The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: 28 Apr 2013 01:31 AM PDT IF you're a fan of children's books, you would think Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson's marriage made in heaven. Both were writers of literature for young readers, and Johnson was also an illustrator. In fact, he drew the pictures for Krauss' best-known work, The Carrot Seed. Krauss also wrote one of my favourite illustrated books of all time, A Hole Is To Dig, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. And Johnson was of course the creator of those wonderful books about a little boy Harold and the adventures he has with his purple crayon. The Harold books are pure genius in their simplicity. They portray the truth, without embellishment: children draw with all their heart and soul and mind. They enter their creations, live them, imagine them into reality. That is what Harold does. His purple crayon is not magic, his imagination is. This is why you can give a child pencil and paper, or an empty cardboard box, and she will play happily for hours ... that is, if her imagination hasn't already been deadened by an iPad or excessive TV viewing. In 1958, after he had had success with four Harold books and one called Ellen's Lion, Johnson wrote and illustrated Magic Beach. However, his publisher, Harper's, decided not to publish it, believing it too abstract for children. The book then found a home at Holt, Rinehart and Winston, and in 1965, was published as Castles In The Sand, with illustrations by Betty Fraser. Happily, Magic Beach, with Johnson's rough sketches, was published by Front Street in 2005, with a foreword by Maurice Sendak. It's a very handsome edition, with board covers and a cloth-covered spine stamped in gold. In this story, two children, Ann and Ben, go looking for a shell on the beach and, instead, discover how words and a little imagination can transform an ordinary day into a cracking good story. Ann and Ben create things (jam, milk, a tree) by writing words in the sand. They even create a king, who asks the children if the world they've made is under their spell. "'We just spelled words,' said Ben."' Now doesn't that give you shivers? Some critics still think that children won't understand this story, but what is there to understand? Ann and Ben write a world into existence, just as Harold draws the worlds in his adventures. The ending is somewhat abrupt, there is no definite happy conclusion, and some might consider the flooding of the world somewhat tragic and upsetting. But, if you're reading this to a child, you can turn what happens into an exploration of how stories are created, and how they might or might not end. In this way, Magic Beach, like all the best children's books, encourages interaction. For example, what does it mean when Ann wonders if there is time for a happy ending? How would more time change things? What different words might we write on the sand to change the story and the way it ends? I haven't yet shared this book with my daughter (as I've only just now read it myself) but I'm looking forward to doing so tonight. I suspect it will give us much to talk about. I'm also looking forward to reading Crockett Johnson And Ruth Krauss: How An Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged The FBI, And Transformed Children's Literature. Adult fans of the couple's work will no doubt find this critical biography by Philip Nel insightful and inspiring. I think they might also find Magic Beach even more meaningful than the Harold books. I know I do. Daphne Lee is a writer, editor, book reviewer and teacher. Write to her at star2@thestar.com.my. |
| Posted: 28 Apr 2013 01:31 AM PDT FOR the month of April, 2013: Non-fiction 1. Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed 2. Syed Mokhtar Albukhary: A Biography by Premilla Mohanlall 3. Limitless: Devotions For A Ridiculously Good Life by Nick Vujicic 4. Only 13: The True Story Of Lon by Julia Manzanares & Derek Kent 5. You Can Read Anyone: Never Be Fooled, Lied To, Or Taken Advantage Of Again by David J. Lieberman 6. 100 Ways To Motivate Others: How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy by Steve Chandler 7. Wreck This Journal (Black): To Create Is To Destroy by Keri Smith 8. Escape From Camp 14 by Blaine Harden 9. A World Without Islam by Graham E. Fuller 10. The Magic by Rhonda Byrne Fiction 1. The Host (movie tie-in) by Stephenie Meyer 2. Life Of Pi by Yann Martel 3. Warm Bodies (movie tie-in) by Isaac Marion 4. One Day (movie tie-in) by David Nicholls 5. The Time Of My Life by Cecelia Ahern 6. Manuscript Found In Accra by Paulo Coelho 7. Betrayal by Danielle Steel 8. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling 9. Best Kept Secret (Clifton Chronicles #3) by Jeffrey Archer 10. Family Pictures by Jane Green This month's list compiled by MPH Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur; www.mphonline.com. |
| Posted: 28 Apr 2013 01:31 AM PDT Vampires In The Lemon Grove YOU'D be forgiven for thinking that this book might be another romance featuring an undead geriatric lusting (chastely) after a 16-year-old airhead, but sorry, if that's what you were hoping for, you really should have known better, from the title, not to mention the bright yellow book jacket. Vampires In The Lemon Grove is just one story in a collection, and the only one about vampires, although all are as unsettling and uncanny as vampire stories should but have recently ceased to be. Vampires who suck on lemons instead of drinking blood sound like a joke, but the title piece is a terrifying tale about losing oneself in love – giving up the dreams and habits of a life time (several lifetimes in the case of Clyde the vampire), suppressing desires and instincts.... It's what we all do, even in relationships that don't require us to stop from feeding on humans. In the end, is there anything of our true selves left, or are we totally consumed by the need to be loved and accepted? In Reeling For The Empire, the self is once more lost – swallowed, quite literally, as young women, hoping for independence, become slaves to their own desires, transformed into human silkworms who must gorge on mulberry leaves and produce the finest silk or bloat and die. Then there's The Barn At The End Of Our Term, in which 11 horses appear to be reincarnations of United States presidents. Is the paddock heaven or hell? Why are only some of the ex-presidents there? The men are comfortable in their horse shapes: Woodrow Wilson delivers speeches in his sleep; James Buchanan rewrites his memoirs, laboriously, with his hooves, in the sod. Russell makes you believe in this afterlife, but the horses are not the point, it's what we'll be left with at the end of it all. It starts out being amusing and ridiculous, but then it's suddenly full of empty, echoing, loneliness and loss. Even if there is a hereafter, will we be all ineffectually scratching out memories in the dirt? Re-reading these tales is necessary to get to the bottom of them, but even then, no real answers are revealed, just more questions, and perhaps some nasty suspicions. These are stories about fear and doubt and regret. Healing doesn't figure – it's not a comforting, or heartening, or satisfying read, but a disturbing, upsetting one that you might wallow rather than revel in. But Russell's stories are not quite nightmares; they're more like those dreams you can't quite remember when you wake, that you can't help think would actually reveal something vital if only you could recall what, dammit! I didn't breeze through Vampires In The Lemon Grove like I thought I would. I was, I admit, expecting something lighter, more whimsical, but what I got was something haunting and dark, a thought-provoking exploration of life and the fantastic shapes it assumes when you least expect it to. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan