There Have Always Been Stories of Talking Animals...
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The First Beatrix Potter Book Began Like This...
"Once upon a time there were
four little Rabbits, and their names
were—
Flopsy,
Mopsy,
Cotton-tail,
and Peter.
They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir-tree.
"Now, my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.' "
The book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was first created in the form of an illustrated letter for a sick child. For several years, Potter had been drawing animals, birds and other creatures, in her own anthropomorphized version of the world and sending them, usually with some text, to young children in her family circle. Today, more than two million Beatrix Potter books are sold across the world every year.
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Beatrix Potter
The book cover above reminded me of a magic world that I first encountered as a child. Many years later, in reading to my own children, I saw, as an adult how Beatrix Potter was able to connect to children with simple ease. And
when I started rereading her stories in preparation for this blog, I found myself again being pulled into Beatrix Potter's world. I wanted to know more about this woman.
What was it that set her off from thousands of others who have illustrated and written children's books about the worlds of animals? The more I learned about her life, the more intrigued and appreciative I became. Beatrix Potter was an Incredible woman who overcame the suffocating restrictions of a relentless mother and the mores of upper middle-class Victorian England. She did this by creating and sharing, through her art, her own world of stories and animal creatures.
She was gifted with a talent for art and writing. She loved young children and shared with them, through illustrated letters, and later books often derived from them, her lifelong fascination and love of the natural world.
A Secret World and True Love
Fortunately, her repressive, London-based family spent summers in country estates, where Beatrix and her younger brother, Bertram, became close to nature. Beatrix, from an early age, developed a world of her own with stories about rabbits, mice, hedgehogs and more. Many of them were also pets which she drew, painted, and wrote about in the form of illustrated story letters to a wide circle of children. Responses to her illustrated story letters later evolved into her career of creating children's books.
Her oppressive family life required great secrecy about her private life. During the course of developing her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, she and her editor-publisher, Norman Warne, fell in love. Beatrix was 39; he was 37. After their secret engagement, Beatrix revealed her plans to her family. A storm erupted.
Tragedy and a Turning Point
"The Potters vehemently disapproved of their daughter marrying a publisher. . . and objected to a family 'in trade'. His was precisely the sort of family and social status they had worked to distinguish themselves from. . . Beatrix believed their opposition to Norman was patently hypocritical and unreasonable (particularly since the family money came from the Manchester textile trade). . . Helen Potter (Beatrix's hectoring mother) found the proposed liason particularly abhorrent." --Linda J. Lear from her excellent biography, Beatrix Potter: A Life In Nature.
Tragedy followed this ugly, unresolved conflict. Beatrix and Norman were determined to marry, but within two weeks time, he became ill, and shortly thereafter died of lymphatic leukemia.
This became a turning point in her life: she became quite independent and
started a new life based in her beloved Lake Country; with proceeds from her books, she bought and lived in Hill Top farm, the first of 15 farms she bought over the years to help preserve the countryside. She continued creating books and, at age 49, married William Heelis, a local man, a soliciter, who guided her in buying land.They lived together happily at Castle Cottage in their beloved Lake District until her death in 1943. Today, as per her will, the farms and land she purchased are part of The National Trust.
A North Country Woman
Beatrix Potter helped to save the beautiful lake country district with funds from the sales of her books and related merchandise. James Rebank, author of the acclaimed, The Shepherd's Life, lives and farms, as did his ancestors, on lake country land. Here is an excerpt from his Introduction to Linda Lear's biography, Beatrix Potter: A life in Nature.
"Beatrix Potter seems always to have considered herself a northern or north-country woman (even thought she spent much of her life in London). I think of her in the same way; there was about her a grit and a toughness, that is similar to some of my neighbors. One of the things I love most about Beatrix Potter is that she seems to have had an almost total lack of self-pity or pretension. If a door closed on her, she pushed at it harder. If it were locked in her face, she would find another door and push through that instead. She was tough as old boots. Her prose is simple (in the best sense of the word), disciplined, hard and pure, the kind of writing that very few writers master." --James Rebank, sheep farmer and author of The Shepherd's Life.
The illustrations above are by Beatrix Potter.
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Girl From the North Country
If you're traveling to the North Country Fair,
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine . . .
Here's a link to The Girl from the North Country sung by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. I think Beatrix would have liked it.
The photo is from the movie Miss Potter.
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A Life Inspired by Nature
I found Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, by Linda Lear to be an insightful, warm, and very informative biography.
Here is a link to the Peter Rabbit website. There you will find many photos and a biography of Beatrix Potter; you will also find, in chronological order, summaries and illustrated covers of the 23 Tales.
This is a link to the trailer for the movie, Miss Potter,with Rene Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. This is a link to the movie Miss Potter.
There are a multitude of videos about Beatrix Potter, her books, and adaptations in other media on YouTube. Here are links to two videos: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter and episode 1 from The World Of Peter Rabbit & Friends, The Tale of Peter Rabbit & Benjamin Bunny.
Here is a link to Gutenberg to read Beatrix Potter's wonderful and clever stories.
Here is a link to a trailer for a new Peter Rabbit movie to be released in 2018.
The illustration is by Beatrix Potter.
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Talking Animals, Birds, Reptiles, and Even Insects
In reading Seth Lerer's book on Children's Literature, I was reminded that fables with talking animals, birds, reptiles, and even insects have been part of children's literature since the era of Aesop in Classical Greece. And over the centuries the tales of the past have inspired and influenced the creation of oral tales and classic stories that followed
and endured.
Aesop's The Lion and the Mouse. . . One day a lion was wakened from his afternoon nap by a group of mice scurrying all about him. Swat! went his huge paw upon one of the little creatures. The mouse pleaded for mercy from the stately beast. The lion took compassion upon the tiny mouse and released him.
A few days later, the lion became trapped in a hunter's net. His roars made the whole forest tremble. The little mouse whose life was spared approached the lion in the snare and used his sharp little teeth to gnaw the strong ropes until the lion was free.
Moral: One Good Turn Deserves Another
The illustration of the Lion and the Mouse is by John Vernon Lord.
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Talking Bears
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
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Phillip Pullman's Talking Daemons
Daemons are creatures who are an expression of people's souls. They take the form of animals,
birds, reptiles and insects. They can change form when one is a child. They can appear and disappear. And they speak.
Every character in Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, has a Daemon. Daemon's will continue in his new trilogy, The Book of Dust. The first volume, La Belle Sauvage, will be published this month, on October 19th.
The primary character in Pullman's first trilogy -- His Dark Materials -- was the young girl Lyra,and her daemon was named Pantalaimaon (all compassionate in Greek). Lyra called him Pan. In time, Pan took the form of a pine marten.
Here is a link where you can see daemons in a well done trailer of Pullman's Golden Compass (Volume 1 of The Book of Dust Trilogy).
Here is a link to more information on The Book of Dust, Volume 1, La Belle Sauvage
The photo is of a pine marten.
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Dogs Talk to Children in Castle In The Mist
"The fantasy involved in the Planet of the Dogs series is appealing. It involves dream sequences, travel through space and time between planets, dogs who can talk to children and healer-women through thoughts and barking, and seeing information through dreams. The reality involved is also appealing. It involves the universal love of dogs by humans and vice versa, human condition of fighting and war and capacity for love and peace. . ." -- Review by Karen Boss
The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.
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A Pictorial History of Fairy-tale Postcards
Tales of Wonder, a new book edited and written by Jack Zipes, presents "a fascinating look at how key scenes of fairy tales have been rendered over time (since 1800), suggesting a rethinking and reliving of the tales through the years. Jack Zipes tells this intriguing history of the postcards as well as providing new perspectives on familiar stories."
Here is an excerpt from the Foreward by Marina Warner: "This highly illustrated volume offers a historic chapter in the cultural story of fairy tale as a shared symbolic system. Jack Zipes is the most learned and indefatigable historian and polemicist of fairy tale as a cultural phenomenon, and he has always been alert to the technologies of the stories' circulation.... The speaking pictures Jack Zipes has archived here will never be repeated in this form again, as the stories migrate and come to inhabit new vehicles, new technologies of enchantment."
Publication Date: Oct 10, 2017: Tales of Wonder: Retelling Fairy Tales through Picture Postcards
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Talking Water Rats
“This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to me,’ whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. ‘Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely.”
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
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Book Giveaway For: How to Change the World in 30 Seconds: A Web Warrior's Guide to Animal Advocacy Online
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Kidlitosphere...A Unique Children's Book Experience
If you want to immerse yourself for two days in children's literature with kindred spirits, consider being part of the welcoming Kidlitosphre annual conference on November 3rd and 4th. The program is exciting, varied, and inclusive. Here is a quote about her Kidlitosphere conference experience from Charlotte Taylor, of Charlotte's Library.
Movies
The movie world for kids and YA between now and the Christmas Holidays brings us originality and breakthrough as well as tradition and nostalgia.
Nostalgia: Ferdinand, inspired by the beloved book "The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, opens December 15. Just in time for the Holidays
Here is a link to the trailer for this story of a giant bull with a good heart: Ferdinand
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Originality: Wes Anderson is known for original and eccentric films (The Grand Budapest Hotel; Moonrise Kingdom; The Life Aquatic and more). The plot in this animated film revolves around a boy searching for his dog, Spots. All dogs have been outlawed and Spots has been taken to an isolated island where all dogs are quarantined. Here is the trailer for Isle of Dogs . The film opens on April 26, 2018
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Breakthrough: I was surprised by this early and positive review of Coco in the NY Times by Mekado Murphy:The film deals with death (among other matters like music) and does not open until November 22. Here are excerpts:
"With the new "Coco” Pixar Animation Studios aims to bring the dead to vivid, reverent life. The movie is set against the backdrop of Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), the Mexican holiday when families gather to honor ancestors by building altars to them and decorating their grave sites.
The film centers on a young boy, Miguel (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez), an aspiring musician whose adventures take him to the land of the dead, a towering metropolis that is home to departed loved ones. In their research, Pixar filmmakers made trips to Mexico and embedded with families to observe the ways they paid tribute to their forebears. Hallmarks of their traditions (like paths of flowers and the warm glow of candlelight) are woven into the movie’s visual language." -- Here is a link to the Coco trailer.
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Nostalgia and Tradition combine in a film that follows Charles Dickens as he creates the characters and story for the great classic, A Christmas Carol.
Opening November 22, well in time for the holidays -- The Man Who Invented Christmas.
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Refugee Children
I write monthly posts on this blog about refugee children. And the crisis grows worse with every month. The number of refugee children has increased to staggering dimensions: A recent "Unicef Report shows child refugee figures have jumped by 75% in five years to 8 million, and calls for urgent action to protect the 50 million child migrants worldwide." With the brutality in Myanmar the crisis is extended and becomes more complex.
Refugee children live in fear and experience loss and brutality first hand. The lucky ones live in refugee camps and some of their family members are still alive. What will the survivors be like when they grow to adulthood?
Here is a link to an excellent Guardian article on refugee children by Kate Hodal.
The photo of Myanmar refugee children is by Soe Zeya Tan/Reuters.
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Talking Wolves
"Put the cake and the little pot of butter upon the stool, and come get into bed with me."
Charles Perrault -- Little Red Riding Hood
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Birds in Children's Literature, Myth and Folklore
Here are excerpts from a fascinating article by Terri Windling ranging from ancient Greece to The Ugly Duckling and beyond . . .
"Birds have been creatures of the mythic imagination since the very earliest times. Various birds, from eagles to starlings, serve as messengers to the gods in stories the world over, carrying blessings to humankind and prayers up to the heavens. They lead shamans into the Spirit World and dead souls to the Realm Beyond; they follow heroes on quests, uncover secrets, give warning and shrewd council....The movements, cries and migratory patterns of birds have been studied as oracles. In Celtic lands, ravens were domesticated as divinatory birds, although eagles, geese and the humble wren also had their prophetic powers. . .A dove with the power of human speech sat in the branches of the sacred oak grove at Zeus's oracle at Dodona.Endurance, Survival, and Becoming . . .
Here is the Link to read all of this fascinating article by Terri Windling on her Myth and Moor site.
The illustration is by Trina Schart-Hyman
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Lewis Carroll Society of North America
The Fall 2017 LCSNA meeting will take place on October 28 at the University of Delaware in Newark. Here is an excerpt from the announcement: "Our host, Mark Samuels Lasner, a distinguished Victorianist, bibliographer, and collector. The program, from 10 to 5 on Saturday, October 28, will include Dana Richards, who is Martin Gardner's biographer; scholar Victor Fet, who will be talking about Russian translations; Edna Ranck, a children's literature expert, on Carroll's language; Sarah Boxer, a critic, author, and journalist, on Alices in the culture; and, contextualizing our visit to Delaware, August Imholtz on Eldridge Johnson and Delaware, and Mark Samuels Lasner on his collection. The English Department is graciously hosting a reception for us at 5, and there will be a restaurant dinner at the end of the day." The LCSNA website has more news, and delightful graphics.
The illustration is by John Tenniel.
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I've Been to the Edge With My Thoughts
The powerful human canine bond helps to heal and support veterans who have left the military with emotional as well as physical wounds.
K9s on The Front Line, a non-profit organization based in Portland, Maine, trains rescued dogs as service dogs and provides them at no cost to veterans. Many have been helped. Here is an excerpt from a testimonial by veteran Raymond MacGregor about his dog, Dawson.
"It may sound over the top, but in some ways, it is a matter of life and death. I’ve been to the edge with my thoughts. Dawson helps with anxiety and to center me, or find a place where I am not as numb. He is trained to sense my emotional trigger situations and respond by climbing on my lap and settling me down by nuzzling me. In stores, he will sit behind me to provide the additional personal space I need in lines. He has high energy and kind of gets me up when I need it..."– Raymond MacGregor (US Air Force) with his family and K9 Dawson. The photo is of MacGregor, his family, and Dawson.
Here is a link to their website: K9s on The Front Line
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Talking Dogs
"Our plan is to begin with the children. They are more open to trust, love, and learning new ways than adults." Miss Merrie -- The Planet Of The Dogs
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Why Am I ?...A Yelodoggie Illustrated Story Book
The Why Am I ? Book Search for a Wonderful Publisher Continues.
We are actively searching for a publisher who will love Why Am I ?, embrace its potential, and launch it into the world.
Why Am I ? is a joyous book that helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.
Why Am I ? teaches tolerance. We believe that Why Am I ?, C.A. Wulff's wonderful new book, should have wide distribution. Kids 4-8 love it and we see it as the beginning of a series.
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The Planet Of The Dogs Series
The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent book stores.
To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs
"To err is human, to forgive, canine" .. Anonymous
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