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I’ve heard this book compared to Dr. Seuss’s book, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” Tons of this Dr. Seuss title are sold this time of year, I hear, as a traditional gift for grads going into the wide, wide world. It’s a shrinking world and a shape shifting one that the newly minted diploma and degree conferred upon are riding into, after years in the “groves of academe.”
But Neil Gaiman’s small-sized book with the subtitle of “Everything you’ll need to know on the journey” may be small in size, but it’s filled with as terse a wisdom as the Brothers Grimm stories.
With its gorgeous illustrations by Charles Vess of a fairy tale landscape, it opens with the simple request to say “Please” before you open the latch to the path that beckons. This simple set of directives is so clear, so true, so humanely appealing:
“If any creature tells you that it hungers,
feed it.
If it tells you that it is dirty,
clean it.
If it cries to you that it hurts,
ease its pain.”
The puss in boots wanderer is told, when he stands at the top of a deep well, that if he opts to turn back at this critical point, “you can walk back safely; you will lose no face. I will think no less of you.”
He is told that “dragons have one soft spot”, “hearts can be well hidden” and not to lose hope…”what you seek will be found.”
“Trust dreams
Trust your heart
and trust your story.”
The unassuming advice of “Do not forget your manners”is mixed with much deeper assurances in the suggestion, “Do not look back.”
But the ending is very reminiscent of Dorothy’s journey in “The Wizard of Oz”:
“When you reach the little house
the place your journey started,
you will recognize it, although it will seem
much smaller than you remember.”
“And then go home
And make a home.
Or rest.”
Neil Gaiman has written a fairy tale for those on a journey this summer, this year, and this lifetime.
Enjoy the book and the ride. Trust yourself in that, as someone wise once said, you can be in the world, what you want to see there.
Book trailers are popping up everywhere and the best of them are going viral before the book even comes out.
The goal is to launch a book. But along the way, book videos have become entertainment in themselves and, in some cases, are as anticipated as the book itself.
One of my favorites, originally titled Stokebird: The Invention, went on to win the Chicago International Children's Film Festival for best animated short.
It's based on Wouter Van Reek's picture book, Coppernickel: The Invention, about two best friends who try to invent a machine for picking high-hanging berries.
Book trailers appeal to publishers because they spread themselves -- anyone can stop by YouTube to embed them on their web page -- and a number of educators find they spur some reluctant readers to crack a book.
Consider this trailer for National Book Award winner M.T. Anderson's fourth book in the adventure series,Pals in Peril: Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware.
A boy technonaut Jasper and his friends try to stop a crime spree in the state of Delaware, which has been cut off from the civilized world by prohibitive interstate tolls. (Simon & Schuster) View the trailer here.
Today book trailers flood not only YouTube, but MySpace and iFilm, vying for our attention. The best of them grab us in the first scene, and within one to three minutes, motivate us to race out and read more.
They not only summarize the story but connect us with the emotion of what's going on.
One of the most popular formats is to move illustrated pages across the screen or having them fade in and out, as music plays in the background or a narrator summarizes the story.
In another video, Newbery Medalist Neil Gaiman reads from his 2010 picture book Instructions, and you just want to play it over and over.
His gentle voice inspires everything he says, as magical pictures by Charles Vess sail across the screen. (HarperCollins) View the trailer here.
Other trailers feel almost cinematic. Take the trailer for Margie Palatini and Barry Mouser'sLousy Rotten Stinkin' Grapes.
This is an animation of Charles Vess's art, turning Pencils into Paintings, with me saying the poem over it, to promote the book of INSTRUCTIONS we've done. And it is so beautiful. I am really proud of the job that the Harper's team did on this. I want to make everyone watch it.
When I left, it was winter. I've come home to the kind of Spring that means that Summer is just rumbling around like someone shuffling his feet waiting to be invited into a room: temperatures in the 70s, everything green and warm and welcoming.
The best news is that all four hives of bees survived the winter. I wasn't sure that they would -- was pretty certain that the red hive (which swarmed last year) would be empty (it wasn't), but all the lessons from the previous year had been learned, and luck was with us. (Sharon Stiteler wrote about the bees here, while I was on the road.)
My dog and my daughter were both very happy to see me home again. One of them has started driver's ed. and has a driving permit.
(I didn't put up the picture of me and Neil Jordan far above London on Tuesday. Here it is...)
There were many amazing things waiting for me when I got home. I haven't even finished opening the mail from when I was away -- there are two large tubs sitting in the kitchen, not to mention random boxes, envelopes and just things. Things I have discovered in the mail so far include:
A proof copy of STORIES, edited by Al Sarrantonio and me. The US edition looks like this:
(I am so very proud of this book, from Tom Gauld's wonderful cover on. Contributors are, in story order, Roddy Doyle, Joyce Carol Oates, Joanne Harris, Neil Gaiman, Michael Marshall Smith, Joe R. Lansdale, Walter Mosley, Richard Adams, Jodi Picoult, Michael Swanwick, Peter Straub, Lawrence Block, Jeffrey Ford, Chuck Palahniuk, Diana Wynne Jones, Stewart O'Nan, Gene Wolfe, Carolyn Parkhurst, Kat Howard, Jonathan Carroll, Jeffrey Deaver, Tim Powers, Al Sarrantonio, Kurt Andersen, Michael Moorcock, Elizabeth Hand, and Joe Hill. And the stories are remarkable.)
An advance copy of Instructions, my poem illustrated by Charles Vess.
Strange moments of juxtaposition that make you feel like you're living in a novel:
It had been the kind of day that meant I never quite got to look at the post. After dinner I opened the various packages on the kitchen table.
The first thing I opened was a secondhand copy of "The Inner Hebrides and their Legends" by Otta F. Swire, and I opened it to a random page and read,
"...the third of May, when the Devil and his angels were cast out of heaven (and therefore 3rd May is a day on which no important undertaking should be begun and on which it is unpardonable to commit a crime)..."
That's interesting, I thought. I could put that in a story, the next time I need a date of ill-omen. I put the book down.
I opened the next envelope. It was huge, and came from Bloomsbury books in the UK, and contained -- well, what it contained was on the note accompanying it, which said, in tidy handwriting,
Dear Neil
I'm delighted to enclose proofs of the Bloomsbury edition of "Instructions" (to be published on 3rd May).
With best wishes,
Madeleine
That's a bit heavy-handed, I thought. If I were writing this, I'd drop the 3rd May date in on something that happened tomorrow, to give everyone reading a chance to forget.
Real life is so strangely written, sometimes.
Right. Back to work. I think tomorrow I may do a "These books have arrived here and are currently sitting on my kitchen table and extremely interesting," post, complete with photos. You need to know about Charles Vess's Drawing Down the Moon, for a start.
...
Also, while I think of it -- the Bela Fleck Danse Macabre that I gave an iTunes link to last week, is also available on Amazon.com.
The 2010 nominees for the ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award: o Neil Gaiman o Steve Geppi o Paul Levitz o Dave Sim o Bob Wayne
The 2010 nominees in the posthumous category for the ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award: o Will Eisner o Carol Kalish o Phil Seuling o Julius Schwartz
If I had a vote (I don't, not being a comics retailer) I'd probably v
0 Comments on From the Department of Only In Fiction as of 1/1/1900
When Blueberry Girl was published, and, much to our relief, people loved it, many of us had the same idea at the same time... my poem "Instructions", wouldn't that be rather wonderful illustrated by Charles?
I asked Charles what he thought, and he liked the idea, and Elise Howard, our editor, liked the idea too. We'd made, in Blueberry Girl, a picture book aimed not really at kids at all (although lots of kids seem to love it) but at mums and mothers to be, and daughters, and despite Borders initially refusing to stock or sell it, it had still made the NYT list, and, more importantly, it had made people happy. Could we do something like that aimed at everyone? And could we do it in less than the three years it took Charles to do Blueberry Girl?
I wasn't sure. I did know that the problem wasn't mine, though. It was Charles's. And Charles Vess is a remarkable man, and an amazing artist...
Over at http://greenmanpress.com/news/archives/447 Charles tells the story of how he evolved the main character (boy? girl?) and shows the evolution of some pages from pencils to finished art.
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