Hey all!  Before I dive into the oddities of the world in which we live, I just wanted to give a bit of a shout out to two distinct groups that allowed me to sprawl my librarian self all over their respective gatherings.  First up, credit and love to Nancy Castaldo and all the folks who made this weekend’s Eastern NY SCBWI Regional Conference the success that it was.  I’m mighty appreciative that I was able to offer the dessert keynote on Saturday.  Moreover, thanks to everyone who came out to see my censorship panel on Saturday at the Brooklyn Book Festival with David Levithan, Francesca Lia Block, and Lauren Myracle.  It’s always nice to moderate something that hardly needs any moderation at all.  Extra thanks to anyone who stayed around for my picture book reading later.  David Maybury I be looking at you.

And now, because the weekend was so darned exciting, I’m going to do some super quickie round-ups of the recent news.

• What’s that you say?  Beautiful posters inspired by the work of Roald Dahl?

Don’t mind if I do!

• I have dealt with difficult reference desk requests in the past, but Benji’s story on dealing with a student looking for Effie?  That takes the cake.  Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.

• All right.  Love this look at what the voices behind Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh looked like when it first came out and what they look like today.  Had no idea Clint Howard was Roo.  That’s gonna take some reconfiguration in my noggin.  And I thought Thurl Ravenscroft was the first Tigger!  No?  Thanks to PW Children’s Bookshelf for the link.An

• Though it falls squarely into the Couldn’t Be Published in America category of European picture books, Sergio Ruzzier’s remarkable The Birds is WELL worth reading through today.  And not just because I like the name.

• Ever been curious about the history of children’s theater in New York City?  Well, you lucky ducks, I just found a post that’s gonna make your day.

• Confused as to where exactly I work and what exactly I work for?  My job has gotten a bit more complicated since I became part of BookOps.  This interview with my colleagues by Booklist should clear up any and all confusion, though.  At least I hope it does.

• Take one look at this image and tell me what you think it is:

If you said it was an Anne-of-Green-Gables-inspired-wedding-shoot you would be correct.  Sadly it wasn’t a real wedding, but you can tell it’ll serve as inspiration to a lot of folks.

• The title probably says it all for this one: Reading for pleasure puts children ahead in the classroom, study finds. Yup.  Thanks to Amie Wright for the link.

• Hooray!  The good Elizabeth Bluemle has collected The Stars Thus Far for 2013 and they’re a doozy.  A bunch of five stars are up, but not a single six star book has appeared so far this year.  Whodathunkit?

• Looks like we have a bookless library on our hands.  Now the only question is whether or not we’ll be seeing the community clamoring for print or not.  Not so sure I agree with the statement that “it will take more than 100 years before all libraries are paperless” (so that’s inevitable, eh whot?) but we can all watch this site with some interest.

• Daily Image:

Yup.  That’s gonna be the walls of my house someday.  Though the books will undoubtedly be thinner.

Thanks to Aunt Judy for the link!

Display Comments Add a Comment

Add a Comment

I forget how many years ago it was, but in the not so distant past (I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was 2009) I had the pleasure of hosting children’s author and storyteller Carman Agra Deedy in my Children’s Center.  Talk about a storyteller!  She will hold you riveted from syllable one onwards.  I had no idea that back in 2005 she did a TED talk.  Had I known, I would have posted it long before now.  Here goes:

Thanks to Aunt Judy for the link.

Clever move, author Sue Fleiss.  One thing I would like to point out about this video before you watch it is that it involved picture book related hand jive.  No easy task.

Catchy.

I’ve decided that the last great children’s literature world to delve into and learn more about has got to be the world of collecting.  I don’t know much of any children’s book collectors and I think they’d be fascinating folks to mingle with.  That in mind, when I heard that Travis Jonker had gotten this Antiques Roadshow clip from John Schumacher it all seemed to click.  I wish I knew what made a children’s book valuable.  I tremble when I think about the titles we handle on a regular basis in my office.

It’s probably no surprise to you to hear that a fair number of folks contact me about including videos of their authors or illustrators on this site.  I don’t always say yes, but I always watch to see if the videos are honestly interesting.  And brother, this brief interview with Fred Bowen is precisely that.  I’ve always been a bit sports allergic myself, so to hear him pinpoint the value of the “culture” as he (rightly) puts it is good for me.

 

 

Don’t think I’ll actually embed anything from this site, but it’s worth knowing about in any case.  Storyline Online is is odd little online streaming video program where you can watch various members of the Screen Actors Guild read old children’s books. As of right now the readers include Betty White, Melissa Gilbert, Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Jason Alexander, Ernest Borgnine, James Earl Jones, Robert Guillaume, Tia & Tamara Mowry, etc.  I have to assume they haven’t done many recently, if only because the books themselves are pretty old.  At any rate, its an interesting smattering.  Thanks to Aunt Judy for the link.

Well.  This is . . . just the more frigging adorable thing.  Check it.

Sort of combines all my favorite things.  Cute kids speaking languages other than English and world-renowned cartoonists we’ve never heard of.  Liniers.  I’ll remember that name now.

In other book trailer news, it’s awful nice when your illustrator not only creates the art for your book but comes up with some catchy song tie-ins as well.  Case in point:

And now some thoughts.
1. There is a Roald Dahl bio by Michael Rosen and it’s not available in the U.S.? This thing cannot be right.
2. The following video is 45 minutes long and rather worth it. This is a vid that was streamed live on Tuesday.
3. Rosen. He doesn’t flub. Not a word, not a syllable. This man is a practiced pro. I would rather like to be him when I grow up.  I wonder if he’s ever done a TED talk . . .
4. If you would like to hear musical performances from shows like Matilda, you can see the Matilda song around 15:30. 19:44 is where you’ll find the backstage peek into the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical.  No live performances there, sadly.

And for our off-topic video of the day, this would be the video that garnered the most alerts to my attention from family and friends this week.  There are people that say it’s the Gangnam Style of 2013.  Don’t know about that, but it is rather children’s literature friendly (so maybe it’s only 85% off-topic).  Thanks in particular to Kate and Marci for the link.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Add a Comment

Happy birthday, Roald Dahl! To celebrate the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and other classic kid’s books, we’ve dug up free eBooks that inspired him as a young boy.

In his autobiographical book, Boy, Dahl explained how an English teacher named Mrs. O’Connor inspired him as writer. We’ve collected free eBooks from his early reading list–follow the links below to download. The Telegraph has an excerpt:

In two and a half hours, we grew to love Langland and his Piers Plowman. The next Saturday, it was Chaucer, and we loved him, too. Even rather difficult fellows like Milton and Dryden and Pope all became thrilling when Mrs O’Connor told us about their lives and read parts of their work to us aloud. And the result of all this, for me at any rate, was that by the age of 13 I had become intensely aware of the vast heritage of literature that had been built up in England over the centuries. I also became an avid and insatiable reader of good writing.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

The official Roald Dahl Day takes place every year on the birthday of the World’s No. 1 Storyteller. This year Roald Dahl Day coincides with Friday 13th – the perfect excuse for even more mischief and mayhem than usual.

The fantastic thing about Roald Dahl’s books is you can literally grow up with them, from his picture books like The Enormous Crocodile to first chapter books like The Twits to books like Matilda until you reach his autobiographies and adult short stories. And what would a Roald Dahl book be without the illustrations of Quentin Blake?

In celebration of Dahl Day here are my top 5 Roald Dahl books. Let us know your favourites

1. Danny The Champion of the World

A fantastic story about a father and son, pheasant poaching and an ingenious plan.

2. Matilda

The story of a very smart girl and her very dumb parents full of all the dark humour we love from Roald Dahl.

3. The Twits

The most disgusting couple you’ll ever meet who eventually get their comeuppance. This was just as fun reading to my daughter as it was when I was her age.

4. The Witches

Witches who eat children, the best way to hide from them is not to wash and boy gets turned into a mouse. What’s not to love?

5. Fantastic Mr Fox

The clever Mr Fox must outwit farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Plus Wes Anderson made a fantastic film

Here’s a list of Roald Dahl’s books.

What are your favourites?

 

Add a Comment

This series of never-before-published photos was taken at the 1945 wrap party for Walt Disney’s Latin American-themed package feature The Three Caballeros. In addition to photos of Walt and Lillian Disney, there are images of some of Disney’s top artists including Mary Blair, Fred Moore, Ward Kimball, Retta Scott, and James Bodrero. Jose Carioca’s voice, José Oliveira, is in one of the images, and soon-to-become children’s book author Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda) is seen in another. Also pictured is the studio’s well-liked head of personnel, Hal Adelquist, who later ended up panhandling in the Bowery.

Add a Comment

A survey was reported this week which proclaimed Roald Dahl as the favourite author not only of children, but their parents too. According to the Guardian, half of kids voted for Dahl; about a third for JK Rowling; and the rest for Beatrix Potter. Their parents voted Dahl first, Enid Blyton second and Rowling third.


I wouldn't take the survey too seriously; it was conducted by some PR company to promote something or other, and surely wasn't in the least bit scientific. But there's no doubt that Roald Dahl is enormously popular among children at the moment; perhaps more popular than he ever has been.

Was he so loved and respected when he was alive? He certainly didn't win any of the major children's book prizes. Was that simply because he was loved more by readers than "gatekeepers"? Or has his status grown in the years since his death in 1990?

I've been thinking a lot about Dahl recently. I'm working as Writer-in-Residence at the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, a wonderful little museum packed with his possessions and full of displays about his characters and books.


I visited Dahl's grave the other day; it's a short stroll up the hill from the museum.


I was very surprised to see who inhabits the plot next door to Dahl's: it belongs to someone who shares my surname. As far as I know, we're not related.


I'd like to know more about Dahl himself. A few years ago, I read Jeremy Treglown's biography, which was a clear case of a biographer growing to dislike his subject more and more as he learnt more about him. I'm going to read Donald Sturridge's more recent Storyteller: the Life of Roald Dahl, which was authorised by the family and is apparently much more sympathetic, perhaps too much so; and Michael Rosen's Fantastic Mr Dahl, which was published last year.

Before reading either of those, I've been re-reading Dahl's own books. I've also been reading The BFG to my daughter. She loves it so much, she takes it to bed.

The other night, I tiptoed into her room before going to bed myself and found the book nestling on the pillow beside her, the pages crinkling under her cheek.

She's only four, and on her first reading of Roald Dahl's books, but he has already taken his place in her affections and imagination.


Josh Lacey
http://www.joshlacey.com

Display Comments Add a Comment

     



You can listen to Roald's Dahls' answers here. The interview was given in 1988, two years before his death, in the gypsy caravan (or shepherd's hut?)

in his garden. The interviewer was Todd McCormack.

WHAT IS IT LIKE WRITING A BOOK?
When you’re writing, it’s rather like going on a very long walk, across valleys and mountains and things, and you get the first view of what you see and you write it down. Then you walk a bit further, maybe you up onto the top of a hill, and you see something else. Then you write that and you go on like that, day after day, getting different views of the same landscape really. The highest mountain on the walk is obviously the end of the book, because it’s got to be the best view of all, when everything comes together and you can look back and see that everything you’ve done all ties up. But it’s a very, very long, slow process.

HOW DO YOU GET THE IDEAS FOR YOUR STORIES?
It starts always with a tiny little seed of an idea, a little germ, and that even doesn’t come very easily. You can be mooching around for a year or so before you get a good one. When I do get a good one, mind you, I quickly write it down so that I won’t forget it, because it disappears otherwise rather like a dream. But when I get it, I don’t dash up here and start to write it. I’m very careful. I walk around it and look at it and sniff it and then see if I think it will go. Because once you start, you’re embarked on a year’s work and so it’s a big decision.

HOW DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH?
I had a kind of fascination with the thought that an apple-there’re a lot of apple trees around here, and fruit trees, and you can watch them through the summer getting bigger and bigger from a tiny little apple to bigger and bigger ones, and it seemed to me an obvious thought-what would happen if it didn’t stop growing? Why should it stop growing at a certain size? And this appealed to me and I thought this was quite a nice little idea and [then I had to think] of which fruit I should take for my story. I thought apple, pear, plum, peach. Peach is rather nice, a lovely fruit. It’s pretty and it’s big and it’s squishy and you can go into it and it’s got a big seen in the middle that you can play with. And so the story started.

WHAT IS YOUR WORK ROUTINE?
My work routine is very simple and it’s always been so for the last 45 years. The great thing, of course, is never to work too long at a stretch, because after about two hours you are not at your highest peak of concentration, so you have to stop. Some writers choose certain times to write, others [choose] other times, and it suits me to start rather late. I start at 10 o’clock and I stop at 12. Always. However well I’m going, I will stay there until 12, even if I’m a bit stuck. You have to keep your bottom on the chair and stick it out. Otherwise, if you start getting in the habit of walking away, you’ll never get it done.

HOW DO YOU KEEP THAT MOMENTUM GOING WHEN YOU ARE WRITING A NOVEL?
One of the vital things for a writer who’s writing a book, which is a lengthy project and is going to take about a year, is how to keep the momentum going. It is the same with a young person writing an essay. They have got to write four or five or six pages. But when you are writing it for a year, you go away and you have to come back. I never come back to a blank page; I always finish about halfway through. To be confronted with a blank page is not very nice. But Hemingway, a great American writer, taught me the finest trick when you are doing a long book, which is, he simply said in his own words, “When you are going good, stop writing.” And that means that if everything’s going well and you know exactly where the end of the chapter’s going to go and you know just what the people are going to do, you don’t go on writing and writing until you come to the end of it, because when you do, then you say, well, where am I going to go next? And you get up and you walk away and you don’t want to come back because you don’t know where you want to go. But if you stop when you are going good, as Hemingway said…then you know what you are going to say next. You make yourself stop, put your pencil down and everything, and you walk away. And you can’t wait to get back because you know what you want to say next and that’s lovely and you have to try and do that. Every time, every day all the way through the year. If you stop when you are stuck, the you are in trouble!

WHAT IS THE SECRET TO KEEPING YOUR READERS ENTERTAINED?
My lucky thing is I laugh at exactly the same jokes that children laugh at and that’s one reason I’m able to do it. I don’t sit out here roaring with laughter, but you have wonderful inside jokes all the time and it’s got to be exciting, it’s got to be fast, it’s got to have a good plot, but it’s got to be funny. It’s got to be funny. And each book I do is a different level of that. Oh, The Witches is quite different from The BFG or James [and the Giant Peach] or Danny [the Champion of the World]. The line between roaring with laughter and crying because it’s a disaster is a very, very fine one. You see a chap slip on a banana skin in the street and you roar with laughter when he falls slap on his backside. If in doing so you suddenly see he’s broken a leg, you very quickly stop laughing and it’s not a joke anymore. I don’t know, there’s a fine line and you just have to try to find it.

HOW DO YOU CREATE INTERESTING CHARACTERS?
When you’re writing a book, with people in it as opposed to animals, it is no good have people who are ordinary, because they are not going to interest your readers at all. Every writer in the world has to use the characters that have something interesting about them, and this is even more true in children’s books. I find that the only way to make my characters really interesting to children is to exaggerate all their good or bad qualities, and so if a person is nasty or bad or cruel, you make them very nasty, very bad, very cruel. If they are ugly, you make them extremely ugly. That, I think, is fun and makes an impact.

HOW DO YOU INCLUDE HORRIFIC EVENTS WITHOUT SCARING YOUR READERS?
You never describe any horrors happening, you just say that they do happen. Children who got crunched up in Willy Wonka’s chocolate machine were carries away and that was the end of it. When the parents screamed, “Where has he gone?” and Wonka said, “Well, he’s gone to be made into fudge,” that’s where you laugh, because you don’t see it happening, you don’t hear the child screaming or anything like that ever, ever, ever.

HOW MUCH HAS LIVING IN THE COUNTRYSIDE INFLUENCED YOU?
I wouldn’t live anywhere else except in the country, here. And, of course, if you live in the country, your work is bound to be influenced by it in a lot of ways, not pure fantasy like Charlie with chocolate factories, witches, and BFG’s, but the others that are influenced by everything around you. I suppose the one [book] that is most dependent purely on this countryside around here is Danny the Champion of the World, and I rather love that book. And when I was planning it, wondering where I was going to let Danny and his father live, all I had to do, I didn’t realize it, all I had to do was look around my own garden and there it was.

ROALD DAHL ON THE SUBJECT OF CHOCOLATE:
In the seven years of this glorious and golden decade [the 1930s], all the great classic chocolates were invented: the Crunchie, the Whole Nut bar, the Mars bar, the Black Magic assortment, Tiffin, Caramello, Aero, Malteser, the Quality Street assortment, Kit Kat, Rolo, and Smarties. In music the equivalent would be the golden age when compositions by Bach and Mozart and Beethoven were given to us. In painting it was the equivalent of the Renaissance in Italian art and the advent of the Impressionsists toward the end of the nineteenth century. In literature it was Tolstoy and Balzac and Dickens. I tell you, there has been nothing like it in the history of chocolate and there never will be.
_______________________________________________________

I find what he said about writing being like a long, long walk through a landscape and not seeing the whole book until you're standing on a high hill at the end very encouraging. As I write things often I don't know what I'm doing -- or where I'm going -- only now at the end (I am ALMOST done with my last chapter!) do I see what is important (to me, anyhow!) in what I've written.

To Roald Dahl, "everything fit" (but maybe that was after rewriting?). I will have to take out some things and rewrite others in order for the whole landscape to work -- but that, as a friend said, is what revisions are for!

The idea of stopping for the day when you know what is going to happen next is one I had read before (in some Hemingway essay or biography). But Hemingway didn't explain it or admit the part about being stuck if you don't do it -- so I GET IT when Roald Dahl says it.

Hurray for Roald Dahl and children's books!

Add a Comment

When Tara launched this party, she quoted the fantastic Mr. Dahl:

And above all,
watch with glittering eyes

the whole world around you
because the greatest secrets
are always hidden

in the most unlikely places.
Those who don’t believe in magic

will never find it.

That’s just plain inspiring, no?

Well. Here’s my favorite sentence that man said, from THE BFG:

But let’s ignore that sage advice and gobblefunk a bit. That pretty much sums up what we do as writers anyway, right? Stir this, mix that, add in this word, trash those dumb ones, those unneccessary ones, those boring ones.

I’m always (always!) noodling around words in my brain. Odd I know, especially because my day job is all about pictures and graphics and effects. So at work recently, one dude asks the Boss Man, “Boss Man, what shot number is the one with the volcano?”

Too easy. I pipe up with, “Probably number e-LAVA-n.”

Maybe that was a bit of a groaner, or even a lot of a groaner if you have no funny bone. But since you are on the other side of the internet, and because I know we are all best friends, I have a feeling you laughed a little.

Did I write down “Punny Counting Book about Earth Science-y Things” in my PiBoIdMo notebook that day? Maybe.

(My honey’s fantasy football team is called the Favre Fig Newtons. Runs in the family.)

I figure if you look at the world like it’s one monster crossword puzzle, something unexpected is bound to tumble out.

Gobblefunked.

And why limit the gobblefunking to words? Why not gobblefunk with pictures?

I’m really no different than your average preschooler, because all day long I think about shapes and lines and color.

It’s when this:

Becomes this:

Which could easily become this:

OK, well maybe that’s boring unless you are in my line of work. But!

Couldn’t that same gobblefunking help us with ideas?

And since words are just pictures in different shapes, let’s do some of those, too.

This is the high school football stadium up the road from me. I am obsessed with their signage. It’s strong and pretty, and it sparkles on Friday nights. I can’t explain my love for this tiny part of my town, I’m just drawn to it. (I secretly think Tami Taylor is in those bleachers, which may explain part of the love.)

So, switch around some letters, fire up the gobblefunking, and the leftovers might just be a flash of an idea.

Gobblefunked.

Every day when I leave my house, these are the stepping stones I hop.

I hate them. They are awkwardly spaced, so in order to avoid the dewy grass I have to mosey with some serious cowboy swagger to land on each one. But remember that whole thing about being like a preschooler and thinking of shapes all day?

Maybe instead of stone circles they are actually…

Gobblefunked.

Or this:

All I see is a pet rock factory. Or a cement skyscraper. You?

This will be the only time I ask you to listen to me and not Roald Dahl. But go ahead and ignore that advice above, and get busy gobblefunking.

Carter Higgins is a motion graphics designer and a former elementary school librarian. She spends her days creating graphics, teaching, gobblefunking, and writing picture books. All of these interests combine in her blog at Design of the Picture Book, or you can find her on Twitter @CarterHiggins.

Carter is generously donating a picture book critique to PiBoIdMo. And you don’t have to wait until the end of the month to win it! Anyone can enter, right here, right now. Just leave a comment and a winner will be randomly selected in one week. Good luck!

Display Comments Add a Comment

Inspired by Postcards from Penguin, a card collection based on classic Penguin book covers, one couple created a massive wall hanging tribute to their favorite books.

The couple posted the entire project on Reddit’s DIY section. In the photo set embedded above, you can explore the entire project from start to finish. Here’s more from the post:

We’re both huge book lovers, so we immediately began thinking of ways to use them in an interesting, decorative way … We tried various layouts, eventually deciding that a shifting color scheme would be the most aesthetically pleasing. We cherry-picked some titles that we were particularly fond of. Among them: The Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Great Gatsby, and 1984. Among the authors: H.G. Wells, Roald Dahl, Raymond Chandler, and Graham Greene.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

Librarian Spotlight #1

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: August 17, 2012

To kick off TCBR’s new column “On the Shelf,” which shines a spotlight on brilliant children’s librarians, April Hayley, MLIS, graciously  talked to us about becoming a librarian— among other great topics. Do you think you can guess which is the most checked out children’s book at San Anslemo Public Library in California? Read on!

Bianca Schulze: Why did you choose to become a librarian?

April Hayley: I was fortunate enough to discover the magic of reading at a young age, probably before I was out of the cradle. My mother, a librarian, read me stories and sang to me every night before bed and my father made up fairy tales for me. I didn’t discover my calling as a librarian until college one summer, working for the Chicago Public Library (my hometown). My job was to provide library services to children in some of the city’s most neglected and poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Instead of working inside the library, I brought books and literacy activities directly to the young people who needed it most. I visited three playgrounds a day, equipped only with a trunk full of picture books and a quilt to sit on. Once the kids figured out why I was coming around, they always ran over to join me, so eager to read stories, sing songs, and learn something new.Reading opened up new worlds for the kids I met. I could see it as they linked their eyes with mine, and for me that was a powerful, life-changing experience.

Most of the precious children I met that summer had never been exposed to the pleasures of reading, and none of them had ever visited a public library. When I witnessed the joy and curiosity that reading sparked in them, I understood the transformative effect of reading on young minds and I knew I wanted to be a Children’s Librarian. Once I entered graduate school to earn my Masters in Library Science, I had the opportunity to intern in the Children’s Room of the beautiful Mill Valley Library, and I knew I was on the right path; delivering traditional library services within the walls of a suburban public library could be just as fun and rewarding as literacy outreach in the inner city.

BS: Librarians are the ultimate evangelists for reading. How do you encourage students and children to read?

AH: Now that I work at the San Anselmo Library, I am lucky that many of the kids I meet already love to read. There is a culture of reading in San Anselmo that simply does not exist in places whose inhabitants must spend their time dealing with the dispiriting effects of poverty. Of course, I do a lot of work to promote reading for the children, babies, caregivers, and teenagers of our community. I lead several weekly storytimes for toddlers and preschoolers, which are designed to nourish a love of reading that will last a lifetime. It’s important to reach out to new parents and their babies as early as possible to show them how fun reading, sharing nursery rhymes, learning fingerplays, and singing can be. I also lead a book discussion group for elementary school students called the Bookworms, and a poetry club for yo

Add a Comment

Time to grab your backpack, notebook and Dixon Ticonderoga #2′s—it’s back-to-school time! But hey, let’s make this year a little more interesting, shall we?

How about candy-coated pencils for sucking in class? YES!!! *fist pump* (Remember, I’m from Jersey.)

I don’t deserve credit here. Back in 1994, just a few years after Roald Dahl’s passing, his widow Liccy compiled truly inspired recipes for the book ROALD DAHL’S REVOLTING RECIPES, based on his darkly humorous children’s tales.

There’s George’s Marvelous Medicine Chicken Soup from GEORGE’S MARVELOUS MEDICINE, Mr. Twit’s Beard Food from THE TWITS, and Mosquitoes’ Toes and Wampfish Roes Most Delicately Fried from JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. And while these treats might not be on your next tea party list, there’s also sweet favorites like Bunce’s Donuts from FANTASTIC MR. FOX and Bruce Bogtrotter’s Chocolate Cake from MATILDA.

But considering the time of year, I thought it would be fun to share a recipe for making daydreaming in class a little sweeter.

CANDY-COATED PENCILS FOR SUCKING IN CLASS

Makes 6

You will need:

• 6 pencils (Dahl’s favorite were Dixon Ticonderoga #2′s)
• Play-Doh or other modeling clay (for standing pencils up)
• candy thermometer (optional)
• buttered 8X10 rimmed baking sheet lined with wax paper
• buttered knife
• 1/2 pound sugar cubes
• 1/2 cup plus 2 TBSP water
• large pinch cream of tartar
• few drops flavoring and food coloring

1. Put sugar and water in saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar has dissolved.
2. Raise the heat. When syrup is almost boiling, add cream of tartar and a warmed candy thermometer.
3. Boil without stirring to 250 degrees F, or until a little bit of the syrup dropped into cold water forms a hard ball (a ball that will hold its shape but still be pliable).
4. Remove from heat, add flavoring and coloring. Do not over-stir and be careful, mixture is very hot.
5. Pour mixture into rimmed, lined baking sheet. Edges will cool more quickly then the center, so as the mixture cools, turn the edges inward with a buttered knife, but do not stir.
6. Working quickly, lay 2/3rds of a pencil (not the pointed end) on top of the mixture. Using the buttered knife, lift up the candy and gently wrap it around the pencil. You can create all sorts of shapes before it hardens. When the candy is almost set, stand the pencil point side down into the clay. Try not to touch the candy now, as you’ll leave fingerprints.
7. Repeat step 6 with other pencils.

Note: Do not double the recipe to make more. Make additional batches instead.

That’s it! Now suck away in class, but don’t tell your teacher who gave you the recipe! I don’t want to get in trouble!

While ROALD DAHL’S REVOLTING RECIPES seems to be out of print, it has been resurrected several times. I suspect it will be released again. But if you just can’t wait to devour SNOZZCUMBERS or LICKABLE WALLPAPER, I suggest checking for a local indie seller.

Bon appetite!

Display Comments Add a Comment

STORYTELLER: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock cannot be missed, yet for two years I missed it. What is wrong with me? (Eh-hem, this is a rhetorical question, thankyouverymuch.)

Roald Dahl remains one of the most iconic children’s authors of all time, yet he began his career writing macabre short stories based upon his experience in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Just how did he evolve into the fantastical children’s author we all love?

Sheila St. Lawrence, Dahl’s literary agent at the Watkins Agency, is to thank. She realized “the ease in which Dahl could enter a child’s mind,” clearly apparent in his short story “The Wish”. In the tale, a young boy dares to walk across a carpet by stepping only on its yellow portions. Should his foot slip onto another color, he thought he would “disappear into a black void or be killed by venomous snakes.” This story was the only adult Dahl piece to feature a child protagonist to date, and it could not escape St. Lawrence’s attention.

After a disastrous two-year foray into playwriting, St. Lawrence implored Dahl to turn his literary aspirations elsewhere. Yet he ignored her kidlit suggestion, wrote stories that got turned down by The New Yorker, and instead got placed in the far less desirable (but still paying) Playboy.

Dahl’s publisher Alfred Knopf expressed interest in a children’s book, but then dropped a collection of adult stories called “Kiss Kiss” from Knopf’s 1959 list. Dahl spouted some choice words in response, threatening that Knopf would never squeeze a children’s book out of him.

Dahl once again became focused on writing for actors, as he wished to develop vehicles for his wife at the time, screen star Patricia Neal. After all, if Neal was working steadily, her income afforded him more time to write what he wanted to write. There were shows for Hitchcock and a drama series for TV based upon classic ghost stories, produced by Alfred Knopf’s half brother. But when the pilot episode encountered a controversy, the series got permanently shelved and Dahl was forced to return to the idea that evolved into JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH.

I will say “and the rest is history” here, although STORYTELLER is only halfway through Dahl’s life story at this point. So like Sheila St. Lawrence, I implore you to turn your literary aspirations toward it.

But before I go, it would be a shame not to share with you Dahl’s advice to children’s writers, as told to Helen Edwards in an interview for Bedtime Stories exactly 42 years ago:

What makes a good children’s writer? The writer must have a genuine and powerful wish not only to entertain children, but to teach them the habit of reading…[He or she] must be a jokey sort of fellow…[and] must like simple tricks and jokes and riddles and other childish things. He must be unconventional and inventive. He must have a really first-class plot. He must know what enthralls children and what bores them. They love being spooked. They love ghosts. They love the finding of treasure. The love chocolates and toys and money. They love magic. They love being made to giggle. They love seeing the villain meet a grisly death. They love a hero and they love the hero to be a winner. But they hate descriptive passages and flowery prose. They hate long descriptions of any sort. Many of them are sensitive to good writing and can spot a clumsy sentence. They like stories that contain a threat. “D’you know what I feel like?” sai

10 Comments on Roald Dahl: What Makes a Good Children’s Writer, last added: 7/10/2012

Display Comments

Kendra Lindell said, on 7/10/2012 8:00:00 AM

So true!!!

Shelley Moore Thomas said, on 7/10/2012 8:15:00 AM

Somehow I’ve missed this book, too!! Well, off to the library. thanks for the heads-up!

shelley

Mary Zisk said, on 7/10/2012 8:15:00 AM

Love Dahl’s writing. Listened to the Chocolate Factory read by Eric Idle–brilliant voices!

Tara Lazar said, on 7/10/2012 8:20:00 AM

Ooh, I must listen to that! You know Dahl went to school with another Monty Python alum, John Cleese.

Dustin Hansen said, on 7/10/2012 8:31:00 AM

Fantastic review. I read this when it came out and it had a profound impact on me, as did many of his books growing up. The paragraph you pulled is such a great reminder. Bravo!

martidl said, on 7/10/2012 9:43:00 AM

Really good article. Like I don’t already have a bunch of voices in my head…now I’m gonna have his as well and all his wonderful questions as I rewrite, rewrite, rewrite! Lol…

Lauri meyers said, on 7/10/2012 1:18:00 PM

Yes! Yes! I want to write like that. But how? How? I think I will try to write something macabre I wouldn’t want my kids to read. Maybe some creative spark will break loose.

Alexa said, on 7/10/2012 2:55:00 PM

Great stuff here. Thanks for sharing!

tinamcho said, on 7/10/2012 7:36:00 PM

Thanks for sharing your great find! My daughter enjoys his books, but sadly I never read them as a child. I’ll have to put them on my list!

Cathy C. Hall said, on 7/10/2012 8:12:00 PM

I LOVE Roald Dahl–and I love his creepy stories, too! And his website is really clever, too–one of my favorites. But only one of my three kidders really appreciated Dahl…and now that I think about it, he’s a little odd. Um, the kid, not Dahl. But now that I think about THAT…:-)

Thanks for his writing insights, Tara!

Add a Comment