No.59 - Guess How Much I Love You

 

This book really doesn't need any introduction! It's a modern classic, a feature of nursery's everywhere, an national treasure, it's words implanted into our psyche; 'I love you this much', 'I love you to the moon and back'. It is of course the wonderful Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, with gorgeous illustrations by Anita Jeram. 

I didn't actually realise how old this book was! If you'd asked me I would have put it's publication date at around 2008 or 2009, but in fact it was published in 1994 and last year it celebrated it's 25th birthday! I would say that anybody born in the last 25 years probably had a copy of this book, and apparently it is still one of the most popular books to gift for a new baby, along with the crazy amount of merchandise available! 

To give you an idea of just how big the Guess How Much I Love You brand is, I hopped onto their website, guesshowmuchiloveyou.com for the facts. 

• It's sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.
• The story has been translated into 57 different languages.
• There are board books, paper backs, fabric books, finger puppet and hand puppet books, spin-off seasonal editions, baby books and milestone markers. 
• There is a new story starring Little Nutbrown Hare, that came out in September, called Will You Be My Friend.
• The story is quickly becoming a popular wedding reading with couples. 
• There are different editions for valentine's day and wedding presents. 
• In 2011 it was adapted for television and shown in 60 different countries.
• The brand has been licensed to shops like Sainsburys, Matalan and Next to be used on their baby clothing.
• There is a beautful gold and silver jewellery range, including engagement and wedding rings!
• The famous pottery, Moorcroft, have a Guess How Much I Love You range, so you can have your favourite hares on a vase if you like!

That is by no mean as an exhaustive list of all the Guess How Much I Love You facts and merchandise, but it shows you just how big this book is! Big Nut Brown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare have a huge place in our hearts. 

Now to the story. It is basically the tale of two hares who are trying to put into words their love for each other. Originally intended as a parent and child, many people have interpreted this book as a way of showing anyone, be it a relative or a partner, just how much you love them! Little Nutbrown Hare starts by asking the big hare, who I've always presumed was his Daddy, to guess how much he loves him? Then they start trying to describe their love for each other in ever increasing distances; as wide as their arms can stretch, as high as they can reach, as high as the little hares toes, as high as they can hop, all the way down to the river, across the hills, right up to the moon, and back. As much as Little Nutbrown Hare tries, he can never beat the distance that Big Nutbrown Hare loves him, because you can't get a greater love than that of a parent for their child. 

I would thoroughly recommend that everyone reads this book, buys it for their own baby, gifts to a friend having baby, even gifts it as a wedding! Why not! This book celebrates love, with it's simple, touching phrasing and it's effortlessly beautiful illustrations. It is surely an enduring classic that I hope will never fade. Sadly the author, Sam McBratney died in September, but he has left behind a truly special legacy in Guess How Much I Love You.

Thanks for reading, L x

Next time, we're closing in on the half way mark, with another classic, Anne of Green Gables. 

No. 65 - The Way Back Home

Hi all, I'm a few days late i'm afraid. Not the best start to a new routine! Anyway, a quick note about this post. I started writing it way before this isolation malarkey started and funnily enough some of the points I make feel very valid for right now. So let's heed the wise words of Oliver Jeffers, and take heart from the Martian and the boy.

I love a picture book, and this one is no exception! It even had me feeling a bit teary at times! 

Oliver Jeffers is a master of the picture book genre, and The Way Back Home is a beautiful, enchanting tale of intergalactic friendship, teamwork and motor mechanics! For me this book is also a story about equality, anxiety, and hope in the darkest of times. Let me tell you all about it.  

The boy (who you may recognise from some of Jeffer's other books) finds an aeroplane in a cupboard and takes it for a spin. However, he makes a major error and ends up stuck on the moon with no fuel! Silly boy! Elsewhere in the galaxy, a Martian is having a bit of a 'mare too. The engine of his spaceship is failing, and he has to land on the moon asap! Both stranded at each end of the moon, they begin to get very worried. 

They both believe that they are all alone and something nasty is going to loom out of the darkness and get them! They are in one of  those horrid 'what if' situations that we all feel at various times in our lives. Stranded, alone, and in the dark, they fear the worst. But luckily they are not alone!

Very cleverly Jeffer's uses the situation to explain a fundamental point, that in life we are never truly alone. There will always be someone going through the same thing as you, or experiencing the same feelings. Whether this is in childhood or adulthood, the point is the same, you are not the first person to have been through this. The Martian and the boy are a literal example of this. They are both very anxious about the position they had found themselves in, but to know someone else is experiencing the same problem gives them reassurance. For children, this is a reassuring thing to know, and let me tell you, as an adult it helps too!

The boy and the Martian eschew their own worries to help each other, and work together as a team to try and plan their way back home. This unlikely friendship between boy and alien is a delight, and I particularly like the illustration below, where you can see their plans coming together through a variety of gestures and drawings. I like to think that they can't speak each other's languages and this is their best method of communication. There is no language barrier here! The boy and the Martian are not interested in that, they are united in their mission to get off the moon. There is a childhood innocence to this. Play and imagination are universal languages, they pay no attention to race or culture. If you put two children together who speak different languages they will ultimately find a way to communicate and play together, and that, I think, is what's happening here. It's hidden moral message, help others, no matter what their background may be.

As I've already explained, this book takes a clever and fresh look at the subconscious worries we all have on various levels as humans. The fear of the unknown, the fear of the dark, of being stranded all alone. Another example of this is the boy's connection with his home. It is very easy for the boy to fly to the moon, much easier than you might think (ignore all your physics knowledge), but once he is stuck up there home suddenly seems very far away, and getting back seems impossible. I think this eludes to the idea that a problem always seems so much bigger when you are in the middle of it. However, once the Martian arrives and he has company, the boy feels much less anxious, and the idea of popping home to get supplies is as simple as popping around the corner! He parachutes back down to earth, and home again. What was he so worried about!? He's even so relaxed that he has a rest in his favourite chair! However, this is short lived when he remembers his new friend stuck up on the moon! The boy could have stayed put, he was home, he was comfy, but he knew he still had to rescue the Martian. He is selfless, not selfish. Another cheeky, secret moral message! 

You'll  be pleased to know that it all ends well for the Martian and the boy. The Martian fills the plane's petrol tank, and the boy fixes the Martian's engine, and they both go home safely. Hooray! This book is a delight from start to finish. Jeffer's distinctive illustrations create wonderful characters, that you just can't help but fall in love with. Despite being just a child, and an alien they speak hugely about the human condition, in a really touching way. The unity and equality portrayed in this book makes me incredibly happy! Maybe I've read too much into it, but I feel like there is a lot to be learnt from this book, and not just for children.

Thanks for reading, L x

PS. Next up is Michael Rosen's science and technology poems collection, Centrally Heated Knickers!

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