January 2006
LOST AND FOUND
Written and Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks, 32 pages
ISBN: 0007150369
A little boy finds and befriends a lost penguin and tries to help it find its way home. They journey to the South Pole in a row boat, but the closer they get to their destination, the sadder the little bird seems to get. This sweet tale of friendship is beautifully illustrated using simple, clean shapes and bright, clear colours that light up the page and the heart.
If you read when you're feeling depressed, what do you read?
I wrote about some of the my favourite comfort reads in this post and this one too. Some books help keep the demons away really well and I discovered another recently: Imagining Characters, which is conversations between author A. S. Byatt and psychoanalyst Ignes Sodre, on six novels by women. The books include Mansfield Park, Vilette, Beloved and Daniel Deronda.
This book helps now (yes, I am extremely depressed at the moment and have been for the last six months or so) because I have to concentrate very hard on the content (because it's all very clever and complex and it takes all my concentration to understand what's being said - I never claimed to be smart) and so there's no chance of my mind wandering, no chance of me thinking about the source of all my present woes. I'm reading it at the moment ... very, very slowly ... to make it last!
Other books I've found helpful are The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and Bram Stoker's Dracula. I was also reading The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey until I stupidly left it somewhere in Elesh's school. Detective novels, if they are the sort by Tey, Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie are a good distraction. You're so busy figuring out whodunnit that there's no time to mope about your own troubles and wonder for the zillionth time "Why me???"
But my favourite type of escapism is Girlsown books. Yesterday I decided it was as good as time as any to start re-reading my Abbey books (including photocopies). I started with A Dancer in the Abbey and went on to Queen of the Abbey (I don't think I'll bother doing it in order). They're pretty good when you're down because there's a lot of talk
about friendship and family. Even so, I noticed (maybe for the first
time yesterday) that there's also a fair bit of "abandonment" by
mothers and parents. Quite a few of the characters have mums who go
running off to Europe and India and such, leaving their offspring to
the mercy of strangers in England. And no one seems to think it's unfeeling or even the slightest bit odd. Quite strange.
I have about 17 Abbey books that need to be printed and bound. They're out of print and next to impossible to buy, but kind souls from the Girlsown mailing group have sent them to me as word documents. This should be the year I finally get around to printing the lot out. The way things are going in my life, I should keep a large stash of comforting books handy!
December 2006
Animals Should definitely Not Wear Clothing
By Judi Barrett
Illustrated by Ron Barrett
Publisher: Aladdin, 32 pages
Just think of all the reasons why animals shouldn't wear clothes. The writer and illustrator of this book certainly have! Imagine a sheep in a jumper ... wouldn't it get too hot? How about a hen in trousers ... would it make egg-laying difficult? The upside down opossums are sweet. And the elephant in a dress and hat reminds me of a family friend, which, as the Barretts point out, could be very, very embarrassing ...!
January 2006
