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.

 

And for some hypnotic magic: Molly Moon

This is a fun book that was recently recommended to us by Choxbox's FB, and we were thrilled to realise that we had picked it up at the recent Strand book sale. There's a picture at the bottom of this post.

Pic courtesy flipkart

MOLLY MOON'S Incredible Book of Hypnotism
Written by Georgia Byng
Published by Macmillan Children's Books
Ages 8-12 yrs

Hardwick House, the decrepit orphanage where Molly, our 10 yr old heroine lives, is a Dickensonian place, owned and run by the mean and spiteful Miss Adderstone and Edna, the equally mean and spiteful cook whose cooking is horrible. There are other bullies, too, the older children who make life extremely difficult for the younger ones.

Molly, too, is no angel, and often gets into trouble because of her lazy and stubborn ways, although she is good to those younger than her. Her only friend is Rocky, a boy at the orphanage, who has a calming personality, the one person who can motivate Molly and keep her from getting into trouble.

Then everything goes further wrong one day when Rocky is taken away by an American couple who want to adopt him, and he goes away without saying goodbye. Molly's one support in her short life is gone.

Just when things begin to look very bad indeed, Molly finds a book on hypnotism in the library. She 'borrows' it, and learns the art by following the very clear instructions in the book. What follows is an out-and-out fantasy that any 10 yr-old might have and thoroughly enjoy.

We have Molly winning a talent show, and using her winnings to travel all the way to New York, with Petula, the pug belonging to Miss Adderstone who is now hypnotised into loving Molly. In New York, along the way to finding Rocky, she becomes a huge star, which draws her into the clutches of Simon Nockman, a crook out to use her talents for big-time robbery.

How does it all end? Since the fantastical seems to escalate? Well, you have to read the book to find out. The narrative is just as hypnotic, and both A and I read it at one go, unable to put the book down. Things do resolve, and a lot of good lessons are learnt. All around. Molly and the reader included. While having a good laugh as we read.

The book reminded me of Mathilda by Roald Dahl, another book about an extraordinary little girl belittled by her own parents and bullied by the monstrous school headmistress, Miss Agatha Trunchbull, and who uses her magical powers to teach her a lesson.

A loved this one, and we will be looking out for the sequels, Molly Moon stops the world, Molly Moon's hypnotic time-travel adventure, Molly Moon Micky Minus and the time machine and Molly Moon and the morphing mystery. They all sound delicious.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

Frindle

Whenever I shop for books, I tend to browse by author, especially when I buy for A. She tends to have phases in which she reads all that she can lay her hands on by the flavour of the season.

During the last book sale I went to, there was a buy 2 get 3rd free deal. The books were random, not part of a series or anything. I found the children's section particularly interesting. I picked up about 9 books, for the cost of 6 books. They were all by different writers, and I had never heard of most of them.

I was not sure how they would be received by A, so I decided to read them myself before handing them over to her. They were quick reads, and I had soon finished the 1st. It had proved to be un-put-downable, and I was enchanted by it. There was not time that day to read the others, so I quickly browsed through them. They seemed very interesting.

Here is the 1st one I read- FRINDLE written by Andrew Clements. Illustrations: Brian Selznick. Published by Simon & Schuster.
Ages:8-12 yrs.

Nicholas (Nick) Allen is your regular tween in the fifth grade at Lincoln Elementary school. He is a bright child, with plenty of original ideas, and with never at a loss for words. He could have been called a troublemaker in a more conservative era, prone as he was to stirring up his classmates to get down to some mischief. He had had easygoing teachers until he reached the fifth grade and encountered Mrs. Granger.

Now Mrs. Granger was a strict disciplinarian, the no nonsense sort, with a fondness for dictionaries,  "Look it up!" was one of  her favourite phrases.

One day, Mrs Granger had said that it is we, people who decide what to call a thing by some word. Which is how most words originated and evolved. "If all of us decided to call a dog something else, that would become the word for it. We decide what goes in that book."

This gave Nick an idea. He got his friends together, and told them that from that day on, they would all call a pen a 'frindle'. Every time they spoke of a pen, between themselves, at home, in class, even in a shop while buying a pen, they were to call it a frindle. Until one day, the shopowner too called it a frindle. Soon word spread and all children at school began to call it a frindle.

Mrs. Granger fought against this onslaught on her beloved dictionary till she stood against the whole school. Whole hordes of students were being made to stay back after school and write lines with...you guessed it-frindles. The matter escalated until one day there appeared a story in the local newspaper, then the national newspapers, and then on the CBS evening news. Through it all, Nick and Mrs. Granger stuck to their positions and would not back off. An enterpreneur made millions of 'frindles' with the name written on them, patented it and Nick had a bank account opened in his name with millions of dollars pouring in as his percentage from the sale of these frindles.

One day, Mrs. Granger called him and showed him a sealed envelope with a letter inside it. She asked him to write his name, address, and the date on it in his handwriting. She told him that the battle was far from over, and that she would give him the letter when it finally was.

What happens further in the book is for the reader to find out. What is the issue at hand? Why is Mrs. Granger so dead set against Nick? What does the letter inside the envelope say? And what happens to Nick's word, FRINDLE? Wouldn't you like to know?

It is a wonderful  child sized book about the student-teacher relationship and the commitment of a good teacher to educating a worthy student, not just teaching him/her. 

Edited to add: Crossposted at Saffrontree.

Again ETA: This review won the best book-review prize in a contest by Crossword Bookstores.