The Places You Will Go

Monster Classics

First, the Bennets had to deal with zombies. Now the Dashwoods have to deal with sea monsters.

That's Colonel Brandon on the cover - looking very like Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Carribean movies.

And if you agree Austen's novels need to be livened up with the undead and other beasties, the new sequel to Pride and Prejudice, My Darcy, Vampyre, reveals that Lizzie's dashing new husband has an aversion to garlic and crucifixes.

Picture Book of the Month: We're Going on a Bear Hunt

August 2009
WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT
By Michael Rosen
Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
Publisher: Walker Books, 40 pages

This is one of my favourite books for storytelling sessions. The repetition in every verse -  "We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one! What a beautiful day - we're not scared!" and then "We can't go over it, we can't go under it, we've got to go through it!" - encourages children to join in, and it's even better if you put the book aside and act the whole thing out.

Of course, Oxenbury's pictures are always worth sharing too. At a conference in Australia, she pointed out that she added a postscript to the story by drawing the bear walking away, rather despondently, at the end of the book. Read what you will into that picture. I wonder if the bear really just wanted a chat and not to eat the children.

Laureates' Choice

The Laureates' Table is the title of a new promotion by British bookseller Waterstone. It marks the 10th anniversary of the Children's Laureateship and features selections (seven each) made by children's laureates Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and Michael Rosen.

(Harry Potter doesn't make the list, but I'm not at LL surprised :-) )

Read more here.

The Whole Picture

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

SEVERAL years ago, I worked as a sub-editor at a local entertainment magazine. Our covers featured the stars of the music and movie industry, but we were careful to avoid black musicians and actors as we knew that sales would dip if we did. I don't know if things have changed since then. I don't know if Barack Obama has changed Malaysians' perceptions of black people. I know our children still have much fewer black role models than white ones.

Children's television has more pale-skinned stars than dark-skinned heroes. There are no black characters in Barbie movies, although, in general, children's TV is a lot less dominated by white actors than programmes for adults are.

Storybooks, however, feature mostly white characters - or rather, books with mostly-white characters are the ones you find in our bookstores. Like fashion magazines with black models on the cover, books with black characters on their covers don't sell well. I have noticed that the children and teens I work with rarely pick books that show black characters on their covers.

This has, to a degree, to do with the Asian idea that fair skin is more attractive than dark skin, but it is also because of the lack of exposure. I grew up with stories that depicted white, not brown-skinned children and I still find myself identifying more easily and readily with books about white children. It's a habit I'm trying to break. Back in the 70s and 80s, books (especially children's books) were scarce enough, let alone books that described the lives of non-caucasian characters. We are luckier these days. Stories about Asian, black and hispanic characters are available in bookstores - they may not be prominently displayed but they are there for the asking.

Purple Prose

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

UNCLE is an elephant. He is immensely rich, and he's a B.A. He dresses well, generally in a purple dressing gown, and he often rides about on a traction engine, which he prefers to a car.

He lives in a house called Homeward, which is hard to describe, but try to think of about a hundred skyscrapers, all joined together and surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge over it, and you'll get some idea of it."

Those are the opening paragraphs of Uncle by J. P. Martin. It is the first book in the Uncle series which, apart from Uncle and the second book, Uncle Cleans Up, is out of print.

I am a devoted fan. I adore elephants (they are a divine and delicious and ridiculous shape), and what's there not to love about an elephant in a purple dressing gown?

Good News for Frens and Relayshuns of Edward Bear?

Thanks to the insidious power of TV and the slap-you-silly assault of merchandising, Disney's orange bear [right] is what children of the 21st century (and late 20th century) think of when you say "Pooh". Will a sequel to A. A. Milne's original stories give the original bear [left] of little brain a public relations boost? I, for one, will offer up prayers to the god of bears for the reinstatement of the rightful Mr Sanders.

Read more about Pooh's return in The Guardian.

Mini Review: Curtain Up

Once again, thanks to Terri Green who emailed me about the fact that I failed to deliver on my promise to write mini reviews of Noel Streatfeild's novels :-D

Curtain Up
By Noel Streatfeild
Illustrated by D. L. Mays
Publisher: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 288 pages

THIS is my all-time favourite Noel Streatfeild book. I like it even more than I do Ballet Shoes, which was the first Streatfeild I ever read.

The Fossil sisters, who are the main characters in Ballet Shoes, are also in Curtain Up. But they have off-stage roles, so to speak.

Mini Review: The House in Cornwall

It's the return of the mini review! The last time I wrote one was in May, 2007! A blog reader Terri Green has inspired me to start again. She asked, in an email, if I had written any mini reviews of my favourite Noel Streatfeild books, as I'd promised in one of my posts. I had to admit I hadn't - oh, the shame! Well, I'm going to, Terri, and here's the first:

The House in Cornwall
By Noel Streatfeild
Publisher: Dragon, 139 pages
ISBN: 583300979

Three children (siblings Edward, Sorrell and Wish) are sent to Cornwall to spend six weeks of the summer with their uncle Murdock as the cousin they usually stay with during the holidays is ill (their parents are abroad).

They are quite anxious at the thought of staying with Murdock as they have never met him. Murdock used to live in Livia (a fictitious country) where he assisted in toppling the monarchy. Murdock then worked as chief of staff of the dictator Manoff. A counter-revolution resulted in his return to his mansion in the West country.

At Murdock's mansion, the three children find that they are treated like prisoners. They are watched and guarded at all times and have no contact with the outside world - forbidden access to newspapers and the radio.

Their suspicions that something fishy is going on are confirmed when they hear a child crying in the gardener's house!

This is quite unlike most of the other Streatfeild books I own, which are set in the world of dance and/or theatre. It's more like an Enic Blyton mystery. In fact, it is very like Blyton's The Secret of Spiggy Holes, which is also set in Cornwall and features kidnapped royalty.

However, although the characters in Cornwall don't dance, act or sing, they are still recognisably Streatfeild creations, and this means they are much more developed than Blytons ever are. For example, although Sorrell is a young lady who is quite house-proud and motherly - like Anne in the Famous Five series - her character, unlike Anne, is an active one, and there is some attempt to explore her personality and develop it in tandem with the plot.

I do like corny mysteries with flashing lights and strange sounds in the night, mysterious strangers and pesky kids who are always able to outwit the grownups. Another book I am reminded of whenever I re-read Cornwall is Blyton's The Circus of Adventure, which features yet another Ruritanian royal. These stories require a huge suspension of disbelief, but this comes quite naturally, even automatically, to me when I enter such worlds as are featured in them.

Say "No!" to Sham-Pooh! We Want the Real Pooh!

By DAPHNE LEE

Tots to Teens

MOST children now, if you say Winnie-the-Pooh to them, will think of that saffron-yellow tub of lard in a two-sizes-two-small red T-shirt, star of Disney's several series, all of which are based on A. A. Milne's books about the "bear of very little brain".

The latest Disney series is called My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and as usual, there is an annoyingly catchy theme song and characters who Milne would not recognise from his books.

Watching any of Disney's Pooh series makes me want to wring the bear's neck and also bash his friends, especially Tigger and Rabbit, to a pulp. Pooh, Piglet and Tigger are not exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer (understandable since they are toys who have stuffing for brains), but their stupidity reaches new, unchartered depths in the telly series. And the usually shrewd Rabbit (my favourite character in the original books) appears to be suffering from some form of dementia - worse still, Disney portrays him as a rather effeminate and neurotic elderly male.

But back to Edward Bear (that's Pooh's real name, although we also learn that he once lived in the forest under the name of Sanders) - the books he appears in are Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). The former introduces us to the bear and his friends Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo, and Rabbit and Owl (the only two of the gang who are real animals and so, in theory, more brainy than the rest). Pooh has a growly voice and he does Stoutness Exercises. It's established that he is rather greedy, a bit of a coward, quite brainless, but perfectly amiable.

Fuzz Ball in a Top Hat

Tots to Teens
By DAPHNE LEE

IT’S easy to understand why bears are so popular with children (and many adults). They are attractively rotund, cuddly (looking) creatures which children readily identify with through that favourite of toys, the teddy bear. There are plenty of bears in children's lit. Pooh is arguably the most famous of them all, thanks, in part, to Disney. But my favourite literary bear is Little Bear.

He is the creation of Else Holmelund Minarik, although my impression of him is largely formed by the illustrations, done by my favourite illustrator of all time, Maurice Sendak!