Read lately...

[lady_schrapnell]

I'm sitting with an enormous box of tissues to hand, and a healthy dose of self-pity (for very little just cause) and interrupting the typing from time to time to sneeze all over the place...

Just finished Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which was the first of the upcoming course books I picked up to read/reread. It was fun, and the critique of (human) society more pointed than I might have expected from a v. popular children's book written in 1971 (though no equivalent feminist awareness!), but not so sure I see quite why it won the Newbery Medal. Yet. It may or may not become apparent later. But mid-way through I suddenly noticed how surprisingly many of the books are anthropomorphic: Watership Down; Aesop's Fables; The Wind in the Willows; The Mouse and his Child; The Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh, Mrs. Frisby, Black Beauty, Blitzcat (I think, from reading the description on Amazon - don't know about Yaxley's Cat) and Charlotte's Web. That's leaving out the Potter and other picture books, which are more often talking animals/dolls/whatever, I'd have thought. 10 out of 14, and possibly 11. Yet there's no other type of fantasy immediately apparent, and just the one science fiction. And there's plenty of fantasy in later courses. Okay - that was stupid, as there are collections of fairy tales, but nothing else in the chapter books.

Want to take on DWJ on Hilary McKay's Permanent Rose, but now is clearly not the time, no matter how much absencia she might be in. Instead I'll content myself with an entirely apropos quote about appropriate children's reading from Moominpappa's Memoirs, which I'm reading thanks to myntti and generalblossom (and madybooks too). It's just wonderful. The Mymble asks her children where they stopped in their bedtime reading, and gets this answer:

The children chorused, '"This - is - One-eyed - Bob's - sanguinary - work" - remarked - Inspector - Twiggs - pulling - a - three-inch - nail - from - the - ear - of - the - corpse - "it - must - have - happened" ---'

Quite, quite, as the Mymble said in response...

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Want to take on DWJ on Hilary McKay's Permanent Rose,

I haven't read the book, but from what I know of Jones, this isn't a book review, it's a very painful flashback. I had a very similar response to Jones's Time of the Ghost for all of the reasons Jones is uncomfortable with Permanent Rose. Too close to home, to sanguine an ending.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

I quite agree. Painful enough to cause pretty serious misreadings (to the point of factual error). But - well, when you're a highly respected author, the Guardian Book Review hardly seems the place for that kind of emotional letting-loose, especially when you end up denying the appropriateness of this kind of subject matter as children's lit. While dealing with similar and worse in your own children's lit.

Oof - I'll be more coherent when I'm not feeling quite so feverish. And don't have to drive out to pick up daughter...

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

Now you are making me very curious indeed. Just googled it and oh, boy a review? I did not read the book, but Ì seem to have found the review in question. It seems to be very subjective indeed which is somethings which puts me off reviews as an indicator of if I should read the book or not - though subjective reviews can indicate if I want to read the reviewer or not ( in this case, it would not induce me).

Oh speaking of Newbery novels, was so glad the other day, an acquaitance just mentioned in her blog as her childhood favorite the first library book I ever read and one of my total childhood favorites, and apparently it won a Newbery prize in the 1930s! The Forgotten Daughter (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9997489179), I don´t think it survives in literary analysis, but it was a kick to find at least 3 of us who do love it still very much.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

However...

if one of the target audiences is the kind of mistreated child depicted in the book,

then presumably it is fair for someone who has survivied precisely that kind of upbringing to say

"no, this book is too cosy"

for I think one of the things Jones is saying is that "friends can compensate for family but never susbtitute for them" and that for McKay to say so is problematic.

I understand this. I remember the first time I hever heard the sentence: "Family is where you go when you have nowhere left because they can't turn you away."

Hearing it was like a blow to the stomach, a sudden revelation of what I didn't have.

(I'm not adopted or in care, I just have a mother remarkably like the one Jones describes so often in her work. Self focussed and utterly unsuitable to motherhood. Mind you, she did a decent job in other ways, I wouldn't want this to be misread.)

I'll try to pick up the book today or tomorrow and comment then.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

I'll be interested to see what you think if you do. I don't think McKay says that friends can substitute for family, though they certainly do compensate. But that works both ways, and the friends find a lot in the family in return. In fact, the Casson children seem a hell of a lot better off to me than Polly in F&H or the girls in TotG, among many others. And the mother is completely different from the archetypal Jonesian mother, if not entirely ideal. But ideal would be too cozy! I'll do this properly in a bit, though not too sure how to do it without spoilers, as I'm trying to get several people on my flist to read the books.

(I didn't misunderstand what you were saying, btw, and had none too cozy a childhood myself, though not through my mother being a DWJ mother at all.)

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

I know you didn't read the book, but you won't be able to resist my pushing now, will you? ;) As I said, very quick read! Your TBR pile won't even notice the minute amount of displacement... Must check out TFD!

[dorianegray.livejournal.com]

"Blitzcat"...if it's the one I'm thinking of (Robert Westall?) and I'm remembering it right, it's only a bit anthoropomorphic - very definitely told by a human, if you see what I mean.

(Westall's "Futuretrack Five" is fantastic, btw; I so want my own copy of that. And his "Devil on the Road" is a very cool timeslip. I like Westall...can you tell?)

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Futuretrack Five! Yay! One of the best children's sf novels around. Apart from the casual sexism, it's not dated much either.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

You and at least one somebody at Roehampton! 7 books of his on the course overall, more than any other author, I think. Neither of those books though. I'll keep an eye out for Futuretrack Five for you, as I'm collecting Westalls. And read it first, of course.

[dorianegray.livejournal.com]

Oh, that would be kind. But I firmly believe that it is one of those books (like Patrick Little's "The Hawthorn Tree") that exists only in Malahide Library, since I have never ever seen it anywhere else. :-)

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

:) But I found The Hawthorn Tree, did I not tell you? It's with Charlie now - well below the books he's to read for teaching, and reviews, and the paper he's giving in April in the TBR pile ...

If I found that, maybe there's hope for all the Lost Books of the world...

[emmaco.livejournal.com]

Although I was never a huge animal book fan, NIMH was a great favourite of mine when I was about 9. I think the clever planning to beat the evil adults appealed to me. I know there was at least one sequel that I read but I can't remember it so I'm assuming I didn't like it as much. When I was older I also adored The silver crown, a book I can still re-read with pleasure.

And I'll add looking for that review to my long "to-do" list - honestly, how can a week off-line make such a difference to my life?

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Just learned that he died just a few years after writing NIMH (young) and the two sequels were written by his daughter. I wasn't that tempted, and now definitely won't bother.

Knock looking for the review off the to-do list at least - I've got a link to it. ;) (I've been in bed almost since last post.) Looking forward to hearing about your conference.