Micro Review 65

 

The Magic Faraway Tree by Jacqueline Wilson (Hachette Children's Group)

As readers of my blog will know I am drawn to modern sequels of classic books like a moth to the flame, and like the moth all too often I do end up being burnt.

I still remember when I first read Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree books. My grandad came home from shopping with a green hardback copy of The Folk of the Faraway Tree. I don't recall reading much fantasy before this time and I can't remember how old I was when I was given this book but I know that it had a deep impact on me and even today on sleepless nights I use the idea of every changing lands at the top of a tree as a way to try and drop off.

This up to date sequel captures some of Blyton's out of time feeling to it, not including the bit that is necessary for the plot. They are a modern family but they don't have modern toys for instance, and their parents are fine with them playing alone and outside in an unfamiliar area... I know that as a child I didn't really think too much on the stereotypes, names and actions in the stories but in removing these, or explaining things away, the book felt very anodyne. Even the childrens' names no longer raises a smile!

For me the book just had none of the magic that I remember from childhood, even taking into allowance that I am probably about 40 years older than the target audience there was just no wonder, and also no real peril. All of the characters felt very flat and the adventures just not adventurous... I read an eProof thanks to Net Galley and this didn't include Mark Beech's illustrations so perhaps they do make the book more magical.

I am loathe to go back and read the originals again as I don't want to lose my memories of them but I feel that perhaps this is an author (and a series) that shouldn't be reworked for a modern audience.

Many thanks to the publisher for letting me read this book in advance of publication via Net Galley

Inadvertent Blog Silence

 

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, I have been reading a lot of books in proof form that aren't published until later in the year and so I can't really talk about them yet.

There's a few books about to be published however so stand by for a flurry of posts.

In the meantime Mr Norfolkbookworm and I have been enjoying the recent good weather and getting out and about lots, and just last week we had a few days in Yorkshire with my parents where we spent lots of time getting windswept on the cliffs at Bempton watching the seabirds.

I do try to upload my photos to Flickr on a reasonable regular basis and if you'd like to see them then they can be found here: flickr.com/photos/norfolkbookworm/albums

Back to the book backlog...

Micro Reviews 62, 63 & 64

 

The Ticket Collector from Belarus by Mike Andersen & Neil Hanson (Simon & Schuster)

A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd and Angelika Patel (Elliott & Thompson)

The School that Escaped the Nazis by Deborah Cadbury (Two Road)

In that way that seems to happen in my reading life I've recently read three books that connected in more ways than just the obvious WW2 setting.

The Ticket Collector from Belarus is an account on the only War Crimes Trial to ever take place in the UK and weaves a moving (and horrifying) tale of atrocities carried out by one Belarussian man on behalf of the Nazis. The details of the war period were supplied by Jewish survivors from the area, some of whom knew Sauwoniuk, and others who were directly affected by his actions.

I had no idea that there had only ever been on War Crimes Trial in the UK and the explanation of how it worked and the very precise legal wording and evidence that was admissible was as eye opening as the wartime stories.

The book also had added poignancy as thanks to border changes over the past 100 years the area in question is back in the news again as the current war in Ukraine is also taking place in this area.

A Village in the Third Reich also touches on some of the same themes as Ticket Collector. This is the biography of a rural village in Germany from roughly 1900-1950, and again a book I found fascinating as I read it, although slightly more controversial as I think about it afterwards.
Boyd attempts to be scrupulously fair in her account of the politics as they ebb and flow through the years and shows the insidious way Nazism did creep into every facet of life.

However in this attempt at fairness and balance I found that there was just a little too much excusing of people's behaviour and also the perpetuation of the idea that 'ordinary' Germans didn't know what was really happening. There was also a lot of justification of people with low party numbers not being the same as the 'bad' guys.

It was really interesting to focus on one village throughout the period rather than individuals but overall I'm left feeling that it was a bit bland and too safe - perhaps unsurprisingly as the author makes her home in the village.

The School that Escaped the Nazis also presented me with another strand of wartime history that I knew nothing about as it follows educator Anna Essinger who realised very early on into Hitler's reign that she needed to move her school out of the Third Reich and to provide a safe haven for her Jewish pupils, as well as those who's parents were marked as enemies of the Reich.

Against amazing odds she moves the school to England and builds a school that was far more like a family than place of education. She fought prejudice on all sides and was hugely instrumental in helping with the Kindertransport. Once war was declared there were more struggles for a German school in England, not least the internment of teachers and pupil and rationing.

After the war Essinger also took in survivors from Europe, whether they'd been in hiding or the Concentration Camps, as well as trying to trace any surviving relatives of her pupils and teachers. 

The book is interspersed with personal stories from the children she saved, and in that circular way of books one of these stories also touches on the locations mentioned in Ticket Collector.

This book was always going to be more emotive as it is filled with first hand accounts but of the three connected books this was definitely the best (if you can use such a word for the topic) and it was also the most hopeful as we look at how history does seem to be repeating itself in 2022.

Thanks to Norfolk Libraries for ordering in Ticket Collector and Net Galley for the 2 other books