"I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.” -- Neil Gaiman in The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
..............................
Neal Gaiman wrote the following statement about hope: "What makes children's fiction children's fiction? What makes fiction for adults? What do people respond to and what do I respond to. One of the keys to children's fiction for me is you owe it to the world, and you owe it to the kids, to give them hope."
The illustration is by Morgan Weistling.
............................
Alternate Reality
Neil Gaiman takes readers to alternate realities, beyond time as we experience it. In his books and short stories, we often journey to the past where we encounter the darkside and evil. There are obstacles and dangers to overcome. Gaiman's books appeal to a worldwide audience of both young adult and adult readers. This is in addition to his children's books.
Many adult and young adult readers are very passionate about, and feel a heartfelt connection to, his books and to Gaiman himself. Several of his books have been made into well received radio, television and film productions.
Gaiman has been an avid reader since childhood and is a public advocate for books, writers, and libraries. He is also an advocate for refugee children. He is an excellent public speaker who makes very real connections with his audiences.
He has a multitude of videos on YouTube and Vimeo that attest to his ability to engage an audience, his close relationship with readers, and his unique persona. They are informative and disarmingly candid.
The photograph of Neil Gaiman is by Alan Amato.
................................
A Master of Fear
"(Gaiman) is a master of fear, and he understands the nature of fairytales, the relation between the writer, the reader and the character in the tale. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, like Coraline and like The Graveyard Book, has a young central character – a resourceful and determined child – who finds his world transfigured by terror and strangeness . . . .The narrator of The Ocean at the End of the Lane starts his story with that feared disaster of childhood, the seventh birthday party to which no one came. . . Fairytales, of course, were not invented for children, and deal ferociously with the grim and the bad and the dangerous. But they promise a kind of resolution, and Gaiman keeps this promise."
Excerpted from A.S. Byatt's excellent Guardian review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
............................
The Origins of the Book
Neil Gaiman explains, during his book tour for The Ocean at the End of the Lane, that the book was an "accident". He intended to write a short story for his wife, the composer and singer Amanda Palmer, whom he deeply missed. She was in Melbourne and very focused on making an album. Gaiman kept writing and the book took on a life of its own.
At the time he spoke, the book had received great reviews and was number one on the NY Times book list. The video is quite intimate and includes many insights into the book (" the kid will be very much like me "), and into Gaiman himself.
Here is a link: The Ocean talk. He also discussed the Origins of the The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the NY Book Expo.
The illustration is by Nuriko-Kun/DeviantArt
................................
A Novel About Survival
The illustration of The Ocean at the End of the Lane is by Shane Gallagher/DeviantArt
............................
"There are times when dreams sustain us more than facts. To read a book and surrender to a story is to keep our very humanity alive."
Helen Fagin -- Scholar, Author, 100-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor, and cousin to Neil Gaiman; thanks to Maria Popova and her very special website, Brain Pickings.
..............................
I first encountered Neil Gaiman in Coraline, the story of a little girl who finds a secret door in her family's new house; the door leads to a passageway that brings her to an eerie parallel reality. At first, she is intrigued and enchanted by this world. Intime, she realizes that she is in great danger. She escapes as dark forces begin to overwhelm her, and in the process, helps others. The animated movie version was extremely well done.
This link will take you on a visit to Gaiman in his USA home: CBS Interview
This link will take you to a conversation with Caro LLewllyn where a very candid Gaiman discusses his youth and Coraline.
..............................:
Survival
Coraline was also my first Gaiman book where a child is the main protagonist. Two of the Gaiman books that I have since read, The Ocean at the End of the Lane and The Graveyard Book, are each about the ordeals of boys. And like Gaiman himself, both boys, being great readers, are often transported to the world of the imagination. And like Coraline, they are books about survival.
Coraline,The Graveyard Book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane are very different from each other, but they share a common problem: young lives are endangered and the worlds they live in are interwoven with an alternate reality.
Nobody Owens
I was initially not interested in reading The Graveyard Book.The concept of a boy raised by ghosts in a cemetery had no appeal for me. However, I respected the multiple awards the book received (Hugo, Newberry, Carnegie and more). And then, in the course of writing this blog, I read several reviews which led me directly to the book and to the world of the Graveyard -- to the enigmatic Silas; to the wondrous Mrs Lupescu; to the boy, Nobody Owens; and to an alternate world of incredible danger. I was won over.
Here is an excerpt from the book, an excerpt where a reader can find a sense of the dimensions of Gaiman's vision of life in the Graveyard. It is a moment about 2/3 of the way into the book wherein the boy, Bod Nobody (now 12 years old), is protesting that he can go out in the world and take care of himself and learn about his past despite the dangers and the evil that await him beyond the graveyard.
"I can learn. I can learn everything I need to know, all I can. I learned about ghoul-gates. I learned to Dreamwalk, Miss Lupescu taught me how to watch the stars. Silas taught me silence. I can Haunt. I can Fade. I know every inch of this graveyard."
The Graveyard Book is a terrific adventure, the story of very human boy, Bod, raised and taught since infancy in a graveyard by ghosts and spirit beings. As the years go by, he deals with a wide range of problems, from teen age bullies to the evil Jacks of all trades, assassins from ancient times. One of them murdered Bod's family, and because of an ancient prophesy, made in the time of the Pharaohs, they are all on a mission to kill Bod.
His journey is extremely arduous and filled with unexpected twists and turns. However, Bod has the courage and wits to survive the dangers of the dark side, and in the end, to prevail.
The book cover of Coraline and the top two illustrations are by Dave McKean.
The illustration of the Jacks of all trades (assassins) is by Chris Riddell..
.....................................
Unforgettable Enchantment
Here is an excerpt from the NYTimes review by Monica Edinger, a dedicated teacher of 4th graders in NYC, blogger (Educating Alice) of children's literature, and author:
“The Graveyard Book,” by turns exciting and witty, sinister and tender, shows Gaiman at the top of his form. . . I read the last of 'The Graveyard Book' to my class on a gloomy day. For close to an hour there were the sounds of only rain and story. In this novel of wonder, Neil Gaiman follows in the footsteps of long-ago storytellers, weaving a tale of unforgettable enchantment."
The illustration is by Dave McKean.
..........................
Neverwhere
"I wanted to talk about the people who fall through the cracks, to talk about the dispossessed — using the mirror of fantasy, which can sometimes show us things we have seen so many times that we never see them at all — for the very first time,” -- Neil Gaiman in his introduction to the revised edition of Neverwhere
The statement above, encompassing many dimensions, was my key for reading the great, sprawling, sometimes uneven, epic that is the book of Neverwhere.
Richard Mayhew, the young protagonist of Neverwhere, is a nice young man who is living the life of many upward bound young people. And like many others, he doesn't really connect to the world he lives in. And when his good heart impels him to help a desperate young woman named Door, whose life in in danger, one thing leads to another and he enters another dimension -- Neverwhere -- an alternate reality that exists underneath London where darkness, danger, cruelty and fear abound. This is the story of Richard's courageous journey through Neverwhere.
Richard's Loyal Friends
Neverwhere affords Neil Gaiman a playground for his incredible imagination. The book is filled with a plethora of characters, many of them fascinating. Door, a young woman of fantastic powers and considerable charm, is saved by Richard in the early part of the book, and he joins her in the quest to find who murdered her family. Hunter, a striking woman, is the epitome of a fearless and skilled bodyguard. And the splendid Marquis de Carabas is a facile facilitator of nearly everything.
The illustration of Hunter, Door, and Richard is by fulreavr/Deviant Art
The Marquis de Carabas
The Marquis de Carabas is, like Perrault's cat, facile, glib, smart, manipulative, brave, and loyal -- when it serves him well. He is a fascinating character; instead of magic boots, he has an incredible coat. Here is Gaiman's description of the coat, taken from an addendum to the revised Neverwhere, entitled, How The Marquis Got His Coat Back.
"It was beautiful. It was remarkable. It was unique. It had thirty pockets, seven of which were obvious, nineteen of which were hidden, and four of which were more or less impossible to find -- even, on occasion for the Marquis himself. . . In addition to its unusual pockets, it had magnificent sleeves, an imposing collar, and a slit up the back. It was made of some kind of leather it was the color of a wet street at midnight, and more important than any of these things, it had style."
Here is a YouTube video excerpt introducing the Audience to The Marquis
The illustration of the Marquis is by Ka-ren, Deviant Art.
Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar
Gaiman has created two over the top despicable villains, Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar that threaten Richard and his allies throughout Neverwhere, ultimately torturing and killing The Marquis (he later recovers). They incorporate an inhuman disdain for life, suffering, pain, and cruelty. And they exist in a different dimension of time. Here is an excerpt of an angry Mr Croup on the phone with their employer, while Mr Vandemar, nearby, is listening and eating live frogs which he is stuffing into his mouth.
"Sir, might I remind you, that Mr. Vandemar and myself burned down the City of Troy. We brought the Black Plague to flanders. We have assassinated a dozen kings, five popes, half a hundred heroes, and two accredited gods. Our last commission before this was the torturing to death an entire monastery in sixteenth-century Tuscany. We are utterly professional."
The illustration of Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar is by Chris Ridell.
All of these characters, and over a hundred more, are integral to the surreal world of Neverwhere and Richard's quest to discover who murdered the family of Door.
..................
Return to Neverwhere
The photo was taken of Gaiman and Syrian refugee kids when he visited a UNHCR refugee camp.
..........................
Movies
The Kid Who would be King
I haven't seen this film, however the action-packed trailer looks like a hot fantasy movie for young boys, combining revenge of the underdog with the legend of Arthur. Here is a link to the trailer: Who Would Be King
Here is an excerpt from a review by Blige Ebiri: "What ensues is a brisk, well-mounted children’s fantasy, with Cornish giving the story an entertainingly apocalyptic spin. . . The action is creatively staged, without ever getting too intense or scary for young viewers. And the script balances humor, pathos and wish fulfillment as it portrays Alex’s rise from mopey dreamer to confident warrior, without overdoing the mythic portent." Link: Blige Ebiri NYTimes
.....................
Watership Down and Disney's Plans for the Near Future
I posted last month about the film of Watership Down, a wonderful, multi-dimensional creation of the world of rabbits and their struggle to live. True to the book, the film does not sugar coat the story of the rabbits quest for a life free from fear and danger. Netflix produced the film and it can only be seen there at this time. Netfix will continue to produce wonder tales with integrity as they are now working with Guillermo del Toro to produce Pinocchio.
I wonder if Disney's market driven decision makers will respect the original wonder tales in their upcoming productions of live action adaptations of their "classic" animated films. The next six film "classics" scheduled by Disney are: Dumbo, Aladdin, Mulan, and Maleficent, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
....................
Lego 2
Opening in February, Lego 2 has excellent reviews. Here is a link to Peter Bradshaw's in the Guardian. Here is the trailer for LEGO 2
.............................
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod -- Amanda Palmer
Neil Gaiman is married to an artist and musician, Amanda Palmer, an exciting performer and singer, and judging by her music and videos, a charismatic, candid, warm, and generous spirited woman. YouTube has many engaging videos of Palmer, including several with her husband. One of them, recorded at the Boston Book Fair, wherein she is interviewed by Neil is interesting and revealing; more insights into this very special woman are found in her Ted Talk. A favorite Amanda Palmer creation of mine is a lovely musical fantasy of the classic Wynken, Blynken, and Nod which features the recently born child of Amanda and Neil. Here is a link to this amazing video: Wynken Blynken and Nod Amanda Palmer
............................
Circling the Waggins
"There’s a lot more to living with dogs than wet noses and going walkies. Cayr Ariel Wulff entertainingly chronicles the rocky flip side of pet care in "Circling the Waggins," a heroic tale of triumph over turmoil and exhaustion. Wulff and her companion Dalene take in the misfits that have defeated lesser souls . . . Despite the challenges presented by this demanding and eccentric crew, Wulff’s chronicles may still send you to the animal shelter to do a bit of rescue on your own. You’ll want to reap the rewards of love and joy which "Waggins" so beautifully describes."
Goodreads review excerpts by Author Bob Tarte (Enslaved by Ducks)
.............................
Giving Books to Underprivileged Children
There is a website, The Literacy Site Store, that contributes books to kids based on visitor clicks. They also sell or facilitate sales for a variety of merchants which funds books. Last year, visitor clicks funded 389,872 books for children in need. Purchases at The Literacy Site store funded an additional 16,179 books.
First Book, an affiliate of The Literacy Site Store, announced a current plan to distribute 1.5 million books to underprivileged kids. Here is an excerpt from their announcement: "First Book, the nonprofit social enterprise focused on equal access to quality education for children in need, today announced the launch of OMG Books Awards: Offering More Great Books to Spark Innovation, a program that will unlock more than $4.7 million in funding to distribute 1.5 million brand new books and eBooks to children living in low-income communities."
The photo (NYTimes) was taken in the Children's Zone Academy in Harlem; the book was distributed via First Book.
....................
Refugee Children
Twelve million Syrians have fled their homes in fear. Half of them are children.
An estimated 4 million children have been born in Syria since 2011, meaning that half the country’s children have grown up only knowing war. It is details like this that are lost in most headlines about Syria, especially those generated by the White House.
The USA was settled and built by immigrants, most of them escaping fear and oppression, all of them seeking a better life. And the majority, were seeking a better life for their children.
The photo is from Alweiwei's incredible documentary, Human Flow. Here is a link to an excerpt (2:26).
...................................
The Yelodoggie Search
We believe that Why Am I, C.A. Wulff's wonderful new Yelodoggie book should have a big marketing push and wide distribution. Kids 4-8 love it and we are hoping it will be the beginning of a series. Accordingly, this new year marks the beginning of our renewed search for a publisher who will also love the book, embrace its potential, and launch it into the world.
Why Am I is a joyous Yelodoggie book that helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.
....................................
Planet of The Dogs -- Excerpts
"Our story begins long, long ago, before there were dogs on Planet Earth. . .
In Waggy Valley, on the Planet of the Dogs, dogs were coming from everywhere for the special meeting called by the dog council. This was the first time in many years that a special meeting was being held where all dogs were invited. In every direction, as far as the eye could see, the roads were filling up with dogs of all kinds -- big dogs, little dogs, dogs with long shaggy hair, dogs with neat short fur. . .
Led by Miss Merrie, the dog council came running out to the top of a low open hill at the end of the valley. The council had dogs of all ages and types so that all the dogs felt represented. They lay in a circle around their queen.
Miss Merrie was a very wise toy poodle who had lived a long time. Not since she was a puppy had there been a gathering like this. Like the other dogs, she was wagging her tail in greeting. It soon became very quiet except for the sound of the moving air created by all those wagging tails. After some welcoming woofs, Miss Merrie told the dogs why they had been asked to come to the meeting.
' There is trouble on Earth, the Planet of the People. Some people have become mean and greedy. They take things from other people and often hurt them. They need to learn again about love.' A chorus of howls erupted when the dogs heard that people had forgotten about love ". . .
You can read sample chapters of all the books in the series, Planet Of The Dogs, Castle in the Mist, and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale, at www.planetofthedogs.net. The books are available free to therapy dogs and their owners (via [email protected])
The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.
..................................................................................................................................
"Man is troubled by what might be called the Dog Wish, a strange and involved compulsion to be as happy and carefree as a dog."
James Thurber
...................................................................................................................................
Comments