Happy Birthday, Mr William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare. The Bard. Today, 23rd April is his birthday. Let me share some books related to him and his work that we have enjoyed.

Somehow there is this belief that Shakespeare and his work is not for children. Too difficult. Too nuanced. Too obscure. Not so.

Shakespeare can be enjoyed by children too, in both abridged and original forms, and it is never too early to introduce his work to them. It also introduces a whole new time period to them. A way of life that was. A peek into history- both of man, and of the written word in English. For Shakespeare was an alchemist with language, introducing new words and expressions that we now take for granted.

Pic courtesy flipkart.com

The Orchard book of Shakespeare Stories
Retold by Andrew Matthews
Illustrated by Angela Barrett
Ages 4-8 yrs

These re-tellings with their illustrations have a fairy-tale feel to them. Told in very simple language, without detracting from the sense of fun, wonder, drama and adventure of Shakespeare's plays, this book features eight of the plays, including Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, As You like It- I forget the rest as this was a library book we enjoyed when A was 6.

Keeping in mind that these are plays, Matthews gives a 'list of cast' at the beginning of each one. A good touch.

Orchard books also has these playes, and then some more, as individual stories, each featuring one play, all for the age group of 4-8. 8+ year olds can enjoy exploring them on their own.

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Marcia Williams is no stranger to readers of Saffrontree. We looked at her book on stories by Charles Dickens here. She has written similar books adapting the Bard's stories, in a similar inimitable graphic novel form. Taking the art of re-telling to a new high.

Pic courtesy flipkart.com

Mr William Shakespeare's Plays.
Re-told and illustrated by Marcia Williams.
Published by Walker Books.
Ages 8+

This one has Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth and The Tempest.

Also published as Tales from Shakespeare by Candlewick Press.

The illustrations in both these books bring forth the flavour of the tale that is being re-told. For example, those of Hamlet, Macbeth and Richard III have a tragic and dramatic quality to them, mostly in black-and-white and shades of grey.

Pic cortesy flipkart.com

Bravo, Mr William Shakespeare
Re-told and illustrated by Marcia Williams.
Published by Walker Books.
Ages 8+

This one features King Lear, As You Like It, Much Ado about Nothing,   Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice and Richard III.

Also published as More Tales from Shakespeare by Candlewick Press.

Marcia Williams, too, has kept in mind that these are plays we are dealing with. Each double spread has detailed drawings around the edges, comprising the audience that watched the plays in the heyday of Shakespeare. Just like they did in the Globe theatre where the plays were originally staged, the audience in the book is an integral part of the stories, - interacting, commenting, heckling, applauding.

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Pic courtesy flipkart.com

Tales from Shakespeare
Re-told by Charles and Mary Lamb
Published by Puffin books
Ages 12+

First published in 1807, these are re-tellings in prose form, detailed versions that cater to an older reader who can comprehend more of the intricacies of the plays. This has been the version that my generation is more familiar with. These re-tellings are faithful to the originals, though much of the beauty of Shakespeare's language is diluted.

Worth a read, though, for those who want to next go to the real thing. An introduction by Dame Judi Dench adds much value to this child-friendly Puffin edition.

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Pic courtesy flipkart.com

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Re-told by Edith Nesbit
Published by Hachette India Children's books
Ages 12+

Again, a re-telling in prose form, this time by a master story-teller E. Nesbit, better known for her wonderfully magical book 'Five Children and It.' The language is lyrical, yet easy to comprehend, and makes for wonderful reading-aloud. She brings alive the twenty plays which include the usual suspects.

There is a lot of value added to the book by the inclusion of short biographies of both the Bard himself and Ms Nesbit.

There are also some fun facts about Shakespeare and the times he lived in- a wonderful lesson in history that we enjoyed. For eg., all the 27 satellites of Uranus are named after Shakespearan characters. Or, the fact that he invented more than 1700 words in the English language. Or the fact that although the Bard is often called Sir William Shakespeare, he was never formally knighted. The title was informally bestowed on him only years after his death.

This edition has an introduction by an Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah- who could be called an actor in the Shakespearan traditon- who, while lamenting the fact that Shakespeare be abridged, lauds this attempt on Ms Nesbit's part, and hopes that this version would tempt the reader to move on to the original in all its beauty.

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Pic courtesy flipkart

Shakespeare's Verse
A selection by Gina Pollinger
Illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark
Published by Kingfisher books.
Ages 12+

Designed like a children's book of poetry/ nursery rhymes, this book has a poem or two on each page, in a child-friendly font and plenty of full colour illustrations, the book is a pleasure to hold and browse through. With the difference that each piece of poetry is undiluted Shakespeare.


However, while we can enjoy discrete pieces of Shakespeare's work in the original, it is only by knowing the actual tales that we can place them in their context. So this book can actually be used in combination with the other books mentioned to get a more complete picture, in preparation for the next step-  the originals.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...please sir, I want some more!

Two books that I have read over and over again- 'A Tale of Two Cities' and 'Oliver Twist' - by a well loved writer, Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens was born on 7th February, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. Which makes today the bicentenary of the birth of this writer who is held second only to the Bard in English literature- his contribution to the language in terms of words and phrases is that great. We often use terms coined by these literary greats as a matter of course, without even realising their origin.

The images that come to my mind when Dickens is mentioned is Victorian England, with the verdant countryside, the dirty, squalid, grimy, overcrowded back-streets of London, the romance and dangers of the French revolution, dry British humour, which comes across wonderfully in The Pickwick Papers and Bleak House, extending even to many of the characters- for instance, the characters from David Copperfield are more of caricatures. And of course, Christmas!

So of course I wanted to introduce the works of Dickens to A. And why not start early? IMO, the works of Dickens that can be read and appreciated by children as young as 10 years are some of his Christmas stories, the most well known of which is 'A Christmas Carol'.

But I was greedy- and impatient to introduce her to his works. Looking around for simplified versions, I found a few that had retained the original flavour of the stories. Some even for a reader as young as 5 yrs old.

image courtesy librarything

image courtesy librarything

I found two- Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, from the Ladybird publication, Ladybird Classics.
Ages: 4-8yrs.

Absolutely great for this age group, a great introduction to these classics. Full page illustrations, with very simple, bare text, yet telling the tale wonderfully well. A loved them, and many other classics in these series.




When A was a bit older, I looked around for something more juicy, something she could really get her teeth into. Not the sundry abridged versions one encounters, but something really worthwhile. That is when I came across this one.

Image courtesy librarything

Illustrated Stories from Dickens
Illustrated by Barry Albett
Published by Usborne illustrated classics
Ages 8-12 yrs.

Meatier than the Ladybird books, these retold stories include five of Dickens' works, Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield.

There is also a short biography of Charles Dickens, introducing children to his life and times. How he wrote many of his books from his experience of poverty, and of the grime in Victorian London.

And then there is the incomparable graphic novel by Marcia Williams. This is available under two titles, featuring the same stories- Oliver Twist and Other Great Dickens Stories by Walker Books and Charles Dickens and Friends, also by Walker Books, and by Pan Macmillan India.
Ages 8+


Image courtesy walker books



Image courtesy amazon

This, in my opinion, is the best retelling of Dickens' stories that I have come across. Considering that I am generally not a fan of graphic novels, that is saying quite a lot.

Five of Dickens' stories are retold here in graphic novel form, illustrated by Marcia Williams in her inimitable style, brings alive the various backdrops of his stories. While the retelling has text in her words, the lines mouthed by the characters are in Dickens' original words.

So we have the Artful Dodger informing Oliver (Oliver Twist) - "I know a 'spectable old genelman...wot'll give you lodgings for nothink".

Joe advising Pip (Great Expectations) - "Well, Pip, you must be a common scholar afore you can be a oncommon one".

Sidney Carter thinking to himself (A Tale of Two Cities) at the guillotine -"I see the lives for which I lay down my life...It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done".

Miss Betsy Trotwood and Mr Dick in consultation over David (David Copperfield) - " 'What shall I do with him?' 'I should wash him.' "

The ghost of old Marley, his dead business partner, explaining the heavy, clanking chains that bind him, to Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) - "I wear the chain I forged in life...I made it link by link, and yard by yard."

Marcia Williams says in her foreword, "When I was a child, I liked short books with lots of pictures. So, I don't think I would ever have read Dickens, if it hadn't been for one teacher...I was always a fidget - except when she read Dickens aloud. My desk would fade from sight and I would be in Victorian England..."

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

 

A book for Daughters' Day- CLOUD TEA MONKEYS

This sunday is the 4th sunday of September, and will be Daughters' Day. Now for me every day is my daughter's day. But I had not reckoned with the power of peer pressure.

So daughter comes home from school armed with the information that it will be Daughters' Day. "And what have you got for me?" She will not be put off by promises of we'll get something later, as she knows I normally do not go shopping on weekends, and will have something ready for her today.

Sigh! It is for such days, I think, I get books to give her 'later.' (Of course, books! That goes without saying.) So I dig into my kitty of books after suitably distracting her with homework. And I do come up with something suitable for a mother-daughter duo to savour, something wonderful that I wanted to share here. Also a book that is in line with the husband's theory that kids' literature often has something to do with monkeys. A always opposes this statement vehemously, and we have hilarious arguments as a result.



Image Courtesy Amazon

CLOUD TEA MONKEYS
Written by Mal Peet & Elspeth Graham
Illustrations by Juan Wijngaard
Published by Walker books
Ages 5+

Tashi is a little girl staying on the tea-growing slopes of the Himalayas, with her mother who works as a picker on the plantation. Her mother's basket which she puts on her back to put the tender tea shoots into is larger than Tashi.

Every morning, Tashi gets ready with her mother to go to work, with a hot cup of sweet tea, watching as the sun '...was coming (up): a light the colour of lemons was soaking into the sky and painting out the stars....As the stars went out, small squares of light appeared on the dark hillside above her: lamps were being lit in the village.'

Every day as her mother and the other women work, hard, back-breaking work that ends only after the sun has gone down, Tashi amuses herself with the monkeys who come down the mountains every day. They know her and trust her; the babies climb up on her and share her little food, and the mothers relax around her.

But now her mother is too ill to go to work, and if she does not work, they do not eat.

So Tashi picks up the (bigger than herself) basket, and goes with the other women to pick her share of tea. She is, however, too little to reach the very tips which have to be picked. Frightened of the loud, big Overseer, she starts to cry, not knowing what to do. How does she pick a whole basketful so that she can help her mother to pay for the doctor, the medicines and food?

The monkeys, who are her friends, and who trust her, help her out. And they never have to worry about picking tea again. How? That makes up the rest of this magical story, which ends like this:

'There are only three people in the world who drink Cloud Tea. One of them is a little old woman who is called the Empress of All the Known World and Other Bits That Have Not Been Discovered Yet. The other two are a retired tea-picker and her daughter, who live in a village among mountains whose tops are lost in clouds.'

A very heart-warming tale from the Himalayan regions of India. In a note at the end of the book, the authors write: 'Cloud Tea Monkeys is set in the past, but you can still buy "monkey-picked tea", though whether or not it is really picked by monkeys is another story again...'

You know you have picked up a book that you will like from the minute you set eyes on it. The book is hardcover, with a jacket- an indicator that it is will be a keepsake, with full page, framed pictures in full-colour on one page corresponding to the story on the opposite page, where the often lyrical text is also embellished with a relevant black-and-white sketch. Some of the paintings of the rolling tea plantations have a photographic quality as if painted from life.

Needless to say, the daughter was extremely pleased with this one! Even if there were monkeys in it!

Edited to add : I just realised that I have crossed the half-century mark and this post is my 51st. Here's to more posts.

Morpurgo and More (part 1)

SINGING FOR MRS PETTIGREW
Written by Michael Morpurgo.
Illustrated by Peter Bailey.
Published byWalker Books.
ISBN 978-1-4063-0574-6.
Ages are not specified, but at a guess the stories could be read and appreciated by 10+

Image: Courtesy Amazon.

The book is a collection of eleven of his stories, in different moulds. We also have ten essays from Morpurgo about his storytelling. These speak about his experiences, and the germ of an idea that they provide for his stories. No less enjoyable than any of his stories.

This post will deal with the 11 stories, most of them on the backdrop of war, esp. WW2. There will have to be a second post on his 10 essays, which speak a lot to any reader and writer.

Meeting Cezanne

A boy, Yannick, staying for a while with his relatives who own a village inn in Provence has been told that the famous painter Cezanne had painted many of his landscapes at a place near their house. He helps at the inn, and his job is to clear the table and get rid of the paper tablecloth by putting it into the fireplace after a guest has left. One day, he does just that and and is at the receiving end of his pretty young cousin's aire. Reason: the guest was a famous painter who doodles a painting on the tablecloth if he is happy with his meal. And now the masterpiece has been destroyed. So how does Yannick make amends? And is the painter Cezanne or someone else?

The Giant's Necklace

Cherry, an 11yr old girl, is at the seaside with her family. She makes a necklace of 'glistening pink cowrie shells,' and on their last day there, it is a few inches short of what she had decided on. Her family leave her at the beach with the promise that she would hurry up and come back with the shells before dark. The day starts as a fine one, but it soon becomes stormy, and the tide comes in great waves and cuts her off. She tries to get back with her shells, but gets swept away by the waves. Resurfacing, she realises that she needs to climb the cliff and follows the source of a beam of light. She comes upon a pair of miners, father and son, who claim they are working a tin mine, and who help her. "But I thought the mine was closed a hundred years ago," she said nervously. "That's what I was told, anyway."  Who are they? What has happenned?

A read this story and was quite upset. She didn't want to read any more. Until we had a talk about what makes a good story. How the fact that the story disturbed her was a pointer towards the success of the narrative. I convinced her to read the next story in the book, and that one won her over.

I believe in Unicorns

Set during WW2, this is a story of Tomas, a 7yr old, who is taught the importance of books by a librarian who tells them stories sitting astride a life-like model of a unicorn. She tells them of a book which her father saved from being burnt by "wicked people in my town who were frightened of the magic of stories and of the power of books, because stories make you think and dream; books make you want to ask questions." One day the library gets bombed. How the books are saved makes up the rest of the story.

My one and only great escape

This one is reminiscent of school stories like 'Tom Brown's Schooldays'. Our protagonist, Morpurgo himself as a child (Pongo to his classmates) doesn't want to return to boarding school after the vacations. When he does, he runs away from school. He is picked up, soaking wet in the rain, by a "silver-haired old lady in a little black car."  Who tells him about her husband, who had been killed in the war, and who had told her that he and his friends were often scared.

"So I asked him...why he didn't just run away. And he said: 'Because of my pals. We're in this together. We look after each other.' You've got pals, haven't you, dear?"
"Yes," I replied, "but they like coming back to school. They love it."
"I wonder if they really do," she said. "Maybe they just pretend better than you."

For all those who have back-to-school-blues or even back-to-work-blues!

My father is a polar bear

This is a story about two boys, brothers, and their search for their biological father who has disappeared from their lives after their mother re-marries. She does not like to speak of him and so he is persona non grata. He is an actor, and the boys use this fact to find him. So now they have two fathers. The one they call 'father' all their lives, and the one who is (has acted as) a polar bear. A heart-warming story.

The silver swan

This one reads like a parable, and in some ways, I think it is. It is a story of a silver swan told in the words of our protagonist. The swan meets a mate, the cob, and together they build a nest and have five cygnets. There is also a family of foxes nearby. In the winter, food is scarce, and the mother fox attacks the silver swan to feed her cubs. The cob tries to save her but fails. He is despondent, but brings up the cygnets on his own. One day, they fly away, and he is left alone. He stays in the place where his swan had been killed, almost losing the will to continue living. What happens next? Read to find out.

The Mozart Question

This story has been reviewed beautifully by Choxbox on Saffrontree. I don't think I will be able to add anything to it. Except for saying this: it moved me profoundly. I am, by my own admission, a sucker for any stories written on the background of the Holocaust. Strongly recommended.

What does it feel like

Sofia is a child living in Bosnia during its war. The story begins with an ordinary school day, which takes a horrifying turn when soldiers on tankers attack, and Sofia, hidden inside the toilet of a restaurant, watches from its window in horrified silence as the village is demolished and burnt around her, her mother and grandmother taken away with other villagers as captives. Sofia is saved by a good samaritan who realises she is inside, but loses her sanity, shell-shocked. Parental discretion recommended for this one.

Half a man

The story is about the morbid fascination a boy has for his grandfather who was badly burnt in the war, but who has survived to tell the tale. This grandfather's face has become a mask from which everyone, including his own daughter, the boy's mother, avert their eyes. Then one day the boy goes for a visit to the island where his grandfather lives. What happens next? Does the boy's curiosity about the grandfather's story get satisfied? Does he continue to be afraid of his grandfather's twisted face? Does the grandfather make his peace with it? Read to find out.

For Carlos, a letter from your father

Carlos has lost his father to the war when he was an infant. On his 10th birthday, his mother gives him a letter written by his father on the evening before he was killed, to be given to him when he was ten, old enough to understand what he wrote. And he wrote about his going to the war, the deprivations, the fear and the terrible things that happen. How the common man everywhere wishes only for a peaceful existence, and how war negates all that.

"I did not hate those I have killed and those who try to kill me do not hate me either. We are like puppets doing a dance of death, our masters pulling the strings,....War, Carlos, has only one result: suffering." 

Reminds me of another short story on the same premise, again by Morpurgo himself, The best Christmas present in the world. You can read the whole story here.

Singing for Mrs Pettigrew

Mrs Pettigrew is an old widow who reads a lot, and lives in a railway carriage next to a marsh. The surroundings are wild, very beautiful with a lot of birds and wildlife around. Michael, our young protagonist and his mother befriend her. Then the marsh is taken over by a company that wants to set up a power station on it. The villagers, lead by Mrs Pettigrew fight against the proposed monstrosity, but lose. Mrs Pettigrew, heartbroken moved away to live with her sister, and soon after, died. The story is narrated by Michael, now grown-up, who visits the village, which has changed and become unrecognisable after the onslaught of 'technology.' A sad story, well told.

And more: Found this site  which self-proclaims to be for serious readers of the Harry Potter books and also has a whole lot of related stuff. I feel it is for all die-hard Pottermaniacs (yours truly included) who have read and re-read and re-re-read the books. It is not just a fan site. Check it out, all you out there having Potter withdrawl.

And yay! Choxbox is back!