Book Review: The Diddakoi

Pic courtesy flipkart

The Diddakoi
Written by Rumer Godden
Cover illustration by Christian Birmingham
Published by Macmillan Children's Books
Ages 8-12 yrs

I've learned a lot about adoption and attachment from Sangi's posts, and there are many nuances to the whole issue that I would not have otherwise being sensitised to. Thanks, Sangi!

So it was hardly a surprising thing that I unwittingly picked up quite a few books that deal with that on different levels. A few are books for children, and here is one of them. A complex, well written book that draws one into it.

A spirited, half-gypsy, half-Irish girl. An orphan. A misfit at school, targeted with some serious bullying for being different. The fact that 'normal, nice' children can, in fact, be very cruel, especially if they reflect the prejudices of their elders. The fact that prejudices can lead to fear of a situation/ person, and that it can become difficult to overcome.

An ordinary 'Miss Marple-ish' British village in the 1960s where everyone knows everybody. A legal care system where the best interests of a child is decided by the letter of the law, and not by what the child would want, or what might be truly best for the child. Some well meaning going wrong. Others unaware of their own ability to give and heal.

'It's good of you, Edna,' Miss Brooke repeated, but it might spoil your holiday. Besides, I don't think Kizzy would go.'
'Heavens, you don't have to ask her.'
'I think I do. People should always be asked before being disposed of.'
'A child?'
'Children are people, Edna,' said Miss Brooke as she had said it to Mrs Blount.
'Well, please yourself,' said Mrs Cuthbert. 'But I tell you, Olivia, that child's too much on your mind.'
'Isn't that what she came for?'
'For what?'
'To be on my mind.'

An ordinary children's story of extraordinary meanings, the book takes one on a roller coaster ride of emotions, which nevertheless unfold very gently at times and with the dramatic quality of a tempest at others. That brings home to us the fact that the human spirit is more resilient than one can imagine, and that we all that the light with the dark in all of us. That patience, love and care can wrought wonders.

Rumer Godden herself was very difficult, and different in many ways as a child, and in this book she writes from  her own memories of it. Kizzy Lovell, our central girl character, the 'diddakoi'=half-gypsy, who is picked on by the other children for being different, and who is in the centre of a controversy over who should foster her, and how, is a throwback to that childhood. In some ways Kizzy reminded me of some of Enid Blyton's similar characters- Carlotta from the St. Clare series, and Lotta from her Circus books.

This is her best known book for children, which got the Whitbread Award in 1972. It has been called "the sort of book children had to fight for to get it from adults". The book should be read in the context of the period in which it is set, as there is much that can be considered 'politically incorrect'. And inspite of the many negatives, the many questions it raises, especially in young minds, it is an incredibly uplifting book, with a happy ending. A loved it!

Crossposted at Saffrontree.   

Review: Oranges in no man's land

Pic courtesy books.google.com

Oranges in no man's land
Written by Elizabeth Laird
Illustrated by Gary Blythe
Published by  Macmillan Children's Books
Ages 8-12 years.

10 yr old Ayesha lives with her mother, grandmother and two brothers in Civil war torn Beirut. Her mother gets killed by a bomb that also destroys their home, and they become refugees living in a shelter. Here Ayesha makes a friend, the deaf-mute girl her age, Samar. Life goes on, her grandmother their only parent.

Until one day, her grandmother becomes seriously ill. She has been ill for a long time now, and had medicines that she took for it, given to her by Dr Leila, for whom she had worked for many years. But now her medicines are over, and Dr Leila lives beyond the Green line, on the other side of the divide, beyond the 'no man's land' that lies between their portion of the city and hers.

So what is a mere 10 yr old to do? Does she manage to go to the good doctor and get medicines for her grandmother? How does she get past the armed solders gaurding the entrances to both sides and come back unscathed?

This is a touching story written by Elizabeth Baird, who lived in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War which stretched from 1975-1990. It is based on some real life events and experiences, as she writes in her preface to the book.

The story brings home to us the fact that there are both good and bad people on both sides of any divide, and the common man usually wishes for peace, not war, so that normal life can go on. And that a war usually serves the few in power, with vested interests.

The sketch of Ayesha, running swiftly for all it's worth, looking furtively at something in the distance that she probably needs to be wary of, is a repeated motif throughout the book, at the title of each chapter. Done by Gary Blythe, (illustrator of other well known books like The Whale's Song, Rumer Godden's Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Michael Morpurgo's I believe in Unicorns) they lend a sense of urgency to the books.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

I am entering this book at the Reading The World Challenge 2011 over at Papertigers, for A. Under Fiction, Lebanon.

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.

When the quality of mercy got a bit strained!

In her English class, A and her friends are being introduced to literature other than that in their textbook. They are doing "The Wizard of Oz" in the original, as also daily readings from one of the "Chicken Soup" books appropriate for their age. As an offshoot of this, they have been introduced to concepts like "Thought for the day" which the children themselves have to share with the others in assembly, and "A daily act of kindness" which is shared in class too. I think it is a very good thing, and makes the children think outside their curriculum. A sort of "literature project", if you please, other than the book review, biography and autobiography that they did last year. Also a great way of sensitising them to others' needs and thoughts.

So we have been having help at home as "acts of kindness". Discussions if something she reads in the current book qualifies as a suitable "thought for the day" and what it really means.

Yesterday, she came home a little thoughtful. When I asked her, she said, "Aai (mother in marathi), today in class Kn (a boy in her class) dropped the colour pencil box by mistake and all the pencils rolled around everywhere. When he was picking them up I got up and helped him to put them back. Is that an act of kindness?" 

"Yes," I said. "Did anybody else also help him?"

"No." She said. "The others kept sitting in their seats. The boys anyway do not help if anything like this happens. And the girls were all thinking 'why must we help a boy?' They were all looking at me and must be wondering why I was helping. Is it OK if I helped Kn?"

"Yes, it was nice of you." Now I do not know this child, but that didn't matter. A had been helpful to someone spontaneously, and was obviously feeling proud of her "act of kindness," and that was all that mattered to me. I was also glad that she was trying to internalise being kind.

She still seemed worried about something. "But aai, he did not say 'thank you' to me. And later in the bus he pushed me when he wanted to get down at his stop. That was not nice of him. It was rude."

Now my husband, who was listening quietly all this time, joined in. "Yes, it was rude of him. So don't be helpful to him next time. Do you think you should?"

"Yes!" Pat came the reply. "If he is rude, that is his problem. Why shouldn't I help him next time if I want to?"

Why indeed! I was proud of her attitude, but was a bit busy at that time to add my bit, and then the conversation moved to matters of homework. Today morning, while getting her ready for school, I had the time to speak to her.

The matter was still playing on her mind and she opened the topic herself. "Aai, was it OK what I said yesterday? I can help if I am someone's friend, can't I? Even if they are rude?" 

Now A has been reading "William Shakespeare and his Dramatic act" from the Dead Famous series for the past few days. This has been her first exposure to Shakespeare, and I am glad it is a fun one. So I decided to take advantage of the fact and told her at this point that Shakespeare has written a play called A merchant of Venice, in which there are some famous lines...and I quoted the first few relevant lines to her. 

"The quality of mercy is not strained.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."

She was enchanted and was listening with her whole being. It was simple enough for her to understand, although I had to repeat it two times with stress on some words and some action.

"So even if he is rude to me, I should still help him?"

"You have to decide, A. What do you think?"

"Aai, that poem says that we should forgive."

"See, A. Just as it is important for you to tell the truth, or to not hit anybody, or be kind, it is also important to be able to forgive. See, that poem says it is good for both the person who is forgiven and for the person who forgives." I could sense that she was paying close attention. "Just like when you do something that I don't like."

Here she supplied her own example. "Like that time when I broke the thermometer?" Not a very good example as it was not something major that needed forgiving, but it would do for the sake of the discussion.

"Yes,"  I said. "At that time I scolded you for playing with it but have I kept scolding you for it? Everytime you do something you shouldn't, you sometimes get scolded. But do I keep going back to whatever you have done earlier and scold you for that or anything else every time? No. Just imagine if I keep doing that. Won't it be very bad? It does not mean that I have forgotten about it. But what you did can be forgiven."

I still had her attention. "So if somebody is rude to you, you don't have to keep on tolerating it, if it happens every time. Just pay no attention to such people. But you can certainly forgive them and not hold it against them. And if then they do ask for help, you can be kind and help them. It will certainly make you feel better about yourself . You felt nice helping him, didn't you?"

"Yes!" Big grin on her face. Forgiveness as a concept that she could handle without feeling weak was introduced. I thought the rest of it- what if someone had done something by mistake or deliberately...how to handle being forgiving then- could wait for a later date.

She came back home from school today with another big grin. "Aai, you know today Kk(another boy) knocked down some books and asked if someone can please help him pick them up? I went immediately and helped him. You know, nobody else came to help."

"So did he thank you for it?" Me.

"Yes. He took the books and said thanks." A.

"So did that feel good?" Me.

"Yes!" Big smile and a hug.

Bless her!