Invisible Kids

My current favourite reading genre is young adult supernatural or suspense (no, not the kind involving romance with vampires).

I just finished a lovely book called 'How to be Invisible' by Tim Lott.  (The Guardian has a charming review written by a young reader here).

The protagonist is an intellectually gifted loner whose parents have recently uprooted him from his home and friends to a village and school he doesn't like, where he has no friends. Within the first chapter the author deftly sets the scene with the boy Strato, his bully tormentor at school, his fighting parents and the strangeness of his new environment. Then it goes straight into the story, which is a good one.



Via a mysterious book from a mysterious bookshop presided over by a mysterious bird which may or may not be able to talk, Strato becomes the owner of a book that enables him to become invisible. He uses this (temporary) power to learn the truth about his bully, his parents and life as a grown-up, and he becomes stronger and makes some friends along the way.

There's an interesting scene in the book where Strato's teacher Dr Obejande tells him:

"Some people are natural victims because they indulge in self-pity, and compensate for their lack of popularity by imagining that they are superior to others. You are not superior to others and you are not inferior. You are just a boy, like any other. Behave like one, and you will find that you will be respected, and, in the long run, liked - or if not liked, then at least accepted by your peers."

I'm not sure that's correct advice for every loner kid out there, but it was right for Strato in this book.

This book got me thinking about "the invisible kids" at school. When I was a kid I wasn't invisible, but I was a nerd and I was shy. I always had friends and I told by a couple of teachers I was "respected by my peers", which always surprised me because I never saw any evidence of it. I was bullied to the "usual" degree, which is to say a couple of kids made me miserable for awhile, but it wasn't on a big scale and didn't last long.

As a bit of an outsider myself, I always empathized with the "invisible" kids. At primary school I befriended a girl who was reviled and bullied by everyone, and she was grateful for awhile and then turned on me spectacularly for reasons I didn't fully understand, but I know I wasn't the best of friends to her really. In high school I remember hanging out in the library with friends one lunchtime and a girl who sat and read in there alone every day listened to us and smiled at our jokes. I turned and smiled to her often as I felt sorry for her and I wanted to be kind, but - to my shame - I didn't invite her to join us. I remember wanting to, but not being sure how to do it (I was shy myself - and worried I would seem very uncool if I said "do you want to join us?").

School always had at least one loner kid who seemed pretty miserable. Some loner kids were probably not miserable, but even loners need friends.

Childhood, or specifically school, is so hard. We tend to forget how hard and awful it can be.

Did you know any invisible kids at school? Were you one of them?

The Big Book Clean Out

I have always loved books, and I have always owned heaps of them. Until recently, I had four bookcases, each full, plus piles of books on my bedside table, floors and on top of one of the bookcases.  But this year I wanted to de-clutter a little, and I decided there was no sense keeping all of these books.

It wasn't easy to cull, because I had already been culling my books regularly. I only keep the ones I really like, you see - I had already given away a lot of other books over the years.

However, I did it. I got rid of most of the piles, and an entire bookcase. The lounge is a little less cluttered, and I turned my small bookcase into a case of shared books for the kids: classics, new books, books for kids, books for tweens and young adults. They have their own bookcases in their rooms, but this is like an extra library that they can dip into anytime they like.

I replaced some grand old books I'd had lying around, into their rightful place on the bookcases. I even had room for photo albums and a couple of boxes on the bottom shelf of my main bookcase.

Here's a scene from mid-way through the process, while I sorted books to keep from books to give away:

The kids' bookshelf starts to take shape:

At the end of it, I was reduced to 3 single-layer stacked bookcases, and one modest pile on the bedside table.  I filled 4 green bags and a plastic tub with books I know I don't need to keep.

And what did I do with all of those books?

They're still sitting in their tub and green bags in the garage. It's been four months now.

Do you cull books? Is it hard?

The Book Meme

I got this one from The Plastic Mancunian and Princess Pandora who blogged it last month. Talk about my favourite books? Sure!

1. Favourite childhood book?

My first truly beloved book was a Little Golden Book called The Color Kittens. I lost my childhood copy so bought another when I was in my twenties and I still have it.

Then Enid Blyton EVERYTHING but especially the Faraway Tree books, the Naughtiest Girl in the School books and the Famous Five books, of which I read all but two.

2. What are you reading right now?

I’m currently reading:

Remember When? Scientific American e-book on memory

11.22.63 by Stephen King

3. What books do you have on request at the library?

None. I go to the library but rarely borrow books these days. 

4. Bad book habit?

Buying more than I read.  I finally managed to stop buying paper books that stack up next to my bed, but am now doing the same with e-books. So many on my Kindle I still haven’t started, or started but haven’t got back to. Somehow it’s easy to get distracted from Kindle books and forget you have them.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?

Nothing. See the answer to question 3.

6. Do you have an e-reader?

I have a Kindle and love it; I can read on the Kindle, or on my Kindle app on my phone.  Brilliant. 

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?

I always have 2 books on the go, though when I get into a really good book I can’t put it down and the second one gets left.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?

Yes, though I’m not sure if it’s blogging or Twitter that’s had the most impact. I read a lot online now, especially Slate, Rolling Stone and links via Twitter, plus blogs. Book reading has definitely gone down as a result. 

9. Least favourite book you read this year (so far?)

Hmm. Probably have to say I haven’t been able to get into Gone Girl, though I will give it another shot.

10. Favourite book you've read this year?

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?

Not often – there’s little enough time to read as it is. I have no patience anymore to read things that don’t interest me.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?

These days mostly non-fiction: pop science on stuff like economics, weather, probability, psychology, etc.  I also love to re-read favourite fiction. 

13. Can you read on the bus?

Yes, though it gives me motion sickness. Trains are better for reading.

14. Favourite place to read?

In bed.

15. What is your policy on book lending?

I’ll admit I don’t like doing it much, if it’s a favourite book. These days with most on the Kindle I can’t and that’s frustrating when you just want to shove a great book at someone and say “Read this!”

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?

Yes, and write notes in margins or underline good bits. 

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?

Ah, I skipped ahead on the questions. Yes.

18. Not even with text books?

Did I stutter? YES. ESPECIALLY in text books.

19. What is your favourite language to read in?

Wow, what a question. Pretentious, moi?  I have in the past been fairly fluent in French and Spanish, but I didn't enjoy the few times I tried to read novels or poems in those languages. Reading is a whole other level of fluency. I seldom believe people who say they read novels in other languages.  I have read one short novel in Greek and it was dire, but no more difficult to read than a magazine.

So, yeah – definitely English!

20. What makes you love a book?

Good story or narrative, good pace, believable characters and a good way with language helps. But not too stylised or inventive – that can annoy me. Oh, and with a very small number of noble exceptions (Moby Dick, A Suitable Boy), it should NOT be a tome. A short book is a good book.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?

I will steal The Plastic Mancunian’s answer for this one: I will recommend a book if I am disappointed that I have finished it.

Or, if it stays in my head and I continue to obsess over it after I’ve finished it.

22. Favourite genre?

Suspense.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)

There is no genre I don’t read "but wish I did". I rarely read romance or historical fiction.

24. Favourite biography?

Recollections of a Bleeding Heart by Don Watson, or Eleni by Nicholas Gage.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?

Yes, a couple. Most of them just annoy me but a couple have had a big impact on me. Awakening Intuition by Mona Lisa Schwartz, although she’s probably a dangerous crackpot, impressed me at the time (some years ago). I’ve since realised I no longer believe some of it but still. More recently, Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman was transformative for me. 

26. Favourite cookbook?

My favourite cookbook is probably Tana Ramsay’s Family Kitchen. If you ignore the annoyingly perfect happy family pictures throughout, it’s got great recipes and is a nice read.

27. Most inspirational book you've read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?

Probably Quiet: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain. Yeah introverts!

28. Favourite reading snack?

I don’t snack in bed!

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.

Same as The Plastic Mancunian: I succumbed to The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I thought it was average and I thought the answers to the codes were ridiculously silly and simple – I was expecting something smarter.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?

About half the time. Or in the case of Naomi Wolf’s Vagina: A New Biography, 100% of the time.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?

Bad reviews are part of what authors can expect for publishing a book. The only thing I don’t like is when reviewers are snobby or closed-minded about an author and don’t review their books fairly. For example, The Dead Zone by Stephen King and Shutter Island by Denis Lehane are very good books different from the author's usual genre, but probably not appreciated by most reviewers because of who wrote them.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose?

Russian, just to be super impressive. No, Mandarin!

33. Most intimidating book you've ever read?

Not sure about that. Maybe Jane Eyre when I was in high school, because it seemed impenetrable to me at the start, though I really liked it by the time I had finished it.

34. Most intimidating book you're too nervous to begin?

It’s not that I’m nervous, but for some reason I keep not starting Shantaram. I don’t know why because I started it years ago and liked it but never got going on it. I keep wanting to try again but I just never do.

35. Favourite poet?

Easy: Dorothy Porter. 

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?

8-10 children’s books.

37. How often have you returned a book to the library unread?

About half the time.

38. Favourite fictional character?

If I was still a kid I’d probably say George from the Famous Five books, or Trixie Belden. I also liked Hermoine from the Harry Potter books. For grown-up characters, maybe Yossarian from Catch-22.

39. Favourite fictional villain?

I can’t think of a favourite. I Googled some ‘top 30 villains of literature’ kind of lists but am still stumped for a “favourite”. I always felt sympathy for Madame Bovary.  Or maybe Heathcliffe from Wuthering Heights?

40. Books you're most likely to bring on vacation?

I’ll load something new on the Kindle, and bring a couple of things I’ve been meaning to read but haven’t got to.

41. The longest you've gone without reading.

Maybe half a day??

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.

The last two Twilight books. Just awful. (You know, I actually thought the first one was not bad, and the second one was very good. They are for teens, of course they are angsty and over-dramatic).

43. What distracts you easily when you're reading?

Once again, I agree with The Plastic Mancunian here: Music. Music and reading do not go together.

44. Favourite film adaptation of a novel?

Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men was great on film. And I think The Talented Mr Ripley was better than the book.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?

I reckon the second Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film with Johnny Depp was a weird waste of time.

46. The most money I've ever spent in the bookstore at one time?

Back when I was earning good money and was less responsible, probably $150.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?

I always read the first page before I buy it, and occasionally might check out a few more pages, but it’s hard to do that without ruining the story.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?

Starting a better book.

49. Do you like to keep your books organised?

Not overly, but I organise them a bit by genre on my Kindle; the paper ones are mostly just stacked by similar size on the bookshelf.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you've read them?

I keep the ones I loved, I give away everything else.

51. Are there any books you've been avoiding?

I have a book I bought years ago called Orphans of the Empire, which is the story of orphan children sent to Australia from England in the first half of the twentieth century. I feel guilty I still haven’t read it – and I want to read it – but I just know it’s going to be so damn unbearable. 

And The Hunger Games. I bought it last year and want to read it, but am scared it will be traumatic!

52. Name a book that made you angry.

The First Stone, by Helen Garner. I was the same age as the young women she was complaining about, and although she is a beautiful writer, she just showed with this book that she had no understanding of either young feminists or sexual harassment.

53. A book you didn't expect to like but did?

One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson. Just a crime paperback that was sitting in the lobby of the guesthouse we stayed in on holiday last year, but I really enjoyed it. 

54. A book that you expected to like but didn't?

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. He’s a great writer but I just found this book awful and the plot unbelievable.

55. Favourite guilt-free, pleasure reading?

I loved all the Harry Potter books; any of the slimmer volumes by Stephen King; Bill Bryson.

My favourite book of all time is Bill Bryson’s A Walk In The Woods. I read it whenever I want some comfort-reading, and it is often on my bedside table.

BONUS SECTION: My favourite books

Here in no particular order other than how they popped into my head, are my favourite books:

Children’s Books:

Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Margaret Wise Brown, The Color Kittens

A.A. Milne, Now We Are Six

Enid Blyton, Five on Kirrin Island Again

Theo LeSieg, I Wish That I Had Duck Feet; Come Over to My House

T Ernesto Bethancourt, Doris Fein Super Spy; Doris Fein Quartz Boyar

Fiction:

R.K. Narayan, The Man-Eater of Malgudi

Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy

Graham Greene, The Honorary Consul

Paul Theroux, The Mosquito Coast; Doctor Slaughter

E. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News; Bad Dirt

Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure

William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love In the Time of Cholera

Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Pierre Boulle, The Bridge on the River Kwai

Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All

Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express

Colm Toibin, Brooklyn

Ian McEwan, The Innocent

Kimberly Kafka, True North

Thea Astley, Reaching Tin River

Mary Stewart, Wildfire at Midnight; My Brother Michael

George Orwell, Animal Farm

Denis Lehane, Shutter Island

Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong; Charlotte Grey

John Le Carre, The Little Drummer Girl; The Tailor of Panama

Andre Dubois III, House of Sand and Fog

Meg Cabot, Size Doesn’t Matter

Stephen King, The Dead Zone

Anais Nin, A Spy in the House of Love

D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Patrick Suskind, Perfume

Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull  

Aesop’s Fables

The Arabian Nights Tales

Theucydides, The Pelopponesian War

Homer, The Odyssey

Dorothy Porter, Akhenaten

Memoir/Autobiography:

Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods

Joy Adamson, Born Free

James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small

Robert Drew, The Shark Net

Gillian Bouras, A Foreign Wife

Hunter S Thomson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes

Frank Abagnale, Catch Me If You Can

Biography:

Nicholas Gage, Eleni; Greek Fire

Thomas Keneally, Schindler’s Ark

Alison Weir, The Life of Elizabeth I

Non-Fiction:

Steven Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics

Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism

Jon Ronson, The Men Who Stare at Goats

Malcolm Gladwell, Blink

Stephen Pinker, The Language Instinct

Germaine Greer, The Whole Woman

Ian Wilson, Jesus: The Evidence

Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, & Henry Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

Truman Capote, In Cold Blood

Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm

Stephen King, On Writing

Lynne Kelly, The Skeptic’s Guide to the Paranormal

Simone De Beauvoir, The Second Sex

Susan Sontag, Illness As Metaphor

R Lacey, The Year 1000

Best Jokes (including one NSFW)

My daughter is currently going through an interest in jokes and pranks, and our house has been hosting joke books from the school library over the last few weeks.

Most of the jokes are terrible, but some are quite funny (and terrible).

Such as:

Little Monster: "Mum, can I eat my fries with my fingers?"

Mummy Monster: "No, you should eat them separately!"

What do you need to know to be a lion tamer?

More than the lion.

Knock knock.

Who's there?

European.

European who?

European in the bathroom and I need to use it!

What do you call a fake noodle?

An impasta.

Knock knock?

Who's there?

Euripides.

Euripides who?

Euripides pants, Eumenides pants.

A guy walks into a diner and sees a horse behind the counter. The guy can't stop staring, which prompts the horse to ask, "What's wrong, you've never seen a horse serving coffee before?"

"It's not that," said the guy. "I just never thought the bear would sell this place."

And my personal favorite:

A man went to the vet to collect his his sick dog. The vet came in carrying the dog and said, "I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to put your dog down."

The man burst into tears. "Why?"

"Because he's too heavy."

Some of these needed some explaining to the kids, whose favorite joke at the moment is that childhood classic:

Why shouldn't you play Go Fish in the jungle?

Because it's full of cheetahs!

corny

Reading all these jokes reminded me of a couple of my favorites.


This one is on a Reddit thread What's the most intellectual joke you know?, and got quite a laugh at work. For those who work with (not in) IT:

A programmer's wife sent him to the shops with this instruction: "Get a loaf of bread, and if they have eggs, bring back a dozen."   The man came home with 12 loaves of bread. 

This one I saw on TV from a comedian who I had never thought was funny, and I laughed out loud, and then couldn't stop laughing, for two days. Warning - it is RUDE:

A man goes to his doctor for a physical.  The doctor says, "You're going to have to stop masturbating."  The man says "Why?"  The doctor says, "Because I'm trying to give you a physical."

Sorry.


And finally, the piece de resistance: here is my favorite joke, my "go-to" joke (do you have one?) for when people ask you to tell a joke. This won me a hamper in a work competition a couple of years ago, and it was apparently voted somewhere some time (where I first read it), the funniest joke ever.

It is the funniest joke ever!

A city guy went to visit his farmer friend in the country.  His friend met him at the gate and said he still had some work to do, but suggested, "Why don't you take my gun and my dogs and go hunting?"  So the city guy took his friend's rifle and whistled for the dogs, and they set off.  Five minutes later he was back.  "That was great," he said.  "Do you have any more dogs?"

Got any good jokes? Share in the comments!

The Way Things Happen

When I was a child I had a book of folk stories from around the world. My favorite story was from Mexico and was called "The Way Things Happen":

A poor young man left his village and looked for work in the city. He had no skills, so he applied for a job as a street sweeper. He was asked to write his name on an application form. "I can't write," he said, and they shooed him away. Everywhere he tried the same thing happened. Finally he stopped looking for work and sold a few tomatoes that he had brought with him from his village. With the money he made he bought some more tomatoes and sold those, and he did quite well. He continued on in this way, buying and selling tomatoes, and he continued to do well. He started to buy and sell more vegetables, and built a thriving business. Eventually, he had to open a bank account.

By this stage he was older and better dressed.  The bank staff were impressed. As the account was opened, the teller handed him a pen to sign the form. The man explained he could not write his name, and the bank teller was amazed. "But, senor," he said, "you are so rich and successful and yet you can't read or write? Imagine how successful you would be if you could!"

The man said, "If I could write my name I would be sweeping the streets out there."

And he smiled to himself at the way things happen.

Fiction Fridays: Tales From Everywhere

Tales From Everywhere

Stories selected and rewritten by Mae Bradley 

illustrated by Janet & Anne Grahame-Johnson

World Distributors (Manchester) Limited, 1975

In Maoriland there was once a chief called Kahukura.

I'm cheating a little - my kids are not reading this book. It's one from my own childhood which I deeply loved. As a child my dad was often away on business and he loved to travel; being the 70's there were slide nights and dolls for me and my sister dressed in traditional garb from each country he visited. I was hooked, fascinated with other countries and cultures from almost as far back as I can remember. 

The stories in this book are traditional stories from around the world, each one enhanced by the beautiful and haunting illustrations:

• The Fairy Fishermen - New Zealand
• The Swans of Islay - Scotland
• The Way Things Happen - Mexico
• The Story of Semerwater - England
• The Two Brothers and the Little Mother - Australia
• How the Tribes Began - Nigeria
• The Dog's Will - Iran
• The Chatterbox - Russia
• A Friend for Man - (?Africa)
• The Story of the White Snake Lady - China
• The Magic Harp - Norway(?)
• Hudden and Dudden and Donald McGrath - Ireland

What book from your childhood is special to you?

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Fiction Fridays: Star Baby

Star Baby

by Ian Whybrow 

illustrated by Jason Cockcroft

Orchard Books, 2005

Stars are like babies,

The moon's little babies.

Bright little babies,

Just like mine.

A nostalgia trip this week. Clearing out the kids' rooms last weekend I found this book which I used to read when they were babies. I didn't so much read it to them as read it to myself - and emotional bag of hormones and gushy new-baby love that I was, I would tear up every time. I seriously could not read this book without crying!

This is a lovely book and would make a nice present for a new parent or a baby. Each page features a mother and baby animal, with a similar rhyme structure about how the baby pleases its mother by saying... (baa, neigh, cheep cheep etc).  The illustrations are beautiful.

It also reminds me of my other favourite book for reading to toddlers, Mem Fox's Time For Bed (which has since been satirized as Go The F*** To Sleep). I might feature that one (the Mem Fox one I mean!) another week.

Until then, now that my "babies" are asleep, it's time for this mama also to go to bed.

Sleep tight, star babies everywhere xxx

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Fiction Fridays: Where The Wild Things Are

Where The Wild Things Are

by Maurice Sendak, 1963

this edition: Red Fox, 2000

The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind

and another

his mother called him "WILD THING!"

and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!"

so he was sent to bed without eating anything.

This week Maurice Sendak passed away, so I will be surprised if I am the only one to cover this book in Fiction Fridays this week.

My kids are not so sure about this book, and when I was a kid I wasn't so sure either. It's a fantastic, compelling book, and is part of most of our childhood memories. But it sits somewhere in a child's imagination between delight and nightmares, and evokes complicated reactions.

One of the clever classics.

It's about growing up - striking out, testing your skills and learning your limits.
It's about learning self-control and anger management.
It's about the tension between independence and belonging.
It's about leadership.
It's about taming one's inner beasts.
It's about giving freedom to the magic of the imagination.
It's about the nature of love and control.
It's about family.

And of course, it's about a little boy who is naughty and gets punished, which initially makes him angry and rebellious, until he gets hungry and lonely and returns to the comforts of family.

Who doesn't love that last page about Max's supper:

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Fiction Fridays: The Fairy Dog

The Fairy Dog

by Jackie Andrews

illustrated by Mary Lonsdale

Award Publications, 2003

Jenny found the fairy dog very early one morning before anyone else was awake.

This was one of those picture books you see going very cheap on a trestle-table in the middle of a shopping centre. So you look at the book awhile to try and work out, is it good value or junk?

It seemed OK, so I bought two, one for each of my girls. At that stage (about a year ago) they were still very much into fairies and we had recently acquired our dog, so they were into dogs too.

Both girls loved this book, but we hadn't read it in awhile. This week A. re-discovered it. She asked me to read it to her and she has since been leafing through it each night before sleep. We are finding that now that they can read a little better, they are starting to re-visit their favourite picture books and read them by themselves (or read what they can), which is great to see.

In this story, the little girl is awoken one morning by a little lost fairy dog at her window. She brings it inside and takes it to her brother, and together with the help of the dog, they work out how to get him home, all before their Dad wakes up.

I like this book for the lovely pictures and the novel idea of a tiny fairy dog, but also there are a couple of subtly unusual things about it:

• There is no Mum in the picture. The only adult who features is Dad
• Dad works late and is often tired; there is an impression that things have perhaps been a bit difficult in the house

This is also one of those great books where the story line can be read as a daydream or wish in the mind of the child protagonist, or read literally as a magical story.

• The fairy dog to me is a figment of the little girl's imagination, relieving her anxiety, fulfilling a wish ("we don't have a dog"), and giving her and her brother control (an adult-free adventure before Dad gets up)
• The fairy dog to my daughters is a magic fairy dog who appears to the kids in the book and grants them a magical gift at the end (their Dad gets a better job unexpectedly)

So all in all, this was $8.00 well spent!

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Fiction Fridays (Saturday Edition): In A People House

I meant to post this Friday. I started it on Friday. I thought about it on Friday afternoon, and I intended to finish it Friday night.
But then Friday evening my daughter A. had a meltdown of gargantuan, exhausting proportions, and as soon as I got the kids to bed I flopped straight into bed and straight to sleep myself. (She's fine now, thank you).

So anyway....

In A People House

By Theo LeSieg

Illustrated by Roy McKie

Random House, 1972

"Come inside, Mr. Bird,"

said the mouse.

"I'll show you what there is

in a People House..."

Dr Seuss wrote as Theo LeSieg on books illustrated by others, and when I think back as a kid I probably liked the Theo LeSieg books best. Dr Seuss was a genius, but his illustrations could be a little creepy.

Re-reading Theo LeSieg books now what I like about them are the really simple illustrations - few of which, I think, would pass muster in a new book today.

Story synopsis:
The mouse takes Mr Bird through a typical middle-class house in 1970s America, and shows him all the things there are:

A People House has things like chairs, 

things like roller skates and stairs.

Banana, bathtub, bottles, brooms,

that's what you find in people's rooms.

As they go through the house the pictures show them using or playing with the things they find, making more and more of a mess and having more and more fun, until a pile of "doll and dishes, teapot, trash" being balanced by the mouse comes crashing down, bringing forth the people who live in the house to toss the animals outside.


Why it's good:
It's a fun book to read because the rhythm is so good, and in usual Seuss/LeSieg style it's funny too. The use of household objects means that kids can talk about which things we have at home ("big blue ball") and which we don't (piano, stairs). The pictures also tell a huge part of the story. As the animals go through the rooms, it's the illustrations that tell the story of the fun and the mess. And the story is from the animals' (i.e., little kids) point of view, in that the people (i.e., parents) are not shown except as disciplinarians at the end (and you don't see them in full). You know how much mess a small wild animal can make if it gets in your house - this story is cute because it imagines that happening because the animals are curious and having fun looking around.

And of course, what kid can't relate to being curious about objects, playing with stuff they're not supposed to, making a sudden mess and being shunted out of a room by giant grown-ups?

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Fiction Fridays: The Bravest Kid I've Ever Known (and other Naughty Stories for Good Boys and Girls)

Hooray! My wireless is back up and at last I can return to Fiction Fridays.
(Blogging anything other than very basic formatting is too hard on an iPad - or at least it is for me).


This week's book - or actually, a story in a book:

The Bravest Kid I've Ever Known

and Other Naughty Stories for Good Boys and Girls

by Christopher Milne

Hardie Grant Egmont, 2010

A Very Naughty Boy

Neil Pike was a naughty boy.

A very naughty boy.

You see, Neil did smells. All the time. Rotten, disgusting smells. On purpose.

According to the blurb at the back, this book was born when the author ran out of stories to read his kids and started making up his own, and found the more "pooey, rotten, disgusting things" in the stories the better they went over.


We haven't yet read all the stories in this book, but THIS story was a huge success with my girls, and no doubt would be with your kids too.


Neil is a chronic and disgusting farter, but manages to save the day when his whole school is swept out to sea due to some very heavy rain (??? the physics are not clear). The save involves the use of many pieces of cloth tied together and strung up on the roof to make a sail, and Neil providing the required ... propulsion to blow them back home.

Miss M. in particular laughed herself so giddy she nearly fell off her bed.

If you would like to play Fiction Fridays, click on the badge below to see how:

Or check out the Pinterest board set up by Child-Led Chaos: http://pinterest.com/childledchaos/fiction-fridays/