Happy 50th birthday, The Phantom Tollbooth

Image: harpercollins.co.uk

Last year Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth turned 50. It is the story of Milo, a normal boy who discovers a mysterious package in his bedroom. Milo is not interested in anything. When he is in, he wants to be out; when he is out, he wants to be in. But he summons up the energy to open the package. Inside, he finds a toy tollbooth. He gets into his toy electric car (of which he is bored) and drives through the tollbooth, and is transported to a magical land: the Kingdom of Wisdom, through which he travels with Tock, the watchdog

Image: carlemuseum.org

to rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason from the Castle in the Air. 

The comical characters (my favourite is Faintly Macabre, the Not-So Wicked Which), word play and literal exemplifications of idioms- for example, Tock can carry Milo through the air, since "time flies"- is reminiscent of Lewis Carroll, and also the recent China Mieville  Young Adult novel Un Lun Dun. 

Image: Norton Juster at Foyles, 26th April 2012 (photo by me)

I went to hear Norton Juster talk about The Phantom Tollbooth with author and journalist Nicolette Jones at the famous London bookshop Foyles. He was a superb raconteur, who explained that his love of wordplay came from his father. He said that he was much like Milo as a child, often bored at home and uninterested at school. However, he said that he felt that the need to entertain himself as a child made him creative (he was an architect as well as an author) and stated his concerns about today's over-scheduled children, who rarely have time to play freely. Interestingly, Juster also stated that he is synaesthesic, associating colours with numbers. One of the characters that Milo encounters is Chroma the Great, the conductor of an orchestra that plays the colours of sunset.

I have loved this book since I was 9. I bought my third copy yesterday, as my previous two copies have fallen apart. I don't think I fully understood all the puns and wordplay then, but I loved the strange characters and the map at the beginning of the book! (All fantasy books should have maps, in my opinion). I hope that you read it and discover it yourself. The 50th anniversary Harper Collins edition that I bought has an introduction by the late Diana Wynne Jones, which was a lovely discovery.

Life in Wartime

Last weekend I went to the fascinating Churchill War Rooms. It is a fascinating, claustrophobic place, showing the difficulties the men and women of Churchill's staff worked through (not least working with the famously irascible Churchill!) I thoroughly recommend it. It made me think about novels to support children's empathy with people living through the war.

Books such as the amazing Goodnight Mr Tom, Carrie's War and The Machine Gunners need no introduction, and Niamh's guest post on Out of Hitler's Time needs no addition. However, there are two other books I'd like to mention for teachers or parents who would like a story to help develop children's understanding of Britain during World War Two.

Image: hive.co.uk

Lenny Levy's father has gone to war. Before he leaves, he gives his son a brass badge with the lion and unicorn, symbols of Britain. Missing his dad, the badge comforts Lenny through the bombing of London. Then he is evacuated to the country, to a big house, where he is the only Jewish child and the only boy. He also wets the bed, and is teased for it. But he finds a walled garden with a unicorn statue, where a wounded soldier called Mick helps him understand that there are different kinds of bravery.

This is a beautiful picture book, a format often (erroneously, in my opinion) thought appropriate for younger children. It is best suited to 7+, and I think that the period detail in the illustrations would help children empathise with Lenny missing his parents and feeling unwelcome in a new environment. It is a book that I would definitely give to 9+ children learning about World War 2, and also those facing difficulties settling into a new environment. 

Image: hive.co.uk

In present day London, Mallie Kelly takes an after-school job in a pet shop so that she can buy her mother a present. Sarah Kelly, Mallie's mother, is an artist who no longer in love with art. The book alternates Mallie's story with that of Tony and Alice, two children who are evacuated to the Lake District during the war. Mallie and Tony's stories become intertwined as the novel progresses, coming together over a drawing of a girl with a rabbit. Adult fans of children's literature may be able to predict the twist, but I doubt child readers would. It's a great book for 8+. I think it would help children realise that people live through a number of historical eras- in this case, the story covers figures from the late nineteenth century to the present day. I loved it! It is published by the wonderful Frances Lincoln, notable for their commitment to celebrating cultural diversity. I recommend exploring their list of picture books in particular. 

An Illustrated Year 4: Fragoline and the Midnight Dream by Clemency Pearce and Rebecca Elliot

Image: libraries.midlothian.gov.uk

I returned from the wonderful Federation of Children's Book Groups yesterday, full of happiness, inspiration and fabulous books! One of the most inspiring seminars I attended was with a panel including Rebecca Elliot on representations of disability in children's books. I will return to this subject at a later date; however, I fell in love with Rebecca's illustrations, and came across this book, illustrated by her and written by Clemency Pearce.

Fragoline and the Midnight Dream is the story of a little girl who is "bright and clean... pure as milk and good as gold" until midnight strikes, when she puts on a black velvet cape, skipping, running and rolling outside while the moon looks down, telling her to go to bed. Fragoline responds:

"I'll do exactly as I please!

I'm Fragoline!" she said.

The text is rhythmical and rhyming, and apparently was initially written as a poem. It is definitely a book for sharing with a child rather than one for early readers; the vocabulary is occasionally challenging- it reminds me a lot of the wonderful Quentin Blake book Mr Magnolia in this respect. The pictures are beautiful; detailed and rich, and Fragoline's mischievous face is delightful. Clemency Pearce is a new writer to look out for, and I'll definitely be seeking out more of Rebecca Elliot's work.

Various dystopias

Image: waterstones.com

The Hunger Games film is a box office success, apparently grossing £290 million world wide. This has been similarly good news for book sales, with Amazon's top 3 sellers this week being The Hunger Games and sequels. However, the books are not universally popular; they are back on the "most challenged" list of books complained about in US schools and public libraries, accused among other things of being anti-family (bizarrely, since Katniss's main concern is with protecting her sister) and "satanic". I have also noted tweets and media comments along the lines of this one from the Wall Street Journal of last year wondering why Young Adult fiction has become too dark, and whether there is too much dystopian young adult fiction. 

Putting to one side the eye rolling and sighing comments that previously there have been complaints that ALL YA/ children's books were about young wizards, or ALL about romantic vampires- whereas of course there as many genres of young adult books as there are for adults- thriller, romance, contemporary drama, historical fiction etc- I find it very interesting that dystopian fiction appears to be so popular in recent years. The first dystopian novel I remember reading was Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien. First published in the 1970s, I remember reading it in the early 80s. People who didn't grow up in the 1980s may not realise how very real the threat of nuclear war seemed to us; as well as news stories about nuclear proliferation and the cold war, there were TV dramas such as Threads on TV- bear in mind that in 1984 there were only 4 channels on UK TV, and practically everybody in my class watched the drama and discussed it at length. Z for Zachariah is the story of a young girl, Ann, who survives a nuclear war in a remote valley in the USA. As far as she knows, she is the only survivor, until one day a man arrives in her valley. He is suffering from radiation sickness, and she nurses him back to health. They agree to live and work together, but he betrays her. Like many contemporary YA dystopian novels, it is told in the first person, in this case through Ann's diaries. I urge you to seek it out if you have read and enjoyed The Hunger Games. 

Within a few years of reading Z for Zachariah I read a large number of dystopian novels: Brave New World, 1984, The Handmaid's Tale and Ender's Game. As a young woman growing up in an era with very real concerns about war, peace, human rights and women's reproductive rights, it was clear to me that, while these novels may be set in the future or in alternative worlds, the authors were writing about concerns that were not only contemporary, but timeless- after all, Huxley in 1931 was writing about behavioural conditioning, class distinctions and corporate control, still issues of concern today.

I think that it is clear that thoughtful, intelligent teenagers (the kind that are likely to be reading!) will of course identify with novels writing about war and tyranny, like The Hunger Games. Other dystopian novels that I would recommend are:

Noughts and Crosses  by Malorie Blackman (2001). Set in a world where people are categorised as Noughts and Crosses, Nought Callum and Cross Sephy are at first friends, then fall in love. But when Crosses are the ruling elite and Noughts are the downtrodden minority, how can they find a way to be together? This is a remarkable novel, chapters told in turn from Sephy and Callum's points of view. Blackman has stated that it was inspired by the Stephen Lawrence murder. The Radio 4 Bookclub podcast interview with her is brilliant, but beware of spoilers!

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (2007) was the Times children's book of the year. Claudia is growing up in a world where the whimsy of the ruling family has declared that time must stop in a version of the 18th Century. Clothes, manners and food are stuck in this time, which ironically is supported by a sophisticated technology. This world should be a paradise, as after a period of strife Incarceron was created: a prison world where criminals were sent forever. However, Incarceron is in fact a nightmare world of factions and violence, which the reader (and Finn, a young prisoner), discovers is horribly sentient. Claudia and Finn realise that they are connected. Can they escape their own prisons, and be together? Written in a beautifully poetic style, this novel has a sequel, Sapphique, which I haven't yet read, but fully intend to.

The Declaration (2008) (and sequels) by Gemma Malley is set far in the future, in a world where there is no more death, due to the development of a drug called Longevity. Anna is a "Surplus"- a child born unnecessarily (after all, if there is no more death, why do children need to be born?) Anna is living in Grange Hall, when a mysterious boy arrives. Can they break free from the punitive conditions at Grange Hall? I really enjoyed this series. The ethics and unforeseen consequences of drug research, population control and food instability are sensitively discussed, and the plot twists are exciting and unexpected.

Gone series by Michael Grant (2009 onwards). Disclaimer: I have only read Fear (2012). This series is set in the fictional town of Perdido Beach, California. One day, the town awakes to discover that all the adults over the age of 15 have disappeared. At the same time, the children and young people have developed special powers, such as great physical strength and psychic perception. Two factions develop, centred on half brothers Sam and Caine, but as readers of Lord of the Flies will be unsurprised to discover, power struggles become violent. There is also a threat from a psychopathic boy named Drake, who is increasingly identified with the mysterious event causing the adults to disappear. This is the novel I enjoyed least of the YA dystopian novels I read, but with an endorsement from Stephen King and a pacy narrative, I am prepared to read the rest of the series. 

Delirium (2011) and Pandemonium (2012) by Lauren Oliver is set in an alternate version of USA. Love has been declared a disease, amor deliria nervosa, which can be cured by an operation on the brain, performed on 18 year olds. People who refuse to have the operation are known as Invalids. In the city of Portland, a 17 year old girl named Lena has been awaiting her operation for years, convinced by the repressive government that love is at the bottom of all strife and misery in her country's past. Then she meets an Invalid boy named Alex, and falls in love. These are fantastically thought-provoking books, which I read shortly after Nadine Dorries' abstinence-only sex education bill was withdrawn and the defeat to her proposals to change the abortion bill. 

Lorna Bradbury in the Telegraph has suggested other YA dystopian  novels. I would like to be very clear here that these are novels that I would recommend for 13+, as they have content that I don't feel younger children would be able to understand. Please let me know what you think, or whether you have any other suggestions!

As well as drawing your attention to the Radio 4 bookclub site which I mentioned above, where you can download podcasts of interviews and question and answer sessions with children and young adult novelists such as Benjamin Zephaniah, JK Rowling and Malorie Blackman amongst others, I would like to mention the UKYA blog. It is a great site reviewing YA novels by British novelists. Enjoy it!

The New Mistress At The Chalet School by Elinor M Brent-Dyer

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This is part of the Girls' Own blog carnival. Please do check out Did You Ever Stop To Think and Forget To Start Again to see what other bloggers have written about!

I adore the Chalet School series for many reasons. It is a long running series- the first book, The School At The Chalet, was published in 1925; the final one, Prefects Of The Chalet School, in 1970. The New Mistress At The Chalet School is a later book, published in 1957, when the school is based in Switzerland post- World War II.

One of the features I have always enjoyed about the books is that while there is always a protagonist (Joey Bettany in the earlier books, a variety of characters including Daisy Venables and Bride Bettany in novels set in Guernsey and Wales during and immediately post World War Two and Mary-Lou Trelawney in many of the Switzerland ones) there are often multiple points of view. In New House at the Chalet School (1935) this included an unsympathetic new Matron. However New Mistress is in my experience unique, as the protagonist is a teacher, although there are multiple points of view.

Kathie Ferrars has just completed her degree, and her post at the Chalet School is her first teaching job. Her own school was a day school rather than a boarding school, so she is unprepared for the different staff- pupil relationship of boarding school life. She seems a little young for her age, still very reliant on the approval of her uncle and aunt who brought her up; in the first chapter she kneels on the carpet with her head in her aunt's lap (frequently an attitude of repentance of the school girls in Chalet School novels), and her aunt advises her that she needs to maintain her dignity with the girls. We are told at the end of chapter 1 that this advice is a source of some trouble for Kathie in the future (Brent-Dyer does like a foreshadowing authorial voice!)

The journey to the Chalet School (involving trans- European train travel) is mostly explained through food- American chocolates, French patisserie, breakfast in Basle including Swiss jam- must have been extremely exciting for readers, as rationing had finished only in the early 50s- my mother read these books well into her teens, and I'm sure this was the case with other readers. Memories of the shortages of cream, sweets, cakes and jam would have been still vivid.

Kathie makes friends among the other teachers, and takes advice on her new class- Inter V, girls who are either too young to be seniors (such as the incredibly fertile Joey's triplet daughers, Len, Con and Margot) or whose academic work is not up to the standard of the girls of their age, such as new girl Yseult Pertwee. All the features of the Chalet School education- tri-lingual in English, French and German, European in outlook, care of the girls' health and physical needs by abandoning the timetable and getting out into the fresh air for climbing, walking and skiing in the right weather- is established through explanation of the routines to Kathie, which felt natural- also making this book a good one to start with if you're not familiar with the series.

Conflict comes very quickly with Mary-Lou Trelawney, a prefect in this book. Mary-Lou is an interesting character. After her arrival in Three Go To The Chalet School when she is 10 Brent-Dyer is clearly enamoured with her informal way of addressing people (we are often assured that it is not "cheek") and her easy- going character, but I find her bumptious and irritating, and find it hard to believe that she would be so un-self aware at 17 or 18, particularly in a school where character is so important. Kathie finds her so to begin with, although after Mary-Lou has saved her from certain death in a crevasse of a glacier, she starts to think differently (as you would!)

Kathie makes other mistakes with discipline, but starts to loosen up after her accident, using her judgement to re-think her punishment of Margot for lighting a sparkler in prep that would have resulted in her missing part of her birthday treat. However she continues to misjudge situations, resulting in new girl Yseult breaking her collar bone in a skiing accident after she tries to take out Mary-Lou, whose  part in the Christmas play she is understudying. While the Chalet School is very forward thinking in many ways, in particular in the thematic approach to the curriculum, with an emphasis on thinking and understanding rather than learning facts by rote, the class conscious comments (for example about Joan Baker's permed hair) and disapproval of any parenting views out of the middle class norm (such as Mrs Pertwee's) are still in evidence (I wrote about this here).

This is a fascinating book. Not one of the most exciting plot-wise, maybe, but the only one I can think of where a teacher's first steps into professional life is depicted in a story for young readers.

May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour

On Sunday morning, I went to the cinema to watch The Hunger Games. Sunday mornings are great for going to the cinema on your own; I have a shocking concentration span for films and am ridiculously easily distracted. The emptier the cinema is the more likely I will watch the film and follow the plot.

 Image: moviespad.com

I won't say too much about the film in this post: Juliette at Pop Classics writes brilliantly (as always) about it. It differs significantly from the books in some points (as Juliette points out, the complicity of the people of Panem in the continuation of the Hunger Games, and also in the lack of mutant spy animals created by the Capitol to control the population among other aspects) but I think the adaptation was very, very good. 

The book is told in the first person by Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year old girl living in District 12 (the former Appalachia) in Panem (what remains of the United States of America after an apocalypse). After an unsuccessful uprising 74 years before the events of the book, each district is forced to send a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to fight to the death in a televised battle, the Hunger Games. Katniss volunteers to be District 12's Tribute after her little sister Prim's name is drawn, the first time that she is eligible to be entered into the Reaping, where the tributes' names are drawn from the lottery.

This is a rich, complex book. Suzanne Collins has said that the inspiration came from channel surfing, where she saw coverage of the Iraq war and flicked over to a reality TV show. There are also many parallels with classical myth- Theseus and the Minotaur, where the Athenians are forced to send 14 young men and women to the labyrinth to appease the Minotaur. However I was most struck by the Roman elements: the Roman names of the Capitol- dwellers (Cinna, Seneca, Caesar, Flavius, Coriolanus, Venia, Octavia), the name Capitol, and the Bread (Panem) and Circuses (Hunger Games) approach to controlling the people. 

The inequalities are stark in the book: even in a poor District like District 12, the poorest (like Katniss and her best friend Gale) have a greater chance of being selected than Madge, the mayor's daughter or baker's son Peeta, the male tribute of District 12, as the poorer young people enter their name multiple times into the lottery in exchange for a portion of grain or oil. Katniss explains several times that starvation is not uncommon in the Seam, the poorest quarter of District 12 where she lives.

On the other hand, in the richer Districts, where food is more plentiful, young people have been trained from a young age to fight in the Hunger Games, and they usually win. However, they are not used to hunger, like Katniss and little Rue, the 12 year old tribute from District 11. Katniss's prowess with bows and arrows and snares, from years of illegal hunting to supplement the meagre food her widowed mother can provide, and Rue's experience of climbing to harvest fruit, stands them in good stead.

Peeta is far more aware than Katniss of the need to play up to the Games audience's desire for narrative, but Katniss is also constantly aware of the cameras in the Arena where the Games take place. This makes for an incredibly tense read, I found. This link with our society's obsession with reality TV, fame and celebrity makes this a powerful read.

The film is fantastic, but I recommend the book as well, for readers 10+. Both are gory, but not explicitly so. It might be good to read along with your pre-teen child, to discuss any issues that crop up for them.

The title of this post comes from the slogan said by several officials of the Hunger Games. It reminded me of what gladiators reportedly said before combat: "Hail Caesar, we who are about to die salute you".

The District 12 scenes in the film brought this song to mind: Michelle Shocked's the L&N Don't Stop Here Any More. I think it was because the setting reminded me of the 1930s depression, and because it is the coal mining district.

Review: Brave New Girl by Catherine Johnson

I have been visiting a group of schools in Hackney this half term, supporting student teachers. Having a little time between appointments one day, I popped into the lovely Broadway Bookshop where I saw Catherine Johnson's Brave New Girl.

image: amazon.co.uk

Set in Hackney, this is the story of Seren Campbell Ali, her mum, dad, half brothers and sister in the near future: the run up to the London Olympics. 13 year old Seren in a loveable character, whose well meaning impetuosity gets her into scrapes. Her best friend Keith is making a short film to be shown in the Rio Cinema, Hackney, as part of the Olympics celebrations. The film is based on The Tempest, and Seren is to play the part of Miranda, whose island is the estate where Seren and Keith live (hence the title of the book, based on Shakespeare's phrase "this brave new world"). Seren is loyal and loving to her friends and family, leading her to embarrass her sister in front of the school heart throb, to falling out with a friend and having a humiliating photo of herself posted on a social networking site; will the film make everything right with her family and friends?

The characters and setting felt very real to me. Having taught for many years in North London, I was delighted to see a protagonist with Turkish heritage; as I have said before, it is very powerful as a reader to see yourself represented in your reading. The Hackney setting is well defined; travelling as I do by bus, I found myself spotting locations in the book, and trying to plot Seren's bus driver mum's route.

It is a very funny book, as well as being touching and warm. It would appeal I think not just to North East London readers, but to anyone who has been a sibling, a friend, a teenager... in short to everyone! I think that this would appeal most to 11+ readers. I loved it, and now have Catherine Johnson's A Nest of Vipers to read: this seems a very different book; it's a historical novel set in 18th Century London.