Browsing Bison! To round off the stereotypes there is a Mexican bank robber towards the end of the book, again wih dialogue written in a cheesy Mexican accent and a huge sombrero. It's so bad, it's good! 

I would also like to comment on just how much Herge fits into this 62 page adventure! By the end of the first page Tintin and his little pal have been kidnapped by a very shifty looking milkman, and by page 10 he has escaped kidnap twice, been in 1 high speed police chase, 1 car crash, been to hospital, recovered, been knocked out twice, fallen through 1 trap door, caught a whole gang of gangsters, knocked out 2 others, brandished a pistol more than once, been chased by the police, lost Snowy and found him, received one trick phone call and climbed out of a top story hotel window! And the pace doesn't slow down!! In total there are 5 trapdoor falls in this story, and I'm not accusing Herge of recycling plots but there are 2 drowning attempts, 2 fights caused by Tintin in a bid to hos escape, snowy gets kidnapped twice, and there are 2 gangs of mobsters that Tintin must outwit, including Al Capone himself! 

However, despite these repetitions there are some truly brilliant moments in this book, like all the amazingly fortuitous means of escape for our hero! My favourite was when he gets mysteriously called to a tinned meat factory (it makes no sense in the progression of the story, and I'd have thought Tintin was more sensible than to accept a random and slightly suspicious invitation, but there you go!) and falls in a vat of minced beef, only to find that just as he falls the factory workers go on strike and the machines just happen to stop allowing him to get away without being minced to death! Another moment I enjoyed was the hanging debarcle, where Tintin and Snowy are both about to be strung up when the ropes break, how lucky I hear you cry, but how lucky for it to happen a second time as they try to hang them again! Our hero Tintin really does have luck on his side! 

Other points in the story reminded me of a silent movie, and one of thse suspense filled piano accompaniments would have suited to story down to the ground! The action was so fast paced and the situations so unbelievable that it was all a bit farcical really! At one point, and this was real silent movie stuff, Tintin is tied to some railway tracks and is saved from being squished by a train with inches to spare! 

There are so many fantastic situations in this story and I'd love to sit here and tell you every one but a) we'd be here for hours, and b) I'd hate to spoil it for you! It's a really fun book that keeps you gripped from start to finish, mainly because you never know what's going to happen to Tintin and Snowy next! It's fast paced and the characters are amusing, and with other titles such as Tintin - Destination Moon, and Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn you can understand why they have been enjoyed by children of all ages for decades! 

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up Arthur Ransom's adventure classic Swallows and Amazons. 

A journey through 100 books begins with the first step....

So, over Christmas there were lots of good things on the tele, festive films, Christmas specials, the Queen's speech. But for me the must-watch program over the Christmas period was Channel 4's 'Britain's Favourite Children's Books'. Keen to see which of my favourite children's classics would make it onto the list  I settled down with a cup of tea at 6:30 on Boxing Day to watch David Walliams countdown the top 50 children's story favourites, as compiled by The Times. Starting with Robert Louis Stevenson's classic swashbuckling tale 'Treasure Island', the list did not disappoint. Featuring much loved tales such as 'The Wind in the Willows' and 'Alice in Wonderland', and favourites of my childhood, 'The Story of Tracy Beaker' and 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' I enjoyed revisiting books that sparked my love for reading. I was also intrigued by more modern additions to the list like Neil Gaiman's 'Fortunately, the Milk' and 'A Monster Calls' by Patrick Ness. The list was a nice mix of modern and classic literature, well known and less well known, and of this I was pleased.

If, like me, you are keen to see what Britain's top 3 children's books were you can watch the countdown here ! If you can't be bothered, then I shall tell you, and I hope you won't be disappointed! I certainly wasn't! 

There is nothing worse than watching a countdown of something and number one being a result you would never have picked! So half expecting no.1 to be something I would consider trash I crossed my fingers....

No.3..... 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'! Yes, good choice Britain! Though in hindsight I was surprised it hadn't ranked higher. 

No.2.... 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe'. Again, a good choice. I've never read it but it certainly deserves to be up the top. 

No.1...... 'Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner'. Relief! My favourite bear of all time! 'Winnie the Pooh' was as much a part of my childhood as 'The Gruffalo' is for children these days. In fact the audiobook, read by Alan Bennett, was on a continuous loop most of the time! 

Afterwards I searched the list online and found that it was actually a list of 100 children's books considered national favourites. With the New Year fast approaching I rashly made the resolution to read them all! But unlike the resolutions you make to go to the gym or eat less cake, this one was going to be easy to keep (she says now.... Come back in a few weeks and we'll see.....!)

I love children's literature, it's my passion! I'm drudging through the last year of my degree with the hope to do an MA in children's literature afterwards, so the thought of reading all these books is keeping me sane! I'm looking forward to re-reading books that I've loved and creating new favourites along the way. I'll be writing my thoughts on each book here, so if you want to take the journey with me please come back soon. 

So, first up is no.100 'The Adventures of Tintin, Tintin in America'. 

For the whole list have a look here. 

XxX

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