The Places You Will Go

Picture Book of the Month: Tickle, Tickle

December 2004

Tickle, Tickle

By Dakari Hru

Publisher: Bloomsbury

I fell in love with this book the moment I read the opening lines: "Me papa tickle me feet, he call it finger treat" and saw the adorable picture of a pair of chubby baby-feet being lovingly tickled! I assume the rhymes are written in Rastafarian pidgen English - my husband says it sounds like a less complicated version of the way Bob Marley spoke! Here, it certainly gives the lines a lovely gentle and earthy rhythm: "He tickle me tummy, me chest, me arm, his fingers fly so wild/ He say, 'Come here, little man. You my ticklin' chile." Actually, it gives me shivers because the love for a daddy for his little boy is so apparent in the words. As for the pictures of the happy, excited babe and his loving dad, they just make me smile: I can look at them over and over again. Read this to your kids and after the last line, launch your tickle-attack!!!! 

A Short Break

I won't be blogging for a few days as my best friend will be in town from today until 3rd January and we are going to be busy painting the town red ... or maybe a nice warm fuschia.

In the meantime, here is a photo of my two boys, pictured with my bookshelves when they were all in a mess, pre-move.

Aren't they sweet?

See you next year!

Where, Oh, Where Is ...

Subtext Whore? I popped in this morning and found this "abandoned" notice. Oh, boo hoo. Boo hoo hoo.

Books for Christmas

I've had a very quiet Christmas. And, amazingly, I did not overeat. I usually spend Christmas with my sisters and/or with my aunts in Penang, and there's always so much good food just waiting to be scoffed.

This year, Christmas was spent with Martin's parents and sister and we had a simple lunch and a little more elaborate dinner, but there weren't trays of cookies and great slabs of cake lying all over the place. This was probably a good thing as both my obstetrician and I are watching my weight. Still, it was weird.

Greetings!

Happy Christmas everyone!

I'm posting this week's poem a day early for obvious reasons. It doesn't reflect the way I feel about the holiday, but I think it's meaningful if you see Christmas as a religious celebration.

Continue reading Greetings.

Anna is a Wish Come True

We had a little pre-Christmas party on Saturday and I received one of the items on my wishlist!

The giver and I were trying to figure out whether the picture on the cover was of a woman's breasts or bottom when one of the guys presents peeked over my shoulder and said: "Those are knees!" which just shows that it's entirely possible for girls to have filthier brains than guys. Or maybe it's just that, as we don't spend time looking at it, we are less familiar with the female form .... ;-)

Short and Sweet

I thought I'd risk hate mail from radical Christians and post this jaunty verse by my favourite poet.

Give Me Women, Wine and Snuff
Give me women, wine and snuff
Until I cry out "Hold, enough!"
You may do so sans objection
Til the day of resurrection:
For, bless my beard, they aye shall be
My beloved Trinity.

John Keats

Christmas Wish List

Just in case you want to get me a Christmas present but don't have a clue what I want, here are some ideas :-)

Cheap stuff:
Cadbury chocolate bar - hazel or whole nut
A box of 2B pencils
A large slice of Secret Recipe's carrot cake
A Denise Robbins romance novel

Expensive Stuff (Books mostly):
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
The Quantocks Quartet by Ruth Elwin Harris
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden
The Master by Colm Toibin
 The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldon, illustrated by Axel Scheffler
J. Otto Seibold's pop-up Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland pop-up edited by Robert Sabuda
Murkmere by Patricia Elliott
A digital camera ;-)
A book voucher
Cash with which to pay bills and taxes
Gym membership

Happy Shopping! :-)

P.S. You can send me your wishlist if you like.

The Film of the Book

In his latest post Do Android Books Dream of Electric Movies Eyeris (or Mike the Man) talks about movie adaptations of books and whether it's best to read the books before watching the movies.

He thinks reading should definitely come first and I agree with him. Having said that, I think I'd have enjoyed The Lord of the Rings movies more if I'd not read the books first. As it is, I still haven't forgiven Peter Jackson for his depiction of ... well, lots of things. And I'm not even a big fan of Tolkien!

Mike is, however, right to say that reading allows you to come up with your own vision of a story, and at least I can cling on to my own idea of LOTR and not be haunted forevermore by the image of  village idiots when I think of Pippin and Merry, or heaving breasts when I picture Arwen.

Anyway, I thought I'd list my favourite movie/TV adaptations of books. Do write and tell me yours.

Breakfast at Tiffany's
Starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard
It's only very superficially like the book (by Truman Capote) and I can't forgive Mickey Rooney, with eye make-up, being passed off as Japanese, but it has its own charm; Hepburn sparkles as usual; and I love the scene in which she sings Moon River. Henry Mancini got that right anyway!

The Death of a Heart
Starring Patricia Hodge and Nigel Havers
An extremely faithful and perfectly cast TV adaptation of Elizabeth Bowen's novel, The Death of the Heart. The characters look and the scenes play out exactly how I imagine when I read the book.

Pride and Prejudice
Starring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul
I preferred this TV adaptation to the 90s one that starred Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. For a start, David Rintoul  is much more convincing as Darcy.

All the President's Men
Starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford
The book, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, put me to sleep, but maybe being 10 when I tried to read it didn't help. Loved the movie though. It's the only film in which I think Dustin Hoffman looks sexy. And it's so funny, in this day of being expected to tape all one's interviews, to see journalists being asked if they're written down quotes. Their response: "Yes! I got everything down, almost verbatim!" is hilarious (to me).

The Joy Luck Club
Starring Ming Na Wen
I enjoyed the movie as much as I love the book. The ending in both versions always makes me cry.

Sophie's Choice
Starring Meryl Streep
I was traumatised by the book and the movie, but Streep is just so good in it. I think it's her best ever performance, but I can't watch it ever again as it depresses me too much.

Gigi
Starring Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan
The movie (based on the novella by Colette) is one of my Top 5 favourite musicals of all time. Martin thinks it's a bit dodgy considering how the hero Gaston is pulling Gigi's pigtails one minute and wanting to bed her the next, not to mention the fact that she's being groomed by her aunt to be a courtesan! I just think it's very romantic. I love the songs and the way Gaston redeems himself in the end.

I can't think of anymore right now (this is Day 3 of a real killer of a migraine), but I will mention one of the worst TV adaptations I have ever seen. It's the 1983 TV series of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. This is my least favourite Austen anyway as I find Fanny Price tiresome, but the actor who plays her makes her seem much worse. Dim  is the word that springs to mind! The1999 movie also got her totally wrong.

P.S. Thursday, December 16
Flambards!!! I so loved this mini-series, but Martin remembers it as tacky (His description: "It's abt this young girl who goes to live with relatives and she's the only female for miles around so all the guys fall in love with her even though she's ugly.") so I need to watch it again, just to be certain. I remember it being very true to the KM Peyton novels, which I adore, especially Edge of the Cloud. (The other books are Flambards, Flambards in Summer and Flambards Divided.)

Mini Review: Juniper, Gentian and Rosemary

Title: Juniper, Gentian and Rosemary

Author: Pamela Dean

Publisher: Tor

Where You Bought This Book: I ordered it, through Bookfinder.com, from an independent American book seller.

Main Characters:

1. Gentian

2. Her sisters, Juniper and Rosemary

3. Their parents

4. Gentian’s best friends

5. Dominic, the boy-next-door

What It’s All About:

As I’ve said before, I’m not sure. The book is pretty plotless, but basically it’s about Gentian and her sisters coping with a very odd new neighbour, Dominic. He’s handsome and speaks in quotes, and he lives at an address the post office insist doesn’t exist.

Dominic wants the three sisters to help him build a time machine but this doesn’t happen til the end of the book. In fact, nothing much happens until the last four or so chapters. Before that, it’s all Gentian and various other characters discussing literature or science or feminism. This makes the book rather unbelievable seeing that she is 13.

What happens finally is quite devastating and you wish Pamela Dean had got to it earlier.

What I like About It:

1. It’s not believable that modern-day 13-year-old girls should spend so much time discussing poetry and feminism, but I did enjoy the conversations Gentian has with her best friends.

2. The poetry that’s supposed to be written by Becky, Gentian’s favourite best friend.

3. The bits which describe the planets and stars Gentian looks at with her telescope.

What I Dislike About It:

There’s nothing I actually dislike. I actually like books that are full of rambling conversations, where nothing much happens, but I guess I wasn’t expecting it of a children’s book, and a fantasy ones at that!

Other Books I’ve Read by the Same Author:

I haven’t, but now I want to.

If You Like the Sound of this Book, You should also Check out these Titles:

1. Katherine Mansfield’s short stories.

2. A World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen.

3. The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones. This one also features sisters and a beautiful boy. 

Name of Reviewer: Daphne Lee