REVIEWERS IN THIS ISSUE BfK
Brian Alderson is founder of the Children’s Books History Society and a former Children’s Books Editor for The Times. Gwynneth Bailey is a freelance education and children’s book consultant. Jill Bennett is the author of Learning to Read with Picture Books and heads up a nursery unit. Fen Coles is co-director at Letterbox Library. Jane Churchill is a children’s book consultant. Stuart Dyer is an Head Teacher of a primary school in East Devon. Geoff Fox is former Co-Editor (UK) of Children’s Literature in Education, but continues to work on the board and as an occasional teller of traditional tales. Sarah Gallagher is a headteacher and director of
Storyshack.org www.storyshack.org Ferelith Hordon is a former children’s librarian and editor of Books for Keeps Carey Fluker Hunt is a writer and children’s book consultant. Helen Kelsey is a primary school teacher and leads an OU/UKLA Teachers’ Reading Group Matthew Martin is a primary school teacher.
Sue McGonigle is a Lecturer in Primary Education and Co-Creator of
www.lovemybooks.co.uk Margaret Pemberton is a school library consultant and blogs at
margaretpemberton.edublogs.org. Val Randall is Head of English and Literacy Co-ordinator at a Pupil Referral Unit. Andrea Reece is Managing Editor of Books for Keeps. Sue Roe is a children’s librarian. Elizabeth Schlenther is the compiler of
www.healthybooks.org.uk Nicholas Tucker is honorary senior lecturer in Cultural and Community Studies at Sussex University. Clare Zinkin is a children’s book consultant, writer and editor.
Books About Children’s Books
The Making of Lewis Carroll’s Alice and the Invention of Wonderland
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Peter Hunt, Bodleian Library 128pp, illustrated throughout in black and white and colour, 978-1-85124-532-1, £15 pbk with flaps
As has long been known, the adventures of Alice Liddell, daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, began when she was the heroine of a story, or stories, told by the Rev. Charles Dodgson, a Christ Church lecturer. The narrative was stabilised when Dodgson
took Alice Under
Ground in a manuscript that he wrote out and illustrated for her as a Christmas present in 1864. A year later this found a much expanded form as a printed book for all to read: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with Dodgson adopting his authorial name of
Lewis Carroll. Invention
and making did not occur only there however
taken to the chess-board landscape Through
and in 1871 Alice was the Looking-Glass while
eighteen years later she returned
to Wonderland in a highly abridged journey intended for reading to, or even by, small children. Merely to describe these authorial
metamorphoses as a critical exercise is a demanding task, but from the very start
the text is more than
just an absurdist story for children. It is overlaid with multiple tropes stemming from the author’s life and relationships around Oxford and by a multiplicity of jokes, puns, parodies and puzzles.
Including a tithe of
these in a simple explanation of the adventures, intended, as here, for general readers is a demanding job. Peter Hunt admits as much in his highly perceptive
although it should be noted that he is by no means the first to venture into the dream landscapes down the rabbit-hole or across the chess- board squares beyond the
mirror.
Hundreds have been there before him in annotated editions of the stories, in biographical studies, in the massive output of the English and American Lewis Carroll Societies (don’t mention Japan) and even in his own annotated edition
of the books in Oxford’s
World’s Classics series. In the event though I’m not sure
but what his new take on the books will not
confuse most innocent
readers as well as deprive them of important elements in the business of making and inventing. He is always a most approachable writer, enjoying the amusing aspects of his task and always ready to question Received Ideas, but he too often allows himself to be diverted into irrelevant by-ways. (How do the listing of the names and ages of
actresses who have introduction
played Alice help the job in hand, or [a makeweight?] brief biographies of some of the dramatis personae in the book? What’s the use of a misleading
synopsis of some didactic children’s books published before Alice mostly cribbed
from Harvey Darton’s
historical work?) These and other unnecessary passages are the more frustrating in that they obscure a second aspect of the making of the books: their life as physical products. (Hunt omits mention in his “Further Reading” of two crucial books in this respect: Lewis Carroll and the House of Macmillan [1987] and
Michael
Hancher’s The Tenniel Illustrations to the “Alice” Books [1985].) Tenniel is indeed the main sufferer here for although
predictable aspects are
discussed such as the “Wasp in a Wig” incident or the character of the White Knight, there is nothing on either his techniques or his vision throughout
the project. Indeed,
spurred on initially by Carroll’s own thirty-seven drawings for Under Ground, he is surely himself the Inventor of Wonderland. (Ask yourself: what would have been the fate of Alice’s Adventures if it had been published as a plain text edition?) As it is, the illustrations that
adorn the present volume do great credit to its intentions as a popular summary. They appear, often in full colour, on almost every page of the book, sometimes on facing pages as well, and they are not only relevant and entertaining but, thanks mostly to Christ Church and the Bodleian itself, seldom paraded in Carolliana (the many coloured adaptations of Tenniel are from some facsimile playing cards devised by E Gertrude Thomson in Bodley’s John Johnson Collection). Pernicketty to the last though, I must point out that the Struwwelpeter plate should be dated after 1906 rather than 1985 and that the mysterious Humpty Dumpty on page 95 needs a date. BA
Under 5s Pre – School/Nursery/Infant
Arlo, the Lion Who Couldn’t Sleep
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Catherine Rayner, Macmillan, 36pp, 9781509804207, £12.99 hbk
How do you get to sleep when you
cannot; the conditions are just not right? Arlo would love to know – he is so tired. Luckily Owl has the answer – a little rhyme that sets the mood perfectly – and without any more fuss, Arlo falls asleep. Indeed, the little rhyme is so effective, Arlo is able to help his friends when their sleep is interrupted, whether it is Owl in the daytime – or the whole pride of lions in the night. Perfect Catherine Rayner’s vigorous pen strokes capture the size and energy
22 Books for Keeps No.243 July 2020
of Arlo but are artfully softened for Owl’s feathery weight, bringing both creatures to life. They dominate the pages, solid, active – or slumped in sleep. Rayner has given them real
background
presence. Their world is a created
by luminous
vibrant watercolour washes that are both subtle and precise. From the opening cover spread of the dawn with the trees emerging from the early morning mist to the closing end papers where they recede into darkness, we follow Arlo across the wide expanse of a savannah world. The text is a pleasure to read – ideal for sharing with a class, even more perfect for bedtime, with the lilting bedtime rhyme (surely this will become a staple it is so catchy). Here
is a picture book where words and images work together perfectly. (My only reservation – on the final spread the choice of font colour makes the text very difficult to read. This is a shame, rather detracting from what is an outstanding offering.) Highly recommended. FH
Wild HHHH
Sam Usher, Templar Publishing, 32pp, 978 1 7874 1685 7, £6.99 pbk
Grandpa and Boy (the narrator) have a busy day ahead - ‘looking-after-the- cat’ day. Boy has done his research and doesn’t anticipate any difficulties: all she needs is someone willing to play with her, feed her and cuddle her – what could be simpler than that?
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