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

Micro Reviews 16 & 17

 

The Island & One August Night by Victoria Hislop

I read The Island years ago, possibly not that long after it came out and absolutely loved it. Novels in set in Greece are always going to catch my eye and then to discover that this one was set somewhere I'd visited was even better. 

Mr Norfolkbookworm & I visited Spinalonga (and stayed in the village near by) on our very first holiday together back in the late 1990s, although on returning a few years ago we didn't go back to Spinalonga, it was far too windy & rough! As an aside the one thing I don't think that Hislop did capture was just how darned cold it can get in Crete out of tourist season - we had snow!

Although parts of The Island had stuck in my mind since I read it when I heard there was a sequel coming I knew that I had to reread it first - and again I discovered that it was actually the book shadow that had stuck. I remembered the broad sweep of the story but very little of the detail, but as soon as I started reading I felt relaxed and happy to be back with an old friend.

I moved straight on to One August Night and unlike the curse of many sequels I'm pleased to say that I loved this book as much as the first one. It was like the feeling I always get when I step off a plane in Greece and take that first breath of warm air - scented with aviation fuel and herbs - knowing that I am back in my happy place.

The sequel touches very briefly on one of the plot strands from The Island but is definitely a new story, that being said I am glad I reread The Island first as I am not sure that it would work quite so well as a stand alone but it was a great book and just what was needed in the autumn of 2020.

Rediscovering old (book) friends

 

Earthstar Magic by Ruth Chew (Scholastic)

In the UK it has just been National Libraries Week and several threads on social media have been about favourite books from childhood, which set me thinking about books that stand out in my memory.

I loved the Garden Gang books, and then there was the dreadfully didactic Learning Tree that I was very attached to but the first books to really stick in my mind are ones that I got from the book catalogue leaflets that came home from school. I don't recall if I was bought them, or if I saved up pocket money for them but there are four titles that have always stayed with me.

Two are standard children's classics being The Little House on the Prairie and We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea. These books helped spark my love of series fiction and I still have my copies of these books (and all the other books by Ingalls Wilder & Ransome - plus a lot of books about them!) I often reread them, and with Ransome visit the locations he wrote about.

The other two books were more obscure and I don't think I've ever met anyone else who's read them. Idle online browsing recently led me to discover that both of them were currently in stock with a 2nd hand bookseller and I decided to treat myself.

The first book I decided to read was Earthstar Magic by Ruth Chew. In my mind I could see the cover really clearly and I knew that it was about a flying mushroom.

My mind had made it far more salacious than it actually was - I thought that the mushroom was more like the food Alice tries in Wonderland and that the children ate portions of it to grow/shrink/fly!

Instead the mushroom, an earthstar, belongs to a discredited witch and when Ben and Ellen first save and then befriend Trudy they learn the secrets of the earthstar's magic and have several adventures over a couple of days of summer.

The book is in fact very reminiscent of Jill Murphy's Worst Witch or even James Nichol's stories about Arianwyn and just a very sweet early reader about families, holidays and friendship.

Reading the books was a funny mix of familiarity and discovery and unlike so often when you go down memory lane very much not a disappointment, however a little research into the author shows that she wrote many books in a similar vein but I don't think I will tarnish my nostalgia by trying any more of them!

Theatre 2016: Review Seventeen

Symphonic Queen, Royal Albert Hall, London. May 2016.

The music of Queen has been important in our family for as long as I can recall.  As a child all of us liked listening to their music and both my sister and I remember clearly the band's performance at Live Aid in the mid 1980s.  I think that the Innuendo album was one of the very first CDs that my dad bought for the new CD player.  We never managed to see the original line up in concert - forget world peace etc. I am pretty sure that the first thing my sister and I would do with a time machine is get ourselves to a Queen concert!

On a very warm May evening my mum, sister and I went out to the Royal Albert Hall for this event, and again at least two of us when in with the wrong idea as to what was going to happen.  I know that I expected a staid classical music performance of Queen's music.  What we got was close to a full on rock concert!

Yes the music was played by the full Royal Philharmonic Orchestra but they were joined by 3 rock musicians and eight incredible singers.  The music translated wonderfully into this hybrid mix and soon the full venue was rocking along to the sound.

Many of my favourite tracks were played and in between the music a very amusing Ken Bruce gave information about the band, songs and where they were used. It sounds corny but on the night it was great and we all came out buzzing and how well the music translated into this new sound is just testament to how good the original tracks were.