The World’s Strongest Librarian

Josh Hanagarne is a strong, courageous and inspirational character. He is a proud dad, a public speaker, a Mormon, a librarian, a weightlifter and a published writer. He does all that whilst battling with an extreme case of Tourette’s Syndrome.  His memoir; The World’s Strongest Librarian was published by Gotham Books on May 2, 2013.

The book takes a look at some of the challenges he has had to deal with facing Tourette’s syndrome, and how he has coped.  More than that; he tries to encourage, inspire and support others.  He is heavily involved in helping people with special needs and regularly speaks publicly to groups of people with disabilities.  He is dedicated to helping other people like him to discover their full potential.   In his book, Josh talks openly about his own neurological disorder and how writing and weight training have aided him.  Before undertaking these two very different activities, his ticks and uncontrollable movements caused him physical damage such as broken teeth, a dislocated thumb, and even caused a hernia.

As a librarian, Josh admits that literature is an obsession with him.  He did not start writing his own books until his Tourette’s hurt him so much that he couldn’t leave the house.  His screaming became irrepressible.  He needed botox injections to paralyze his vocal chords leaving him unable to talk.  As a social person, Josh turned instead to writing to continue communicating with people in the absence of voice.  Writing became a way to keep up with social discussions.  He wrote his first novel The Knot during this time.

For Josh, literature and writing is not only something he enjoys, but something he needs.  Writing is a way for him to have control.  Tourette’s often takes control of his body.  Writing and literature allows him to be in control of his mind, to see progress that he can measure and demonstrate.    It is in literature where he finds some stability.  And as an author, a creative person, he finds a larger purpose.  As with writing, weightlifting gives Josh a sense of accomplishment and control.  Extreme physical exertion began as a way to suppress the pain often caused by Tourette’s, but he continued to lift to be strong, to be healthy, and to take control of his body.

Josh also discusses his religion in his book.  He is satisfyingly neither fervent nor reproving.  His church is simply part of his heritage.  What he takes from the Mormon church is a way of life which he learned from his father; that is, the Mormon Church is the church of “don’t be a dick”.

 

Much More than Cook Books

(My own recipe for simple cherry cake below!)

We’ll Eat Again by Marguerite Patten is a collection of wartime recipes including tips on preserving and ‘making do’, to save and use food wisely. The main meal types covered are soups, main meals, vegetable dishes, puddings, snacks and supper dishes, and cakes & baking.  Each chapter begins with little nuggets of information (or dare I say; food for thought) from the wartime period. For example:

Cakes and baking

“We could all manage without cakes, biscuits and scones but these helped to makes meals more enjoyable. But the Ministry of Food used to remind us that it was important that all the family ate protective foods first before they enjoyed these home-made treats.”

What makes We’ll Eat Again so good?

• Even though this book explains how cooking was done during the Second World War, when  times were tough and food was rationed, he recipes and tips can still be applied in today’s kitchen.
• The photos and illustrated adverts from the era add a certain charm to the book.
• The book includes recipes for American pin wheels, honeycomb toffee, cheese pancakes, eggless sponge pudding, and many more delicious fancies.

The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook is so much more than just recipes.  From the introduction:

“Her book is more a memoir than a manual, an invitation to the reader to share the eccentric, eventful life she shared with Gertrude Stein.”

The original book was put together in 1953 when Alice was 75.  Being on a strict diet due to an attack of pernicious jaundice, Alice could only write about food.  She was an American living in Paris, associating with the likes of Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Henri Matisse.  Chapters such as “Little known French Dishes suitable for America and British Kitchens”  “Food in French Homes” and “Food in the United States in 1934 and 1945” show how both France and America influenced her culinary creations.

 What makes The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook so good?

• “One day when Picasso was to lunch with us…” in the chapter; Dishes for Artists, Alice describes how she cooked and prepared fish for Picasso.  The method is more prose than recipe and includes a strange theory about cooking fish, which she had heard from her grandmother: “…fish, having lived in its life in water, once caught should have no further contact with the element in which it had been born and raised.”
• The book includes Recipes for liberation fruit cake, Ibiza soup, gourmet’s potatoes and most famously, hashish fudge (also known as Alice B. Toklas brownies).  Alice writes: “Obtaining the cannabis may present certain difficulties…”

Now for my own recipe: simple cherry cake.

• 150g self-raising flour (I used wholemeal but white is even nicer)
• 3 medium eggs
• 150g sugar (brown works best)
• 150g butter
• 150g  glace cherries (I use French glace cherries)
• 75g ground almonds

In one bowl mix the flour and eggs.

In another bowl mix the butter and sugar. I like to melt the butter in the microwave first.

Mix the two together. Then mix the almonds with cherries. I sometimes cut them in half.

Mix it all together, then scoop all the mixture into a baking tin. Round tins are fine but loaf tins work best.

For extra yumminess and great presentation, sprinkle brown sugar on the top. Place in oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

After 20 minutes turn down to 150 for another 5 minutes or when the cake is ready (stick a knife in. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready.
Enjoy 😉

Sailing and magic in 20th century children’s books

Double Review: Twentieth century novels for Children: Swallows and Amazons and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. 

Early realist novel Swallows and Amazons (1930) by Arthur Ransome, and modern fantasy novel Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (1997) by J.K.Rowling may seem like unusual novels to review together.  One is seen as prestigious and the other popular.  But what difference does that make to the enjoyment of the two books?

Swallows and Amazons with its maps and compass point locations has a strong sense of place.  Even though the places are given names such as ‘Rio’ rather than their correct names, the reader is aware that the imagined world takes place in the real location of the Lake District. Prestigious realist books often use imagination to stimulate child readers. When swept away in their imagination, the children always slip back into the real world before continuing with their play: “we’ll agree to Rio. It’s a good name”

Swallows and Amazons has a  literary approach to dialogue, plot and characters.  It begins with Roger anticipating a response to a request sent out to their father, one which the reader is not yet aware.  The narrative then takes us back to when they first had the idea to land on “their island”.

When Swallows and Amazons was written it was quite modern for its day to feature gender equality in terms of sailing: the girls were just as good as, if not better than John: “Nancy never looked up, but altered the direction of the boat…” However, the role of the ‘substitute parent’ was adopted not by John, the eldest, but by Susan, who one day woke up “to find the boy pulling at her… [for] ‘something to eat’”

What makes Swallows and Amazons so good?

It pays homage to Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe.  It creates a very different story using the same island adventure idea.  These stories help the characters play and imagine they are Robinson Crusoe “It’s Man Friday’s Tent”.

Ransome is credited by critics with developing modern children’s literature by challenging what came before.  His characters use modern language and abbreviations such as “Can’t now” rather than the standard middle class English still used by authors at the time Ransome was writing.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is described as fantasy fiction, where the extraordinary can happen and mythical creatures exist such as unicorns.  In children’s literature fantasy allows for greater subtextual meaning. The book has been criticized by some religious organizations for its use of magic yet the story is rooted in older children’s literature making it less controversial that some critics suggest.  The boarding school setting and rivalry for academic excellence and winning the “house cup” give it an old fashioned feel, and fundamentally the story is about good versus evil, with good winning.

 Rowling avoids complex sentence structures and the story has a straight forward narrative. When comparing it against Swallows and Amazons the structure in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is simple, child-friendly and starts from the beginning, in a normal world, then moving into his extraordinary adventures.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was shortlisted for the 1997 Carnegie Medal, but was not a winner. It did however win the Nestle´ Smarties Book Prize and other awards where children were involved with the judging process, but failed to win any prestigious prizes judged by adults such as The Newberry Prize.  This prize is awarded for books which contribute to literature.  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was blocked for not being brilliantly written, but even though the text is not as literary sophisticated as Swallows and Amazons it has proven popular with children. It has re-engaged both boys and girls with reading, which is by a large degree an important contribution to literature.

What makes Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone so good?

It pays homage to other great works of literature: The boarding school format from Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s Schooldays; and the wizard school from Jill Murphey’s The Worst Witch. There are also various examples of Lewis Carroll’s influence in the book: From falling through the trapdoor, like Alice falling down the rabbit-hole, to the giant chess game, like Alice through the Looking Glass to the riddle with the bottles, like the shrinking and growing potions in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

For child enjoyment, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has proven to be very successful.

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Little Red Riding Hood – The wolf and the leer

English: An illustration from Tales of Mother Goose by Charles Perrault; translated and edited by Charles Welsh The caption was “”She met with Gaffer Wolf””, it presumably illustrates the tale “Little Red Riding-Hood” and is found as the frontispiece (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 Double Review: Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault and Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf  by Roald Dahl

The story of Little Red Riding Hood is essentially a story about an attack on a little girl and her grandmother.  It includes violence, death and sexual connotations (and we read this to kids!).  The vague time and location of ‘Once upon a time…’ signifies to the child that this is a world of fantasy. This means that the child is aware that it is just a story.

Fairy tales began as folk tales for adults but have been used to entertain children since the eighteenth century.  They have been retold and altered according to social and cultural contexts.  In the original folk tale the little girl (unnamed)  is asked by the wolf if she is taking the path of pins or needles – pins representing the temporary binding of a young girl’s garments, and needles representing coming into adulthood, where needles are a permanent bind.  This was originally a tale of initiation as she chose the path of needles.  She later encounters the wolf dressed as her grandmother and gets into bed with him.

In Perrault’s version (1697) the girl who is now nicknamed Little Red Riding Hood, is “the prettiest that had ever been seen”.  Her attractiveness is important because, as is seen later, the story is a warning to women against talking to the wrong kind of men.  She does not escape but instead serves as an example of girls who are spoilt and naive.  She wears red, the colour of passion, which was introduced by Perrault, as a symbol of her ‘sinful’ nature.  She “met old neighbour wolf, who had a great desire to eat her.”  This is the first clue that the wolf is actually a sexual predator.  Perrault turned the wolf into a stand –in for male seducers who lure young women into their beds.

What makes Perrault’s version so great?

– Although this version was not originally intended for children, the repetition the ‘all the better to…’ sequence is a formula that is liked by children.  This has been repeated in every retelling of the story apart from removing some lines such as “the better to hug you with…” for their promiscuity.

– In terms of social anthropology, this is a wonderful example of a 17th century text.  The earliest oral versions of the story include bodily functions “oh, but I’ve also got to make cacka, grandma” and cannibalism “Slut! To eat the flesh… of your grandmother” and also sexual innuendo “undress yourself… come lie down beside me…” which were all removed when Perrault wrote it down.  He altered the story to one that would be suitable for the society he wrote for.

– Let’s face it,  the moral is still relevant: “Children…  should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf.  I say “wolf,” but there are various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all.”

Roald Dahl’s version  (1982) begins with the wolf.  Little Red Riding Hood comes into it later when wolf decides that eating Grandma was not enough.  He makes the decision to wait for her with a “leer” which is the first sign of the wolf’s ‘sleaziness’.   This version is clearly aimed at children; the simple rhyming scheme and the humour make it appealing to children. Yet it is still laced with hidden assumptions about Little Red Riding Hood.  She is described in line 27 as the “little girl in red”.  But later, she is referred to as “Miss Riding Hood” with “no silly hood upon her head”.  In France, to have ‘seen the wolf’ was a euphemism for a girl losing her virginity.  Dahl’s Little Red Riding Hood has matured since having ‘seen the wolf’.  She also smiles and takes a gun from her underwear before shooting the wolf dead.  Children only see the humour in this but to an adult she acts quite flirty, and promiscuous.   Dahl has returned the idea of her being a desirable object for the wolf, which is often removed in recent versions. “Compared with her old Grandmamma/ She’s going to taste like caviar.” Her youth makes her more appealing, but it also questions her physical appearance.  Grandma was “small and tough” but by favourably comparing Little Red Riding Hood, one assumes that she would be in comparison, curvy and voluptuous.

What makes Roald Dahl’s version so great?

It is hilarious: “He ran around the kitchen yelping/’I’ve got to have a second helping'”

It is postmodern: “‘That’s wrong!’ cried wolf ‘Have you forgot/to tell me what BIG TEETH I’ve got?'”

She is kick-ass: “The girl smiles. One eyelid flickers/She whips a pistol from her knickers.”

It is illustrated by Quentin Blake

A Monster Calls – A Novel by Patrick Ness, from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd

  What we are reading – A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness

 This book is interesting for two reasons:

  1.   It is the first book to win both The Carnegie Medal and The Greenaway Medal.

  2.   The author adapted a story originally thought up by another author;       Siobhan  Dowd.

  

 Siobhan Dowd wrote in the young adult/teenage category of children’s literature.    Her books ‘A Pure Swift Cry’ shortlisted for The Carnegie Medal in 2007, and ‘Bog   Child’ which won the award in 2009 both deal with controversial, and social realist issues.  ‘A Monster Calls’ is aimed a little younger than a typical Dowd book – which is fine: – Ness was not trying to be Dowd; he was writing her story in his own style.  The result was a book which is deep, dark and intriguing.

 

 

 

 Ness worked in his own style, on a story he adapted in his own way, and let it go in its own direction. Yet it still managed to capture the heart wrenching drama and tragedy of a Dowd book.  Her books can touch teenagers and adults alike and this story is no different. Yes, the book is about a monster-tree.  But this book about a monster-tree DOES deal with serious issues. This book about a monster-tree CAN be taken seriously by adults. Like any Dowd book, it deals with subjects that are hard to deal with:

  

 Illness and death: “I can’t stand it anymore!.. I can’t stand knowing that she’ll go!”

  

 Bullying: “Harry had tripped Conor coming into the school grounds… And so it had begun…and so it had continued.”

 Feeling guilt: the need to be punished: “Why didn’t it kill me?..  I deserve the worst.”

  

 Anger: “TEAR THE WHOLE THING DOWN!”

  

 

 The book also contains three philosophical tales told by the monster-tree.  Each of the three tales has a surprising moral to it.  The conclusions about ethics, intentions, justice and punishment are debatable, and will make the reader stop and think. 

 

 The story is not only told with Ness’s words, but also with Jim Kay’s pictures.  Each picture, scattered with minute detail is not only a superb piece in its own right, but also compliments and enhances the feel of the story.  The illustrations are thicker and darker when Conor is feeling gloomy; light and minimalist when there is hope in his life.  When Conor is feeling under pressure, the drawings engulf the pages and surround the words creating an almost claustrophobic atmosphere.

 

 This is a thrilling yet moving read, full of twists and irony.  The way the story is told is excellent.  Children will be enthralled within its world of magic and fantasy,   while adults will accept it as realistic and allegorical. The illustrations are dark and detailed; harsh yet elegant.

I wrote this for the library blog as part of Children’s Book Week (1st – 7th October 2012).  The original blog post can be found here…

 Related articles

• A Monster Calls (lacer.wordpress.com)
• Patrick Ness – A Monster Calls (sffbookreview.wordpress.com)

Confused reviews

Okay I’ll admit it.  I haven’t been sticking to the read-one-book-at-a-time plan.

It can get confusing when you have several books on the go, but I think I’ve managed to keep each story separate from the others. Like this one:

Hamlet had a ponderous dream where he saw the grotesque ghost of Frankenstein’s monster.  The monster demanded that he take his revenge on the nasty Heathcliff, who was married to flirtatious Juliet but in love with sweet Tess of the d’Urbevilles.  Hamlet then received an important letter from jolly Postman Pat, informing him that he had received a sum of money.  Hamlet believed the money had come from the obsessed old Miss Havisham, but when he falls asleep at the ancient altar of Stonehenge waiting for his arrest, he realizes his benefactor is Heathcliff’s evil brother, Claudius – the man he is supposed to kill…

😉

Oscar Wilde and all the terrible beauty of a Greek tragedy

Oscar lounging on a rock in Dublin. Picture (c) Hannah Meiklejohn, 2011

Oscar Wilde Double Review: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’

I read the play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ when I was in my late teens. Having very little knowledge of Wilde at the time, I had no idea I was about to read such a funny, witty and thoroughly enjoyable play. The plot line; a man leading a double life, is in itself an intriguing idea, and Wilde spins within it his tongue-in-cheek humour and Shakespearesque confusion.  From the very beginning lines such as the one below gave me a glimpse of the comedy and nonsense that was to come:

Jack: …some aunts are tall, some aunts are not tall. That is a matter that surely an aunt may be allowed to choose for herself. You seem to think that every aunt should be exactly like your aunt…

The play is about the double life of Ernest.  But who is Ernest?  Jack Worthing who lives in the country and becomes Ernest Worthing when in town? Or townsman Algernon Moncrieff who goes to the country as Jack’s own creation; Ernest Worthing?

The two men not only pretend to be another person; both men also pretend to have obligations to another person:

Algernon: You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to the town as often as you like. I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may go down into the country whenever I choose. (Act 1)

What makes ‘The Importance of being Earnest’ so good?

Witty dialogue: Lady Bracknell: To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life… (Act 1)

Cheeky conversation: Gwendolen: Had you never a brother of any kind?

Jack: Never. Not even of any kind. (Act 2)

Tongue-in-cheek humour:  Lady Bracknell: …he was eccentric… and that was the result of the Indian climate, and marriage, and indigestion… (Act 3)

And high farce: (The two young women both have dreams of marrying a man named Ernest)

Jack: But you don’t really mean to say that you couldn’t love me if my name wasn’t Ernest? (Act 1)

Cecily: I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest. (Act 2)

Although I enjoyed ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ so much that I rang my granny once I’d finished to tell her how good it was, I didn’t read Wilde again for a few years (as I’ve said before – so many books, not enough time). Then, earlier this year I picked up ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’; a book waiting on my bookshelf many years for my attention.  This is a very different book from ‘Earnest’. Apart from it being a novel, it is dark, peculiar, and has none of the humour of ‘Earnest’ (but all of the fascination with the London upper class circles).  Like Jack and Algernon, Dorian also leads a double life, although far less innocent.  The double life of Dorian is steeped in corruption, disrepute, blackmail and scandal.

‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ has an unusual plotline.  All the signs of age, signs of a cruel or sinful person, grow on a painting of the protagonist, instead of on his own face:

“…the face appeared to him to be a little changed…there was a touch of cruelty in the mouth.” (Chapter 7)

All physical unpleasantness appears only on the painting, allowing Dorian to become as despicable as he pleases, as few people would believe a man with a lovely face could be so corrupt:

“Those finely-shaped fingers could never have clutched a knife for sin, nor those smiling lips have cried out on God and goodness. He himself could not help wondering at the calm of his demeanor, and for a moment felt keenly the terrible pleasure of a double life.” (Chapter 15)

What makes ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’ so good?

Murder: “…and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear…” (Chapter 13)

Suicide: “She had no right to kill herself. It was selfish of her.” (Chapter 8)

Hedonism: “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield it.”(Chapter 2)

Loose morals: “A man maybe happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.” (Chapter 15)

Verdict

While ‘Earnest’ is a light-hearted, comical play, ‘Dorian Gray’ is a dark, and gripping novel.  Both stories are masterfully written.  Ernest will leave you laughing, while Dorian will leave you thinking.  Well worth reading.
Importance of Being Earnest

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Penguin Classics)

Collins Classics – Complete Works of Oscar Wilde