Family Reading in 2021

 

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (Oxford University Press)

Library Book

Although the new school year for the Kentishbookboy hasn't included writing book reviews so far we are still reading books together occasionally,  the first one for 2021 was Tom's Midnight Garden. I remember reading this a child, and then again more recently when I was studying children's literature. I think that we picked this book  as opposed to any other as it was on a list of titles that were recommended for Year 6 pupils.

The Kentishbookboy (and his mum) didn't fall in love with the book in the same way that I had as a child, they found Tom himself to be an annoying character and I can see where they are coming from. He certainly isn't very much like the 'heroes' of more modern books.

I was more surprised at how old fashioned the book felt on this reread. Then I did some sums... the book was written in 1958 and I imagine that it was a contemporary setting. The time travel takes us back to the 1890s. This means Tom travels around 60 years in time. However reading the book now (2021) we are travelling back the same amount of time to meet Tom - the culture shock for the Kentishbookboy was the same as Tom's!

I still love the book, but again it is definitely a book shadow that I was remembering - scenes that I recall as being huge and important (because of the pictures they created in my mind) actually came at the very end of the book and weren't as pivotal as I thought. There were huge chunks of Hatty's story that I'd forgotten. As well as the very 1950s attitudes of Tom's aunt & uncle.

I'm a bit sad that the Kentishbookboy didn't love the book as much as I did but Tom's life was far closer to being one I recognised - I was only reading it with a 30 year gap after all and there hadn't been quite the same technological advances in those 3 decades as we've seen since the 1990s. Perhaps I should try to find him a modern classic (not fantasy) that has the same age gap between setting and now to see how that fares...

Book Bingo update number 3

 

What Nanny Read

Poor nanny really lost her reading mojo this year. The pandemic and initial lockdowns all started while she and the Kentishbookboy's grandad were enjoying a holiday in Australia and the very stressful end to that, and the libraries being closed, really impacted on reading.

It didn't help that with visiting from family also limited there were less physical copies of books to share around. 

All of this allowing Nanny J still ticked off the following books from the bingo sheet:

A book set pre 1950: The Habit of Murder

A non-fiction book: The Private Life of the Hare

A book recommended by a friend: Secrets of Santorini

A book with animals as the main characters: The Umbrella Mouse

A Book chosen by Norfolkbookworm: The Night of the Flood*

A book from the school list: Clockwork

A Book set in another country: Umbrella Mouse to the Rescue

Free choice: The Uncommon Reader 

I am sure that Nanny J has read more than this in total but in a year as crazy as 2020 managing one book from each row seems an achievement to me! It also shows how good books written for children can be as all of us really recommend the Umbrella Mouse books.

*The eagle-eyed reader will notice that I (Norfolkbookworm) picked this as the book that nanny recommended to me - this can be explained in that Nanny J heard people talking about this and pointed it out to me, I then bought it, read it and afterwards passed it on as one to definitely bump to the top of the pile!

Put to shame by Kentishbookboy's reading!

Ooops!

Oh dear, the idea of how great the Coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown will be for catching up on books, films and TV series couldn't be more wrong for me. I am busy than ever at work and working my hours over five days and not three which somehow doesn't leave me as much time or mental space for reading.

The Kentishbookboy is having more luck than me but as the weather recently has been glorious and it was the school Easter 'holiday' he's been doing a lot more outdoor things related to science, nature, technology and inventing.

Also as he'd completed his school reading challenge I think that he enjoyed reading and not having to think about writing it up!

A new review did drop into my inbox recently and he's managed to tick of the 'poetry' square on his bingo card with this great summary:

His enthusiasm for poetry was obviously rekindled by this book as he gave his mum and dad an Easter gift poem, something that he'd composed in secret so really gave them a nice surprise.

I can also say that I am able to tick off the poetry box on my bingo sheet as a friend surprised me by having a copy of White Ink Stains by Eleanor Brown delivered to me and I've had this beside my bed and dipped in and out of an evening before sleep.  I don't think that I am ever going to become a huge poetry fan but in approaching this volume like it was full of short stories and knowing that not all of them were going to be for me, and that it is ok to just read one and then stop was definitely the right approach for this volume.

Here's hoping that work calms down enough that I can find more time and energy for reading and that the nice weather returns so I can sit in the garden with a book...I think that Carrie's War might be next on the agenda as KBB is studying WW2 this half term...