It's my life.

I didn't make the cut again. Like the first time I tried the challenge, this time it just petered off, especially once I had in my head that I had to catch up. Oh well, I want to keep writing the blog now and then, even if I never complete the challenge.

It would be criminal for me not to blog about my latest completed read. It's definitely not for children but strangely it talks a lot about them.

I was twelve years old when this novel first entered my life, not long afterwards a TV mini series adaptation followed. One which my sister is still scared of to this day, the poor thing was only nine when she saw it and lucky for her, she never read the book. 

Cut to 27 years later and I'm in the cinema at age 39 going on 40, watching the second film in a two film series, which retells the story. It was a film I ended up going to see no fewer than 4 times in the cinema. I went first with my boyfriend, then with my son, then with one of my best friends, who is a guy, lastly I went with another of my best friends (lady this time). 

On only one occasion, I managed to hold it together and not cry myself into a headache (sorry Alan, I was trying to play it cool and mellow in front of you). 

On the other three cinema trips as the story was ending I felt the tears free falling and the breath in my lungs start to catch, as if the little reserves of oxygen in them were being stored for later use. I can remember, especially when sitting next to my son as the soft music played and the characters gave their final grace to the screen, hitching my breath in short gasps, fighting to suck the air in as the crying kept going. 

What does this have to do with the book you wonder? Well I shall get to that point now. 

In my life I have read this novel (all one thousand, one hundred n odd pages of it) about three times. I feel, although I hope I'm wrong, that having just finished it this morning whilst lying in bed with the sun beginning to glow through the curtains, this will be the last time I do. 

After all, it's a massive book and there's lots of other books in the world to read. It would almost be a waste to pick it up and spend my mornings reading it again.

But what is it about this novel that led me on the path to such a connection? Is it the length? Definitely not. Reading it this time around I am stunned into wondering how the hell I got through it at the age of twelve. 

I tried to let my sons read it in their early teens and they both quickly grew bored of it. Something about seeing a behemoth of a book is instantly off putting to the eye. It becomes like a marathon that you struggle to complete. Looks like I might never get to finishing Tolstoy's War and Peace (haha). 

There are definitely some sections of this book that, while adding to the story, are easily cut out. There is filler, useful filler my boyfriend calls it, but to me it's filler just the same. There are separate horror stories within the horror story, each one on its own could be told as a novella, or a short piece. And the final climactic apocalypse of the town at the end (spoiler alert) is well written but bloody long! By its end you find yourself weary of death and destruction and devastation (the three d's). 

Is it the writing style that hooked me and reeled me in? Possibly. It definitely played a part. I've always been in awe of the author. He has a God given gift of being able to combine beautiful, extensive vocabulary with short succinct sentences and powerful use of imagery that leaves me spellbound. 

I remember his use of the term 'gunmetal gray' once when describing a sky and now you find it in every other cheap thriller novel you come across. However, I was pleasantly surprised when rereading this to see that it was less his use of short sentences that impressed me, actually he had a fair few sentences of epic length, with brackets and commas and all manner of punctuation thrown in to keep them rolling along. No it was his use of pace that really stood out, the long and short sentence structures fell into a free flowing stream of words that I found addictive and easy to swallow. 

The real grab though was in the characters and their stories, the woman who marries a man that is an echo of her father, the man bent on revenge who feels guilt when he doesn't deserve it. The unrequited lover who still carries a torch where his heart burns like January embers. Or the custodian, confined to a life of poverty pain and memory, largely because of his roots and the colour of his skin. 

I related to these characters, I felt their journeys and empathised with them. And as their stories wound together I joined right in with them. I shared in their joy and sorrow. I felt their fear and heartache. Their stories were so well told that I found myself believing in every single one, no matter how far fetched it was. 

Having finished it this morning, with a real pang of pain in my chest I know now what lies at the heart of my deep obsession with this story. 

Have you ever had a moment in your life where you stop, look around you and right in that second, you realise that it will never happen to you again? 

When I have those moments, which I have done over the years, I can remember a feeling of salvation, because I live and love that moment, safe in the knowledge that it won't be repeated so I need to make the best of it. 

But it's mixed with sadness, especially once the moment is over, because all that will be left is a memory and as my mind ages, my memory will fade. 

That is the essence of this novel, the lesson it's ultimately trying to teach you, enjoy those moments and live them while you can, because once they are done, no matter how strong they are and how much they sit in your memory they, like most things in life, will start to fade. 

This message is spectacularly captured in a scene towards the end of the book. A scene where seven children form a circle, holding hands dripping with blood from where they have sliced their own palms (these days its known as a blood pact and frankly its dangerous for so many reasons - not something that kids or anyone should do). They stand huddled together on the grass by a stream as the sun starts to dither in the west. One of the children recalls the moment as he's living it. He calls to mind the whippoorwill nearby and feels like flying with it. 

Deep down, as the group's leader he savours every second of that circle, when it breaks and the children finally part ways he is the last to leave. He even waits, watching the sun set and the stars appear in the sky because in his heart he knows it is the last time he will have been with all 6 of his best friends, the last time they will have been a lucky 7. 

I've bookmarked that passage. Because it is right there, if I have to go back, if I chose to let nostalgia have its way with me, it's there I will look to. 

I am clear and certain now, that it was that same feeling I had myself when watching the film adaptation on the big screen. I cried when watching it with my boyfriend because I knew, it would be the last new experience of this story. I was slightly wrong there. There is so much of the book I didn't remember that it has felt like a new and yet oddly familiar experience reading it in my forties. 

I cried my eyes out when I watched it with my best friend (who couldn't understand what I was crying for). I cried that time because sitting next to her, that feeling of knowing an ending was the very same feeling I got when I first asked to stay at hers, that very first night I had walked away from a 22 year old relationship. 

All that feeling of ending, knowing it was over was too much pain to keep bottled in. 

But I cried the most when I watched it with my seventeen year old son. I cried because he'd seen the first half with me three years earlier. Yes I let him go in when he was only 14 and I don't regret my decision to share it with him.

After all, my uncle and parents shared the book with me when I was two years younger than that. 

So having my son sitting there next to me watching the film culminate in a bitter sweet ending, knowing that he was practically an adult, that his years of depending on mummy were over and seeing the young man he'd become meant one thing: this would probably be the last time he'd go to the pictures with his mother. 

So I cried, actually more like bawlled. The same way I cried when I saw him onto his bus home before going to get mine in another direction. The same way I'm crying my eyes out now as I'm sat typing this at half 9 on a Sunday morning while the rest of the world sleeps. 

It's good crying though, it's a release, tears that while full of sadness at the thought of letting go, are eased by the following thought of what life is all about, moving, letting go, it's all perfectly natural and in a wonderfully comforting way these tears are a symbol that I am human, with feelings as well as thoughts. Right now I feel at peace, sad but contented at the same time. 

That is how It leaves you, lamenting but perfectly at ease with it. And that is why it has had such a profound affect on me, because I can not only enjoy it, but I can wholly understand that feeling. 

It's grief, this book teaches you about grief, and I'm thankful for it. Because I sincerely believe that it has helped me to cope with letting go. 

The end.  

On a side note, having just spoken to my son, I was reminded that It Chapter 2 was not our last venture to the cinema together. We went to see another emotional mother son movie 3 months later. Clearly my forgetting that, or rather, that it happened afterwards is fairly ironic! 

A Blog Full of Goodness

I've looked at my list, by now I should have read and reviewed 31 books. When I checked this morning my current number was only 24. So, in a bit of a panic I looked at my available resources. What could suit for a quick and easy read? That is when I remembered this.

Recently I was invited to read this book to a year 4 class. The challenge was to get through the whole book inside of a week. Sadly I failed, we just couldn't dedicate enough time to reading all of the 360 plus pages.

But I thoroughly enjoyed going through the BFG journey with the children, having loved the first film adaptation (which was brilliantly voiced by David Jason) and knowing they'd all loved the more recent Spielberg/Rylance version.

The BFG has a massive universal appeal; a recent article from the BBC claimed that the BFG was the second most popular Roald Dahl book in the world, being surpassed by that very famous book about a poor boy and a chocolate factory. 

For those who have not encountered the story, it centres on a little girl (Sophie) is snatched from her place at a grotty orphanage by a very large giant who takes her back to his own world. There she is made to see the incredible job he does, catching dreams and mixing them together to create the perfect dream for a child, which he feeds to children via a large, trumpet looking device. 

There is also the issue of the bigger, bullying giants who eat children like hors d'ouevres. Sophie can not stand to see the injustice, and helps to concoct a plan to save human children and put away the other giants for good. 

The wonderful thing about this story is the dialogue, particularly from the BFG. Mr Dahl managed to play with and create new words in a way that no other author has done before or since. The only other author to come close was the late, great Spike Milligan. There is something about the way the word wangdoodle or vermicious knit that rolls pleasantly off the tongue and sticks in the head. Dahl's use of made up words and command of language allowed him to easily blend in complex vocabulary. It is a rare thing to see the word perpendicular used in informal story writing! 

The downside of the book is that there is a lot of filler, there are several scenes that feel like they don't really need to be there, such as (and I hate to say it) the whizpopping scene at the table (which actually sounds like a bit of a But in defence of that it was written and published at a time when attention spans were a little greater and stories could afford a little less of a rapid pace. 

The story itself is ingenious, a very original plot with charming characters that you feel for. I've since seen Sophie's origin story provide the setting for characters in more than a dozen modern stories. Recently I read a David Walliams book which had a girl who was almost an exact replica of Sophie. Such has been Roald Dahl's profound impact on the following generations. Whilst the themes and some of the scenes are a little too dark for younger children, the overall flavour of the book makes it ideal for children aged around 8 and upwards, especially advanced readers who can read the book independently. 

I conducted my own little survey, asking friends and family what their top 5 Roald Dahl books were, I was amazed to see how many different books came into the lists. Here, by popular vote, were the top five: 

1) Matilda

2)The Twits

3) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/The Twits/The Witches

4)Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

5)The Witches

Whilst the BFG didn't make the popular vote, it didn't miss out by much. It came one vote behind the 1st and 2nd place titles. This is book 25 of my 52 and my book that was turned into a movie (twice). I'm off to go have me some whizpopping fizzy drink. 

Book Title: The Bfg
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Quentin Blake
First published: 1982
Number of Pages: 360
Suitable for: children aged 8 and upwards
Interesting words: grotesque, duty, trussed, efficiently, petrified, reverse, colossal, shemozzle (yes its a real word), errand, perpendicular 

* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37336976

Don't...ever...fall asleep.

So I've slipped again, after catching up with 5 out of the 7 books I needed to read and having read a 6th, I was on a proper roll.

But then came the return to a ludicrous pace in work and with that, a blog post that never happened, until now. 

With Halloween fast approaching and the leaves on the trees morphing through their colours as they slowly wither and die this seems the perfect time for a return to something scary. 

I happened across this as a suggested read from my local online library and with a tag line like that I was thrown back into the days of my adolescence, where nursery rhymes were sung in horror movies for dramatic effect.

The plot is about a group of kids on a school residential in a place called Crater Lake, so named because a body of water had built up inside of an impact crater. Once there things start to happen, horrible, terrible things that defy explanation.

Our main protagonist must lead a small group of survivors to a possible means of escape before confronting the nightmare that has taken over the lake. But not before the group make some unsettling discoveries about themselves and each other.

The writing feels very basic, as though the author really wanted us to feel like we were in the shoes of the main character. That turns out to be quite a good thing too as the book is written in the first person. 

For a book that is written so simply there is a surprising range of vocabulary in there. On the surface we are made to feel like we're reading a book fit for 8 year olds, but the appearance is a deception as some of the vocabulary would be challenging for younger children.

At 252 pages it moves at quite a fast pace, I was able to plough through it in a single afternoon.. The chapters are short so it never feels like a hike from one chapter to the next and the characters are very vivid, which is where the book really shines. There is one teacher featured who I'm pretty sure exists in every single school! And she's the scariest thing ever! 😂

The book has more of a Sci fi vybe than a horror one, but that doesn't stop it from having moments of tension that make your hair stand on end. 

This is book 24 out of 52 and my scary book. 

Book Title: Crater Lake

Author: Jennifer Killick

First Published: 2020

Number of pages: 252

Suitable for: children aged 9 and up

Interesting words: Hallucinating, Pesky, 

Vendetta, Jurisdiction, Pheremone, Simeltaneously, Emerge, Aesthetically

Hybrids, Imbecile, Reverberating 

My Childhood

How did you learn to read growing up? I remember how I learnt to read, it's probably one of the happiest memories from my childhood. My parents used to buy me this series of magazines that came with tapes. They were called Storyteller and the idea was that you read along in the magazine whilst hearing the tapes with the stories featured on them. You would follow along with the voice as they read the story/poem etc and pick up the intonation, the expression and all the rest. 

It is the reason that I was a fan of none other than Richard Briers as a primary school child (not many children were at the age of 8, but he did a cracking rendition of the Wind in the Willows). It is also the reason that the story for this week has been special to me my whole life. 

This story featured on one of the storyteller tapes. It centres on a boy with no parents and no name, who lives on the outskirts of a little village. He has a special stone which he uses to go fishing, for some mystical reason that he can't fathom, he only has to drop it into bit of water and if there are fish around, they are drawn to it. Because of this little trick though, and because they do not know him, the villagers are jealous and he has no friends. His life is spent feeling very lonely. 

This book is only 16 pages long, has no stand out complex use of language or breath taking plot devices, it is fairy simplistic and there is nothing that should stand it out. So why then is it so important to me that I would spend years searching and spend £20 (more than I've ever spent on any other book in my life) in order to get it? 

Simple, empathy. 

All my life I have felt like I've never fitted in, even when I've been part of a group I have also felt like the one on the outside of it. I would play the perfect 'third wheel'. I suppose I have just adapted to it over time. Would it surprise you to read that I have felt this way since the tender age of 8? 

Reading this story, hearing it read for the first time I remember connecting instantly to the main character. The boy with no name, invisible: alone. Ask anyone I know, they'll tell you, it is something I have struggled with all my life. But there's more than that, I think to an extent we all feel alone at times. Loneliness is the enemy, something we despise in spite of the fact that for us to grow, we must learn to be comfortable in being on our own.

At the age of 8 this book sent me a clear message, I will feel alone, but there is always hope that one day I will find a place where I belong. A place where I am accepted and loved for who I am and not just what I can do or bring to the table. But before I do that, I must first accept myself, I must stand up and acknowledge where I'm wrong, rejoice in where I've done right and be at peace with who I am. 

Why this massive journey of self discovery now? I found this book yesterday having thought it lost for nearly 2 years. I can honestly not describe how happy I was to find it once again. Two posts back I talked about being a fatalist, that things were meant for me at certain times in my life. If ever there was something to prove it, it was the discovery and rediscovery of this book. 

Book 23 of my 52 book list and a book from my childhood. 

Here's a link to a youtube video of the story in it's Storyteller format. 

The Fishing Stone Youtube

Book Title: The Fishing Stone
Author: Chaz Brenchley
Illustrator:  Graham K. Griffiths
Published: 1988
Suitable for: children aged 5 and up
Interesting words: huddled, compare, bulging

A Mid September's Moment of Madness

 On to my 4th post inside of a two week window. I'm certainly catching up, though I'm less confident with weekend plans looming that I'll catch up entirely. I can't complain now though, it will all be about how much I'm able to balance my life after this. It will be a challenge but I know in my heart if I apply myself, it can be done. 

I've chosen an easy book this time, after my last post I found myself mentally exhausted by the sheer depth of the text. So this time I've stretched the rules to allow for an all time favourite of mine. 

I've covered Shakespeare a couple of times in previous blog posts on account of the fact that I believe not enough is done to get primary school children into his legendary writing. This series of books is a classic example. I see tonnes of them in schools, but they very rarely get used. In fact, the copy I've just read is in pristine condition, which tells me it's never been touched. 

It would've been my mission (it might still be, covid allowing) to host an assembly, where we can act out a modern day retelling of this story. I even managed to cross theme it with Love Island, because frankly the story lends itself to that kind of 'blind date' she loves him/he loves someone else kind of theme. 

The story tells of 4 people in Athens who are caught in the most bizarre form of love square so to speak. Hermia loves Lysander but she's supposed to marry Demetrius (arranged marriage style). Helena loves Demetrius but he doesn't love her back. In fact he doesn't really love anyone. Out of pride Demetrius refuses to give up on marrying Hermia, so she and Lysander plan to run away through the nearby forest to freedom and a life together. 

Hermia's mistake is in telling Helena this, and Helena's mistake is in thinking that if she tells Demetrius, he'll be so heartbroken that he'll take her instead. And that is what leads to total carnage! 

Throw in a quarrell between the queen and the king of fairies (who I was once cast as due to my very masculine deep sounding voice) and  a man donkey and you have a recipe for a misadventure of epic proportions! 

Written by Andrew Matthews and beautifully illustrated by the renowned Tony Ross, this adaptation is wonderfully short, a mere 58 pages from start to finish. There are handy notes on the back about Shakespeare himself and his famous Globe Theatre (brilliantly described as a cross between a doughnut and a 50 pence piece). The language is easy to read but still throws in the occasional challenging word to keep readers on their toes. This book would be ideal for children from the age of 7 upwards. So why isn't it being used? 

I honestly don't know the answer to that one. Maybe the perception of Shakespeare today is outdated. Maybe we need to stop thinking that his works are only relatable to adults. At the end of the day children are shown things like Love Island at young ages (much to my chagrin). Why not expose them to more intelligent works of art that were once intended for grown ups? 

These adaptations are a brilliant way of introducing the legend to children so that, by the time they come to study him in high school (which is still pretty much compulsory) they are used to the themes and intricately woven plotlines. 

It is my dream to see my primary school and others, fully embracing the literary classics, hopefully one day that dream will come true. 

Book 22 out of 52 and my (adaptation of a) book that is over 100 years old. 

Title: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Author: Andrew Matthews (adapted from the work of William Shakespeare) 
Illustrator: Tony Ross
First published: 2001 (this adaptation anyway!) 
Suitable for:  children aged 7 and upwards
Interesting words: haughtily, accursed, idleness, mischievously, quarrelled

Too Close To The Bone

This is the first time where I feel like my abilities at both reading and writing will be put to the test. It is the first post I'll be writing not as an amateur blogger, but as a wannabe author. I am a fatalist, I get a thrill out of thinking that some things in my life happen because life meant them to: at that precise moment, at that precise point, for a reason. Like the two part Stephen King film franchise that culminated last year in me sharing the experience of my favourite horror story with my son, my partner and two of my closest friends... …all separately (yes that's right, I went to the cinema 4 times to watch the same film). 

My favourite horror story, one I discovered at the same age my son did. One that linked me to both my Godfather and real father very closely. How fitting that it ended the same year my Dad passed. 

Or how about this story? The one I've read this week? The one that has been sitting in my room for 3 years and just so happens to have been published in the year that my father and I had the biggest falling out ever. I refused to speak to him, even though at the time I knew he was terminally ill. We patched up our differences after a few months. And just when I felt we were rekindling something of a real father/daughter relationship, illness stole life from him and a father from me. What does that have to do with this week's story? Pretty much everything. I'll get to it shortly. 

I can recall picking up this book in a Waterstones. It was a 'treat me' day, go figure. I saw it at the top of the table, I love the way they put out piles of books face up on tables so you constantly get glimpses of lovely and intriguing covers. It's like going back in time to when I was at the pick n mix section before I worried about how contaminated the sweets might be. 

First time around, back in 2017 I tried it, but my heart wasn't in it. What did I know about losing a loved one or the grief? Frankly, knowing my Dad was ill meant that death wasn't something I wanted to think about. But neither did he. They say when people battle a terminal illness, that a battle is exactly what it is, but my Dad didn't battle it so much as run from it. He ran from it because he was scared, he was scared of dying. And though there have been times in my life where I've dwelt on death maybe a little more than I should, there's always one thing that keeps me grounded: I'm terrified of dying too. 

I count myself as fairly religious, but what if I'm wrong? What if death is it, just a cessation of life? If you're not ready to ask yourself those questions then do yourself a favour, don't pick up this book. Or better yet, do pick up this book and confront those fears, ask yourself those questions and start digging to the roots of your beliefs. 

The Land of Neverendings starts, as so many modern books do, with the death of a close family member. This time however, it is not the usual mother or father parlour trick, it just happens to be the older, disabled sister of the main character Emily. In the first chapter we are faced with the startling hammer blow of Holly's passing and the author paints it in such a way, that we know we are feeling real experience. 

"Emily had grown up saying 'My sister is disabled', and now she had to get used to saying 'My sister is dead.' " 

There it is, in one sentence you realise just how stark the change in poor Emily's life is. 

Just the level of Holly's physical needs (she has a special hospital bed in her room, a wheelchair and breathing apparatus) gives her character an extra dimension. As Emily attempts to come to terms with Holly's absence in her world, there is a real bag of mixed emotions. We see unparalleled grief and sadness mixed with an odd sort of liberation. At the end of the book for example we see that Emily is lead in the high school play, whilst she is sad that Holly isn't around, she is also happy that for the first time both her mother and father can attend, as in the past, one of them would have had to have stayed home to look after Holly. It is this mixed bag of emotions and thoughts that really struck a chord with me as I read it. 

The book is peppered with sprigs of beautiful language, most of which come out of the mouth of the character Ruth, an old lady who befriends Emily when her mum asks Ruth to babysit so she can go back out to work. Mum, who had been used to being at home when Holly was alive can no longer cope with being in an empty house for days on end. Something tells me Ruth would've made an excellent librarian. Instead she owns a second hand antiques shop, which is where a lot of the story takes place. 

For the first time ever, I won't give you a summary of the plot, because it's all about Emily's journey through the grieving cycle. The adventures she has are merely symptomatic of the real issue. This is where it resonated with me on such a personal level that I could swear I feel an echo right behind my ribcage! 

The climax of the story comes when we realise what Emily was really struggling with, she didn't get to say goodbye. It dwells on death, making us see the uncomfortable realities of different people's coping strategies. It covers the fear we all have of our loved ones fading from our memory. The way they sounded, the way they smelt, all those little nuances and bits that made them uniquely them. The bits we start to see vanishing after they leave us behind. It even leaves us with a message of hope at the end of the story, that the ones who go are gone are never forgotten. 

For a children's book, there are a few grown up references to be found. There's a piece on page 100 that will set the adults giggling which features inappropriate graffiti drawn on toys. And one reference to that self same adult horror novel with a red balloon that I clearly cannot name in this blog for the obvious reason that people will think I'm mad (see, it was meant for me). 

But the biggest impact it's had is that it's resonated with me on two major interlinked themes, loss and change. It feels like I've had a plaster ripped off a gaping wound that was only just starting to dry. Like Emily, I feel I was unable to get the chance to say goodbye. She even laments about the last time she saw Holly, wondering what would she have done if she'd known it would be the last time. I've had those exact same thoughts. 

The other theme, which for me is just as important, is the theme of general life changes. The first year of  high school can be a real struggle for children. Emily just so happens to be in that year, with a friend who she'd known all her primary school years who suddenly becomes a stranger to her. Part of that is about Holly's death, another part is just down to the social scene changing. It can hurt when a friend that you knew inside and out (or one you thought you knew) suddenly veers down a different path to yours. I'm in my forties and those experiences still happen to me so I know that from experience. In fact I felt much the same as Emily did through the early stages of this book in that regard. 

I was meant to pick up this book, not before my Dad's death, nor straight after; I was meant to pick it up now, when I had the solitary time to really digest it. To be able to reflect and think and share my feelings on it without holding back or worrying what people might think. 

It is probably why this post has taken me the best part of the day to write, and no matter what, to me it will probably be one of the best things I have ever written. 

Book 21 of my 52 book list and my book with an appealing cover.

Book Title: The Land of Neverendings
Author: Kate Saunders
Published: 2017
Suitable for: children 10 and upwards (due to certain phrases that might be inappropriate for younger readers) 
Interesting words: snide, beserk, threadbare, cavorting, deluge, mesmerising, mania, festooned, bonkers, rigmarole, disconcertingly, jauntily

Hope is rising

I'm not gonna lie here, I've suddenly tapped into a well of hope. Two books read in a matter of days, with seven more disposable days where I've only got me, myself and I for company. I'm now not only seeing a possible chance to catch up but potentially a chance to even get ahead! I think before I give myself eye strain of some kind I best bring my feet back to the ground.

Still I'm enjoying my new found enthusiasm and I can at least know that from here on out I've given it every acailable try, so no matter what the outcome, I've thrown everything at it from here on out. 

I stumbled across this when I desperately raided Liverpool's online library service. I literally did a sweep of children's books searching for an author who wasn't English. Believe it our not a great many of the children's literature works at the moment are by British authors. Anyway, I checked out the author, who is American with Mexican and Spanish roots and I thought, 'that counts'. The cover looked fairly interesting and at a grand total of 262 pages it really didn't feel like much of a challenge. That was me sold. 

The writing in this story is deceptively innocent, though the story is written in the omniscient third person, we are always seeing the story from the lead character's perspective, so the writing mirrors her youthful childishness. It is a complete ruse though, the complex language delicately placed in the text is like the gold thread carefully woven into a plain blanket. Of the books I've read this year it is the single biggest contributor in terms of words that can be discussed, looked up and interpreted. However, the youthful nature of the writing means that the complex words do not dominate, children as young as 7 could easily enjoy this book and get a lot out of it. So for that it already gets major kudos. 

The story starts a little generically, Esperanza, our lead character suffers a horrendous tragedy when one of her closest family members is killed (spoiler there). I'm going to create a separate post about this topic actually. My last post references the subject very briefly, but I need to have a more in depth rant and analysis of the topic of death in literature very soon. 

Anyway, coming back to Esperanza rising, the wonderfully different thing in this story is that, while important to her and all the characters around her, the death of her family member only serves as a footnote in the plot of the story. Her troubles start with the death but go on from there quite quickly. 

It tells the story of her families escape to America at the start of the 30's with their troubles in Mexico meaning they need to leave their lives behind with all haste.

It then centres on their lives in California's San Joaquin valley, working for a camp picking and growing various fruits and vegetables throughout a calendar year. The struggles of immigration, the great depression, the loss of everything that was once considered important, the real value of family and health, these are all major themes in the story. 

Esperanza and her family go from rich landowners to as poor as it gets and in the end it is their family of servants who they come to depend on as they adjust to life as Americans. One interesting historical topic that is covered here is the involuntary migration and 'repatriation' of Mexican people back to Mexico. Due to certain laws being passed at the end of the 20's officials in bordering American states were allowed to literally sweep up anyone who looked Mexican and throw them back across the border, whether they were born in Mexico or not. Many American citizens who had been born and raised in the US were suddenly sent to Mexico to live simply because of the colour of their skin. 

The estimates of people sent back were between half a million and a million people. They thought it would help solve the unemployment caused by the great depression, they were dead wrong. 

Funny how NINETY YEARS later, the real problem of financial disparity between the social classes is still the root of most of the world's injustices. 

It's like rich and poor are on opposite sides of a river, and that river seems to be widening to the extent where we can't even see each other. 

I've learned a lot from this book, I feel I really underestimated it in the first instance. I know the old adage of not judging a book by it's cover. I wonder if maybe I judged it simply because it had the big red Scholastic print on the front. Serves me right, I have definitely learnt something new or relearnt something I'd forgotten (HAHA). 

Book 20 of my 52 list and my book by an author from another country. On to the next book! 

Book Title: Esperanza Rising
Author: Pam Munoz Ryan
First published: 2000
Number of pages: 262 
Suitable for: children aged 7 and over. 
Interesting words: premonition, serenaded, congregate, capricious, monotonous, stagnant, bereft, recuperation, despondent, cacophony.

Down but not out yet.

 You could easily be forgiven for thinking that, what with me not having posted since the 4th of August and already being a week in arrears, I'd given up on the challenge for the second time. In fact, that was exactly my line of thought up until yesterday. I'd spent my summer, a grand total of 5 weeks off no less, having days out and days in, primarily spending as much time as possible with my loved ones. With the fear of the return to schools' new normals and the very dark cloud of future lockdown hovering in the distance, I sought to spend as much time as possible being active and enjoying myself: as a result I hardly engaged in the solitary act of reading at all. 

Every time I picked up a book and tried, there was always some sort of happy distraction. Like a magpie, I followed it as though it were a shiny trinket. I am not ashamed to say that reading was at the bottom of my list of priorities. With that came the grim responsibility in the September weeks that I might never be able to catch up with the posting to get back on track. Isn't it funny how life works? 

Isn't it also funny what two weeks of being stuck in a single room, unable to go out and interact with people at all, can do for you? 

I have had this book since it was first released in 2017. I'd been sauntering through my local Waterstones, looking to spend some hard earned vouchers when I came across it on one of their brightly displayed fiction tables. The fuss over it seemed to be big, it had an interesting cover and a good concept: I was sold. 

Three years (and all the stuff that came with it) later and I still hadn't sat down to read it. That was what I started to do in August. At a fairly harmless 240 pages it seemed like I'd get through it in no time, that was my big mistake. 

The story of Wed Wabbit centres on Fidge (why do main characters always have eccentric first names?) Fidge has a little toddler aged sister called Minnie, who is always lumbered with her beloved trop of teddies and toys. The most important of these is her Wed Wabbit, so called because Minnie can't yet pronounce the letter 'r'. Fidge hates Wed Wabbit and treats him and her own family members quite coldly at the start of the book (I won't tell you why... ...spoilers). But a devastating accident, caused partly by Fidge's irresponsible actions leads Minnie into hospital and Fidge into Minnie's make believe world of the Wimbley Woos. 

Fidge arrives in this sudden make believe land with her cousin Graham who has a phobia of just about everything. With the help of Graham's transitional object and Ella the talking elephant, they must save the land of the Wimbleys by confronting a certain fluffy tyrant with floppy ears. 

I found the characters of Fidge and Graham to be incredibly well rounded. There's a paragraph at the beginning where we see Fidge unable to return a hug from her own mother and in her inaction we see a heartbreaking element of her personality. Graham's fear of everything is the very real symbol of a culture of over diagnosis and 'wrapping children in cotton wool'. How he copes with it is the author's comment on the real world and how it should deal with the issue of sheltered children. 

The backstory was not so strong and I think that's what made the story hard to stick to. The cause of the breakdown in Fidge's relationship with her own family members has been written in many modern books before. I didn't feel for Fidge's, or Minnie's plight. It sounds harsh of me to say but I'm coming across a running theme in around two thirds of the stories I'm reading geared for children aged 8 - 14. 

It's the same thing almost every time and it's become the acceptable reason for any character's deep and unending struggle. I'll be writing a separate post about it at some stage as it's beginning to be a real bug bear. 

On the whole though, the writing style saved the story, I very nearly made this a blog post about the first book I read but didn't finish. But I'm pleased to say that having proper free time to myself and the perseverance to match the characters in this story, that I got it finished this morning. 

Here's hoping I can catch up and finish this challenge! Expect a flurry of posts as I get into some serious reading! 

Book 19 of my 52 books and I book that I owned, but up till now, never read. 

Title: Wed Wabbit 

Author: Lisa Evans 

First Published: 2017 

Pages: 242 

Suitable for: children 8 and upwards 

Interesting words: swivelled, clenched, requirement, appalling, pallid, listlessly, monochrome

When all else fails, look up.

I'm still a week behind, I should be worried; instead I'm almost waiting for worry or stress to hit me over the head and cause me to panic. Right now I'm feeling nothing, not even a single shred of anxiety. Clearly I've known bigger stresses between the last time I wrote this blog and this time. 

One of the biggest stresses for me with reading children's books has been reading them for work. Ask anyone who deals with reading children's books as part of their profession, the joy of reading can sometimes be swallowed in the politic of keeping up with the joneses so to speak. I am a member of no fewer than 6 social media groups which track and discuss the latest children's literature. There is so much out there it can drown you if you're not careful. 

However, they have their good points, without a Facebook group that I follow I would never have come across this year's Waterstones Children's Book of the Year. 

Written by Nathan Bryon and illustrated by Dapa Adeola it talks about Rocket, an avid stargazer who's brother is more interested in looking at his phone than in looking up in wonder at the great wide universe above him. When Rocket learns there is going to be a meteor shower, she goes out of her way to arrange a gathering in the local park in order to see it.She's almost reading to give up on her dream of seeing the beautiful meteors when something incredible happens, and her brother learns the true value of interacting with people in person, rather than through a phone screen. 

There are beautiful facts interlaced into the story via Rocket's speech which is a nice touch. That and the fact that the story is all told from her perspective makes us really empathise with her and feel her sorrow as well as her exhilaration. 

It's a very simple story, nothing too fancy, the illustrations are basic too, but full of vibrant colour. The language is full of technical terms that relate to the subject mater, but aside from that there's no real challenge: making this an ideal text for children in reception and year 1. 

It's the heartwarming story at the centre of it though that really grabs the reader and leaves you with a feel good glow at the end as well as sending a message out to young children that frankly is in dire need of heeding: the message that its okay not to live your life through technology. I consider it fairly ironic that I read my copy through an online library lend! 

This is book 18 of my 52 book list and my award winning book. 

Book Title: Look Up! 
Author: Nathan Bryan
Illustrator: Dapa Adeola
Number of pages: 32
First published: 2019 
Suitable for: children aged 4 and up 
Interesting words: telescope, astronaut, defied, exotic

All things Elementary

Sherlock Holmes, he's one of the most legendary characters in the history of fiction. As far as I'm concerned his singular brilliance and emotional deficiencies render him instantly relatable, as you get to know him more he becomes even likeable. 

My current blog post is being typed with the soothing background noise of Johnny Lee Miller performing his own interpretation of the fabled Holmes, he's currently giving his trademark dour look which is one of the things a I really love about this 'Elementary' version. 

My all time favourite adaptation however, has got to be BBC's Sherlock, which catapulted Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman into Hollywood careers. Frankly though, anything Holmes related tends to peak my interest. I've read several adaptations of the fabled Conan Doyle serials as well as the originals. The obvious conclusion to all this random information? I am a massive Sherlock Holmes fan! 

In this week's post I have delved into my favourite Holmes tale: The Hound of the Baskervilles. But to add something fresh to the read (as I've read and reviewed Holmes before in the last blog) I've taken on a graphic novel adaptation from Usborne. 

It tells the story of The Baskerville family, who are stalked by an ancient curse, the ghostly hound who hunts and frightens family members to death. Cutting quite a complex, long story short, when Henry Baskerville, the last in the family line, travels to Baskerville Hall to claim his inheritance; Sherlock and Watson are recruited to assist and protect him. In an odd turn of events, Sherlock does not go with them, so Watson becomes in essence, Henry's bodyguard, as well as having to investigate the mystery of the last Baskerville death, that of Sir Charles, who was scared to death by the hound. 

With an exhaustive list of potential suspects and pressure mounting, Watson tracks the events leading up to Sir Charles' death whilst at the same time, trying to keep Henry from suffering the same fate as his uncle. But will Watson be out of his depth? Will Sherlock intervene? What will happen to Henry in the end? 

The comic book/graphic novel format makes for a quick and easy read which is helpful considering there is a lot going on in the story. There are several smaller plots going on within the main plot, I'd imagine that was largely down to the serialised original which would have survived on cliffhangers and layers of story. 

The writing style is simple and graceful, as are the illustrations, bolder, primary colours are made to stand out against more neutral browns and sepia tones. For example, one image of the interior of the main hall shows walls of sepia and gray, so the flowers in vases in the background really stand out in shades of vibrant red and yellow. 

The language retains its formality but is simplified so we are not faced with lengthy Victorian vocabulary. The story itself is brilliance, full of twists that keep it racing to it's conclusion. It comes as no surprise to me to discover (as part of the non-fiction section in the back of the book) that it is the most successful Sherlock Holmes story of all time, this in spite of the fact that it was written after  Conan Doyle had killed off the Sherlock character. 

So great was the mourning for this fictional detective that people wore black armbands as a sign of their grief! 

At the time the story was published, it had to be made clear to the reading public that it was set some time before Holmes' death, so as to ensure that there would be no revival of the character. However, so great was the outcry that in the years that followed, he was revived anyway. 

There is a beautiful section after the story which tells us more about Arthur Conan Doyle and the history of the story itself. It is a beautiful bonus, informative and thorough. It adds a finishing touch to the book that feels very much like the cherry on the cake. 

I struggled a little with the order the text was presented in, often having to go back to bubbles to re read them in the correct sequence. But I'll be honest, that says more about my limited grasp of graphic novels than of any wrong doing on the part of the book's creators. 

It is very hard for me to comment on the main characters as my opinion would be clouded by my immense respect and admiration for them and the various interpretations of them. The background characters though are moderately developed, maybe a little on the flat side but because they serve to smooth over the plots progress. If I have one issue, it is that there may be too many characters, the Baskervilles, Stapletons, Barrowmans and Mortimer to name but a few. If the reader is not paying close enough attention the names and characters can convolute the story and lead them to become confused. 

Aside from that it is a very well made interpretation which is ideal for readers who can handle the context. Anyone really who is over the age of 8 will love this version, its great for introducing a whole new generation to the legend that is Sherlock Holmes. Well played Usborne, well played. 

Book 17 of 52 and my graphic novel. 

Title: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Author: Russell Punter
Illustrator: Andrea Da Rold
Number of pages: 104
First published: 2018 
Suitable for: children aged 8 and upwards
Interesting words: moor, steadfast, inheritance, biographer

Grumpy Gangsta Girlie

So once again I've let things go where instead of blogging last week and this week I've wound up doing two blog posts in the same couple of days. I'm in such a chilled state of mind about it though that I'm actually really enjoying the lack of pressure. 

This review is the first of two, the second of which will arrive tomorrow or Thursday. I've been deliberately been putting this one off as I just couldn't bring myself to finish the book in question until yesterday. 

Now, before we go any further let me just say for the record that at no point, do I resent David Walliams as a celebrity or a person. He's worked a hard graft and earned his place as a British trademark. My problem lies in the fact that his books, in my opinion, really aren't all that good. They are certainly not of a standard where I would say he's Roald Dahl's successor. If this recent book I've read is anything to go by, they don't even come close. Where Roald Dahl invented new crazy language and wove it in as a part of a well crafted story, Walliams just drops nonsense words in as comic book style effects and devices to serve overly crude toilet humour. Where the darkness of Dahl's tone attracted adults and children alike, Walliams casually threw in subtle adult jokes such as 'pull the other one, it's got bells on' which was uncomfortably plonked in the middle of this book for no real reason or rhyme what so ever. 

Where Dahl accentuated his characters by providing depth and backgrounds Walliams relies on generic 'fat, whimsical' women to do the majority of his charm adding (both in this book and in Demon Dentist).

So it outrages me to think that he's making millions off of what I think it ridiculously poor writing when other, hard working authors who are so much better are scrounging a living and not getting any real recognition in what is one of the most cut throat industries in existence: children's literature. 

Truth be told there is a lot wrong with the system. For example deals made between supermarkets and publishers are done with the idea in mind that supermarkets can make a profit by bulk selling books at low prices. So when these deals are arranged, of course, places would rather buy large quantities of a brand name such as JK Rowling than take a risk on a lesser known author. Cough, cough, that's probably why Phillip Pullman's books are still doing so well. But this means that the only cheap books that families can afford are ones like Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, David Walliams books etc, we've all seen them on the shelves at Tesco. 

Worst of all Walliams has opened a celebrity door, allowing people who are not authors to saturate the market. I still baulk at the fact that we are now getting books about horses from Clare Balding (sorry Clare I should probably try and give it more of a chance). So I feel a lot of resentment towards those who are milking a celebrity status to create sub par material at the expense of people far more qualified in the role. It would be like Boris Johnson getting paid mega bucks to do my job when he had no bloomin clue how to do it and then going out of the way to see me get paid less than my already ridiculously low wage. 

On to the book review now after that long rant (haha). Ice Monster is set in Victorian England where orphan Elsie escapes the tortured life at her orphanage and winds up on the streets. She becomes fixated with the Natural History Museum and forms an unlikely friendship with Dotty, one of it's cleaners who is as dotty as her name suggests (yes she's the token fat chick). One day a woolly mammoth, still frozen in a large block of ice arrives at the museum. There's a huge grand opening of the mammoth exhibit in front of Queen Victoria and everything. Fascinated by the creature, Elsie and Dotty form a plan to resurrect it and return it to the North Pole where it belongs. With the help of Dotty's boyfriend, Titch (token short man) and his fellow Chelsea pensioners they steal an old battleship and a race between the heroes and the villains (an unscrupulous scientist and seasoned poacher) ensues. 

My problem from the get go with this book was in the inferior character and plot development. I didn't really sympathise with Elsie's predicament because there was nothing in the writing that made me really feel like she was a character at all. The characters and their situations were very flat, there was no real depth or development. I was so un-enchanted with it that I was able to easily put the book down right in the middle of a climactic chase scene,a piece of text which should have had me engrossed and unable to put the book down. 

All of the criticisms in my rant earlier featured in this book, which wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't come across the exact same issues in Demon Dentist (which I'd read two years ago). There's no real extended vocabulary, it's almost like the effort is non existent. The little non fiction section about mammoths and Victorian England is a nice touch, as is the use of interesting chapter titles here and there but that's about it.

There were far too many fart and bottom jokes and an absurd amount of illustrations and comic book style onomatopoeic words that swallowed entire pages. All in all, it was a huge disappointment, I feel like the author is riding on the coat tails of Quentin Blake style illustrations in order to enhance the Dahl-esque comparisons.  

I know there are celebrities out there who can write half decent books. The two books by actors that I read back in 2018 were two very good examples. But there are those who just aren't very good. For me, until I can read something that proves me wrong, I will always believe that David Walliams is one of them. 

Book 16 out of 52 and my book by someone who is not, was not and never will be an author. 

Book Title: Ice Monster
Author: David Walliams
Illustrator: Tony Ross
First published: 2018
Number of pages: 482
Suitable for: children ages 7 and up
Interesting words: audacious, wielding, ignorant, looming                  

There once was a time...

I am going to issue a warning with this post, the following opinions are my personal ones, they don't reflect the institution that hired me or the general world of education at large: they are mine, feel free to challenge them if you wish. 

Recently I heard someone say that because children aren't talking at home with their parents anymore, it is now the responsibility of schools to get children talking and discussing. There's even a name for it; oracy. What once was something that existed as an innate part of human nature and interaction, now has to be taught like an acquired skill. From that follows reading. Statistics have recently shown that as little as a quarter of children read for pleasure at all. When you take into account the fact that we are now looking at building reading stamina (i.e. a child's ability to focus for longer than a few moments) the general facts about reading and communication are looking woefully grim. 

I often feel like engaging children to read is like being a salmon floating upstream (in my head I can hear Jason Stathom from those wonderful Kit Kat ads telling me I am not a salmon). I'm one of a billion things vying for children's attention and time. Much like the magpie, the average child is being confronted with shiny toys, mobile phones, tablets, instant gratification falling into their lap. And the overall sense that from everyone everywhere, reading always takes a back seat so long as targets are basically reached. It's no wonder I get home tired and feeling disparaged some days. 

Now I'm not all doom and gloom, in my time I have met plenty of good parents out there. So it's not as bad as the media likes to paint it. However, I look at children's books today and think 'they're all written with one aim, to engage, grip and entertain the reader'. Even bog standard home reading books are bright and alluring, with interesting subject matter and cliffhangers and beautiful illustrations. Which makes this next book in my blog series a complete throwback to a time when home reading was just done because it had to be. 

I've been searching for ages for a book with my name in having thought that the last time it happened was such a coincidence, it was practically kismet. Whilst going through old home reading and library books I came across this unbelievable anomaly and thought I was quids in... ...until I had to read it today. I mean no offence at all to the author, but the plot is so straight forward I could practically walk off the edge of it. 

Sarah (who in the illustrations is wonderfully shown to be gender neutral) has an issue with her walk to school in that she has to pass the big neighbour's dog. Every time she does, the dog barks, making her afraid. Now, with only 16 pages of story, about 10 of which are just introducing the setting and extra characters such as Sarah's mum, you would be forgiven for hoping that she would conquer her fears and do something about the dog. 

Yeah that doesn't happen, instead one day the neighbours move away, taking the dog with them . So the moral of the story is that if you ignore something for long enough, it'll go away. A true inspiration to someone like me who values facing fears and confronting obstacles head on. My do I wish you could hear the dripping sarcasm in my tone as these words fly on to the screen. 

This book is a glaring reminder that once upon a time books didn't have to try. Children read them because the general recognised understanding was that they had to. There was no devaluing reading as something that isn't necessary. It mattered and was appreciated as a key to unlock learning. Much as I talk like those years were of my childhood this book proves that it wasn't all that long ago: after all it's only 23 years old. But how sad is it that the world has gone from this in it's simplicity to 'wham, bam' in your face books that have to demand your attention?

This book is book 15 of my 52 book list and a book with a character with my name. I'm off to go and ignore the growing illiteracy problem, hopefully it'll go away. 

Book Title: Sarah and the Barking Dog

Author: Jenny Giles

Illustrator: Priscilla Cutter

First published: 1997

Pages: 16

Suitable for: any child above the age of 4 who can confidently read

Interesting words: rattled, shaking (that's your lot) 

A reread and return to rule bending

Right, let me begin by asking you all if you've ever read an epic poem. Have you? I know I haven't. According to one online site an epic poem is "...An epic poem is a long, narrative poem that is usually about heroic deeds and events that are significant to the culture of the poet. Many ancient writers used epic poetry to tell tales of intense adventures and heroic feats."*

Epic poetry was orginally performed orally before eventually being written down, famous examples of this being Homer's 'The Illiad' and John Milton's 'Paradise Lost'.

Now, another question. How many of you know of children's versions of epic poems? Before you scramble to give me a list of ones you might know, try thinking of ones that retell these epic poems in modern day verse.

Yeah, I'll bet that one's got most of you stumped.

My challenge when dealing with this particular book was to find an epic poem for children. There was no point in trying to do this one half heartedly. Now Beowulf, for example, has several versions that were written for children. One of which was written by Michael Morpurgo no less. However, the problem with these versions is that they are all written as stories, which for me lessens the impact of the poem itself, making it a simple story rather than an epic piece of children's poetry.

Enter Beowulf the Brave!

I had an absolute nightmare the last time I did this challenge in finding the right book. Then a chance trip to The Norton Priory Museum, famous for it's ruins of the 12th Century Abbey, uncovered a copy of this brilliant book. There was just one problem, it was not a copy for sale, there were no sale copies available and despite the fact that I cleverly noted the title and author; I could not obtain a free, or even reasonably priced version of this book at all.

I first encountered this book in June 2018, but it wasn't until October of the same year that I finally managed to get a a copy for my birthday. It had to come imported all the way from Australia!!!
So I read it for my challenge that year, I won't deny I was a bit heartbroken that my blog post on it achieved the lowest number of views for any of my blog posts. It felt like a total disappointment after my long and thorough struggle (I even wrote that blog post in rhyming couplets - such was my dedication).

Fast forward 2 years and guess what? There still aren't any children's versions of epic poems that are written in the rhyming style, let alone any other kind of verse. So here I am promoting this book once again and rereading it as there simply aren't any other books that come close to completing this particular part of my challenge.

Written by Oakley Graham and first published in 2012 it retells the story of Beowulf, hero turned king who battles two nasty monsters and a dragon. Set in Scandinavia in the 6th century it follows Beowulf's three great battles and his journey to becoming king of the Geats before meeting his eventual demise at the hands of a dragon, who (fortunately for his people) he kills first.

The original epic poem dates back as far as 975 bc (according to wikipedia)** and is over 3100 lines long! Now there's no way a children's retelling is going to be nearly half that length so what the author has done in this version is cleverly retell this story in as few verses as possible without making the language overly simplistic.

There is some wonderful vocabulary in this poem, words such as slain and lair are easily slotted in to passages with more modern phrases such as 'end all the drama'. The rhythm is beautifully smooth, written in rhyming couplets with even beats all the way through. The illustrations are gorgeous in their simplicity, so as not to distract too much from the real power of the story which lies in the pace of the text.

If you're expecting to really dig deep into the characters' backstories then this isn't really the version for you. It dispenses with that in order to keep the poem short and sweet. It has a lovely little note at the end which tells the history of the original for those that want to know.

At 22 pages long it really is quick to get through, but perhaps it's most charming asset is that, in the illustrations Beowulf's character is portrayed by a little boy. At the end the last verses and illustrations show us that this little boy has been told the story of Beowulf by his father, who ruffles his son's hair as his son drifts happily off to sleep. I found that little extra touch very endearing.

So I will continue to push this book in spite of the fact that it's ridiculously hard to obtain. Frankly it's worth it, I'm just gutted there aren't more like it out there. Maybe I should take on a children's version of 'The Illiad' (haha)!

Book 14 of my 52 book list and my epic poem (written smugly two days ahead of my deadline).
Here's my original blog from two years ago:
https://themrsreads.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-poem-of-epic-proportions.html

Book Title: Beowulf the Brave

Author: Graham Oakley

Illustrator: Emi Ordas

First Published 2012

Pages: 22

Suitable for: Children aged 4 and upwards

Interesting words: brawl, hideous, slain, knave

*https://study.com/academy/lesson/epic-poetry-definition-heroes-stories.html

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf

Rules are meant for bending

So I missed my weekly deadline, which should've been last Tuesday (it's now Sunday). But I'm really not caring, not one little jot, because by this Tuesday I know I will have caught up. I recall what I was like the last time I did this challenge, the focus was solely on ensuring that the blog posts were exactly on time and that one book was read every single week exactly. The pressure was absolutely incredible. Imagine struggling to read 400 pages of text whilst getting a 9-5 job done and coming home to two kids and a house to run. People might think it's just a case of organising time more effectively. But to those people I would say 'step in my shoes for five flamin minutes'.

That being said, I know I can be a bit of a procrastinator, I don't hide from that.

I will beat about the proverbial bush until the bush is completely knackered. Then beat about it some more until I finally take action. So I know there were times when I could've done better. The important thing this time around is not to carry the pressure, which I'm fair in saying is the thing that killed my challenge off last time (pressure and an insane book about philosophy that simply couldn't be read in a single week).

So, I've learned to be a bit more clever with my days this time, that and not to worry: it isn't the end of the world if I miss one deadline. I'll make the next one.
So this is the first of two posts, the next is due, as normal, on Tuesday. For these next two I've turned my attention to younger books.

This is Not My Hat is written and illustrated by Jon Klassen and is a very simplistic story of a little fish who steals a hat from a VERY BIG fish. This story is brilliant with it's sense of humour, which is subtle and transcends the age ranges. I've seen children as young as three stare with wide eyed wonder and yet my son, who is in his teens was commenting the other day on how funny he used to find a particular joke in it.

The book works by telling a story with words and a different story entirely with the illustrations. It leads to a climactic confrontation which has to be interpreted by use of the imagination. The children are left to guess at the fate of the little fish by the end. Guaranteed there is always that one child who, when I try and invite discussion as to his fate, always shouts out at the top of their voice 'he's dead!'
It happens every... ...single... ...time.

The language isn't totally diverse in range, but is expertly placed, one example being the repeated use of the word 'probably' which adds to the casual nature of the textual story, 'he probably won't wake up, he probably won't know where I've gone'. In contrast, the very concrete story told by the pictures has the reader thinking 'definitely', 'he's definitely awake, he definitely knows where you've gone'. There is also a very strong rhythm to the wording, this in spite of the fact that there's no rhyme or other discernible pattern: this contributes to an easy, flowing read through of the text. Something that shows up most in a passage where the little fish talks about where he's going to hide out.

My favourite scene is one where the little fish is convinced that the tiny crab he's passed won't rat him out, which is hotly followed by the crab blatantly pointing out where he's swam off to. With just a simple drawing of the crab (in particular his eyes) you find yourself laughing at how much the crab has given away.

It was once said of the Gromit character (from the popular Wallace and Gromit series) that the genius was in getting his eyes to do all the acting and show expression without doing much. The same can be said of the characters in this book, which is what makes them lovable and amusing.

There is also an interesting discussion starter in Klassen's use of the word 'stole'. The little fish didn't take the hat, to use that word would have been far less harmful and more p.c. But no, the word stole is used, which gets the children talking about whether or not it was right for the little fish to steal, after all, the hat fits him far better than the big fish, so why shouldn't he just steal it for himself?

I laughed out loud the first time I read it, and to this day, it still raises a smile out of all those I know who've come across it.

Book 13 of my 52 and my funny book.

Book Title: This is not my Hat 

Author: Jon Klassen 

Illustrator: Jon Klassen 

First published: 2012 

Number of Pages: 32 

Suitable for: children aged 3 and up 

Interesting words: probably, stole.

There's really no place like home

I've always wanted to use this title for a blog post. I always thought I knew and appreciated what home was. But my life this year and last has seen my view of home undergo a cataclysmic shift. And while it has taught me a lot about that I was previously clueless about, it's also taught me a little humility, which is always a good thing.

The topic of this post - banned books - has been a joy to research. At first I thought I'd really struggle, I kept harking back to the book I'd used in the last challenge two years ago and thinking 'I'm never going to be able to find another banned children's book'... ...I clearly wasn't looking hard enough last time.

It turns out that, particularly in America (sorry to my good friends across the pond) there were a lot of children's books banned or challenged over the past hundred years. 'And Tango Makes Three' was banned for promoting guy fostering, 'Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone' for promoting witch craft and paganism, but my all time favourite, which literally had me choking on my morning cup of coffee, was Where's Wally (or Waldo in the States) being banned and then subsequently reprinted to edit out a particular scene where a woman on a beach poses topless and you can see (yep you guessed it) a boob which would probably be no bigger than the round bit in this letter  'b'. I have to ask who was searching that hard for Wally that he found that? Who ever it was needs to be applauded for having the worlds sharpest eyesight!

Whilst traipsing through the seemingly endless list of harmless children's books that members of the public found offensive at some point or other, I noticed this gem of a novel in there.

If you're anything like me you see the title of this book and you instinctively see a rosy cheeked, fresh faced young Judy Garland clutching little Toto in her arms and sporting those fabulous ruby slippers (which in the book are actually silver). Such has been the enthusiasm with which we've embraced the story, we have seen it spawn a variety of films and even it's own 'spin off' style musical 'Wicked' which flips the original tale on it's head somewhat.

Imagine my complete shock then when I discovered that it was banned for several reasons more than once because it was claimed it had "no value" for children and brought children's minds to a "cowardly level"*. One group of families in a southern American state petitioned (actually sued) for it to be stripped from their children's curriculum because it promoted women as strong role models and witches as good people. Don't witches have feelings too?

I was honestly flabbergasted, how can a book with such saccharine sweetness be at the heart of so much controversy? Well of course I had to read it to find out.

Written by L. Frank Baum and first published in 1900 it starts with a young girl, Dorothy who lives in the middle of Kansas with her aunt and uncle. The life there is grey and routine, until a cyclone whisks her and her dog Toto, house and all off to a magical world bursting with colour! The world of Oz has four regions, north, south, east and west (these regions being under the rule of the four great witches) but at it's heart is the magical emerald city, ruled over by the great and terrible wizard of Oz.

With Dorothy unable to get back home to her aunt and uncle, she is told to see what the wizard can do, thus begins the perilous journey to the emerald city and beyond, where there is bad witch smiting, good witch bonding and a wizard who's really nothing more than a gifted illusionist - or in laymen's terms a con artist.

The chapters are fairly small, I think the longest is only about 20 or so pages, which makes them easy to get through as each chapter always feels like a rounded little mini story in it's own right. The pace is fairly slow, the don't make it to the emerald city till about half way in the story and by that point, you've enjoyed a story all on its own.

The vocab is definitely of it's time, with the more complex formal words being casually dropped in as if they were a part of the every day conversational language, which - if I could describe the entire tone of the text in one word - would be the exact word I'd use: conversational. I felt like I was being told a story rather than reading one and I was easily able to envision myself sat by the fireplace with granddad in a rocking chair regaling us all in this wonderful story of friendship and hope (yep, maybe my mind is working overtime).

Characters are lovable and well rounded without too much distracting backstory or drama added to them. But the real stroke of genius is in how well the story ties up at the end, it's like a neat little Christmas or birthday present wrapped perfectly and topped with the most beautiful bow! And at the very end, when Dorothy finally gets home and sees her aunt for the first time there's no frills, no fuss, just a simple, heart warming exclamation that she's glad to be home.

The whole book is an exercise in youthful innocence, even the more violent bits seem prudishly written. So I am more surprised than ever that people could have found it so offensive to their sensibilities. Its no coincidence in my book that these harsh judgements have come from people decades later, who can't see the book as a product of its time or enjoy it at face value, they're finding subtext that isn't really there, which begs the question: have we as a society become more picky and overly sensitive over the years?

I won't voice my full opinions here, that would take far too long!

Book 12 of my 52 and a book that was once banned.

Book Title: The  Wonderful Wizard of Oz 

Author: L. Frank Baum 

First Published: 1900  Number of Pages: 272 Suitable for: children aged 9 and up (year 4) 

Interesting words: reproachful, trodden, assemblage, yonder, vexation, deprive, earnestly. 

*wikipedia page, quote taken from Detroit Director of libraries who banned it in 1957.