The Flatness of Stanley

Another slight cop out this week. In fairness there is a solid reason for it. I'm currently deep into a massive novel at the moment which I will be blogging about when I get it finished. It is a book weeks in the reading, not because of it's length so much as it's very deep philosophical content. It is less like a book and more like a series of life lessons. And for me life lessons aren't learnt in an hour or two: they take time and patience to digest.

But with that book swallowing most of my available time this week it was no surprise when I woke up this morning realising once again that I wasn't blog ready. So I spouted my favourite catch phrase:
"to the library!"

I ventured to the public library in town and whilst there picked up a few choice books, including this one.

The Flat Stanley series is well known to me having been recommended by several in-the-know people who've claimed that it's an excellent starter for independent readers. One that stimulates children without overly taxing them.
I can't say that I entirely agree but then I'll be the first person to hold my hands up and say that books for 5-8 year olds aren't my forte. Anyway, since I hadn't read anything suited to that age range for a while I thought, what the hey? It's simple, not too long and an easy read; which meant more time to dive back into my more challenging text! A win win win!

This series is about Stanley, a boy who in a previous  (his first) adventure was flattened like a pancake. Being no thicker than a sheet of paper he can use his new found thinness and flexibility to do all sorts of amazing things.

In this particular story his younger brother Arthur wins a contest run by his favourite cereal company to go to Australia for a visit. Both Arthur and Stanley go off on an adventure, leaving their poor parents behind and going with the head of the cereal company and his assistants. Whilst on the flight the charming company head guy tells them of the time he lost his brother in the outback, who he never saw again.

So Arthur and Stanley get out to Australia and have a grand old time until disaster strikes and Stanley gets lost thousands of miles from anywhere in the middle of the outback. What follows is an adventure with a pleasantly warm surprise ending.

The language is not at all challenging or complex and at only 112 pages it really is a quick and easy read. The illustrations are all in black and white which is quite nice. It is clearly a book for children who are just leaving the home reading books behind. Those lovely emerging readers who can be any age from 4-8.

I wouldn't recommend it for older children unless they are still learning to read. Even then it might seem a bit tame for them.

Otherwise, it's a quaint little read and I can see why it appeals to children (girls and boys) of that age group.

With brief descriptions of Ayers Rock, the Sydney Opera House and the outback it does do a little to set the scene but don't go expecting a massive history of the country or detailed explanation of the culture out there. Still though, it's set in a country I've never been to and I'll take that happily as one of my reading missions!

You'd think with this being the half term I'd have taken on a bigger challenge but oh well! I'll save that for next week!

This is book 43 out of my 52 book list and a book set in a country I've never been to.

Title: Flat Stanley and The Australian Boomerang Bonanza
Author: Josh Greenhut
Illustrator: Jeff Brown
Pages: 112
Published: 2015
Suitable for: children aged 4-8
Interesting words: trudged, trekked, bulletin, thawed, bustling

The answer is elementary

So this week was far easier, mainly because I'd read most of this book last week! A great head start if ever there was one. It was much needed. This week has been manic and frankly I'm relieved to see the start of the school holidays!

So what did I indulge in? The answer is a case of simple deduction. Which famous fictional sleuth has been responsible for over 25,000 Holmes-related productions and products* (by the way the clue is in the name)? Why, it is none other than the legendary Sherlock Holmes.

Originally written in a serialised format for the Strand Magazine in 1887; the no nonsense, slightly off centred, sociopathic Sherlock was an instant hit. Adored by thousands of readers almost as much as his more human fictional counterpart John Watson. The stories have had an influence on most modern detective stories to date not the least of which was one Hercule Poirot.

Of course, the adaptations have been many. One of my favourites being 'Without a Clue' - an underrated gem of an 80's film starring Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine where Sherlock is a half wit actor playing a role created by Watson, the real genius.

 Another being the hugely popular recent Sherlock series created by Steven Moffatt and Mark Gattis. This series puts the action in the modern day and features incredible performances from Martin Freeman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott.

Even the address that he was supposed to live at - 221b Baker Street - didn't exist until popularity with the general public forced council members to create a space for it on the street itself. Imagine that, a whole address created because of the fame of one single character.
So the book I've been reading contains a series of short stories that have been collected together in one 'short story book' format.

Cases include 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' (quite possibly my favourite one), 'The Musgrave Ritual' and 'Silver Blaze'. Each story is between 25 and 40 pages long, which is ideal when you want to read something quick and fairly easy to get through. The language hasn't been totally changed, which can often happen with updates and newer adaptations. This allows for a beautifully rich variety of vocabulary.
In my mind it would be ideal for children aged 9 and over who are looking for something stimulating and challenging, there's no real content that would bother them (it's not graphic or gross) but they'd need to be fluent readers with a good grasp of language.
At an overall length of around 290 pages (this including the excellent introduction and additional supporting activities at the end) it was actually a fairly easy and very enjoyable read.
Right, now I'm off to go and find me deerstalker!

Book 42 of my 52 book list and my book of short stories.

*quote taken from Wikipedia.

Title: The Extraordinary Cases of Sherlock Holmes.
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Published: *this edition 1988*
Pages: 290
Suitable for: fluent readers aged 9 and up who need a challenge.
Interesting words: sinister, tremor, distorted, elaborate.

Zoo Troubles

This is my confession, this week's entry is a total cop out. I've literally just rush written this after pulling the book off of my son's shelf and reading it NOT TEN MINUTES AGO. How funny that, as I sit here typing furiously to get this done before midnight - whilst listening to my family's hamster running full pelt across the living room floor - the first picture I open this book on is an image of a miserable looking hamster in a cage.
More fitting still is the subject of this book, given that my recent weeks have been completely dominated by a massive project that I've undertaken with the local zoo (one of the best zoos if not THE best zoo in the country I think).

Anyway, I had been desperately trying to work my way through a much thicker text today after not being able to devote time to reading this week (shame on me). But it got to around quarter to eleven before I thought I needed a rethink.
So I plucked this off of the shelf and just so happened to notice it had won an award. The Kate Greenway Medal, given out in recognition of outstanding illustration. It is well deserved. After all how can you argue with a book that allows it's climactic scene to be wordless with an illustration as devastatingly detailed as this?

The book follows a typical family of four, mum, dad, two brothers on a day out to the zoo. Told from the perspective of the older brother it takes us through the events of the day.
But the illustrations coupled with certain choice words and phrases cause us to examine things from an upside down perspective as we start to ask who the real animals are. From the outset there are illustrations that make us quesiton the people, like the man in the ticket office with a meerkat snarl. Or the picture of dad with the perfectly placed bull horn clouds behind him further on.

The animals in their enclosures look completely despondent, forcing us to wonder if the zoo is the best place for them. But quite possibly the most pressing question we're forced to ponder is the one where we ask (after listening to the children moan about being hungry and saying that their favourite bits had nothing to do with actually seeing animals) who does the zoo really benefit? Not the children clearly from the message that this book is sending. Not the parents either who are hard pushed to pay the entrance fee let alone all the extras that come with it. And certainly not the poor animals who are being gawped at whilst shut in their closed spaces. 

While I'm not sure I agree with some of the messages that this book gives out, I do like the fact that it makes you stop and consider. In fact by the time you read the last lines of the book you come away with a feeling of being unsettled. 

"That night I had a very strange dream." says the little boy, as we are made to look at him sitting, head in his knees with sorrow in a room behind bars. "Do you think animals have dreams?" 

At 24 pages it is hardly an arduous read, the language is very basic but gets away with that due to the perspective it's coming from and the fact that the illustrations do a lot of speaking of their own. There are clever moments in the book though. One in particular where Dad cracks a joke and it's followed by the beautiful honest irony of the son's response "Everyone laughed except Mum and Harry and me." 

I've been in Dad's shoes! The only one laughing at my own jokes! 

I'd recommend it to anyone from nursery up as it's a beautiful easy read. 

Book 41 of my 52 book list and my award winning book. Aptly timed but an honest cop out as it was such an obvious and easy choice! 

Book Title: Zoo
Author: Anthony Browne
Illustrator: Anthony Browne
Pages: 24
Published:1992
Suitable for: any child aged 3 and up
Interesting words: embarrassing, starving, interesting, remind

A Poem of Epic Proportions!

A few months ago I began a great journey,
a mission from which nothing could disturb me.
It was an adventure of epic proportion,
my goals were quite clear, there would be no distortion.

My challenge was one book a week to be read
and to save people thinking it was in my head
I had to post one weekly blog of review,
only when I could scrounge a moment or two.

Each book was to fit a topic proposed
and each single week a challenge was posed.
But the single most challenging hill by a mile
was that all of these books must be fit for a child.

Now I won't tell a lie, some books were quite easy,
at first the whole mission did nothing but please me.
But as time wore on and the topics grew stranger
I discovered I could be in terrible danger

of giving it all up and calling it quits
because forcing time was a struggle to fit.
Though struggle I did and most books overcome
until I then found the most difficult one!

One of the topics was an epic poem.
'That's easy' I thought, though I did not know them.
My husband was quick to teach me a lesson.
"An epic poem my dear is no less than

a poem that can be the length of a play.
It's not something you can just read in a day."
I asked for examples, of which he found four
by Homer and Milton and viking folklore.

I sighed with dejection, so hard was the task.
"Where do I find the kids' versions?" I asked.

Then one sunny day in the middle of June
I turned up a book that made my heart swoon.
Inside a museum there perched on a shelf
was a copy of Beowulf sat all by itself!

The problem I faced was that I couldn't buy it
and for four more months I scrambled to find it.
For what was it's dual single blessing and curse?
It was the sole kids version written in VERSE!

Roll round to October and something so pleasant
I received a copy as a birthday present!
Sent from my sister who's not one to fail ya
she got the book in all the way from Australia!

A beautiful picture book, vibrant and bold,
which starts as a bedtime story that's told
by a Dad to his son as he drifts off to sleep
with stories left deep in his mind there to keep.

And lo and behold the young boy takes centre
of his father's stories through which he did enter.
The stories of Beowulf the strong, big and brave
who fells two great monsters (one while in her cave)!

He then goes to battle a fiery dragon
and says to his people "don't worry I'll have him."
Although he wins an incredible fight
he tragically dies  of a poisonous bite.

The pictures are detailed, the language sublime,
the vocab quite tough to fit into a rhyme.
Though fit the words do, the author should be proud
as this book is a pure joy to read through out loud.

So thanks Oakley Graham for a job well done.
For kids' epic poems yours is the sole one.
And I didn't quite realise until tonight
how hard epic poetry can be to write!

Now here is my effort, a one not too tawdry,
on my year long book list this book is book 40!!!!!

Book Title: Beowulf the Brave
Author: Graham Oakley
Illustrator: Emi Ordas
Pages: 22
Suitable for: Children aged 4 and upwards
Interesting words: brawl, hideous, slain, knave