Old Pals Revisited

Tots to Teens, Star Mag

6th August 2006

Old pals revisited

TOTS TO TEENS
By DAPHNE LEE

I’M currently re-reading The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg. Or rather, I re-read it last week and I am now doing so yet again, at a slower pace, with a 14-year-old whom I’m tutoring.   

We read one to two chapters every time we meet and I then set comprehension, personal response and vocabulary exercises based on those chapters. He says it’s a funny (ha-ha) book. I like the way I’m getting to know the story and the characters really well. 

When you know a book intimately it becomes like an old friend. You look forward to revisiting it like you do spending time with a good chum.   

Reading a new book is like meeting someone new. You have to figure it out, get used to the author’s style, decide whether you feel comfortable with it and if you would want to read it again. 

Casual acquaintances are like those books you read once, think are just OK, consider recommending to a friend who might like the plot, but will never re-read youself. And, yes, there are books you fling aside in disgust after three pages. They are like the people you hate on sight; but, like these people, giving them a second chance will occasionally (very occasionally) pleasantly surprise you. 

Old friends are the best. They are comfortable and comforting. You can relax with them because you know exactly what to expect. 

I’m in a place right now where I just want to re-read all my old favourites.   

The thought of brilliant new novels from up-and-coming authors makes me tired. It might have something to do with really needing a holiday – I tend not to read anything that takes too much effort (including anything new, unless it’s a really frivolous romance) whilst on holiday. 

It may also be something to do with hardly ever thinking that any new novel is as brilliant as the back-cover blurb, publicity write-ups or reviews suggest. Yes, there have been children’s books, published this year, that I have really liked but they are far outnumbered by mediocre rubbish. 

I am looking forward to reading a number of new books, though. Two on the top of my list at the moment are Kate Thompson’s The Fourth Horseman (Bodley Head) and Geraldine McCaughrean’s Peter Pan in Scarlet (Oxford University Press), the latter for obvious reasons. Both Thompson and McCaughrean are exceptional writers and I’ve never been disappointed by anything they have published. However, no one would argue that Peter Pan is a hard act to follow. I think even J.M. Barrie himself might have had difficulties. 

I’ve been looking at the very, umm, Christmassy website (www.peterpaninscarlet.com/story.php). The quote from the publisher says that “Geraldine has a unique ability to enter the spirit of an original text ... (and) to bring her own spark of originality and illumination to it.”   

You can read a short extract from the book – eight lines – but it’s enough to make you want more. Well, I liked it, but more the lively, evocative style than the content ... I have never been fond of pirates. 

I hope for more of Wendy. I’m afraid, like her, I prefer sitting home, telling adventure stories than having real adventures.   

Peter Pan is an old friend. My hardback copy, with the green cover, is of the play, which I have seen half a dozen times (I never clap when Tinkerbell is dying as I detest the spoilt brat). I skip large sections and re-read my favourite scenes.   

When I was a child, it was about fairies and magic and flying. Now, it is about death, loss and loneliness. When Peter declares that “Death is an awfully big adventure”, I am filled with both horror and awe. The Lost Boys made me laugh until I had children of my own. Now, Peter’s story of his mother forgetting him makes me weep. 

But I have always longed for romance between Peter and Wendy. I am just a sentimental fool. It’s why I re-read my old favourites. Old friends will always mean more to me than anything new, no matter how exciting and sensational.