Are You A Claudia Or A Mary Anne?

I was watching my nephews today and had a very weird, yet very pleasant flashback to my early middle school days and my obsession with The Baby-Sitters Club series.  This is one of those series that was pivotal both in my reading growing up, but in my real life as well.  My friends and I (all avid readers of this popular series) actually put together our own abbreviated version of the club.  We all went to this tiny private school, and several of our parents were staff at the school, forcing us to spend many hours together at the school building waiting for them to finish.  Along the same lines, many families in this tiny school had little ones of their own.  As us 10-12 year old's were all obsessed with baby's and small children we were the perfect group to get baby-sitters from, especially when they just needed watching while the parents were actually on site at the school.  Anyways we took our job as kid watchers very seriously and used the Baby-Sitters Club books as manuals and guidebooks in our quest for perfect child care.  When we were not actually baby-sitting, we were busy reading the books, watching the tv show/movie, and trying to decide who was a Claudia and who was a Mary Anne.  Flash forward more years then I care to admit later and even now, when I take care of the shorties, I still think about these books.  Now I kind of want to grab one and read it real quick...Happy Reading Everybody!

Stuffed Reading

It's birthday season for my nephews...seriously all 6 of them were born within months of each other.  They range in age from 8 months to 9 years and one thing they all have in common is a love of what they call stuffy's.  These are what they call there stuffed animals.  They also love reading...'cause what kid with me for an aunt wouldn't.  Here are a couple literary stuffy's for you tiny tot.

A Bear Called Paddinton

I loved this book so much growing up, it's such a classic.

Curious George

This monkey has been a favorite of every nephew at some point in time.

The Story of Babar

This book series is STILL one of my go to's...I just love it

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Instant nostalgia with this set

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Who didn't love this canine growing up?

Just a couple of ideas for the little guys and gals in your life.  Of course these are just a few...the possibilities are ENDLESS!  Happy Reading Everybody!

“Sometimes Costs Are Made To Be Borne.”

Hi folks, as promised a lovely rambling about a book I got to finished on my vacation.  Let's start hard and heavy with the newest installment in the Harry Potter world...Harry Potter and the Cursed Child story by J.K. Rowling script by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne.  I picked this book up as soon as it came out, so excited to get back into my beloved wizarding world that I couldn't wait until I left and promptly curled up and read the whole book in one sitting!  How did I feel about this latest entry...first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

First of all the book is written in play/script form so it is right of the bat a bit different from the novel style soooo...yeah. Also if you have not read the books this will make absolutely no sense whatsoever so I'm gonna assume you have read them or watched the movies.  Our story starts off years after the last book left off.  Harry Potter is now grown and he and his wife Ginny are at platform 9 3/4 to drop of their son's James and Albus for their train trip to Hogwarts.  Albus is concerned that he may be put into Slytherin and Harry tries to put his mind at ease.  Once on the train Albus makes fast friends with Scorpius the only son of Draco Malfoy and his late and beloved wife.  Albus is sorted into Slytherin, but he does not mind as it means being in the same house as his best friend Scorpius.  Albus who has a rocky relationship with his father, who is still known as the Boy Who Lived witnesses an elderly Amos Diggroy try and convince Harry to use a Time Turner to go back in time and save his son Cedric from being killed.  Harry who is the head of Magical Law Enforcement informs Amos that all the Time Turners were destroyed back during the battle at the Ministry of Magic.  Amos does not believe him and rails at what he considers the pointless death of his son.  Albus feels like he understands Amos's point of view, that his father does not listen and act to other people when they come to him.  Amos's niece and caretaker Delphi gets together with Albus to try and convince him to find a Time Turner.  Albus enlists the aid of Scorpius and the trio decide to use their patchwork Time Turner to keep Cedric from dying.  The first attempt is at the first task in the Tri-Wizard tournament.  They keep him from getting his wand, 'causing him to lose the first task.  Meanwhile back in the present, the boys parents start to look for the boys.  Harry talks to the painting of Dumbldore in his office and comes to the conclusion that he needs to seperate Albus from Scorpius.  The boys return to the present and realize that their meddling had some unintended consequences and still did not result in saving Cedric.  Harry's decision to separate Albus from Scorpius pretty much ends their father son relationship and Delphi convinces the two boys to reconcile and try to save Cedric again.  They go back and this time humiliate Cedric to keep him from winning the second task.  When the Time Turner sends them back to the new present Scorpius realizes that Albus is nowhere to be found.  In fact the whole world has changed for the worse.  Voldemort now rules with a person called the Augury as his second in command.  Harry Potter has died because a humiliated Cedric turned to the dark side and killed Neville at the battle of Hogwarts, keeping Nagini alive.  Scorpius finds Snape (yay Snape!) and convinces him of who he is.  Snape takes him to this version of Hermione and Ron who help him go back in time once more.  Scorpius pretty much stops all the changes from ever happening.  Through out all of this we watch Hermione, Ron, Harry, Ginny and Draco all work through their various issues.  Harry especially has to come to terms with everything that happened in his childhood and how it now affects his relationships with his own kids, especially Albus.  Delphi comes to hear Albus and Scorpius tell her about the changes that happened every time they tried to save Cedric and how it was impossible.  Delphi seems oddly interested in the future in which Voldemort and the Augury rule together.  The boys then glimpse a tattoo on Delphi's back of an Augury, a type of wizard bird that tells of tragedy.  Turns out that Delphi claims to be the child of Voldemort and Bellatrix and has been using the boys to try and find a future that she can be with her father.  She forces the boys to use the Time Turner to go back to the day that Voldemort killed Harry's parents.  Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Draco use a hint that Albus left for them to find where and when the boys are.  They go and find the boys.  They figure out that Delphi is going to keep Voldemort from trying to kill Harry, therefore not being cursed and retaining his strength.  They trick Delphi into a trap and they all return to a restored present.  Delphi is taken to Azkahban and life returns to somewhat normal.  Albus and Harry talk and start the path to repairing their relationship.  Albus and Scorpius remain friends and life gets better.

World Building - The book/script is set in the very well established world of J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter and since she wrote the original story the world is still there and still intact.  The fact that the story makes extensive use of the Time Turner and most of the action takes place in Hogwarts and other familiar settings gives a sense of going back.  The world building in this particular story probably works best for people who have read the previous books as it depends on this fore knowledge to help build the world.  It is the same magical, complicated and complete world that J.K. Rowling worked so hard to build for us.

Story - The story was pretty cool.  I loved that idea of exploring the future of a boy who had done so much in his childhood/young adulthood and now has to cope with being a fairly mundane adult.  The story of his son integrated very well as a brand new story that was still in the same vein as the previous ones.   I felt the story got a bit bogged down in with the multiple Time Turner trips, Harry's story, Albus and Scorpius's story, Delphi's story and everything else shoved into a short space and wanted it to be a bit more streamlined, but the over all idea was pretty good.

Characters - This story had a weird mix of familiar characters in a new place in their lives and all new characters.  I think I liked the new characters better then the older ones.  I loved Albus and Scorpius and their awesome friendship.  I liked how they were different from any of the previous characters in the older books and had their own identities.  For the most part I liked how the adult Harry was developed with his anxiety over his children, his coming to terms with his childhood, how different his life must be now.  I was a bit disappointed in Ron and Hermione.  Hermione came across as an exasperated, harried overly busy person and Ron was relegated to a goofy background character who was completely diminished from the brave and loyal every man I remember from the books, so that was a bit sad.  Overall I preferred the new characters to the old in this story.

Editing - Since this was a theatre script it read very different from the original novels and that has to be kept in mind when talking about the flow of this story.  It is broken up a lot more then in a regular book making the story a bit hard to follow on occasion as it has to skip around to get all the characters to the places they need to be.  That being said, as mentioned in the story section I felt that there was too many stories that were trying to be told in the same space which made feel a bit frenetic and bogged down all at the same time.  There is also very little immediate background given, with the authors assuming that the audience/reader has prior knowledge of the other books.

Fatherhood - I found the most prominent theme in this story was the relationship between father and child.  Mothers played a role, but it was the fathers that really took center stage in this book.  I liked how all the different varieties of relationship were explored.  The main one of course being Harry and Albus and the difficulty they had in understanding each other.  Harry still struggling to justify his own life had no idea how to deal with a son who was both very different and eerily similar to himself.  Draco and Scorpius had one of the sweetest relationships, especially considering the dominating relationship that Draco had with his father, the love and affection he (eventually) show's his beloved son is even more poignant.  Even with Delphi, I got the feeling that her actions were not done to bring about a dark world, but to try and have some sort of relationship with her own father in any way possible.

Time Turners - As much as I felt that the Time Turner bit was used a bit to heavily, I did like that it showed just how well Ms. Rowling knows her own world.  I thought that it was awesome to see that a world was so complete that the author could change one seemingly small aspect of it and then be able to follow the change through so thoroughly.  When time travel is used as device it can become confusing and a bit deus ex machina, but the subtle simple changes leading to logical and yet far reaching implications was pretty masterful and I very much appreciate the thought that went into it.

Return to Childhood - For many of us who read the Harry Potter as it came out, waiting in line for the newest installment then ignoring any and all responsibilities to finish each book before the inevitable spoilers came out, this book was throw back to that insane feeling of awesome.  Reading the book as an adult, seeing the characters we grew up with as adults, reading adventures of their kids to our kids and nephews kind of brings home the full circle of how beloved this series is.  It is a weird mix of nostalgia, anticipation and melancholy, a realization that everybody, even the Boy Who Lived has to grow up and be some sort of adult.  I'm not really sure how to describe the feeling, but I know it is shared by my fellow "adult" Harry Potter fans.

Overall Impression - I am very very very glad to have read this book, I loved that it was in a completely different format, and I am now dying to see it performed.  It was a lot of fun to go back to a beloved world, it's been a blast discussing it with my fellow HP fans.  The book is not a home run, but it is a solid and acceptable entry into the Harry Potter Universe.  I give it a 7 out of 10 love potions and recommend it to anybody who loved the HP series and can't wait to read the next installment.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Happy 100!

One of my favorite childhood authors the fabulous Beverly Cleary turns 100 today!  This author of the famed Ramona series, among other gems has lived, written and just made kids lives awesome for the last 100 years.

Seriously folks 100 years...how absolutely awesome and amazing is that.  I want to wish this classy lady many more awesome years and thank her for making my childhood an amazing experience.  Happy Birthday!

My Grade School Series

Mmmm fall is my favorite.  I spent the day putting up all my fall stuff, making cider and blasting the AC to pretend that the weather is less the 95 degrees.  This time of year all makes me want to pull out the old books I used to read in my grade school days.

Ramona Collection

This quirky girl series makes me happy to this day.  Everything from Ramona's imaginative pre-school day's to her becoming a young lady hit home with me as a young reader.

Mrs. Piggle-WIggle Series

I love the various means both magical and practical that our eccentric widow uses to help parents with their problem children...also I want to live in an upside down house.

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories

Mysteries, smart girls, and some decent fashion made this my go to series for many of my grade school years.

The Boxcar Children

A series about four inventive children...kind of like my family.  This series never failed to provide many adventure ideas for me to inflict upon my siblings

Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective

This was essentially a child version of Sherlock Holmes.  A boy who is very observant and able to put the pieces together in an ingenious fashion.  I always loved trying to solve the mystery before the end of the story.

So that is my list of my favorite series when I was in grade school.  These are the series I read and reread over and over again far into the night.  With school starting again, I think I will pull a couple of these out to read again.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Nostalgia For The Old Reading Days

I've been lucky enough to have some extra reading time last week, and it kind of makes me nostalgic for my younger years.  I miss the years that when I was done with homework and chores that I literally had nothing I had to do other then read.  My parents were big on limiting the TV and other screen time, leaving me a TON of time to read.  My best memories of this time of year are going to the library with the family, picking up a stack of books and racing home to finish chores.  I would then take advantage of the perfect weather to curl up in my Mamma's amazing backyard (which helping to create and upkeep was part of the chores I had to finish) on the big swing in the late afternoon/early evening.

The air was full of apple blossoms (or little green apples depending on what month it was), the ocean and growing things.  There was always a breeze and the mountain panorama completed the idyllic scene.  Now I know this all sounds a little to perfect, but there were seriously enough nights like this to stick very clearly in my mind.  Now to be fair, I still have an awesome reading chair by the porch doors that overlook an impossibly picturesque river AND I am now allowed to add wine to my reading drinks, so my reading time is still pretty awesome.  It just feels like now I have so many obligations and distractions...some of them my own fault (stupid Netflix, Xbox, and computer games!).  I think what I miss the most though is the sheer abandon that I had when I was younger, I could pick up a book and lose all track of time, not coming up for air until one of my parents or siblings hauled me to bed...where I usually continued reading.  Now, even when all my stuff is done and I am in one of my designated reading periods in the back of my mind real life tends to intrude.  I'm not complaining per say, just reminiscing...Happy Reading Everybody!

Story Room

I love the fact that all of my nephews love to read or be read too!  I think reading is one of the absolute best gifts we can give our children...I know it has made my life amazing.  In that vein here are some libraries that are using their resources to make reading spaces that inspire and revel in the magic of reading.

Brentwood TN

I need somebody to come to my house right now and build this for me...I'm waiting :-)

Om Tio Tretton

I could probably live in this Swedish Childrens library forever and ever...especially with my new fluffy birthday blankie

Central Library Kansas City MO

Is it bad when you can't even get to the bookshelves because your too busy reading the walls?

Park Falls WI

I want to grab a cup of coffee, a bunch of pillows and a great MG book and curl up in this tree of awesomeness!

Camarillo CA

How could you not feel a sense of magic and adventure waiting for you behind those doors?

These are just a few of the magical places the kids (and maybe their awesome aunts?) can go and get lost in the wonder of books.  I hope we continue to make the effort to show kids what an amazing thing a book can be...also if you need me I'll be in one of these libraries rediscovering my favorite childhood books.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Anne With An E

Hello all, I hope you are all getting ready to enjoy a wonderful weekend.  I know I am, I get to spend it in New York!!!!!!  The weather here is amazing and springlike and that of course means it is time to drag out my spring books (finally!)  This year my first spring book is an oldie but goodie, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  This book has been a favorite of mine for years and may be the reason I have an undying love for red hair.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

We'll get through this synopsis pretty quick as the book is less of an overall story then it is a bunch of incidents tied together, but here we go.  Shy and quiet Matthew and his stern old maid of a sister Marilla Cuthbert have decided to adopt a little boy to help with all the work at Green Gables.  Now that both siblings are getting on in years they think it is the best possible solution.  They send word via a friend and off Matthew goes to pick up their new boy, but imagine his surprise when instead a bright, imaginative chatter box of a girl awaits him instead.  He brings her home and after a bit of thought he and Marilla decide to keep her.  Almost instantly this poor little orphan red-head who insists her name be spelled Anne with an E gets herself into trouble.  The first sign of her over the topness comes when Mrs. Rachel Lynde, a well meaning, sharp tongued gossip calls Anne, homely and ugly and Anne flies of the handle.  Her apology turns out to be the most elaborate and eloquent speech anybody in little Avonlea has probably ever heard.  She meets her

life long bosom friend Diana Barry and quickly engages this sturdy girl in her imaginary games...sometimes to the point of belief.  They start school together and Anne is humiliated by Gilbert Blythe, a boy in her class who calls her Carrots, because of her hair, causing the temperamental Anne to break a slate over his head.  This and a later completely unfair punishment by a crappy teacher cause Anne to study from home.  During this time Diana is invited over to tea, that Anne is allowed to supervise on her own.  This results in Diana getting drunk when she accidental drinks three glasses of current wine instead what she thought was raspberry cordial.   This latest incident causes the strict Mrs. Barry to ban Diana from being friends with Anne.  Anne goes back to school and soldiers on.  Winter comes and Diana's little sister comes down very sick while her parents are out of town and Anne's quick thinking saves her life and allows her friendship with Diana to be restored.  As Anne grows up, her scrapes become less childish and more of a personal nature.  There is the never ending feud with Gilbert Blythe for top marks in class, her dream of reciting on stage, and a new found ambition of getting through Queens, a school that certifies teachers.  Anne wins the coveted scholarship, but ends up delaying college when her dear Matthew dies, leaving Marilla alone to run the farm.  Gilbert gives up the Avonlea school so Anne can stay at Green Gables, this has the pleasant side effect of finally becoming friends with Anne. Thus ends the first book of our little red headed dreamer.

Of course there is much more to this book, but with the way it is written it is just one incident after another that flows right into the next.  I love the Anne books, especially this first one. I identify with Anne so much, the day dreaming, the love of pretty things, the reading, the horror of the plain and ordinary, the imagining.  Everything about this little girl speaks to me.  I remember first reading these books when I was about 8 years old and thinking "this girl is me....I wish I had red hair".  Now I wasn't a poor orphan, I had two

wonderful parents and a whole ton of siblings, but sometimes when I had to do chores I would pull an Anne and pretend I was :-)  This book is simple,sweet and beautiful and I love reading it any time I am down in the dumps.  Even the sad parts (which are very few and very far between) have a bittersweet wistfulness to them that cannot destroy the positive affect these books have on me.  My only teeny tiny complaint is that it can be a bit repetitive, going back over what was just written and reminding the reader, but it is something I can live with.  I love that Anne is adventurous and smart and at the same time just wants to be pretty and have pretty things.  She is sweet and kind and a chatterbox (my nickname growing up) and impulsive and I love her like she was my bosom friend.  I recommend this to any body down in dumps, or just wants a sweet simple book.  I give it 8 out of 10 carrots
What was one of the first book characters you identified with?  Have you ever changed your appearance to mimic a beloved character?  Does it surprise you at all that I am an incessant chatterbox?

Who Knew Peppermints Could Be So Dangerous

Hello my lovely readers, I have finally dug myself out of the snow.  It has been a crazy week involving a lot of snow, a lot of station time, and not a whole lot of blog rambling, my most humble apologies.  I did however manage to squeeze in all kinds of reading time, which besides making me a very happy shut in, makes it possible for me to ramble my little brains out for a couple of posts.  I was also in a very nostalgic mood so I found a couple of books from back in my first library days to keep me company.  Peppermints in the Parlor is a middle grade book I recall rechecking out several times.  It was always a wee bit confusing to me, but it had a spunky girl and a mean old lady and that was one of my favorite story lines growing up.  Without further ado and SPOILERS AHEAD on with the rambling.

Emily Luccock has lost both her parents in a tragic boating accident and she is being sent to live with her Aunt and Uncle Twice, so called because her aunt is her mothers sister, and her uncle is her fathers brother, and when they married they became Emily's Aunt and Uncle twice over.  Though sad at her parents passing, Emily is excited to live with her aunt and uncle, recalling the wonderful times she had at Sugar Hill Hall, the parties, the beauty and splendor, the love of her aunt and uncle.  Emily arrives on a foggy evening in San Francisco and instead of being greeted by her glorious aunt and uncle, is forced to wait for hours until she is picked up.  At first Emily does now recognize her aunt, who has gone from a famous beauty, to a washed out, tired and scared woman.  Aunt Twice tells Emily that she must do exactly as she is told no matter how hard.  When they finally get to Sugar Hill Hall, Emily is horrified to see it in the hands of a snake like woman by the name of Mrs. Meeching who makes it very clear that she considers Emily no more then a common scullery maid. In the front parlor is a huge bowl of Emily's favorite treat, shiny, red and white peppermints.  She is informed under no circumstances is she to ever take one.  Aunt Twice takes Emily through the house, which has lost most of its splendor, through the industrial kitchen to the cellars where she is given a tiny
room, more like a cell really.  Aunt Twice tells Emily that she is a prisoner in her own home forced to work to keep somebody alive.  She will not give Emily any other details and begs her not to ask questions.  Emily is then handed over to Tilly, the rough young maid who is thrilled to finally have somebody beneath her.  Tilly goes back and forth between being Emily's friend, and being mean.  Emily's first task is to help Tilly with supper, which consists of a thin grey soup and moldy bread lumps.  These are given to the dozen or so old people who live in the mansion now.  Mrs. Meeching has turned Sugar Hill Hall into a old folks home.  The residents are silent and barely pick at their unappetizing food.  Emily notices that one resident is missing and is informed that the resident had stolen a peppermint and is now locked in the Room of Remembrance for punishment.  After the residents are fed Tilly and Emily go back to their own portion of soup and moldy bread, forced to watch as Aunt Twice prepares a huge feast of the most lucious foods for Mrs. Meeching and her cohort Mrs. Plumly, the grandmother like, knitting one of the pair.  Emily also meets Kipper, a fishermans son who while doing the occasional odd job for the Hall does what he can to help Emily.  Eventually Emily decides that since she can't help her self or her aunt, she will help the old people.  She starts slipping them fish oil so that they have appetites enough to eat the disgusting food, forcing Mrs.

Meeching to get them fresh food.  Emily and Kipper smuggle a kitten up to the old folks, along with some hobby supplies.  This helps to awaken the older folks, and Emily learns just how feisty they can be.  Mrs. Plumly has taken a couple opportunities to smuggle Emily to her rooms and feed her tea and cakes, she tells Emily that she too is a prisoner in the Hall, albeit a luckier one then Emily or her Aunt.  These visits continue as Emily continues to help the old people.  One horrible day Emily, Kipper and the old folks are all caught and Emily is sent to the Room of Remembrance.  Kipper finds a way to unlock her cell and they discover a trapdoor and tunnel that leads to a seedy tavern.  Their they discover that it is actually the sweet Mrs. Plumly who is in charge, slipping Emily truth serum in her tea to discover what she is up too.  They also discover that the old folks home is just a front for a smuggling operation.  Emily is summoned to Kippers house to hear the confession of an old sea captain who says he framed her Uncle Twice for a murder and used it as blackmail to get the Sugar Hill Hall.  It is all resolved, Mrs. Meeching and Mrs. Plumly are arrested after they are trapped by peppermint pelting old folk, and Aunt and Uncle Twice are reunited.  The family and the old folks, Tilly and Kipper all get their happy ending.

When I was in elementary and middle school, I had a thing for books about poor orphan girls and cruel mistresses that kept them locked up and enslaved, I am not sure why this trope appealed to me so much, but there you have it.  This book like I said was full on nostalgia for me, I remember reading it back when I was 8 or 9 and loving it.  The heroine is great because she does not start all spit and fire, and in fact has to dig pretty deep to keep herself from cracking.  I loved that when she realized that she could not immediately help herself or her aunt that she decided to help the old folks instead. Her initial reaction was always one of kindness, which seems to be lacking in some of the newer books.  I liked for the most part how the older people were portrayed, at first beaten down by the cruel Mrs. Meeching, but they themselves rallied and

became individuals again.  I liked how they reminded Emily that they too were people, with talents and lives. I love love love the character of Tilly, she is probably one of the more realistic characters in this fairly straight forward trope tale.  She is constantly torn between wanting Emily as a friend, and trying to be a good person as far as she knows how and doing her best to get ahead in the world.  She is glad to finally not be the low man on the totem pole and give Emily all the crap jobs, while enjoying the slim perks of what she considers more senior jobs.  She eventually proves herself a faithful, if somewhat rough friend and finds a place with Emily and her family.  Kipper acts at the semi-plausible way for Emily to solver her problems, that along with a gold coin gets her all the supplies she needs to make this story possible, I also love that every other sentence out of his mouth starts with "As Pa always says".  The ending is still a bit confusing for me, seeming to add characters and circumstances that appear out of nowhere to try and make sense of Uncle Twice's disappearance and the reasoning behind Aunt Twice's servitude.  Overall the book is pretty straight forward, sticking with a formula that works, while adding some great characters and just enough creepiness to keep you turning the pages. This is a quick read for most of us and is completely suitable for the 9 and up crowd. I give it 7 out of 10 peppermints.
What books do you remember rereading as a kid?  Do you find it hard to track down these books?  Are you ever disappointed when you reread your childhood favorites?  Is it funny that a grown woman is reading children's books and loving them?

Really Rosie

I have been having the most wonderful time this last week playing Aunt to all of my nephews and nieces, both blood and adopted.  We have been singing, dancing, farting, laughing, and telling silly stories.  All of this silliness and laughter makes me think of my Mamma, mostly because she is the one who taught us that silliness is what makes the world go round :-)  One of my most distinct memories of growing up is listening to my mom sing the songs from Really Rosie a TV special based on the books in the Nutshell Library

Sadly the recording of the show is only on VHS, but the songs are available for purchase. I remember Really Rosie being inventive and loud and fun...just like my Mamma.  The stories in this collection are awesome, my favorite being Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue.  Mamma played the lion in this story when she was in school and we used to love to listen to her gobble up the troublesome Pierre.  These books were written by Maurice Sendak of Where the Wild Things Are fame.  I think everybody needs to get a set of these books pronto and find the nearest kid and read them out loud, cause these are the type of books best read out loud.

What childhood books remind you of a certain loved one?  Do you have a shelf solely dedicated to nostalgic books of your past?  How sucky is it that I can't find this on DVD?!?!?

Narnia Forever

Ok last Narnia post for a while, I promise.  I was looking back over The Last Battle post and noticed it was kind of depressing and that is not how I want to end my great Narnia reread.  So I will use this opportunity to ramble on about the series as a whole in a completely disjointed all over the place manner.
Obviously the main reason I love this series for me is that it was my introduction to reading, my first glimpse of the fantasy genre, and my first understanding what good writing was.  I was honestly around 6 years old when I read these for my self the first time and they have stuck with me ever since.  These are the books that helped shape my taste in reading, let me use my imagination, and taught me I could fall in love with places and people that only exist as ink on a page. Even at that young age, books affected my mood and daily living.  I remember after finishing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (LWW) I was so excited.  I was pushing on the back of every closet I could find, I would make up games where we would defeat the white witch, my siblings were so sick of playing Narnia games I was always Susan (she was always my favorite) and since there were four of us I would make my brother Peter, one sister Lucy, and the other poor sister had to be Edwina (a female version of Edmund) :-).

I moved on to Prince Caspian (PC) and got my first hit of book melancholy.  I was so sad that everything my friends (because at this point Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were without a doubt my friends) had held dear was gone, so many years had passed that all there friends were dead, and the things that made Narnia so magical were hunted to near extinction.  When at the end of the book Peter and Susan were told they could never come back, I was crushed.  On the happy side I also got my first book crush and for the longest time whenever we played games that required a prince, mine was always Caspian. I picked up The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (VDT) hoping to make myself feel better and man did I fall hard.  If there is a book that I am actually in love with this may be the one. Getting away from the actual country of Narnia was helpful in healing my poor bruised soul.  The introduction of Eustace gave me the feeling that the adventures would always continue.  I continued my love affair with Prince Caspian and my love of the ocean and pirates was probably born with this book.
This is the book that restored my hope in further adventures.  The Silver Chair (SC) continued the adventures, showing me new places, new people, and new ways to get to Narnia.  Now instead of just pushing on the back of closets, I would open every door, gate, peek into every hole.  This really kicked my exploring tendency into high gear.  The Horse and His Boy (HHB) took me back to my favorite time in Narnia, with the original four children.  Gave me a glimpse of the lands beyond Narnia proper and got me thinking of about the different ways people are raised. The Magicians Nephew (MN) is the perfect mix of everyday life and magic.  I loved the idea that Narnia was not the only other magical world.  This book very much inspired me to go beyond this series and see what else was out there, that magic was endless and there are always new worlds being created.  My little brain was overloaded with all the connections I was seeing to previous books, the lamppost, how the witch got there.  This may have also started my obsession with magic sparkly jewelry.
The Last Battle (LB) taught me that with all the joy that books can bring, they can also make you miserable.  I remember moping around for weeks after finishing this book.  My poor parents could not figure out why I cried myself to sleep for a couple nights after finishing it.  My young brain had a hard time separating what I was feeling from the book and what was happening in real life. I still remember the trauma of it every time I read it.
These were the reactions I very clearly remember having the first time I read them. I have read them all (even LB) several times over the years and many of those initial reactions remain, the magic and wonder, the melancholy, the thrill of discovery, the trauma, but as my life has progressed I have also picked up on some other things.  I have decided I like the way C.S. Lewis deals with girls.  He is constrained to some degree by the time period, but he never makes them weak.  He keeps the balance between chivalry and practicality quit well.  More often then not he has his female characters dressing in armour along with the men and boys and heading into battle.  He does sometimes purposely separate them out and take them away from the whole sale slaughter portions of the battles, but always to go on an important mission that usually saves the boys butts, not to be sheltered and protected.  I also like that he tends to give his females a choice.  I remember in particular in HHB Queen Susan is one of the best archers in the land, but she chooses to stay out of battle, preferring not to get involved and stay on the social/political side of things.  Queen Lucy on the other hand is not nearly as skilled in combat, but chooses to be part of the battle anyways.  The author makes both of these decisions equally ok, neither of the girls is derided for wanting to be feminine, nor for wanting to act like a man.  Through out the series we see females both good and evil, always able to make their own choices.  He does not equate beauty with weakness, nor does he make his characters choose one over the other.  There is several times a female character will purposely be up to her knees in mud fighting injustice and then in the next scene be excited over the pretty dress she gets to wear.  I love characters who are allowed to be all these things.  I love the male characters as well, even if

they are a bit more traditional in nature.  I love that almost all the characters have a growth arc, weather they are the children, the royals, or the magical entities nobody is written as perfect. I also love the role choice plays in all of these books, I am a huge proponent of giving everybody a choice in life, and also being responsible for the choices you make.  These books are fantastic at showing how the choice a single person makes can effect so many other people, whether you mean for it to or not.  I love the variety of places the author sends us, I love how he has a culture for every place you go.  Given some of the cultures may come across a bit stereo-typical/borderline racist, I will give him a itty bitty bit of leeway considering the time period he wrote it in, but it is a good discussion point when reading this with other people.  As traumatizing as it is, I do love that you essentially get to see the whole entire history and Narnia, from it's very creation in MN to it's brutal and violent ending in LB.  I do not know of any other series that does this.

Ok ok ok I'm done now.  I just needed to put down on paper/screen/bytes my complicated lifelong feelings for a series of 7 short books that have changed my life for the better.  Thanks for hanging in there with me, I know I can be incoherent and gushy and messy, but it's just my undying love spewing all over the place :-)
What was the first book/series that changed your life?  Do you identify with characters a bit to much like I do?  Have you ever had to remember that the book isn't real, these people and places don't actually exist?  When was the last time you checked the back of your coat closet?

The Last Of Everything

Finished The Last Battle, took me a while, but it is all finished now. I rarely read the this last book in the Chronicles of Narnia because it always makes me sad.  The whole tone of the book is pretty dark and depressing, and even the glorious ending cannot make up for the permanent loss of the character I always identified with the most.  This is not to say this is not a great book, a good ending to the best series ever written (in my most humble opinion), but it still makes me sad.

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert

Here's how the end of Narnia happens.  We start out our final story with an Ape named Shift and a donkey named Puzzle. Shift is a cunning, conniving, manipulative talking ape who has a tyrannical relationship with the slow and sweet Puzzle.  One day they find a lion skin, which Shift convinces Puzzle to wear as a coat.  Shift figures out that they can use this disguise to trick the rest of the Narnians into believing that Aslan is back and use this belief to get the things he wants.  Meanwhile King Tirian, the last of the Narnian King's (although he does not yet know this) is relaxing with his best friend, the unicorn Jewel when he brought news of the wholesale slaughter of the forests Dryads.  Tirian is furious and vows to make things right.  

He and Jewel leave to find out who dares to cut down the sacred tree's of the forest.  What they find is Calormen from the south using Talking Beast as labor to cut down the forest.  Tirian is told that this is all done on the order of Aslan who has returned to Narnia at last.  Tirian has a hard time believing that Aslan would ever order the harm of his own people and he decides to investigate further.  Tirian eventually comes to blows with a Calormen guard and kills him in a fight.  Tirian feeling that if the guard was only acting on Aslan's orders, he did not deserve to be killed, so the young king turns himself in to be judged by Aslan.  Jewel accompanies him and both are held captive.  As the night wears on Tirian hears and sees things that lead him to believe that the Aslan that is supposedly giving these insane orders is really a false Aslan.  King Tirian calls upon the true Aslan to send him aid as he had in dire times past.  Jill and Eustace, two children from our world who helped rescue the enchanted Prince Rilian.  The children free the king and make their escape to a tower that has been stocked and readied for just this purpose.  The children and the king arm themselves and  sneak back to rescue Jewel and attempt to find out about the false Aslan.  Jill manages to free Puzzle, who is still wearing the lion skin and being presented as Aslan against his will.  With this proof of fraud, the king hopes to win his people back to his side and free his country from the Calormens.  The group run into a bunch of dwarfs being held captive 

by a few Calormens and set about freeing them.  Instead of being grateful and joining back with the rightful king, the dwarfs declare themselves free of any king and decide to rule themselves.  The dwarf Poggin is the only one to remain loyal to the king.  The next day as they are headed back to show the Narnians the fake Aslan and hopefully raise an army.  On the way back they are intercepted by Farsight the Eagle who bears dire news.  The castle Cair Paravel has been taken by the Calormens and the Narnians all slaughtered.  Tirian feels a sense of dread and doom, feeling that Narnia is set to perish.  They arrive at the site of the Stable where Shift had been passing Puzzle off as Aslan, and hear them telling the group that the violent and bloody god of the Calormens Tash, and the great Lion Aslan are one and the same and are to be called Tashlan.  A battle ensues and the group is pushed into the stables, were the Calormens intend to burn them alive as an offering to Tash.  After a bloody battle in which many friends loose their lives, Trilian is finally pushed into the stable, but instead of a small dark stable, he finds himself in an open sunlight land in the company of seven other people.  The people turn out to be Digory Kirke, Polly Plumber, Peter, Edumund and Lucy Pevensie, and of course Jill and Eustace.  Susan is not present, because she no longer believes in Narnia, preferring instead to think it was all a game they played in their younger days.  In this land they meet Aslan and watch the destruction of Narnia and it's surrounding lands.  

At first everybody is sad and mourns the loss of their land, but soon realize that the land they are in, is actually a brighter, cleaner, happier version of Narnia.  Aslan leads them further into this new land and they start to meet friends and family who have died, or been dead for a very long time.  They eventually all meet at the garden the Digory plucked the apple from in The Magicians Nephew and Aslan explains that they were all killed in a train accident and they are essentially in Heaven.  Aslan also informs them that they can meet with their family their as this country connects all places in existence.  The book ends saying everybody lived happier then we could ever imagine, and that happiness will last forever.

Like I said earlier the tone of this whole book is pretty dark as far as the rest of the books are concerned.  Compared to a lot of other books it is still pretty tame, but it is not what you would expect after reading the other books.  Of all the books in the series I think this one probably has the most overt religious tone to it, but to me not so much that it detracts from the story.  I like how the author wraps everything up in one neat package, bringing together all the characters, places and stories into one grand finale.  I thought it was pretty brave of him to essentially kill everybody and everything, including his own world.  I know this review sounds a little stilted and choppy, but...well....I kinda hate this book. Not in a don't read it because it's badly written, or is objectionable, or anything like that.  I just hate the idea that it has to end.  I know the ending implies that Narnia lives on in Aslan's country, but it is still sad to think that if
Narnia ever did really exist it is gone now.  I think reading this last book (remember I was only like 6 years old) crushed any hope that my young self had of ever actually getting into Narnia (not that it stopped me from pushing the back of every coat closet I found).  The destruction of the world in the book, meant that no other children from our world would ever be able to go their.  I knew that it wasn't a real place, but especially being that young you always wanted to have the hope that maybe, just maybe places like that did exist. To have this world that I was in love with be destroyed was a bit soul crushing to my young self.  Every time I reread it (which isn't often) I still feel a bit of my 6 year old soul wither just a bit.  My other issue with it is Susan being unable maintain her belief in Narnia.  As the oldest girl in my family, I always identified with Susan and her bossy ways and it came as one more blow to me that she ended up not being able to hang on her belief.  I understand why the author put that scenario in, he was trying to make a point about belief in general, but it still sucks.  Ok enough with the depressive reviewing. As much as I personally hated the book (which isn't really true, I don't hate it, it just makes me sad), the reason is because I love this series so much and any reminder that it ever has to end is just not cool.  I will do a series summation soon 'cause this post has gotten completely out of control.  Happy reading everybody.

Have you ever read a book you hated because it was the end?  Have you ever had your soul crushed by a book?  Do I invest way to much of my emotional self into my reading for being a supposedly sane "adult"?