Kiddie Lit: A Penguin Story

A Penguin Story is one penguin’s quest to see something that isn’t white (snow), black (the night sky), or blue (water, sky). “There must be something more.” She’s got a good spririt of adventure to find the humans in their bright orange coats and tents (tents? in the Antarctic? really?) Cute, but the overanalytic adult in me keeps asking just how the penguin knows there must be other colors if she’s never seen or heard stories about them. How do you know there’s something missing if you can’t see the hole? But that’s a Kate/adult problem. The book is adorable and I love the illustrations.

A Penguin Story: Recommended

Kiddie Lit: Thump, Quack, Moo

Thump, Quack, Moo is another one of the Click, Clack, Moo books. The basic premise is: Duck is a troublemaker, Farmer Brown knows it, but can’t quite keep him under control because Duck is crafty. Probably not good if you’re trying to keep your kid innocent – Duck’s a bad influence. Funny, but a bad influence. The language usage is pretty simple, too, which is good for new readers.

Thump, Quack, Moo: Recommended

The Long Winter

Disclaimer: I’ve got a soft spot for YA literature and the Laura Ingalls Wilder books specifically. They, combined with frequent visits to my grandparents in rural Iowa, form some of the do-it-all-yourself, what-it-means-to-run-a-good-house attitudes that I have. They might be the reason I’ve never been able to bring myself to hire a maid or why I cook supper most nights.

Anyway, on to the book. The Long Winter is about a seven-month-long winter in the Dakotas that causes all manner of hardship for the Ingalls and the other families in town. The Ingalls have to leave their homestead and move to town simply to survive. No trains arrive after Christmas, which means very little food. They almost starve and there’s a close call with a grain riot when a merchant tries price gouging. They lose the energy to do anything except prepare food – school for all the townschildren is cancelled altogether because of the lack of heat and light. There’s music and dancing at the beginning, but Papa’s fingers eventually become too stiff and sore to play the violin. After the warm weather comes again, the music comes back, in a particularly obvious bit of symbolism.

Laura Ingalls Wilder is particularly good at pulling you into the setting. I couldn’t get warm while I was reading The Long Winter. Their comparative lack of stuff, and the work they have to do to get things we take for granted — food, entertainment (they get a shipment of magazines and letters in November and nothing else), clean clothing (line-drying clothes when it’s below freezing doesn’t sound fun or easy), and warmth (they end up twisting hay into sticks that they can burn in the oven, and they close off all of the house except the kitchen in order to conserve heat) — it made me feel guilty at the very clear excesses we have today: more food than we can eat, turning up the heat when we’re not comfortable enough instead of putting on a sweater, TV, the internet, radio, more books than I could read in a year… I’m happy I live now, when food is plentiful and heat is easy. Putting myself into that house in town was somewhat scary.

Overall, though, I do enjoy these books.

The Long Winter: Recommended

Kiddie Lit: Just So Stories

Just So Stories

There’s this line from The English Patient (which is a couple of miles away from me, so there’s no exact quote) about reading Kipling slowly, imagining him sitting at his desk in India looking out the window as he writes. I’d add that you should only read one Just So Story at a time, and you should read them out loud. Both help to make sure you read them slowly, which really does help.

The Just So Stories are folk tales that explain why animals have the features they do: why the kangaroo hops, how the elephant’s nose got so long, that kind of thing. And they’re fun, silly stories, though I could do without the phrase “best beloved” being repeated that often. He uses it as though he’s reading them out loud to his own children, and I found it annoying after the first couple of stories.

My daughter seemed to enjoy them — she kept asking to read new ones — but I don’t remember lots of repeats. It’s been awhile since we read them, so my memory may be wrong. We certainly haven’t gotten it out of the library again. But then maybe she was too young when we read them?

Just So Stories: Meh. But maybe recommended if you have an older child.

The End

And you thought your questions were supposed to be answered? Pshaw.

The upshot of A Series of Unfortunate Events turns out to be that you have a big choice in life: either you can be safe and sheltered and never have anything interesting happen to you, or you can take risks and have your life be messy and full of experiences and maybe never quite be completely in control.* Is it a simplistic message? Yep. But these are books for kids, and it’s only anvil-y in the last chapter.

Now, does that mean you, as an adult, can’t enjoy them? Maybe. It depends on what you’re trying to get out of them. They’re fun as hell, and the writing style’s a kick.

This one’s maybe not the best of the series, but endings are hard, and I’m willing to cut Lemony Snicket — er, Daniel Handler — some slack.

The End: Recommended

*To that end, there’s a bunch of internal questions that the series raises that we never do get answers to. But that’s entirely the point. Your parents had a life before you, and you’re never going to completely know or understand that, and that’s ok. You don’t know what the future holds, and it might be good or it might be bad, but you should be out there figuring it out yourself instead of letting someone else do it for you.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler

I first read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler when I was a kid. I didn’t remember a whole lot about it – just that they ran away to live in a museum in New York City and they found a mystery and I liked it a whole awful lot. So, when I saw it at the library a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t help but borrow it. It was still a lot of fun. Claudia’s the oldest child and feels put upon because she has so many responsibilities, so she decides to leave until her family realizes how much they need her, and how grown-up she is. She takes her brother Jamie with her because he’s good with money, and she needs that.

That was something I didn’t remember being a major theme in the book before: grown-ups are in charge. They are the primary people, the world is built for them. There was none of this kids are smarter than the adults (Lemony Snicket*) or the kids are just as competent as the adults or possess special powers that enable them to be better than the adults (Harry Potter*). Claudia and Jamie have money problems. They have to hide from the guards, and it’s not easy or fun. They go to do laundry, and they turn all their clothing grey. When they find something that may help them solve the mystery, OF COURSE the museum already knows about it. It’s not that being a kid is bad, or makes them lesser people – on the contrary, Claudia and Jamie have a lot of – and I can’t believe I’m using this word – spunk. They want to be grown-up. In fact, their major problem is that it’s not happening fast enough.

It’s a refreshing attitude in this kid-heavy world I seem to live in. It was surprising to find it in a kid’s book.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Highly Recommended

* Two series of books I deeply enjoy.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Did you ever see The Body, the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where they deal with her mom’s death? If you never lost someone suddenly, let me tell you one thing: they nailed it. There was not one single thing wrong with that episode. I bring it up because of a conversation that I had with a coworker after we both read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We came to the same conclusion. JK Rowling and Joss Whedon slowly dismantled the adult support structure that their characters had. They were doing the same damn thing. Joyce dying == Dumbledore dying.

As a whole, the book is kind of boring; it’s more about Voldemort and his childhood and making sure that Harry knows what he needs to to get the four final horcruxes and kill Voldemort than it is about fun and action. It seems like JK Rowling has a plan for the last book (and it damn well better be the last book) and this book was there to set it up. Which is why it’s kind of surprising that it’s taken her more than a year to write the last one. That bothers me.

But the end is devestating. I think Dumbledore at least suspected — why else give Snape the Defense Against the Dark Arts job that you know is cursed?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Recommended

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This one is turning out to be my second-least favorite, I think. The problem is that it follows the fourth one, which is the best. If you contrast the two deaths, Sirius’ should be the more traumatic of the two. But I always cry (shut up) at the end of the fourth one, but Sirius’ doesn’t affect me the same way. Maybe it’s because Cedric’s death is tied up with Voldemort’s return, and Harry basically loses that fight. He escapes, but that’s not a victory, it’s more of a strategic retreat.

Ahem. I’m supposed to be talking about the fifth book. It’s definitely full of scenes that shouldn’t have made it to publication — the whole bit about the Black family tree, for example. Interesting, but not necessary. Harry’s also so angry at the beginning and end, but not in the middle so much. He’s still supposed to be discontent, but it doesn’t come across so well here as it does even at the start of the first book.

I’m still recommending it, but that’s because you need to read it to understand the whole series. There are some you could read independently of the rest of it, but this isn’t one of them.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Recommended

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

It’s still my favorite, despite the length. A lot needs to happen in this one, so the ratio of what needs to be there over what’s extraneous is pretty high.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Recommended

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

It competes with the fourth one for my favorite. It’s still a book for kids, but her writing’s getting better and the shades of grey, not just good and evil, start to show. Best of all, she listened when her editor said, “You know, I don’t think that needs to be there.” Since then, they’ve all been longer than 600 pages. Book 3 was a sweet spot.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Recommended

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

It’s hard to write intelligently about the Harry Potter books — I mean, who hasn’t read them or seen the movies? They’ve been reviewed and talked about to death. I’m re-reading them, though, as before-bed, relaxation books to take the edge off The Theory of the Leisure Class.

In short: I like this one because JK Rowling so clearly enjoys the world she’s created and she’s enthusiastic about introducing us to it for the first time. The names she’s thought of — like Diagon Alley — are clever and fun. The story is crafted well for children, too, with each chapter being a small adventure in its own right, since kids aren’t known for their long attention span. The later books are written for teenagers and adults, but the first two or three are clearly aimed at kids.

I don’t want to get into anything about how Harry Potter’s world compares to Tolkein because I think that gets into too much literary thought for a set of books that I read primarily for escapism. But that’s not to say that I haven’t occasionally thought about it — and if the Harry Potter books had been written to be literary, that would be one thing. But I don’t think JK Rowling was out to do anything other than write a book series that would entertain us and make her some money. She’s accomplished both tasks.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Recommended

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Alas, this is probably the weakest of the series (excepting book 7, which hasn’t yet been published, but since that one’s the finale, I imagine it’ll be gripping). When I re-read the series, I normally start at the third book, which is one of my favorites. My usual excuse is that the first two are written for kids and I’m not a kid. But I think it’s because I’d feel guilty reading the first book, but not the second.

Part of the problem is that JK Rowling just doesn’t have a good villain. We know it can’t be Snape, Gilderoy’s just kind of a putz, and she doesn’t bring Voldemort into the story in a particularly scary way. I mean, a memory left in a diary? Ginny does all the dirty work? I…it just doesn’t work for me.

And yet, it’s still fun to read for all the same reasons the others are fun: escapist, lots of action, fun. Just because it’s the weakest doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Recommended

The Phantom Tollbooth

I picked up The Phantom Tollbooth last week because I actually wanted to read Harry Potter, but I didn’t want to read all six books. Instead, I hoped The Phantom Tollbooth would satisfy whatever kid-book-need I actually had, and it did.

If you’ve never read it, it’s your typical journey story: our hero sets out on an adventure, meets challenges, and overcomes them to achieve his goal. The setting is what does it. The story is in the Kingdom of Wisdom, and there are two realms, one ruled by Dictopolis (where all the words are) and Digitopolis (where all the numbers are). They don’t get along. Along the way, we also get to stop off at the Island of Conclusions (that you can only get to by Jumping), the Valley of Sound, and we get to meet people who start out with their head at their adult height and their bodies grow down.

It’s cute and it’s creative, and I enjoy it.

The Phantom Tollbooth: Recommended