BfK Books About Children’s Books


Children’s Literature and Social Change. Some Case Studies from Barbara Hofland to Philip Pullman


HHHH


Dennis Butts, Lutterworth Press, 210pp, 978 0 7188 9208 1, £25.00 pbk


Dennis Butts has been writing about children’s literature for many years, and this present book brings together some of his occasional pieces now woven into a chronological order. He is par ticularly interesting on the vogue for flying stories, and also writes well about the nineteenth centur y, pointing out that the technological developments occurring around 1840 made this a far more impor tant watershed for children’s literature than the 1860s and the publication of The Water-Babies and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Moving onwards, I think he exaggerates the potential for anarchy in Richmal Crompton’s William books, given that this juvenile hero is never any real threat to the comfortable living conditions enjoyed by Mr and Mrs Brown and their various neighbours. Some more proof reading would also have helped, with the final


‘e’ on Graham Greene’s name wandering over to Eleanor Graham’s surname. But these quibbles apart, this well researched study is interesting as well as easy to read, and should be most useful for the increasing amount of students now following this subject.


NT School Blues HHHH


Daniel Pennac, trans. Sarah Ardizzone, Maclehose Press, 288pp, 978 1 906694 64 7, £16.99 hbk


Daniel Pennac worked as a secondary school teacher for 25 years in the French banlieues, those anonymous and sometimes restless tracts of high rise flats which lie beyond the urban ring- roads. The context is sufficiently different from our own that the excellent translator of his book felt she must provide brief notes on the French education system – this is not, then, a teacher’s guidebook offering directly transferable advice for classroom practice.


Pennac is much concerned with those students for whom the system seems irrelevant – including himself, for he sees his schooldays self, in the term which echoes through these reflections, as a ‘dunce’. School Blues is not a


sequentially ordered autobiography, but it does draw with intensity upon Pennac’s own journey, his gradual sense of becoming (a key notion for him). He writes, for example, about two or three teachers who saw in him what he could not see himself – people who refused to let him drift by; and about the shaping influence of a love relationship in early manhood upon himself as a learner. He is committed to processes – and not only the processes of classroom interaction, for he will step aside from his explorations of adolescents and their schooling to examine his own processes – his honesty, his motives – now, at this moment, in the writing of this present book. When he writes of the content of his lessons with his students – students he sometimes calls ‘remedial’ – we might well be surprised by his use of rigorous grammatical


‘parsing’,


dictation, and rote learning of passages of literature. These are not exercises from text books, however, for they are devised from the circumstances of the dynamic moment – right now, as it were – in the classroom; and they are means to ends. Pennac is a constant watcher, learning and speculating about his students. He is looking, in the long run, for his hesitant, often confused and angry students to know themselves better as learners. It is not the parsing


which is of final importance, for ‘you are the subject matter of all subject matters’ (he is given to aphorisms, often in rhetorical conversations with his students). It is in his musings upon students and classrooms that British readers might find reassurance, inspiration and provocation.


When things get harsh, not to say devoid of sense, we teachers have always needed to be reminded of the values which Pennac affirms. In the exploratory 60s and 70s, we found them in books like John Holt’s How Children Fail or Paddy Creber’s Lost for Words. They were hard to glimpse during the worst impositions of the National Curriculum in the late 80s and the 90s, more the fault of lunacies such as the Literacy Hour than the documents themselves. Now, no sooner had our departing govern- ment discovered ‘creativity’ than we are faced with an Education Minister determined to make his mark by throwing money at schools already deemed ‘Outstanding’ while reneging on well-advanced building program- mes for special schools with no access for wheelchairs. If we are heading into an even Madder World, My Masters, Pennac’s book could well help teachers to remember why they joined in the first place.


GF Under 5s Pre-School/Nursery/Infant Bedtime Hullabaloo! HHH


David Conway, ill. Charles Fuge, Hodder, 32pp, 978 0 340 98125 2, £10.99 hbk


On the Silly Savannah cheetah and giraffe each have a bed with a counterpane to match their markings. But neither of them can sleep for a terrible racket HHHZZZ-ZZZ! Cheetah leads the hunt for the culprit with giraffe, baboon, a hat-wearing hyena and a ukulele-playing meerkat in the vanguard. What mighty animal could possibly be making such a noise? None other than a tiny shrew…


Charles Fuge paints the animals in a realistic style heightening the droll and bizarre impact of the illustrations. The text is big, bold and a pleasure to read aloud, starting out as prose and breaking into rhyme with plenty of alliteration, onomatopoeia and repe- tition throughout to add to the fun. JB


Ants in Your Pants! HHH


Julia Jarman, ill. Guy Parker-Rees, Orchard, 32pp, 978 1 40830 524 9, £10.99 hbk


Leopard was organising his birthday party, a somewhat exclusive one and definitely not for aardvarks or ants. Aardvark doesn’t mind not being invited but not so the ants; they gate-crash the


party. Their favourite game soon sees a plethora of pants whirling through the air and the ant-eating antics of the aardvarks (who just happen to be passing) very much in demand.


Just the mention of bare bums and knickers is enough to provoke a paroxysm of giggles from your average three- or four-year-old – most certainly so from my audiences of under fives. However, the rhyming text needs careful perusal to ensure a smooth recitation as it does tend to creak in places. Parker-Rees uses dayglo colours to create a comical confection of curiously clad creatures and ants behaving badly.


JB The Fly HHHHH


Petr Horácek, Walker, 32pp, 978 1 4063 1392 5, £10.99 novelty hbk


‘It’s me! The House Fly. But people don’t like me...’


Written entirely from the point of view of a fly, one of nature’s less appealing creatures, this picture book is striking and original and likely to involve young readers and listeners in a real dilemma. A creature cannot help doing what is natural for it, can it? The fly is puzzled that its everyday activities – landing on food and constantly moving and buzzing – offend others. The impact of the book is considerable


20 Books for Keeps No.184 September 2010


because of the way text and pictures are arranged on the page. There is effective use of some comic book conventions including speech bubbles, picture series and print which sometimes wanders over the page to show the fly’s flight. The large, distinctive illustrations show the world as a fly would see it. The cows which are so irritated by the fly’s attentions are wonderfully pictured as they gaze balefully out of the pages, and the series of pictures showing the boy trying to swat the fly will amuse.


Hugely inviting, and likely to encourage lively talk, I think this promises to be a firm favourite if not a classic. The ending is gloriously dynamic and young readers and listeners will love the final joke. MM


Bumping Buffalo HHH


Mwenye Hadithi, ill. Adrienne Kennaway, Hodder, 32pp, 978 0 340 98935 7, £10.99 hbk


Buffalo runs around the savannah annoying the animals. They tell him to stop, but he does not listen. Eventually he gets his comeuppance. This animal fable has a convincing narrative tone coupled with excellent illustrations. The use of native African species with wonderful names (Toothbrush bush, Pepper-bark tree, Baobub tree) adds to the authenticity of the story. The painterly illustrations are strong, with


a bold style. Animals are well depicted, with a lovely use of eyes to convey emotion and character. This is a delightful book that manages to bring the African grasslands to life vividly.


VRe My Sister is an Alien HHHH


Rachel Bright, Puffin, 32pp, 978 0 14 150265 6, £6.99 pbk


Alfie has somewhat limited interests in life: aliens, rockets, and the moon. And when new sister Ruby arrives, he couldn’t care less – or so he thinks. She is, however, interesting in that she looks, sounds and most importantly, smells like an alien, so he decides to take her back to where she came from. Donning his space suit and gathering provisions for the journey, Alfie packs himself and Ruby into his rocket and off they go. Will Alfie be able to leave Ruby on the moon with all the other friendly little aliens, or will he decide that perhaps she should come back home with him ‘for just a little bit longer’? Of course they return to earth and Alfie learns that Ruby is even more impor tant to him than aliens, the moon and rockets. The quirkily humorous illustrations present people and events from the perspective of Alfie’s world – mum and dad’s feet appear, for example, not their whole bodies. Text is used wittily to reinforce Alfie’s absorption and lots


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