No. 66 - Peter Pan

Hello! 

I've started a new routine at home, like many of you probably have, and Tuesday is my day for blogging. Hopefully I will be able to get hold of a lot of the books digitally and can continue to write a new post once a week for the time being. Maybe, I can even keep this routine up when things go back to normal! 

This week's book is in fact a play! We haven't had one of those yet! It's J.M. Barrie's fantastical tale, Peter Pan. The play was originally devised by Barrie as a way of amusing some boys he knew, the Llewellyns. If you've ever seen Finding Neverland, you'll know about the relationship Barrie had with these boys and their mother. If you haven't seen this film, I suggest you watch it, it's brilliant! Anyway, although the play came first, Barrie first published the story as a novel for children called Peter and Wendy in 1911, and later in 1928 the play was published, and has been amusing audiences across the world ever since!

Peter, the Lost Boys, Wendy and Captain Hook are a well know set of characters in children's literature. Of course made all the more popular by our friend Walt Disney! I'm not going to moan about Walt this time though as I've never actually seen the Disney Peter Pan (no gasping please!). Instead I'm going to talk to you about the version I know, the play, the original tale of Peter and Wendy. I've never read the novelisation of the play, but I might after this. You can read it for free on the super Project Gutenberg website. Maybe I'll read it and write another post comparing the book and the play. The Project Gutenberg website is great. You can read loads of out of copyright classics online or download them as ebooks for free. 

Now, during my degree Peter Pan was one of the play texts we studied, and my word there is a lot more to it than you expect! At first glance it seems to be a story of childhood vs adulthood, of growing up and loosing your belief in magic. In the famous scene where Tinkerbell is dying Peter Pan asks the audience to save her life by clapping if they believe in fairies. Here the entire audience, adults and children alike, are holding the fate of the character in their hands, literally. A critic once said that more often than not it was the adults who stood up during this scene, clapping furiously. Barrie is inviting them to embrace their childhood again, and the magic of believing in magic. In that moment, and indeed throughout the play, we are asked to suspend our disbelief, and it is interesting to see how far this stretches in adults and children. As we know, it is much easier  for children to believe and we see this is so many children's books. There is always a negative stance on adulthood, and how adults view the world. It is often suggested that adults grow out of believing in the fantastic, and this is a theme found in Peter Pan. However, instead of creating a closed world Barrie encouraged adults to relive their childhood fantasies, rather than shutting them out. Adults are as much allowed to look at Neverland as children are. In fact it has been said that Peter Pan was predominately written for adults, for this exact reason. This claim is backed up by the fact that the characters had already appeared in one of Barrie's novels for adults The White Bird. 

Once you start digging a bit deeper with this play you begin to notice the characters rather than the story. The story itself is muddled, confusing at times, and seemingly a lot happens with no real purpose. Pan is trying to kill Hook, Hook is trying to kill Pan, but it is never truly explained why. There are some fights, and then everyone flies home again, except stubborn Peter. It has been suggested that things never resolve themselves in Neverland because Neverland is not a real place. There are no consequences, they can do what they like. You feel like you've stumbled into a children's game that only makes real sense to those involved. 

Once we ignore the plot, we can start to look more closely at the characters, and this is where it gets interesting! Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up, is a mythical character. Is he human? Is he a fairy? We are never sure. He famously says 'To die will be an awfully big adventure" suggesting that for him death is of no consequence and implies that maybe he is immortal. Peter, like Neverland, is made up and so anything can happen. Captain Hook on the other hand has a very real reminder of his mortality in the shape of the crocodile that has swallowed a clock! The creature ate Hook's hand and Hook is convinced that the crocodile would like to eat the rest of him. The ticking of the clock inside the crocodile's stomach can be heard every time the crocodile approaches Hook, like a ticking time bomb, a reminder that eventually Hook's time will be up because he is a mere mortal! Interestingly, in most productions of Peter Pan, the actor playing Mr Darling (the children's father), also plays Captain Hook (think of Jason Isaacs in the 2003 Peter Pan film). This double role reinforces the idea of Hook as mortal. In fact, is Hook actually Mr Darling? One of my theories is that Neverland is in fact an elaborate make-believe game played within the nursery. Peter Pan is a symbol for the Darling children's childhood, and his conflict with Hook or Mr Darling is about the way the children are growing up. The crocodile is a metaphor for their mortality, whilst Hook's need to defeat Pan, or childhood, is Mr Darling's ambition that his children will grow up to be successful adults. 

There is another theory that has been put forth many times, which will change the way you view this children's story forever. Some critics have suggested that Peter Pan is in fact a retelling of the Oedipus story, where the son tries to kill the father so he can marry the mother. In terms of this story, Peter Pan can be seen as the son, Hook the father and Wendy the mother. There is an extraordinary amount of emphasis placed on the figure of the mother in Peter Pan, and this Freudian reading of the story could explain why. Peter's main purpose seems to be to attack Hook at all eventualities, suggesting that if Hook were the father figure (he is the double of Mr Darling remember) Peter seems pretty intent on bumping him off. As for Wendy, she is portrayed as the mother very early on. In the first scene of the play she is playing at being her own mother with her younger brother John. Then once Peter arrives she becomes his mother, and in Neverland she is the Lost Boys' mother too. Despite being mother to all, Peter is very possessive of Wendy. This could be suggestive of an Oedipus complex. However, when Wendy asks him what his feelings towards her are (and she does this many times!) he always replies 'you are my mother', suggesting he has nothing but familial feelings for Wendy. 

I'm not sure how far I follow the Oedipal theory when it comes to Peter Pan, but it is interesting to explore these critical theories and use them to inform our reading of something that seems, on the surface, just a fantastical play for children. For me, the most interesting aspects of the analysis lie in the doubling of characters, and the theories surrounding the themes of childhood and growing up. I hope this has been of interest to some of you, I've certainly enjoyed writing it. It's not often now that I get to do a critical review of a text. Maybe I'll try and do more! 

Thanks for reading, L x

Next week, I'll be looking at Oliver Jeffer's picture book The Way Back Home. 

No. 67 - Asterix the Gaul

A big hello from me! I hope you're all doing well and are getting through in the best way you can during this time of uncertainty. It's a funny old world, and frankly it all feels a bit like a dream, but as with all dreams we'll wake up to a bright new morning at the end of all this. This week in the UK we learnt that we all had to stay indoors for the time being, and so it's time to fall back on our own resources. For all the parents having to home school your children, I hope you have fun together and learn from each other. The National Literacy Trust has a wonderful resource called Family Zone to help you with lots of useful links and activities to make home schooling a lot easier. Why not check it out! If I discover anything else I'll post it on here. I might also do some more posts with activities and book recommendations etc too, so watch this space!

It's a perfect time to explore new books series, and other types of literature too. I think this post about the Asterix comics has come just at the right time! 

Aside from reading the Beano each week as a child, I've never really been a comics or graphic novels kind of a girl. The first book on this list was The Adventures of Tin Tin, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and you can read my review here. So, I was really glad another comic popped up on the list, and I had a feeling it would be just as enjoyable. As with Tin Tin, I had never seen any adaptations of the stories so I was in the dark as to how the format worked, and what the characters were like. I found a PDF of Asterix the Gaul, the first Asterix comic online, along with all the others, why not take a look! I downloaded it onto my tablet and got reading. I'm not used to reading things on a screen, as I tend to favour a print copy, but a trip to the library was out of the question at the moment! I loved the creasy, battered scan of this comic, it was nostalgic, and reminded me of some kind of archived document. It was almost as good as paper! 

The first adventure of Asterix sees him and his Druid friend Getafix foiling the nasty Romans with a magic potion that makes their hair grow uncontrollably, which as you can imagine is rather funny! Asterix's village remains unconquered by the Romans, at a time when Julius Caesar was rampaging around invading anywhere he could! The Gauls' success is due to another of Getafix's magic potions, one that makes them superhumanly strong! Perfect for fighting Romans! There's classic slapstick, misdirection, and fights punctuated with 'BANG!' and 'BIFF!'; all the wonderful tropes you expect from a comic. The characters are appealing, and the drawing's themselves tell the story as much as the words do. It's great!

Originally of course, this comic was written in French, but it was translated into English in 1969. This meant that a lot of the jokes and names that had been used in the French comics didn't make sense in English, and it was up to translation duo Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge to act not only as translators but comedy geniuses as well! The English Asterix books were praised for keeping the same comedic feel, despite having to be tweaked for English consumption. The character names are the most obvious difference between the French and English editions of this comic. For example, the druid is Panaoramix in the French version, but Bell and Hockridge changed the name to Getafix in the English one, in a reference to drugs and the magic potions he was always concocting! Just from this name change you can see that Asterix doesn't always seem to be aimed at a child audience. In fact, I think they are more for adults than children! The puns are at times so unrelated to childhood that I wonder whether Bell and Hocking, and indeed Goscinny and Udurzo (the original creators) were just trying to make themselves laugh! The Roman centurion named Marcus Ginantonicus is a favourite of mine, for example! There is also a lot of Latin in the English translation. Having not read the French version I can't say if it was in the original, but I do wonder what child today would understand the punchline of a joke if it were in Latin? Is this a symptom of the time it was written? I'm not sure. Latin was certainly being phased out of schools in the 1960s, so I wonder why it was chosen to play such a pivotal role in the text? 

"Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.", "The fact...", "How are you?" "Very well, thank you!" 

Yes, I had to use Google Translate!

In my last post I spoke about nostalgia, about the way child readers these days couldn't necessarily relate to child characters from the past in an immediate way, but there was always the thread of the collective childhood experience that kept them together. However, with the Asterix's books there is no collective childhood, it relies purely on story telling, adventure and an understanding of European history. This, I think, would make these comics a struggle for children these days.

If the whole story was reliant on the text, I think the adventures of Asterix would have been lost long ago. But luckily, the visual storytelling keeps these books afloat. There is a lot to be said about comics, and I'm going to use the phrase reluctant reader again! Combining words and images helps children find a passion for reading, beyond the picture book, but with the same familiarity. I'm not sure this is entirely true of the Asterix comics, because of all the layers to the narrative, but even if you ignore the text I think you can get something from the story. You can see the conflict between the Romans and the Gauls and get a gist of the action unfolding, as well as the physical humour. I love the simple palette of colours and the way the types of characters have their own distinct looks. As a icon of visual culture, Asterix is right up there! 

Overall, these comics have many downfalls when it comes to appealing to modern children. However, as an adult coming to them for the first time I enjoyed the humour, and using Google Translate for the Latin was quite fun! I'm not sure I'd recommend these comics for the child reader, for parents yes, but if you want a classic comic that will entertain today's young people, I'd stick to Tin Tin instead!

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up, it's J.M Barrie's magical Peter Pan.

No. 68 - The Family from One End Street (and World Book Day 2020)

It's World Book Day month, hooray! Thursday 5th March was World Book Day, a favourite of mine as you may already know. I love seeing which characters children dress up as, and how their little imaginations are sparked by literature of all kinds. The free books for this year's World Book Day are fantastic as always, with authors such as Anthony Horowitz, Robin Stevens, and Matt Haig contributing brand new stories. You can see the full list of the books here, so encourage children to cash in those vouchers and grab a new short story!

As for today's post, I want to talk to you about Eve Garnett's masterpiece The Family from One End Street. First published in 1937, this book oozes authenticity in a way books these day's rarely do. It is a wonderful depiction of the life of the Ruggle family, who live at No.1 One End Street, in the fictional town of Otwell-on-the-Ouse (which is said to be based on Lewes in Sussex). Nothing extraordinary happens, and the setting is thoroughly domestic, but this is it's appeal. It is wonderfully mundane.

Unusually for the time, it focuses on the life of a working class family. The mum, Rosie Ruggle does people's laundry and Dad, Jo Ruggle is a dustman. They have seven children, Lily-Rose, Kate, Jo, twins John and James, Peggy and baby William. Children of the time were more likely to be reading about the exploits of middle-class families, think about The Famous Five and The Secret Seven, so this book was quite special. Just like the typical middle-class adventure novel, most of the chapters are based around the children, following their exploits and adventures (although I use the term loosely). The Ruggle's tales are moral, entertaining, and often follow the troubles of their everyday life. What happens when Lily Rose melts a rich ladies petticoat with an iron, and how will the Ruggle's afford Kate's new school clothes? Will they make it to London to see Uncle Charlie in the parade? There are so many lovely episodes in this book that will have you routing for the working class Ruggle's. It is so endearing, plus there is a lovely air of gentle humour about these stories which I really enjoyed.

These days children expect stories with exciting twists and turns, fast action, and snappy storylines to keep them reading. There doesn't seem to be as many books that are slower paced, and actually deal with the domestic level of life quite like this does. I worry that the publishing industry has it's work cut out trying to create books for the screen generation, who expect everything to be instant and quick. Books like Eve Garnett's require consideration and time. Although it is by no means a difficult read, it requires absorption. There are no quick fixes here. The stories are charming, and although not much happens, you enjoy going on a small scale adventure with these characters. It puts me in mind of Shirley Hughes books, in particular the 'My Naughty Little Sister' series, which I adored as a child. This slow, gentle pace of story telling is a rare beast these days I think, and that is a huge pity. I understand that nowadays children would find it hard to identify with a child from the 1930s, and as an adult reader I have a greater understanding of this time period. However, I feel it's such a shame that it is no longer a favourable way of storytelling. The stories in this book are refreshing. There are no arguments, no social media fallout, no political or environmental worries, no gender politics, these stories are simple, wholesome and uplifting. 

Like the stories themselves, the illustrations have a similar feel. I think this is because they were also created by Garnett. They are simple line drawings, yet packed with tons of expression and life. You feel like you've taken a look into her sketchbook after a day out. Just look at the one below showing the family at the beach one Bank Holiday.

I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who loves a bit of nostalgia! It's stories and characters hark back to a time when life was simpler. There is more of a clear gender and class divide, yes, but then this book was written at a time when that was normal. I wouldn't however say the characters fall into those stereotypes. Those girls are quite feisty, and the boys have their moments of weakness. Even Mr Ruggle has moral dilemmas to face. Overall this book is a lovely example of domestic fiction for children at it's best. It is about the love, and life, of a family.

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up, it's the Asterix comics by Uderzo and Goscinny!

No. 69 - You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum!

So, we've finally hit the 60s on the list, and I must say I'm quite excited about the next ten books. There are some absolute classics, an anthology of poems and even a comic! I tend to only work through the list ten books at a time, so it's always a surprise to me when I look at the upcoming titles, and the next ten don't disappoint. Plus there are some favourites of mine on their way this time too! Talking of favourites, I've discovered a new one! The Mr Gum books by Andy Stanton! They're brilliant! 

The list just said 'Mr Gum', so I started at the beginning with You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum!, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! As you probably know, I am a great fan of books for reluctant readers. Anything that can spark the passion for reading in a child has my vote, and I think these books fit that bill exactly! Firstly they are small scale, which is less intimidating than a great big book, and the text itself doesn't fill the whole page either. I think sometimes the thought of having to read a whole book is actually what puts children off reading in the first place, and this books gets around that in lots of clever ways.

Along with small sections of text on each page, the style has a sort of handwritten, diary type feel to it. A bit like Liz Pichon's Tom Gates books the pages have a lived-in feel. There are big dirty smudges on the corners of the pages, illustrations in the margins, and often the text is handwritten, misaligned or in a different font. It is all very fluid and most importantly not very book-like! 

David Tazzyman's illustrations bring the non-book-y-ness to life! They have the spirit and animation of Quentin Blake's illustrations, and there's something a little bit Lauren Child about them too. They are cartoony, loose and seem to have a life of their own. Despite being made up of a few deft strokes of a pencil, they are 100% believable! You can smell the disheveled, stinker Mr Gum, and you can hear the flies buzzing around in Billy William the Third's Right Royal Meats butchers shop! It's gross, but awesome! And here again lies the draw of this book. It's disgusting! In a good way! This particular story involves rotten meat and dog poo! It has it's fair share of the grotesque. I mean the end papers have got dog poos, rat poison bottles and ketchup drawn on them!

But what I love most about this book is it's humour! It's surreal, and bizarre, and laugh out loud funny! In fact it's read out loud funny! I can imagine it going down very well in a classroom! It's silly, and that makes me smile. I love a silly book. One that appeals to both adults and children alike, with jokes and asides for everyone. This device is mostly found in picture books, so I was really pleased to see it venture out into the paper back. The Claude books by Alex T Smith have a similar feel too. More of the same please! It's a winner! And I knew I was on to a winner as soon as I read the opening page of You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum!. 

Stanton's descriptions often skip the obvious and move straight to the things that we would usually pass by, or that we just didn't need to know, and of course these are often the funniest. It's a bit like observational humour, it's the little things that you take for granted that are actually the most amusing. We are told that Mr Gum hates children, animals, and fun, so far these are all very standard things for a nasty character, but Stanton also thinks we ought to know that Mr Gum hates corn on the cob too. It's so unimportant that it's funny. I love it! Plus who lists 'scowling at things' as a hobby!? 

Another thing that Stanton does really well is an underwhelming observation. For example 'The moles raced back their holes at the speed of moles.', and Jake the dog is seen 'chomping up the flowers in his big doggy mouth to see what they tasted like (generally they tasted like flowers)'. It is touches like this that I think make this book so appealing, and much more fun to read aloud. As a child this would have really tickled me and made me want to read more. 

This first Mr Gum story has won two awards, and it's easy to see why. I was also excited to discover that Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear (book no. 5) had been made into a musical! Bizarre, but not unexpected. Once you've been in Mr Gum's world a while anything is possible. 

So, I suppose you've guessed that this has been one of my favourite books so far! And yes, I will be popping to the library and getting the next one, despite the fact I'm probably about 20 years older than the intended audience! Reading this book has reminded me of being little again. I loved a funny book as a child, and the more bizarre the better. I'd have devoured these had they been around then, so why not do it now and re-live that joy!

I'm going to leave you with a review of this book from Bryony aged 8, which I think totally sums up it's appeal: 

"Funniest book I have ever read and will ever read... When I read this to my mum she burst out laughing and nearly wet herself... When I had finished the book I wanted to read it all over again it was so good."* 

Thanks for reading, L x

Next time, it's The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett.

*From the reviews in the front of You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum! by Andy Stanton, illustrated by David Tazzyman.  

No. 70 - Berlie Doherty's Fairly Tales

I'm a huge fan of fairy tales, from the nursery school favourites, to the much darker and more complex tales of the Brother's Grimm, and everything else in-between. I just love the magic and mystery of these traditional children's tales. In the nineteenth century lots of these stories were complied into what we now think of as the canon of classic fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, to name but a few. The most famous collectors of these fairy tales were Joseph Jacobs, Charles Perrault, and the Grimm brothers. This standardised canon of tales seems very familiar, yes? Think again!

There are so many variations of these tales, that once you start digging you will find that there are much more interesting versions! I particularly like the variations of the 'beast' in Beauty and the Beast. For example in Russia he is 'The Snotty Goat', and in Italian versions of the tale he is 'The Mouse with the Long Tail' or 'The Pig King'. Likewise, an old French version of Little Red Riding Hood, The Story of Grandmother, sees our heroine eat her grandmother's flesh, drink her blood and do a striptease for the wolf!!* So you see, there is much more to the traditional fairy tale than meets the eye! I could go on, but instead I shall introduce you to this post's books.

Berlie Doherty's Fairy Tales are somewhat more traditional than Red Riding Hood baring all, however, they are certainly not boring. These beautiful adaptations, of which there are 12, are thoughtfully written, and the haunting illustrations by Jane Ray make them truly special. I couldn't track down the treasury of  these stories, nor could I find all 12 in the library, but the two I did find did not disappoint! So, I am going to talk to you about Berlie Doherty's re-tellings of Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.

The tale of Aladdin, as we know it, first appears in Arabian Nights, alongside the stories of Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba, so of course I presumed, like everyone else, that Aladdin must be a story from the middle east. I was wrong! And so was Walt Disney! Aladdin was originally a Chinese tale!

Berlie Doherty's Aladdin uses the traditional Chinese setting, which I think helps to move this story away from it's Disney counterpart. The banner of Disney is something that is totally wrapped up with the Western fairy tale genre, and I think that the more re-telling's that have their roots in the traditions of these stories the better! Don't get me wrong, I love a Disney film, but personally I think children are missing out on the richness of the genre if all they know are the squeaky clean Disney versions! Obviously, the ugly sister's chopping their toes off to fit into the glass slipper in Cinderella might not be suitable for a younger audience, but there are other variations that are more palatable!

Now, I was expecting the tale of Aladdin to be a fairly moral one, where love conquers evil, and everyone lives happily ever after. A story where Aladdin would win the Princess's heart in a way that didn't involve endless riches and swanky houses, but kindness, and heroics. Isn't that what fairy tales are all about? Well apparently not! Aladdin woos the Princess with magic jewels, and then when she marries someone else he wins her back by shoving her husband out of bed each night into a pile of poo! Once this husband leaves (and frankly I don't blame him!) the genie conjures yet more riches to please the Princess. Aladdin then summons up an extravagant gold palace for them, and they live there happily, content in their materialism. But it's this materialism that gets them in to a bit of bother, when Princess Badr-al-Badur (note that she's not called Jasmine!) sells the magic lamp to the evil Sorcerer, and he kidnaps her!

Even after Aladdin rescues her there is no moral epiphany! No realisation that their greed got them into trouble, or that they only needed each other to be happy! They're just pleased to get the lamp and the genie back, and resume life in their gold castle! If Aladdin and Badr-al-Badur were a modern couple it would be all designer clothing, and supercars, and an instagram account with millions of followers to like their boastful posts and boost their egos! Frankly I ended the story pretty disappointed in them! This however, doesn't at all detract from Doherty's brilliant re-telling of this tale, and the beautiful illustrations that accompany it. In fact it makes it all the more enjoyable!

Jane Ray's illustrations really make these stories. Although there are not many full page images, the illustrated page edges and end papers create a magical space for story telling to occur. Her interpretation of the characters is really interesting too, and this is something I noticed in Beauty and the Beast. Jane Ray has depicted her Beauty as being of African heritage, something that is very rare in the classic Western fairy tale canon. The canonical fairy tales, and indeed Disney's interpretations of them, depict their princesses as nearly always Western and white, especially in the early days of the Disney cartoons. In 1991 when Beauty and the Beast was made there had been no Disney princesses of colour, with Belle following in the footsteps of Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel. In 1992 Aladdin gave us Jasmine, and this was followed by Pocahontas in 1995. Things were looking up. Now, I am pleased to say it is not so rare, though some would say that they are still underrepresented. For me Jane Ray's choice of  Beauty's African heritage added another layer to the story from an analytic point of view, and made it more culturally interesting. Ray mixes the Western and African cultures subtly with the use of clothing. Beauty, although dressed in a Western Georgian style, is depicted wearing fabrics that use African patterning. Coupled with the theme of possession in this fairytale, could Ray be making a comment on the colonialism of the period?

Before I finish up I quickly want to talk about the illustration below. I really love it, as it very subtly shows the Beast watching Beauty. We see his reflection in the mirror, an the eye on the table, and indeed, his rather frightening figure behind her. There is real sense of possession here. However, it is also clear that she interests him; it is very voyeuristic, and as viewers we are sharing in that voyeurism by watching him watch her. The more you look at this image the more you realise that Beauty is overtly the object of the male gaze. There are lots of wolf-like creatures and clawed hands on the curtains, bearing down on her in a sinister way. There is no denying that the Beast appears to be a metaphor for a certain attitude towards women.

Of course, as we know in the end Beauty realises that she truly loves the Beast, agrees to marry him and he turns back in to a man. Hurrah! Love really does triumph in this tale. Not only Beauty's love for the Beast, but her love for her family too. She was willing to put herself in danger to save her father's life. Though I must just say she abandons them all to be with the Beast in the end!

If you're looking for a set of fairy tales that still retain the magic and tradition of the old school fairy tale, but feel more honest and refreshing, then look no further than Berlie Doherty and Jane Ray's beautiful adaptations.

Thanks for reading, L x

Ps. Next up it's something totally different! It's Andy Stanton's You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum!



* If you want to read more about literary theory concerning fairy tales, or read some of these fabulous alternative versions, I highly recommend The Classic Fairy Tales edited by Maria Tatar.

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

Hello!

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

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

So, lets crack on!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up Fairy Tales by Berlie Doherty

No. 72 - The Worst Witch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up, 'Wolves' by Emily Gravett