Feb 4 2012
Everything about The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey makes me want to read it. The cover art, the website, the video, the plot, the connection to a Russian fairy tale, the author’s name – everything. Thus begins the rearrangement of my TBR pile …
Jun 25 2010
I am a big fan of this series but Book Eight: The Inside Story struck me as a little thin in places. It has sort of postmodern – or Jasper Fforde-ish – perspective as the characters are stuck in The Book of Everafter chasing Pinocchio and the Mirror through classic fairy tales while at the same time dealing with The Editor and his voracious revisors – hungry monsters who eat text and anything else that gets in their way.
Readers from the last book will recall that the sisters have to rescue their brother from the schemeing mirror who took him into the book – and chasing him Sabrina, Daphne, and Puck fell in as well.
The larger focus is mostly on Sabrina as she comes to grip with being a leader for her family and friends and her developing relationship with Puck.
In all the chaos and jokes about Fairy Tales there begins to emerge a backstory about Snow White and the history of the Everafters that seems promising but it nearly gets lost in the jump from from one Fairy Tale to the next. The last third of the story picked up the pace and there is still some funny lines and interactions but the story as a whole lacks the rhythm and pace of earlier stories.
I could be the simplified story – that is after all for young readers – just didn’t grab me this time, but for whatever reason I just didn’t enjoy the plot or the adventure nearly as much this time.
Still a great series and I will the read the next one I am sure – and I am looking forward to the conclusion of the series.
Jun 5 2009
Laura Miller had a problem. When she was young she was absolutely captivated and enthralled with the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. Given a copy of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by a school teacher she dove in an entered a new world. Things would never be the same.
But eventually she grew older and began to find out things about Lewis and Narnia that changed her relationship with the series: the Christian underpinnings of the story, Lewis’s world view and political opinions, etc. But as she pursued a career as a literary critic she decided to return to these books and she found there was still much about them that she loved.
The road that had once seemed to lead to free and open country had in reality doubled back to church. Now I was trying to explain why my damning adolescent assessment of Chronicles wasn’t entirely sufficient, either. As an adult, I’d discovered that I could follow Lewis pretty far without feeling obliged to return to Christianity, and that the old sensations of freedom, of wilderness in Narnia, remained.
She sets out to make sense of this journey. The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia is her answer in book form.
I guess you would have to put Magician’s Book into the category of creative non-fiction. Good thing too, because otherwise it would be hard to categorize. Part memoir, literary criticism, biography, and current events reporting it frequently slides between childhood memories, academic criticism, Freudian analysis, personal opinion, and interviews with other authors.
Sometimes this manages to flow and hold together in a coherent way and at others the transitions are a little rough. I found the sections dealing with Lewis’s faith and politics were the least convincing – but perhaps that is my bias – but the book as a whole remains an insightful and engaging look at Lewis and Narnia.
May 30 2009
***I mentioned last week that I was thinking of a new series based on books I like to read my kids. Tonight I was inspired enough to kick the series off. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy reading these books to my kids.***
What to do when your finances don’t allow for endless book buying? Well, the library of course! But in the case of books for children I don’t mean that in quite the way you might think. One of the nicer neighborhoods near where we live has a nice library of course. But they also have a wonderful children’s book section in their Friends of the Library book sale area.
I particularly enjoy older children’s books (older in terms of publishing date not age of the children). And so love hunting through the kids section looking for hidden gems. That way I can surprise my kids with a new story to read and it only costs me a dollar or two. I have found quite a few great books this way.
Which brings us to the subject of this post. I found this great edition of Oscar Wilde’s children’s story The Selfish Giant. It has wonderful watercolor illustrations by Lisbeth Zwerger (I frequently look for books with nice or unique illustrations as my wife is an artist and loves these books as much as the kids).
I was not familiar with the story prior to bringing it home. Having read it a few times now, it has moved into my favorites list. It is a wonderfully simple fairy tale about the dangers of cutting your self off from the world. And it ends with, for me, a moving reminder of the power of the Christian faith.
But no matter what your faith background, or lack thereof, it really is a gem of a story about the soul killing nature of isolation, the magic of children, the wonders of spring, and the powers of love. The happy tale ends on a deeply sad note but carries with it either the cycle of life or the promise of redemption depending on your perspective. (I will admit holding back tears on occasion.)
The story is widely available online in its entirety (here for example) so if you aren’t familiar with it read it – you will be glad you did. Of course, to truly enjoy it, IMO, you need the wonderful illustrations offered by this particular edition. The delicate water colors match the tone and feel of the story perfectly in my mind. We have also read Hans Christian Anderson’s The Swineherd with her illustrations and they are equally well done. She really is an incredible artist.
For our family a book like this is a wonderful edition to the library. Not just because of the joy it provides as a bed time story, but because it is a both a parable for young and old – and a message we all need to hear – and a work of art. And sharing that art together makes it all the more special.
Do you have books like this in your family? Did you read this story when you were younger? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Mar 12 2009
I stumbled upon this interesting little book, [amazon-product region="us" text="Little Mook & Dwarf Longnose" type="text"]1567922228[/amazon-product] (part of the Pocket Paragon Book series), at a library sale. Given my interest in fairy tales and young adult fiction I thought it would be worth the quick read. This past weekend I pulled it out and read one afternoon. It was worth it just for the introduction by one of the translators Thomas S. Hansen.
William Hauff’s life was cut short- from overwork and exhaustion no less – at the age of twenty-five but he still managed to leave a legacy behind. And among German speaking children his fairy tales are second only to the famous Brothers Grimm. The two stories in this collection are meant as an introduction to his work.
Booklist does a great job of capturing the slim volume:
This petite double feature celebrates nineteenth-century German fantasist Hauff, an unsung contemporary of the Brothers Grimm. Like others in the publisher’s Pocket Paragon series, the book is a pleasure to hold and behold, featuring rich, glossy stock, decorative embellishments, and beautifully reproduced artwork. Though the story “Little Mook” gets top billing, “Dwarf Longnose” is probably better known due to earlier versions illustrated by both Maurice Sendak and Lizbeth Zwerger. The two stories, though, have much in common, each chronicling the adventures of a small, physically odd character who carves his place in the world by dint of cleverness, good-heartedness, and fairy-tale magic. It’s a theme that holds allure for many children, although the high ratio of text to visuals (Russian illustrator Pak’s striking tempera paintings appear only once every five or so pages) makes it most suitable for sharing with middle-graders. The cogent preface by co-translator Thomas S. Hansen will enlighten college-level students of comparative lit, who will enjoy encountering this elegant volume in their libraries as much as Hauff’s intended audience.
The Little Mook involves a poor dwarf forced to make his way in the world alone and penniless. He finds work with a bizarre cat lady and then stumbles upon a magic staff and slippers. These magic tools help him to find work in a kings court only to have the jealousy of those around him form his undoing.
The second story tells the tale of how a once beautiful young boy is kidnapped and turned into a long nosed dwarf by a witch. He escapes but no one recognizes him in his deformed state. He finds work as a chef for a duke only to have his life threatened by a neighboring prince. With the help of princess who had been turned into a goose he finds his old form and escapes and returns to his family.
The stories themselves, while entertaining, are probably more interesting as part of the history of fairy tales and German folklore than as bedtime stories for your kids (not that they wouldn’t serve that purpose). But for me the useful intro and the art work, when added to the stories, made it easily worth the two dollars I paid for it.
An odd, yet educational, little find.
