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{Guest Post by Hannah Rials}

The Paddington Treasury by Michael Bond and illustrated by R.W. Alley is a collection of six wonderful stories from the bear that we all know and love—Paddington Brown.

Paddington

This story is the introduction to Paddington Bear’s tale. In here, we meet a young bear from the Darkest Peru who is found by the Brown family in the train station where they are meeting their daughter. Mr. Brown notices the bear and asks him if he needs any help. Not only are they stunned that he can speak, but he is also very impressed with the bear’s manners. After deciding that the bear should come home with them, they name him Paddington, after the train station, and get him some tea to drink. They collect their daughter Judy and Paddington, who makes a mess of his tea and snacks, and take a taxi back to their home where their son and nanny, Mrs. Bird, are waiting. At the Brown’s house, he impresses Mrs. Bird with his very fine manners and experiences his first bath, where he again makes a mess of bubbles, shaving cream, and other bathroom materials. Paddington ends his first day with the Browns by starting to share his story, but ends up falling asleep in their extremely immensely arm chair.

Something To Do Activitiy

Paddington’s Marmalade**A recipe for Paddington’s Orange Marmalade:
Paddington looovveess his orange Marmalade! Here’s how you can create your own from the Food Network:

2. Paddington at the Palace
Mr. Gruber takes Paddington to the place so that he can see the changing of the guards. When they first arrive, he sees a figure in one of the windows, and waves his British flag just in case it is the queen, who happens to be in the castle on this particular day. As the parade starts, Paddington is unable to see over the heads of the people in front of him, and by the time he crawls his way to the front under people’s legs, the parade has passed—he didn’t get to see a single guard. Before Paddington and Mr. Gruber leave, they are invited onto the grounds so that they can take a proper picture for Paddington’s scrapbook—the queen must have seen him waving his flag for her.
Fun Facts about the English Flag:
The flag of the United Kingdom is commonly called “Union Jack.”
The three colors—red, blue, and white—represent the three countries under one ruler, England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
The flags of the three countries became combined under the rule of Queen Anne Bolenyn in 1801.
The red cross is England’s flag. The white and blue X is Scotland’s flag, and the red X is Northern Ireland’s flag. Together, they make the Union’s flag.

3. Paddington at the Zoo
Judy and Jonathan decide to take Paddington for a zoo day. Paddington decides to make six marmalade sandwiches in case they get hungry. However, the day does not start off right. When they arrive at the zoo, the guard announces that pets are not allowed in the zoo. Offended, Paddington stares hard at the guard until he lets them pass. Inside, he takes pictures with each of the animals—parrots, donkey, elephant, lion, and penguins. Each time, the animals take a sandwich, and his last sandwich is stolen by a man in the penguin exhibit. At the end of the day, looking back at the pictures, Paddington decides to put the picture of him with parrot in his scrapbook because the parrot is the only one who said thank you for his sandwich.

A recipe for Cheese and Marmalade sandwich:

4. Paddington in the Garden
Paddington is very thankful for the Brown’s garden. It is very beautiful and peaceful, even with the building area nearby. Mrs. Bird decides that it will be a good idea to let Paddington, Judy, and Jonathan have a piece of the garden for themselves to take care of and keep them out of trouble. Judy decides to plant flowers. Jonathan arranges tiles for a fountain, but Paddington has no clue. So he goes in search of ideas. In the market, he finds a book on gardening that talks about looking at your garden from up high to get ideas. Paddington goes to the construction site near the Brown’s house, setting his marmalade down so that he may climb high while the workers are on their tea break. When the laborers begin to work again, his marmalade is knocked over and stains a pile of concrete orange. Instead of throwing the concrete away, as the workers would have otherwise had to do, they let Paddington take them back to the Brown’s, where he makes a rock garden, finished off with some plants that the workers give him. On National Garden day, Paddington’s garden wins first prize, with a gold star due to his extraordinary orange stones.
How to make your own piece of a garden —
1. Ask yourself…what do you want to plant?
2. Picture how you want your garden to look.
3. Make sure everything is planned out and has enough room to grow.
4. Plant and watch the miracle of life!
5. Paddington and the Marmalade Maze
Mr. Gruber takes Paddington for another outing to Hampton Court Palace. Here they see the various rooms, the huge beds, the tall fireplaces, and the orange fish in the pond. Before they leave to go home, Mr. Gruber says that they must go through the maze, even though some people get stuck for hours. A group of tourists overhears them and wishes to see a real english home. In order to lose the group—so that Mrs. Bird will not get angry at them for bringing a big group back to the house—Paddington tricks them into the maze where they get lost. In order to find his way out, Paddington leaves a trail of Marmalade to follow—a trick he learned from his Aunt Lucy, that and keeping a spare marmalade sandwich in case of emergencies.
—What have you learned from your family?
All families have tricks that have passed down through the generations, whether it be recipes, every day tips, or history. So what have you learned?
6. Paddington the Artist
Mr. Gruber takes Paddington to an outside Exhibition, but Paddington does not enjoy any of the paintings that are for sale. Instead, he decides to paint pictures of his own. He paints a sunset, rain, and a self portrait. But the sunset becomes dark before he can finish. And it rained on his painting of the rain. And Paddington could not for the life of him remember what he looked like, even though he kept looking at himself in the mirror. He sets up an exhibition of his own outside his house to sell his paintings, but he falls asleep in the warm afternoon. When he wakes up, all of his paintings are gone, and an envelope of cash rests in his coat pocket. But Paddington does not need to know that Mr. Gruber was the recipient of all of Paddington’s paintings.

—Painting and never giving up.
Painting is not as easy as it seems. But painting is a great outlet for feelings and experiences. Even if you are not the best painter in the world, you can still paint. Artists don’t paint for every one else. They paint for themselves. Never forget that. Paint whenever and whatever you want, and never ever give up!

Thanks for reading!

Born in the hills of Louisiana and raised in the mountains of Tennessee, Hannah Rials is an eighteen year old aspiring author and editor. Now a freshman in college, she’s been writing short stories since she was a little girl, but for the past several years, she has been writing, editing, and reediting a novel of her own that will soon be published by Audrey Press. Hannah has always loved reading and the world of books. With a librarian grandmother who can tell the most magical stories, how could she not fall in love with the written word? Her library collection and love for books grows every day.

The post Do You Remeber the Joys of Paddington Bear? The Paddington Treasury appeared first on Jump Into A Book.

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On Monday, Nicholas Barber gave me pause for thought, in this Guardian piece, arguing that movie adaptations of childhood classics for young readers like Paddington or Postman Pat, are traducing the spirit of the original in one very specific way.

Villains. Really mean ones at that.

Mr Curry - the nearest thing in the Paddington books to a baddie

He recounts how the new Paddington adaptation from Harry Potter producer David Heyman has Nicole Kidman as murderous taxidermist, hellbent on peeling Paddington's hide. Postman Pat earlier this year had a megalomaniac cyberman, and we'd probably all rather not remember Dougal and co from the Magic Roundabout trying to stop an evil wizard.

Barber argues that the icy blast of cruelty, megalomania and high stakes jeopardy which comes whirling onto the screen with these inserted characters is a far remove from the gentle, charming storytelling which made the original books so popular with young children and their parents. He also gives a compelling example of his six year old daughter being squeamish at anything too scary in the movies - from sharks in Finding Nemo to evil queens in Snow White, never mind a psychopathic Nicole Kidman.

He is, of course, absolutely right on two fronts. Those characters are nothing to do with the world of the books. Paddington needs marmalade, not murderers, to bring him to life. And we all know, and quite possibly once were, young children who frighten very easily at any sign of on-screen darkness or scariness - especially, perhaps, if they weren't expecting it in such a warm and honey coloured world. Like finding a Heffalump when you really weren't expecting one....

But at the same time, these are all movies.

The books don't need those extra lashings of evil and drama. But once a book becomes adapted into a film, it becomes something else, not just a different medium but a different genre too. A genre with different rules and demands. A movie, even one for young children, requires big stories and big characters to fill the scree and sustain not only young minds but their adult minders for ninety minutes plus.

And I genuinely feel for his daughter. I remember being terrified by so much - Maleficent turning into a dragon in Sleeping Beauty or the horrific Garthim in Dark Crystal.

Gruesome Garthim

Somehow I seem to have survived it all, though, bar the odd nightmare. I think the key to these villains is that they are often as comic as they are villainous. Moreover, they can often be safely filed under the category of 'genre archetype' - even if unconsciously. Unlike the recent 'Missy' on Doctor Who - who I thought was brilliant but disturbingly vicious for a family show - evil queens, mad scientists, corrupt developers, emotionless robots - these caricatured characters have their roots in often quite non-scary cartoons and comics rather than any real life basis. (Ironically, the irritable next door neighbour as typified by Mr. Curry from the Paddington books is far more likely to be a real life concern for young children.)

I don't think your average child has met enough crazy taxidermists to be truly checking under the bed for them, and witches and wizards really can be safely banished to fairytale land. In fact, these comic book denizens are by and large safe ways to introduce young children to flashes of the dark side of human nature, without creating undue anxiety or fear.

They almost all meet grizzly and overblown ends too, which is part of the panto fun.

Barber is right that not every child's narrative needs these big bullies, certainly not every book or TV programme. Children's stories may be one of the best ways to address grief and pain for developing minds; that of course doesn't make them obliged to.

But to keep small ones focused and not wriggly in the cinema, I can think of few better ways than a larger than life baddie with arched eyebrows and a maniacal laugh, coming after the young and innocent hero of the hour.


Piers "Cruella de" Torday
@PiersTorday
www.pierstorday.co.uk

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New "Paddington" trailer; more CGI Paddington grotesqueness.

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Based on Michael Bond’s 1958 children’s book "A Bear Called Paddington," the live-action/CG hybrid "Paddington" tells the story of a Peruvian bear who finds himself living in London. The film will be released on November 28, 2014 in the Uk, followed by a Christmas Day release in the United States by the Weinstein Company/ Dimension Films. Based on Michael Bond’s 1958 children’s book A Bear Called Paddington, the live-action/CG hybrid Paddington tells the story of a Peruvian bear who finds himself living in London. The film will be released on November 28, 2014 in the Uk, followed by a Christmas Day release in the United States by the Weinstein Company/ Dimension Films.

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Today is Paddington Bear’s 50th birthday. Hurray Paddington Bear!

I loved reading about all the fixes that good-natured, innocent bear would get himself into, and how he always triumphed. The books never made me like marmalade, though.

How about you? Was Paddington Bear a favorite of yours, or a miss? Or did you never read him?



Thanks to Archimedes Forgets for the tip.

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Another famous bear for you to learn about - and this one, just like me, is the star of a book. Actually, this week's bear, Paddington has been the star of many books - for fifty years! That's even older than Sally.

Still Paddington might be cute, but I'm not sure he can sing like I can. He hasn't got a friend like Primula to teach him!

Check out Paddington's site.

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For those of you who have not yet read Bonny Becker's new book, let me tell you that you are in for a treat. It is an utterly delightful picture book and I can almost guarantee that it will bring a smile to your face. You can read my review of the book on the Through the Looking Glass Book Review website.

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