My get out of jail free card.

Weird one this. Last week I was able to read an entire novel with more than 330 pages, this inspite of the fact that I had two social engagements, a mad week at work and a cross country weekend trip. The past few weeks have been completely mental and still I've been able to force time to read. So it's absolutely nuts that this week, when I've had next to nothing on and I've been winding down that I haven't picked up a single book or read a single page.

In fairness I've literally been coming home most evenings to get my basic jobs done before dozing off ludicrously early. I woke up at 7 this morning and went downstairs saying 'there you are' to my husband as if he'd been in hiding all week and I'd just found him!
Just deciding what book to read next has been a labour that can be summed up with the following response 'meh'.

So today I gave myself a mental kick up the bum and clearly organised me list into what I've already read, what's next and for some books: my book choice and date for reading it. That was all great but that didn't solve my immediate problem. Sunday morning had come around and I'd not read anything yet!

It was time to use the get out of jail free card (or one of them anyway). I was thinking today of books I'd read while I was in school. One in particular caught my attention. One that I've had the pleasure to hear read out in storytime sessions in recent years. One that I think could do with a little revival.

A Dark Dark Tale by Ruth Brown is an illustrated children's book ideal for 3,4 and 5 year olds. There are no central characters to follow in the text. There's no overly spun story. We simply see a journey over a moor, through a wood and into a very creepy house.

The reader is then sent on a venture through the house to a dark cupboard, in a dark room. What we find there? Well that would give the game away wouldn't it?!

If you're looking for a book that is steeped in rich vocab then this is probably not the book for you. Though it was lovely when I once had a child innocently ask me what a moor was.
What marks this story out is the writing style. We never see this in the 3rd person. We never follow Liam through the wood or see Sophie peer into the dark cupboard. Instead every page asks us to be the character by simply setting the scene ('the wood is here', 'the house is there' etc).
By doing this the story puts the reader at the very heart it.

The illustrations then go on to echo this perfectly. If you look carefully, a black cat is on almost every page leading us from start to finish.

The book is very atmospheric, 24 pages are a solid build up to a cracking crescendo. Watching it being read aloud to a group of children is a pure joy. I've seen kids leaning so far forward hanging on the lines that they fall over!

First published in 1981, it's a book that not only was great when I read it in school, but stands up today. It's unique format making it something that can be read quietly or aloud over and over.
Book 25 on my 52 book list and a book that I read in school.

Book Title: A Dark Dark Tale

Author and Illustrator: Ruth Brown
Pages: 24
First Published: 1981
Suitable for: any child from 3 upwards

Interesting words: moor

The hard graft of letting go.

Today's post is going to be a fairly hefty mix of review and personal confession. I know many of my blog posts are. Today however, feels like I need to tell myself that before I get started.

The book I've read this week is all about moving on and how difficult it can be. Frankly I find it the most difficult challenge that life can throw at you. I have several issues in my life that I should have moved on from years ago but haven't for reasons I still can not fathom.

For me moving on with life is like allowing a part of yourself to die. It might be a part of yourself that you love and cherish, something so ingrained in your personality that it defines who you are. But move on we must, as life never stands still. There are parts of my life I've been happy to say goodbye to. Strangely enough they tend to be the parts that occasionally rear their ugly heads when all I want is to see them gone.

But then there are things in my life that I simply can't forget, no matter how hard I try. Memories of good times with people I no longer see. Echoes of moments, words, phrases or even looks that have buried themselves so far down in my heart that to remove them would take removing the organ itself.

Most of my adult life I've been stuck in a limbo, caught between pining for the home of my childhood (where most of the time stupidly I was unhappy) and embracing the area I have lived in since the tender age of twenty, which sounds easy but really isn't.

Just this weekend I went back to my childhood home to spend some time with my family, whilst leaving my husband and children in my current home. I missed my current home when I left it, but missed my old home when I left there. In the end I felt for a while like I didn't fit in either place, like I was stranded in between being one person and another.

How apt then that this week's book raises those issues.

The House With Chicken Legs is a story about thirteen year old Marinka, who lives with her grandmother, Baba Yaga (a fabled character from Russian traditional fairy tales). They live in a house with chicken legs which moves from place to place. Every night it is Baba's job to help the souls of the dead depart from this plane of existence. She does this by preparing a meal for them and allowing them one last night to indulge themselves and revel in the memories of their lives. She then escorts them to a gate which they must pass through before making the journey to the afterlife. 

Unable to speak to living people and constantly on the move Marinka does not want to continue in the family buisiness as she feels like it's not for her.  In fact she wants nothing more than to have a normal life as a normal person. But eventually certain revelations lead her to realise that she doesn't fit with normal life any more than the life of a 'guardian of the gate'. It is that lack of stability that leads her down a very destructive path. 

A very steadily paced book, I found it unputdownable. I felt something for the character's plight straight away, feeling her struggle as she grappled with her changing situation. I read two thirds of it on my coach journey home today. 

It doesn't just pull on the heart strings, it plays a full string quartet piece with them. 

The writing style contains some beuatifully vivid imagery and flows smoothly with no jarring passages or overly boring waffle. I can see clearly why it is a bestseller. 

Maybe I should learn from it, take one last night and say one last goodbye before purging myself of the past. Maybe those issues I struggle to let go of were still there because up till now, it wasn't time to let go of them. Maybe it is now. We'll never really know I don't think. 

Book 24 of my 52 book list and my bestseller. 

Book Title: The House With Chicken Legs
Author: Sophie Anderson

Published: 2018
Pages: 336
Suitable for: any child aged 9 and upwards
Interesting words: accumulate, static, barren

A catch up with Coraline

Coraline is a book that I have been using to engage reluctant readers for over 5 years now. I'd love to say I'd read it first, or even watched the movie adaptation; but that would make me a liar. All I've known with certainty was that it was known for it's scare factor. After all, the guy who directed the movie was also responsible for 'The Nightmare before Christmas'.

I would say the same thing to children every time they were looking in the library for a good book:
'Fancy a good scare, Coraline is the book for you.'
Last week whilst struggling to find a decent version of an epic poem (long story which will be explained in due course) I picked Coraline up in my son's room and flicked through it.
At a mere 192 pages it appeared to be an easy read.

It was just that, a very easy read, not because of simple language but because the plot was so addictive. I'd love to say that it scared me half as much as I thought it would but it didn't. Instead it deeply unsettled me, watching the protagonist being offered everything she could wish for, but knowing it would be at the expense of her life and soul (and I mean that literally).

The language was rich and beautiful. I have never read the words pell mell being used in a book before and I've done a lot of reading in my time! Neil Gaiman, the book's author has an incredible knack for throwing rare words into commonplace sentences and making them fit. Case in point the moment where he describes the ululating yowl of a cat (for those of you like me, who might have to go and look that one up it means a wail or howl).

The story is simple, Coraline is spending a summer in a new home with her parents: an apartment in a large, old building with even larger grounds outside. Bored, alone and practically ignored by her home working parents she discovers another world behind a secret door. This other world is a mirror image of her own and it offers her everything she could wish for: loving parents, neighbours who actually pronounce her name correctly and more excitement than she can handle.

But is all that worth the price she'll have to pay?

The story is very much a tale of a girl whose wandering into another world forces her to grow up. Anyone out there who has seen the brilliant film 'Spirited Away' will see a nearly identical theme. It struck a chord with me instantly and I know that come the end of the year Coraline will be one of the hardest books for me to forget.

Now I think I actually need to watch the movie and see if it will be anywhere near as good!

Book number 23 of my 52 book list and a book that became a film.

Book title: Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman
Published: 2002
Pages: 192
Suitable for: children aged 9 and up
Interesting words: exposition, nefarious, ululating (prize for the most unusual word used in a children's book there!)