By DAPHNE LEE
from Tots to Teens, StarMag
I RE-READ two of my Noel Streatfeild novels last week - my absolute favourite, Curtain Up. And one that I don't know very well - The Bell Family. Both are illustrated, just as most children's books published before the 1970s were. It had not registered before but the pictures in The Bell Family are by Shirley Hughes. Hughes also illustrated another Streatfeild book, The Painted Garden, and many other books, including her own. Her style is very recognisable, especially her depiction of people. You can always tell a Hughes (human) character by her/his round cheeks, tip-tilted nose, determined chin and frank gaze.
Hughes is 71 and still writing and illustrating. In fact, she has a new picture book out - Jonadab and Rita (The Bodley Head, 32 pages, ISBN: 978-0370329284). The main characters in this book are toys - a donkey, Jonadab, and his best friend, Rita, a mouse. They are just two toys amongst many owned by a little girl called Minnie. Of course it's hard to pay equal attention to all one's toys - if you have dozens. Jonadab and Rita are left at the bottom of the toy chest quite a bit and this causes Jonadab to decide to strike out on his own. He can actually fly - a handy gift if you want to see the world, which Jonadab does.
Out he goes, through the nursery window and ends up in Holland Park, a park in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea. There, in the woods, Jonadab comes across a fairy feast, which he gatecrashes. The fairies are welcoming though, and the toy donkey is made much of by the Queen of the Fairies - just as Bottom is petted by Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Jonadab is charmed by the attention. However, he soon realises that fairies are not consistent in their affections and are given to extreme actions - one moment loving, the next downright heartless. Rita, on the otherhand, although hardly as bewitching as the fairies, has always been a loyal friend.
This tale, about love and friendship, mixes, most deliciously, real and magical worlds. Jonadab and Rita have the soft, comfortable and comforting look of old stuffed toys. Years of soaking up tears, snot and drool, of being stroked by little fingers, and sucked and nuzzled, have smoothed their plush skins and given them a velvety sheen. The fairies, bathed in the milky moonlight, glitter with glamour. They are beautiful, mesmerising, unforgettable.
The toys remind one of the little toy dog in Dogger (Red Fox, 32 pages, ISBN: 978-0099927907), probably Hughes' most famous and loved work. It won the 1977 Kate Greenaway Medal and, last year, was also chosen as the Kate Greenaway Medal winner of all time in a special readers poll held to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the award. Dogger's owner, a little boy, loses him and is devastated. The joy he experiences when the toy is found is intense and moving. The emotional ties between a toy and a child are explored, and so is the way a small child's feelings can sometimes be overlooked, not unkindly or intentionally, but simply in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
In Jonadab and Rita, Hughes shows us how easy it is to take our closest friends for granted, but also assures us that true friends will always come to the rescue in our darkest hours.
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