It's Shakespere But Not As You Like It.

The great William Shakespere, I've been in awe of him since I was eleven. How can you not admire someone who's writing was so dynamic that it's lived for over 400 years? The highlight of my summer last year was visiting Stratford Upon Avon and soaking up as much history as possible.

As soon as I saw that my next book was going to be a play I went sraight for the obvious choice. Apologies for not expanding my taste, I know there are a LOT of playwrights out there who write plays aimed at children. But I couldn't resist, I wanted to spread the love of the Bard.

I hit on an obstacle immediately though. See all my life my two real passions have been writing and performing (I think I may have the heart of a poet). I have read a couple of Shakespere's plays (Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, what I like to call the big three). I've even played the role of Oberon, King of the Fairies in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. But as someone who loves to perform I find his plays translate better when on stage.

I've seen at least three times as many plays and sonnets as I've read. For me language that can seem quite long and arduous on the page suddenly springs to life: beautiful, clever and emotive. You will never see two identical productions of any one play (unless of course you go to see the same people performing it twice in which case good for you). This is because it is so open to interpretation and every production company/ film studio/theatre group will interpret it differently.

Frankly I'll just speak from the heart and say that there is nothing better than seeing Shakespere being performed at the Globe! The actors and the set draws you in, the flow and the buzz fills every rounded corner of the building. To view it from the pit (the centre) is so reasonably priced that there really is no reason not to try it if ever you're in London.

Anyway, here was the obstacle. How do I find a Shakesperean play that is accesible to children? Local library to the rescue! I was quickly browsing last Sunday when I came across this gem!

Not just Shakespere, but Manga! My heart did a happy back flip! For those that aren't aware Manga is a form of art that originates in Japan, dating as far back as the 12th century. The word 'Manga' became commonly used in the 18th century to describe the art and it can literally be translated in Englisg as 'comic'.

This was an answer to my prayers. A comic form of Shakespere that didn't sacrifice the original language and that was set with the art from and against the back drop of Japan. Perfick!

As You Like It is one of the comedies and it tells the story of four couples who come together through a slew of random twists of fate. It contains one of the most quoted lines in history *say it with me now* "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players" (page 112 of this book).

To be fair there is more going on than simple (or not so simple) love matches. There's the sibling rivalry between the cheated and oppressed Orlando and his older brother, the cold hearted Oliver. There's the tyrannical character of Duke Fredrick, who banishes his overly optimistic (always seeing the silver lining) brother Duke Senior. "Happy is your Grace that can translate the stubbornness of fortune into so sweet a style"  someone says to Duke Senior on page 73. I think that sums him up brilliantly.

And of course, what Shakespere play would be complete without the troupe of smaller but relevant cameos and the overly wise fool? It might sound like I'm being a little cynical there but I'm really not. In fact I do love the use of a fool as a wise, outside observer of events and the world around them.

I read through it's 205 pages very quickly, so quickly that I found myself going back and re reading repeatedly. Not because I couldn't get the gist of the plot but because I was really struggling to digest the language. The problem I found was that because the language was split into small chunks  for the visual purpose of fitting into blocks and speech bubbles, I was racing through it. I didn't really stop to appreciate the words or the art. I felt that the organic flow of it was disrupted, reaching me in short, sharp bursts rather than a natural movement. I am very curious to see if the Manga version of Hamlet does the same.

The one exception was the "all the world's a stage" speech which I had no idea went on far longer than that simple quote. I absolutely loved the way the stages of a man's life were broken down and succinctly summarised both in the paneled artwork and in the speech."The whining school boy...
...the lover, sighing like a furnace... ...the justice in fair round belly..."

My ultimate moment was at the end of that speech where the character talks of the "second childishness" and the inevitable "mere oblivion" "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." (page 116). I shed a tear there. It was the image with it that really struck a chord. An image of a wrinkly, balding  man slumped cosily in bed, smiling with acceptance as he slowly started his melt into nothing.

The artwork overall did serve the purpose of reinforcing the text, which for me was a great help as it left me able to keep up with the story and it's pace even without the hampering of reading difficult language in bits. However, I feel that the story is not very strong, it doesn't have the out and out humor of Much Ado About Nothing or Midsummer Night's Dream.

That being said it is a good read, bringing forth one of the first uses of the phrase 'seen better days' which happens to be one of my favourite phrases when I'm not in the best of moods (haha)!

This is book number 8 on my list and my play.

Book Title: As You Like it Manga version.

Author: William Shakepsere, adaptation by Richard Appignanesi

Illustrated by: Chie Kutsuwada

Published: 2015

Pages:205

Recommended for: ages 10 (advanced readers) upwards.

Interesting words and phrases: alas,  virtue, entreat, seen better days.

Goals and consistency.

I hit a snag this week: a really big one. For me to explain it properly I just need to say a little bit about myself.

I am quite easily the queen of unfinished buisiness. I have an incredible knack for starting things that I simply cannot (or do not) finish. Normally that's not a problem, after all I'm only human. But at the start of this year I swore it'd be a difficulty that I would overcome. 

So I had two goals, the first was to meditate in order to maintain a regular practice which healed my overworked mind. Anyone who knows how much I talk can take that and multiply it by a hundred; that's how overloaded my head is with thoughts and visions and worries. 

The second was this blog and this was a matter of applying myself to a job that I'd started, simply to prove that I could.

After 47 days of daily meditation I missed a day this past week. I felt broken, because it was the longest I'd ever applied myself to anything and it still didn't feel like enough.

But in another way it did me a favour, I sat down and opened this week's book, reading it without moving for the 3 hours it took me to get it finished (unbelievably I started at 4:30 in the morning)!

Sky Chasers is set in France in the 18th Century and tells the story of Magpie, a street urchin/thief who is drawn into a race against time when she unwittingly stumbles upon plans to build the world's first hot air balloon (bear in mind this would be the first ever type of travel by air). The enemy? The British, who have sent in spies to hamper French progress and gain an advantage.  

I could not put it down, it was a very addictive story. Told in the 1st person from Magpie's point of view it was beautifully crafted. It doesn't take much to paint it's pictures and yet you can see them with crystal clarity from the quiet village where most of the story takes place to the bustling Paris side streets, even the grounds of the world famous Palace of Versailles. The only negative was the occasional modern day phrase thrown in to remind us of Mapie's social standing. "He's proper upset..." she says about one character on page 226 which doesn't fit right with the rest of the passage.  I don't even think this was intentional on the part of the author, it just jarred a bit. 

Aside from that it was great, it resurrected fond memories of The Three Musketeers and Around The World in 80 Days. In fact Sky Chasers provides us with a beautiful blending of both those books. There's a deeper story too, one of sadness at the thought of failure, or rather not being acknowledged even when we have succeeded. It makes us think of how sometimes a person can do everything in order to achieve their goal and still end up bitter and dissatisfied because they haven't really thought about thier journey or received the recognition they should rightly have earned. I won't say too much on that one as I don't want to reveal too much. 

Written by Emma Carrol it is taken from an award winning idea by Neal Jackson which talks of the very first hot air balloon flight (I won't tell you who wins, research a little history and you can find out easily enough 😉). It tells us (both within the story and through its creation) that if we believe and try hard enough, we can achieve anything; whether it is flying for the first time or winning an award for creating a beautiful idea for a story! 

Maybe it'll help me in the long run by inspiring me to complete a task. Maybe there is some hope for me after all. Or maybe its teaching me that having an end goal is great so long as it doesn't deflect from me enjoying the journey. My focus should be on each single step rather than the mammoth overall challenge which is far more draining and difficult. 

This for me counts as my book about personal growth. Both in the hope that it's given me and in the character of Magpie, who learns that there's far more to life than just simple survival. "This girl..." Magpie says at the end "...is going to fly."

This is book 7 of my 52 book challenge and one I would recommend to anyone.

Book Title: Sky Chasers
Author: Emma Carroll (based on an idea by Neal Jackson)
Published: 2018
Pages: 278
Recommended for: ages 7 upwards
Interesting words: gruesome, fixated, talisman, spectacular, contraption, magnificent.

A practically preposterous read.

This week's book was a real struggle, I'll admit it right away with no hesitation. It was a struggle for several reasons.

For one thing it was an extremely busy week, particularly at work which left little time for recreation. Every evening when I got home I would have just enough energy to spend a couple of hours doing my usual chores or spending time with my family. Most nights saw me asleep by nine o'clock!
When Saturday rolled into view and I'd still not started anything panic began to set in. With big family plans that took up most of the day it left only one day for me to get my reading on: today.

Secondly, I wanted something that linked in to a current social theme. I've been thinking a lot about the recent 100th anniversary of the women's right to vote. Yes I could've done the obvious and read one of the recent slew of children's books that has been published to mark the occasion. But I return there to point one and my incredibly busy, no time for real thinking week.

So I came across a copy of Mary Poppins by P.L Travers. First published in 1924 by a woman who would've been considered a pioneer in children's literature (there weren't many female authors being published at all back then) it tells the story of a no nonsense nanny who blows into the lives of the Banks family with all the force of a fierce gale. She turns the lives of the two main children, Jane and Michael Banks upside down, showing them frequent marvels and things that defy logic only to smartly correct them when they discuss what they've seen.

When questioned on page 171 if she'd been at the zoo by one of the children she responds with "Me? A quiet orderly person who knows that early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise... ...I have all I need of zoos in this nursery." Well that's them told then.

I've been a lover of the Disney adaptation for years, with it's sweet spoonful of sugar music and heart rendering message that hard working Dads need to stop, appreciate and understand their children, just as the young children need to respect and consider the feelings of their fathers. I even remember the character of the children's often absent mother being excused by the fact that she is hard at work campaigning for the suffragette cause (see my tenuous link there?)

I almost wish I'd read the book first, so that I could be as frustrated with the film as Travers was when Disney meddled with it. Instead I find no love for the original story, which paints Mary as cold and unfeeling, even borderline alien at points.

The mother's absenteeism in the book is simply that, absenteeism. Its further compounded by the fact that in the one real scene she has she simply can't understand her own children, not the way Mary Poppins does. May I take this moment to note that Travers herself said that Poppins echoed a lot of her own life,which is funny considering the no nonsense attitude she dished out to Walt Disney when he tried (repeatedly) to buy the rights to the book in order to convert it. Its well known that she loathed Disneys alteration of Mary from something cold to the warm and soothing persona of Dame Julie Andrews.

Dad and Bert really are as non existent as Mum and the story goes so far into the fantastical that the Disney version starts to feel far more down to Earth. I just couldn't warm to Mary the way the children did in the book. That being said the writing was simple enough and it managed to keep me hooked from start to finish. I even found a little tinge of disappointment when the wind changed at the end (signalling Mary's departure from the children's lives).

Set in my wonderful home city of London with a special reference to St Paul's Cathedral (which just so happens to be my favourite London landmark) this is book 6 on my list. One I'd recommend for those who are curious and not afraid to have their Disney view of it shattered.

Title: Mary Poppins (book 1 in the series)

Author: P L Travers

First published: 1924

Suitable for: anyone from age 8 upwards

Interesting words: perambulator (our early version of the word pram) 

Books - More Than Just Skin Deep

I remember first reading 'The Little Ghost' when I was in primary school.

The story was simple, charming and eloquent: an exercise in adorable cuteness. Being young, fairly innocent and totally naive I accepted it at face value, without any understanding of the subtext. Two years ago I decided I had to track it down and buy a copy. I needed my own sons to read a pleasant, simple book from my own childhood that I'd had such fond memories of.

Oh how my eyes were opened when I read it as an adult!

Originally written in German and first published in 1967, it tells the story of a little ghost who has hourly haunts of Eulenstein Castle just outside the town of the same name.
Bored with haunting for an hour every night he wishes he can see the world by day. It isn't long before he gets what he wants but it comes at a price: he changes colour from white to black.
At first the book seems like an attack. The ghost goes from blending in to standing out like a sore thumb. He is horrified and depressed with his change. I had to swallow back bitter anger when I read a passage on page 42 where the ghost is filled with self loathing at his change in circumstance.

But I persevered and soon came to realise that this is less a book about colour and more a social commentary about the very nature of fear. It's moral: we all fear what we don't know. It becomes staggeringly clear that townspeople simply fear the ghost because they look and judge him without having the courage to learn more about him.

'It's a pity people will start running away as soon as they see me' says the ghost on page 53. 'I suppose it's because I'm black. I must have looked a lot less frightening when I was all white. But I can't help it can I?'

This idea is given further fuel by the fact that the townspeople, even the mayor of the town constantly refer to the ghost as 'the dark unknown'.
It isn't until he meets three brave, innocent and fairly naive children that he gets the help he needs to return to the castle and his own version of normality, his lesson being that he should never have been too curious. But he can't return to his normal life until he apologises to the entire town bless him! He does so by letter and everything goes back the way it was.

Written at a time of great social change (Malcom X had been brutally assassinated 2 years earlier and Martin Luther King Junior was a year away from his own untimely death) it sends us a clear message. We find too much comfort and safety in what we are familiar with.

It is only by holding on to the open minded innocence of our childhood that we can begin to affect real positive change.

I would highly reccomend this book to anyone be it a 6 year old (who would accept it at face value) or a 16 year old (who might be tempted to analyse it and take it apart)!

A book translated from another language and book 5 on my 52 book list. On a little side note there is totally a scene in it that seems to be the inspiration for a pink, big eyed Pokemon who draws faces on things when he's unhappy! Any Pokemon fans will instantly know who I'm referring to!

Book Title: The Little Ghost

Author Otfried Preussler

Original Title: Das Kleine Gespenst

First published: 1967

Recommended for: any child from the age of 5 upwards 

Interesting words and phrases: scornful, indignant, peculiar, gilded, inclined, gay (the original word version not what we now know it as), intolerable, perpetrator, another think coming (I wonder if this is the original version of the phrase 'another thing coming'... ...hmmmm)