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

No. 61 - Tom's Midnight Garden

Hi everyone! 

What a mad few weeks it's been! It would seem that a lot more things are approaching going back to some kind of normal, and the lockdown is easing up, which is super news! I personally can't wait to see my family again! 

In other news I have taken a job as an online English Lit tutor! So I have been cramming Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson for my first lessons! I forgot how complicated the plot is! There are mutinies all over the place!!

Today however, I wanted to talk to you about a book I have a love/hate relationship with, Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce. 

This book is a classic example of what is know in literature as 'time-slip fantasy'. This is a genre that uses the manipulation of time and chronology as the main feature of the plot. This usually happens through time-travel or dreaming. For me there are two definite types of 'time-slip fantasy', one that uses historical time periods, and another that uses fantasy worlds. The first category includes books such as Tom's Midnight Garden, A Traveller in Time by Allison Uttley, and The Greene Knowe books by Lucy Boston. The second kind of 'time-slips' can be found in books like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz and of course The Phantom Tollbooth. These are much more dream-like and are much less rooted in reality. They deal in kairos, or mythical time. They also usually hide some kind of moral or didactic theme.

I think Tom's Midnight Garden fits into both of these categories. It mixes the ideas of memory and dreaming, with time-travel back to the Victorian period. Let me tell you a bit more about the story.

Now quite fittingly for our times, Tom is effectively sent away to his aunt and uncles' flat to self-isolate! His brother has measles, and until they are sure Tom doesn't have it too he must stay in their flat in quarantine! Moving into a little flat is a bit of a shock for Tom who is used to running around his garden and climbing trees. He must content himself with reading books and gazing out of the window. The flats have no garden to explore you see, much to Tom's disappointment. Then one night he hears the clock in the hall downstairs strike thirteen! This becomes the signal for Kairos, or mystical time, to begin. Tom sneaks out the flat and downstairs into the entrance hall of the big house (which has been divided up into flats), and when he opens the back door he discovers a huge, wonderful, verdant garden. A garden that existed when the house was a family home. In this kairos garden Tom can fulfill all his outdoor fantasies, and some critics have likened it to Eden or Paradise. Tom can climb all the trees, run across the lawn and paddle in the passing river. And the most brilliant thing is he can't be seen! Or can he? Enter Hatty, a little girl contemporary with the garden. She can see Tom, and together them embark on a variety of garden based adventures. Now all this sounds quite exciting doesn't it, and from an analytical point of view this book is brilliant! It has it's feet firmly in an interesting genre, there are loads of comparisions to be made with other books, and there is lots of scope for deeper reading and theorising too. Something that, as you probably all know by now, I love! But don't get your hopes up! Tom's Midnight Garden would be the perfect book if the plot wasn't so dull!

Now, I'm really sorry to have to say that! I'm not often too negative about books on here, but I find Tom's Midnight Garden a bit meh, as the kids say! Every time I read it I hope it will be more lively than it is! And I feel awful because I know it's won awards! It won the Carnegie Medal in 1958 for heavens sake! Maybe I'm missing something? I just find the whole things a little pallid. The characters are very 2D, and despite the beautiful, engaging descriptions of the garden I never really feel like I am there. There is the risk that because I am familiar with other 'time-slip' books, it all feels a bit samey. As the story progresses we begin to see the link between the garden and time, and Tom discovers that in the real world no time passes while he is in the garden! Like in Alice in Wonderland, or Peter Pan, kairos has no effect on chronos (real chronological time). In my opinion, there is nothing exceptional about the way Pearce uses the 'time-slip' genre, so you can why I've been a little reluctant to get excited about this book. 

The kairos finally reveals itself as dream and memory at the end of the book. Every night when Tom goes to bed he is sharing his dreams with the old lady upstairs. Sounds odd doesn't it! But the old lady upstairs is Hatty! It makes sense, yet no sense at all, and we only find out in the very last few chapters. It almost feels like an add on, an extra bit of information to try and keep the reader hooked that little bit longer. Yes, all the loose ends tie up, but they just don't seem strong enough to me. The critic Peter Hollindale suggests that it is bringing the story back to a more rational adult perspective, something he says is not in keeping with the childhood spirit of the story*, and I agree. 

As interesting as some of the theories about this book are, for example the garden as means for prolonging childhood, the concepts of kairos and chronos, I think these are explored just as well in other examples of the 'time-slip fantasy' genre. If you are after an example of the genre that will also capture a child's imagination, I'm afraid to say Tom's Midnight Garden would not be my first pick. Instead I would choose Boston or Uttley's books, or even Alice in Wonderland. 

Thanks for reading, L x

*Peter Hollindale in AA300 Children Literature Study Guide for the Open University.

Next up, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goodge.

No. 62 - The Phantom Tollbooth

Hi everyone, me again. 

I hope you're all doing well in lockdown.

Last week I wrote about 7 ways to keep children busy and learning during lockdown , and I hope some of you found this post useful. 

I've been continuing to keep my eyes peeled for other things, and have something else for you today!

Here is the latest newsletter from Caboodle, the National Book Token  people. There's a children's competition  to win a £10 book token and one for every pupil in their class, just by creating a new design for the book token cards! Worth a try! I would have loved this when I was little!

There's also the annual competition to win £5,000 worth of book tokens for your child's school, plus £100 for the child too! Take a look. 

Another thing that I've found is that the Haynes Motor Museum in Somerset has got some really lovely online activities for kids (and big kids!). There are set for KS1 and KS2, and the 'My Car the Superhero' story writing competition caught my eye as a perfect literacy activity for KS2, especially for the boy's who might need a little more encouragement to get reading and writing! The bonus is that if you post your child's entry on social media and tag Haynes Motor Museum you could win a family ticket to the museum when it opens up again! Ideal! 

And talking of motoring... back to this week's book! The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. 

Firstly, what a book! The Phantom Tollbooth is just the right amount of bizarre, surreal and down right weird! Yet, it is strangely logical, and disguises a strong moral tale. It makes no sense, yet makes total sense. Confused yet? Me too! 

I'll give you a quick synopsis. The book is about a boy called Milo, who is living life, but not really experiencing it. He is grumpy about everything, bored by school, and can't seem to find much he enjoys doing, despite having all kinds of toys and games. But when he arrives home to find a tollbooth has been delivered to his bedroom, suddenly life starts getting interesting. He hops in his little electric car, pays his toll and crosses into the Kingdom of Wisdom. 

Here he ventures on to Dictionopolis, through the Valley of Sound, amongst other places, to Digitopolis, to rescue the Princesses Rhyme and Reason and help unite the Kingdom of Wisdom once again. It's a literacy and numeracy based didactic, fantasy adventure story! I told you it was an odd one! 

I'm going to be totally honest here and say I was not very keen on reading this book when I started it. It was wordy, and a map at the start of a book always puts me off a bit. I think it comes from not really being into fantasy all that much, and equating the genre with books like The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula le Guin (which I didn't get on with at all!). So, with some trepidation I opened the book, or selected it (Kindle reading is all have at the moment! Gosh, I miss the library!), and began. 

As I've already said, it was wordy to start with and the action was very fast paced, giving me little time to digest what was going on! However, once Milo settled into his journey things calmed down a bit and I started revelling in the bizarre world Juster had created! 

This book reminded me of lots of different things, of other children's stories, of adult fiction, of pop culture, it has little hints of everything in it. It has often been said that it shares many similarities with Alice in Wonderland, and I can certainly see why! It begins with a bored child, who through either daydreams or magic (i'll let you decide), ventures into another world full of surreal situations and characters. There is also more than a passing resemblance to The Wizard of Oz at occasions. In fact this book reminded me of so many different texts. It obviously has it's roots in classic moral tales, in particular The Pilgrim's Progress, and there is also a likeness to the journeying elements of Tolkein's books. From a magical perspective it reminded me of the Chrestomanci series by Dianna Wynne Jones, of timeslip fiction like Tom's Midnight Garden, and of course The Wizard of Earthsea. It even had hints of the surreal sci-fi classic The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Roald Dahl's creations, and Maurice Sendak's seminal picture book Where the Wild Things Are. I could go on and on! This book, as self-contained and original as it may seem, is a wonderful melting pot of different genres and can be read in so many different ways depending on what you as the reader find within it's pages. 

Something Juster does so very well in this book is puns and word play. The place names, character names and action all have a meaning, hidden or literal. For example, I particularly enjoyed it when Milo, Tock the Watchdog and the Humbug end up flying through the air to an island called Conclusions; they literally jump to Conclusions! This amused me probably more that it should have done, and there are plenty more of these wordy mind games throughout the story to keep you happy! 

But it wasn't just the places that pleased me, the characters were by far my favourite part of this story.  Here are the one's I'd like to meet!

• The Spelling Bee - literally a giant bee, who spells everything he says out loud! 
• The Dodecahedron - a very weird chap with 12 faces, who wouldn't look out of place in an episode of The Mighty Boosh!

•  The lovely Tock - he's a watchdog, so of course, he has a massive clock stuck to his side (see cover picture at the start of this post)!
•  Faintly Macabre, the not-so-wicked Which - She's not a Witch, but a Which! She used to choose which words could be used for what occasions, which ones were spoken, and which ones were written down. Quite an important job really! 
• Kakofonous A. Dischord, Doctor of Dissonance - he's a mad professor who collects sounds, especially weird ones! He asks Milo "Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?" I rest my case!

So, as you can see the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Wisdom are quite something! But underneath all this madness and wordplay there is a valuable tale to be found in this book. It may seem like a pointless romp through a surrealist's dictionary, but in fact it's a essay on education, childhood and learning. Milo begins the story fed up with his life, he doesn't see the point in learning, of going to school, of being taught what he considers to be useless information. He can't see any Rhyme or Reason to it! The Kingdom of Wisdom is a metaphor for Milo's relationship with learning, it's broken, at war with itself. In order to understand education as a whole, as an important activity, Milo must discover and restore both it's Rhyme and it's Reason, which in the story manifest themselves as two beautiful princesses. Once reunited with their Kingdom, the world makes a lot more sense. By the end of his adventures Milo has a greater understanding of why learning is so important, and has had his eyes opened to the joys of the world around him. He appreciates the power of nature, the sounds all around him, he sees merit in being creative, of making things, of using his imagination. Just by looking around his bedroom he can see a hundred things to do; things that he would have ignored before his trip through the Phantom Tollbooth. It is a message of enlightenment at it's best. Totally hidden, yet incredibly potent. 

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up, Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce. 

No. 63 - Flour Babies

Hello!
It's taken me a bit longer to get around to writing this post, not because I didn't enjoy the book, but because it's a tricky one to write about. It's hard to put my finger on what made this book special, I just know that it was a brilliant read and took me to places I didn't expect. This week's book is Flour Babies by Anne Fine.

I was pretty sure I'd read a few of Anne Fine's book, I mean she's Anne Fine isn't she! She spawned Mrs Doubtfire! Anyone who grew up in the 90's had to have read her books right? Wrong! It would seem that I had somehow missed out! Having had a little Google of her books I could see some titles that I recognised, but nothing that seemed familiar. I think maybe we had read some of her books at school, but they're often the books that you blank out of your 'read that!' memory, aren't they. So, with this in mind I approached Flour Babies with some caution, interested to see what would have put me off Fine's books when I was young. I can safely say I have no idea! Flour Babies was brilliant!

Flour Babies is an upper middle grade, lower YA novel, about a group of underachieving boys who are given the task of looking after 'flour babies' as a school science experiment. As a plot this intrigued me, and I was keen to find out how these boys looked after their little sacks of flour! Would they treat them as exactly what they were, just bags of flour, or would they find some kind and caring side to them that wanted to nurture these little 'babies'?

Most of the action takes place in the school, and in particular the boy's classroom. Let me tell you a bit about class 4C. The boy's in 4C are the bottom of the bottom, they are grouped together because they are expected to achieve nothing. Half of them don't even bother to come to school everyday! They pick and choose when they turn up, and what lesson's they do! We all remember boy's like that from our own secondary education don't we! I know I do! And we can all recognise our teachers in the long-suffering Mr Cartwright, always picked to take care of that year's 4C. He's the kind of teacher that has been doing it a long time, seen it all before, and knows exactly how to handle these boys. The descriptions and dialogue are perfect! The book opens with a fantastic example of this that took me straight back to school! 

"Mr Cartwright swung his legs to and fro under the desk, and raised his voice over the waves of bad-tempered muttering. 

          'Don't worry if you feel you can't give this your full attention now, 4C,' he said to his new class. 'I'll be delighted to go over it again in your break time.'

          Some of them visibly made a bit of an effort. A few pens were pulled out of a few mouths. One or two of the boys swivelled their heads back from the riveting sight of the janitor painting large white numbers on the dustbins. But, on the whole, the improvement was pitiful. Half of them looked as if they'd left their brains at home. The other half looked as if they didn't have any."

It paints a brilliant picture of the kind of characters we are dealing with, and then of course it makes you consider how these boys are ever going to get their heads around caring for 'flour babies'?

I expected this book to focus on all the boy's experiences of 'flour baby' parenthood, but in fact it focuses on one boy in particular, Simon Martin. Simon appears to be quite high up in the hierarchy of 4C, and is an ungainly, huge, loping teenage boy. His size makes him quite formidable, and it for this reason that he becomes the unlikely hero of this book! Simon takes on the 'flour baby' project with some enthusiasm because he can't wait to burst the sack of flour all over the classroom when the 3 weeks is up! This excitement for the big flour explosion means that he tries really hard to keep his 'flour baby' intact, unlike his mates (one of them even kicks his into the canal!). Unwittingly, big tough Simon falls in love with his little baby shaped bundle, and he struggles to come to terms with the paternal feelings he is experiencing. When teachers start noticing his broodiness they begin to get concerned! And when he starts behaving they fear there must be something really wrong! The education system had lost all faith in the boy's from 4C, and it comes as a shock when one of them begins to reform!

The problem with Simon is that the 'flour baby' has stirred up all the thoughts and feelings he has about his absent father. With the little 'flour baby' in his care, he can't imagine how someone could abandon their own child at only 6 weeks old! Along with Simon, we learn all about the day his father left, how he just walked out and never came back. There were no warning signs, he just had to leave. To begin with Simon can't understand why his Dad left, especially as he is getting an idea of what parental love and responsibility feels like. As the book progresses we go through all the emotions Simon is feeling, first sadness, then anger, and then understanding and acceptance. It is tender portrayal of teenage a boy making sense of his life, understanding his past and growing up. It is no wonder that this book won the Carnegie Medal in 1992, and the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1993. The emotion creeps up on you, and all of a sudden you are being hit with the full wave of how Simon is feeling. Simon learns so much about his background, but also grows more in confidence in the person he is. He knows he will never be an 'ear'ol' (a swot), and by the end of the book he's causing glorious mayhem once again, feeling relief at no longer having the responsibility of the 'flour baby'! He suddenly understands the responsibilities of parenthood, and how his father was far too young to take this on. Simon no longer feels bitter about this, and instead realises that he can learn from his father's mistakes, that his fate was in his hands. There is a lovely poignant moment during this epiphany that I'd like to share with you. 

"There would be time enough to be responsible when he was older. When the right moment came, there would be all the time in the world to be a good father. 

But not now. Not while he was so young. Not while he had the strength and power and energy to do anything, and all his horizons were giddy and bright, and wider than he could imagine... He wouldn't make the same mistakes as his father. Oh, no. He wasn't going to pin himself down years too soon, and have to make the bitter choice between snatching back his own life, and leaving some child... talking inside his head to some crinkly blue-eyed father he'd had to make up all by himself, because the real one hadn't stayed around."

So this story wasn't really about a science experiment at all! In fact, it was actually a poignant coming of age novel, about the responsibilities of growing up, of how we can shape our own future, and how you can overcome your past to become more than you, or anyone else, ever believed you could be. Through the 'flour babies' experiment Simon is finally able to let go of this idealised, and sometimes hated, father figure he'd been carrying around his entire life. He, and his teachers are able to see that he has a bright future ahead of him, and he has a better understanding of how this is going to pan out. 

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up, it's The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.

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!

No. 64 - Centrally Heated Knickers

Hello again! It's Tuesday... I think!
I'm back with another book for you. This week it's Michael Rosen's poetry collection Centrally Heated Knickers (tehe!). It's a collection of poems all about science and technology, and is a fun, and slightly bonkers look at lots of different topics within these areas.

If I were a primary school teacher I would be really grateful for this book when it came to exploring all things science with my class! It's divided up into four sections, Environment, Design and Innovation, Chemistry, and Physics, and there are around twenty-five poems per section. Topics covered include sustainable energy, how we can help the planet, the properties of different materials, space, food, and lots more!

The poems themselves are typical of Michael Rosen's style. They are silly, irreverent at times, full of word play, and the joy of language. They are also touching, thought provoking musings on modern life. I think quite a few of these poems would act as springboard for discussion with children (hence why they would be great in the classroom), opening the door to hot topics such as sustainability, renewable energy and climate change. They are domestic, child friendly, and usually based around a child character. I remember doing simple experiments in primary school around weight, speed, melting points etc, and these poems took me back to those days. The time before science meant getting out the Bunsen Burners and chemicals in test tubes!

I also discovered, when researching for this post, that Michael Rosen used some of the poems in Centrally Heated Knickers to create a stage show! There's a couple of great videos of it on YouTube, this is the making of, and this one is the trailer of the show, giving you an idea of the way Rosen really brings his poems to life during performance. These poems definitely need to be enjoyed aloud. I tried reading them in my head, but as anyone who loves poetry knows, you can't get a real idea of the sound of the words, or the rhythm of the poem without vocalising it!

At the moment in the UK a lot of people are having to homeschool their children, and I think this would be the perfect book to use to help engage your children in a bit of science, and maybe it might even inspire you to do some fun DIY experiments! You can buy it on Amazon here (the kindle version is only £2.99!). 

Thanks for reading, L X

Next up - Flour Babies by Anne Fine (which I've started reading, and it's great!)

(Ps. not sure what's up with the formatting on this post...? Sorry!) 

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!