JuniorBookWorm.com

Velthuijs is Back

Frog is Sad
                In his eleventh book starring Frog, Max Velthuijs has just written his most subtle and true of the lot. Frog is sad, as the title suggests. Rat does everything he can to cheer him up. The rest of the cast run when they hear laughter and frog is cured. Why was he so sad?, Rat wants to know. Frog doesn't know, he just was.
    This book rings true to me and to many little ones. They listen to this book with their small, serious faces and then they want to hear it again. They see anger come and go like a storm. Anger is an obvious emotion. But sadness is something that parents and grown ups can hide quite well. Children are encouraged to "cheer up". Having a "good cry" is something that adults experience. But as Frog shows us, little children can have a "good cry" too.
    Children are more complicated creatures than they're given credit for.  This story gets to the heart of a serious matter. Sadness is as valid as happiness. Four to seven year olds should enjoy this sombre and ultimately light hearted read.

The Conqueror

David McKee is a wonderful writer. Sadly, many people know him only for his bread and butter books, the Elmer series. Those are the books that come with the cuddly patchwork elephant. I do not want to deny him his success. He lives in the South of France and has enjoyed a good life.
McKee is a bit of a cynic and like Dahl, does not seem to like grown ups very much. Not Now, Bernard and The Story of Veronica who Played the Violin, are two examples. They are a lot of fun to read , right the way through to the violent demise of the protagonists.
     Like John Le Carre, McKee seems to have been moved to write by the turn of events in the world. No longer the cynic, McKee has written an anti-war fantasy story. Like Le Carre, emotion materialized as diatribe. And in both cases, their efforts were not up to scratch.
    The Conquerors is about a country that conquors the countries around them. They are successful in every battle. Then they invade a country that has no army. They are befriended. They share their culture and seem to change the conquerors' culture.
    I read it to my eleven year old, eventhough he is far too old for the target audience. He thought that the ending was abrupt. He did not understand the moral (and he is no dummy). The book was vague and the plot was unsatisfying. It should have ended with a dot dot dot to give a sign to the parents that it is not their turn to take over and explain the book.
    McKee would have been better taking his terrifically expressive drawings and packaged this book for adults to be sold with rubber bracelets or at anti-war rallies. The Conquerors just doesn't work in the nursery.

Henry and the Paper Route

Yesterday London was attacked by terrorists. I picked up my children and they had not been told. Maybe parents are the ones who should tell there children or decide not to tell their children. So, I promptly told my children about the three bombs in the tube and one that lifted the top deck of a bus off. I think that one can't protect ones children from information and it is important for them to experience the good and the evil in this world. Life does not read out of the pages of Care Bear. They were curious. They were startled. They were not upset. After all, they had seen lots of explosions, violence and corruption on the movie screens. Whether it was Batman or Spiderman, they knew that these things happen. They found a compartment for it and went on with their lives. They were not that much different than us, the adults, except that our attention span was longer. Our greed for details, vast.
    Henry Huggins would have been shocked and worried and even upset by the events of yesterday. Why? Because he lives in the late 1950's or early 60's, on a street called Klickitat, surrounded by small problems and contained lives. To him, many of the aspects of our lives would seem like science fiction. To us, his life is fascinating but safe, realistic, but more simple.
    If you are an avid Cleary reader, you will find some familiar faces besides Henry and his dog Ribsy. Ramona Quimby wreaks havoc when she can. Beezus bonds with Henry. Henry dreams of getting his own paper route and does everything he can to secure one. He sells kittens, befriends paper boys, gets involved in the school paper drive and has trouble with a new neighbour.
    The story is an easy read for an eight year old but a joyful read for a family driving around on vacation. Cleary knows her characters and loves them. And as a reader, however foreign they may seem to today's children, they can be very familiar to their parents.
    These children aren't rushing to computers and TV. They don't have phones that play songs and games. Their little safe neighbourhood is their world. They are a comfort to a young reader who, at times, might want to block out the big bad world.

A Very Sad Day

A weblog would not be a weblog if real life never entered its pages. We blog out of Notting Hill Gate, London. We had a horrific attack on our city today. We would just like to say that our hearts and minds are with the victims and their families and their friends. This attack has shocked us and not shocked us at the same time. We are all victims. The villains have no justification. No one should cut them any slack and give them any excuse. They are horrible mass murderers. Bargaining with them, not joining wars in Iraq and other places, changing things in Israel will not stop them. They just hate people. All people. We could all have been the victims today.