In order to celebrate the launch of The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature in March, we invited OUP staff to dress up as their favourite characters from children’s books. The result was one surreal day during which our Oxford offices were overrun with children’s literature characters, ranging from the Cat in the Hat to Aslan, from Pippi Longstocking to the Tiger Who Came to Tea, and from Little Red Riding Hood to the Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was a brilliant and brave effort by all those who attended. Particularly those who commuted to and from work in their costumes!
The post Who is your favourite character from children’s literature? appeared first on OUPblog.
Curious Words from the Chronicles of Narnia
By Jeremy Marshall
Many dictionaries and guides are careful to warn readers about the difference between a
faun and a
fawn. However, anyone familiar with the tales of
C. S. Lewis is unlikely to confuse these two shy inhabitants of woodland glades, since the goat-footed, part-human
faun of classical Roman mythology is the first strange creature we encounter when reading
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Those who know the film/movie version will be flocking back to the theaters this month to see more fantastical creatures in
Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Many legendary creatures from ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle East, and Northern Europe inhabit Lewis’s Narnia. From the classical world come the beautiful maidens called
nymphs, including the
dryads, spirits of trees, and
naiads, spirits of streams and springs. (Lewis also calls the naiads ‘well-women’, which now reads rather oddly to anyone who has heard of ‘
well woman’ health clinics.) Also familiar to most readers are the
centaur—half horse, half human—and the more sinister
minotaur, or bull-headed man. The classical cast is completed by the god
Bacchus, with
Silenus and the
satyrs—similar to the fauns, but linked more to drunken revels than pastoral idylls—and by the
monopods, a one-legged race featured in
The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’, whose history can be traced back to ‘tall tales’ of the wonders of India, written down by credulous (or unscrupulous) ancient Greek writers and repeated by the Roman encyclopedist
Pliny the Elder.
Mismatched myths
Alongside these—in a mythological mix which is said to have irritated Lewis’s friend Tolkien—we find the
dwarf of Germanic legend and the
ogre of old French tales, as well as the
merman, the
werewolf, the
bogle (Lewis uses the old northern spelling
boggle), and the
wraith. Among the retinue of the White Witch are three entirely unfamiliar types of creature, the
orknies,
ettins,
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on 1/7/2008
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The Planet Hunter: The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto
by Elizabeth Rusch; illustrated by Guy Francis
Rising Moon
I boast a stargazer or two in my household. My son has rocket ship sheets on his bed, glowing stars on his wall and a real telescope my husband props on the balcony when they feel like braving the icy winds off Lake Michigan.
This book didn't last two seconds out of the package before both my little spaceman and my big one were hunched over it, reading, pointing and exclaiming. Something about the hubbub over Pluto really gets amateur astronomers going, and mine aren't the only ones.
In case you've been living on an asteroid, Pluto got bumped from the planet club last year after astronomers decided there were too many other Pluto-esque balls of ice and rock floating around the same neighborhood. It just wasn't special enough after all.
Nothing could make such a phenomenon hit closer than dramatizing it as a personal quest. Rusch cuts through the science and brings us a gripping, highly readable story of one persistent, likable young astronomer determined to find another planet in the Kuiper belt at the very fringes of the solar system.
We follow Mike Brown from his boyhood making moon craters in his muddy backyard to his adult years and the ingenious system he developed to detect new heavenly bodies using an old observatory telescope. How exciting to see his discoveries one by one, laid out in funny side notes that explain their names (he dubbed one "Santa" after the red-suited Christmas visitor) and some weird facts about them. We feel his excitement--and determination--build as he wonders what, exactly, he's stumbled upon.
There's no ending to spoil; Brown's adventures go on and on. Somewhere out there, peering into space, the man who forced a re-examining of certain celestial truths is still happily mapping his piece of heaven.
Rating: *\*\*\
The Planet Hunter: The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto
by Elizabeth Rusch; illustrated by Guy Francis
Rising Moon
I boast a stargazer or two in my household. My son has rocket ship sheets on his bed, glowing stars on his wall and a real telescope my husband props on the balcony when they feel like braving the icy winds off Lake Michigan.
This book didn't last two seconds out of the package before both my little spaceman and my big one were hunched over it, reading, pointing and exclaiming. Something about the hubbub over Pluto really gets amateur astronomers going, and mine aren't the only ones.
In case you've been living on an asteroid, Pluto got bumped from the planet club last year after astronomers decided there were too many other Pluto-esque balls of ice and rock floating around the same neighborhood. It just wasn't special enough after all.
Nothing could make such a phenomenon hit closer than dramatizing it as a personal quest. Rusch cuts through the science and brings us a gripping, highly readable story of one persistent, likable young astronomer determined to find another planet in the Kuiper belt at the very fringes of the solar system.
We follow Mike Brown from his boyhood making moon craters in his muddy backyard to his adult years and the ingenious system he developed to detect new heavenly bodies using an old observatory telescope. How exciting to see his discoveries one by one, laid out in funny side notes that explain their names (he dubbed one "Santa" after the red-suited Christmas visitor) and some weird facts about them. We feel his excitement--and determination--build as he wonders what, exactly, he's stumbled upon.
There's no ending to spoil; Brown's adventures go on and on. Somewhere out there, peering into space, the man who forced a re-examining of certain celestial truths is still happily mapping his piece of heaven.
Rating: *\*\*\
By:
Elaine Anderson,
on 11/23/2007
Blog:
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books
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The Toronto Star reports that Halton's Catholic board has pulled The Golden Compass from school library shelves, pending a review by its trustees. Author Philip Pullman, who describes himself as an atheist, apparently wrote the series His Dark Materials as a response to C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia (which ironically have been challenged themselves).
Read a synopsis of The Golden Compass. It was voted the best children's book in the past 70 years by readers across the globe, according to news articles. Although it was published in 1995, the controversy is unfolding now because it has been made into a movie which will be released soon. Students can ask librarians for the book but it will not be displayed on shelves.
Toronto Star readers have voiced their opinions, many coming out in support of the presence of the book in schools.
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“Well, that’s all fine and good, but what about Pluto?”
“It’s a planet. Are you savvy?”
“BOOYA!”
*giggle*
“Wait! Wait! Wait! Say it with me!”
“Okay!”
“Pluto!”
“Planet!”
“Booya!”
“OUT!”
by Jacqueline Mitton; Illustrated by Christina Balit
I am always looking for well-explained astronomy for children, and this book delivers. From the tiny details, like having the crescent moon pointing in the right direction (a point that too many children's illustrators miss), to the simple and informative descriptions of the constellations and key stars, Zoo in the Sky gives emerging readers anchors in the night sky. The inside front and back covers have sky maps, giving you an opportunity to point out that northern and southern hemispheres have different constellations (rimmed by the zodiac), as well as a chance to show your reading partner the big picture.
--Juno
Comets, Stars, The Moon and Mars
by Douglas Florian
I honestly don't know why the WaPo didn't love this book. Elizabeth Ward drubbed the verses as having "all the verve of a mnemonic." I disagree, and not just because the publisher mistakenly sent me three copies.
Check out the charming wordplay in Saturn, for example:
Saturn's rings turn round Saturn.
Its moons turn round it, too.
Saturn, by turns, turns round the sun
Saturning through and through.
And then there's this pithy summation of Pluto's woes:
Pluto was a planet.
Pluto was admired.
Pluto was a planet.
Till one day it got fired.
Mnemonic? Maybe, if in the sense it'll help fix the planets and other heavenly bodies more firmly in a child's memory. But aside from a few clunkers like the Uranus one Ward cites, most of this collection sparkles.
Florian avoids the kiddie poetry cliches that drive me nuts: he varies his meter and rhyme schemes, he fiddles and diddles with meanings, his images occasionally startle, and he's playful and witty at almost every turn, but gets his facts straight.
And the art! He primed brown paper bags (how's that for recycling?) and used great swashes of wet, drippy color, and then interspersedbits of paper and stamped letters, all tied together thematically to each poem. Check out the little cut-outs too, which open windows onto different pages.
But don't be fooled; these collages only look messy and spontaneous. It's all still uncluttered and carefully composed, and rife with visual puns and playful diversions, a perfect foil to his verses.
Take the Pluto poem again--our poor, demoted pal is stamped with letters spelling rock? hard place? dog? stone? ufo? oddball? etc. I found myself resisting the urge to utterly decimate his copyright and recreate the art as giant murals in my son's space-themed bedroom.
Rating: *\*\*\*\
I find this is a complex issue. I believe the Catholic School Board in Halton should allow the book, but the notion that books are not banned in the public school system in Toronto is ludicrous.
Many books deemed non-pc for issues of race, gender and sexual orientation are routinely taken out of the curriculum or libraries but because they are older and the censorship is coming from the left it is not acknowledged.
Again, I think the Halton school board should allow the book. But the hypocrisy on this one is disgusting.
I didnot read your blog sorry but I will read The Golden Compass to my 4 year old daughter. can't express how sad it make me feal to hear about any type of supression. thanks. Intolerance is Intolerable
I am not a religious man, but I do respect the fact that many do follow a religious belief. However, there are always some members of religious groups who tend to be extreme and want to pose their beliefs on other, even at the expense of the rights of those who follow other beliefs, including those who do not believe in a god. To those of you have banned the Golden Compass in Canadian School Boards, I have three comments. First, the book is a fantasy book, not fact. Second, what ever happened to our freedom to decide what we should read or not. Some material is banned because it promotes illegal acts (and then again many of those types of books are not banned). However, questioning religion is not illegal…it is a natural and I am sure everyone has at one point or another. I have heard that the Golden Compass and the related books in the series are molding children’s minds and thus should be banned. What? Is that not how religion gets most of its followers, by molding minds at a very young age? I have a problem when public taxes pay for schools that have such short-sightedness. If I were a school teacher, administer, etc, I would be happy that the students are reading...period. Schools are meant to be places where students learn the basics (math, reading, writing, etc), but they are also places that should allow students to explore new theories and ideas so that they can become independent thinkers. The banning of this book is just one more example of why schools….all schools should be secular. In addition, the banning of a children’s fantasy book because it brings children on a journey where the religious rulers are corrupt and try to keep people from seeing the truth is really silly….all students need to do is open any history book. In fact the banning of the book actually support’s the idea that this fantasy story is closer to the truth than fiction.