I love the word secret

I love the word 'secret'. The way it rolls off the tongue, the way it means something that is hidden, something to keep all to yourself; then share with others…

Who would not be intrigued by a secret? Anais Nin bought a house in Paris and was intrigued by a secret window - a fake window which was added to the front of the house for symmetry's sake but which could not be seen from the inside of the house. On holiday as a child the large old farmhouse we stayed in was all on one level, but there was a secret door, kept locked, that would have led to the upstairs…
A secret sets the imagination rolling.

Countless times I have read the book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson-Burnett... I watched the film again over the weekend. It is a fantastically well-drawn narrative, clever enough to pull together an inner and an outer journey into one simple story.

The story begins in India during the early 1900s, when Mary Lennox is orphaned and sent to England to live in Misselthwaite Manor, the gloomy estate of her brooding and melancholy uncle, Lord Craven. Because the uncle is almost always away on travels, struggling to forget the death of his beloved wife, Mary is left mostly alone to explore the estate. She finds a door that leads to a secret garden left neglected since the death of her aunt… she befriends the young brother of a staff maid called Dickon and Lord Craven's apparently crippled son, her cousin Colin, who has been needlessly bed-ridden for years. Together the three children restore the neglected garden on the estate grounds. As the garden grows, the characters grow.

The metaphor used in this book is uncomplicated and yet so powerful. There is something universal about the use of nature is writing or poetry. We understand it because we are part of it. Life, death, light, dark and the changing of the seasons all reflected in our own lives. The closeness to nature and the importance of environment is one of the things I love about this story.

I am also interested in the initial setting of the book in India, the India of the British Empire. My family on my Dad's side lived in this India. My Grandfather grew up in the Punjab. And I recognise this India in The Secret Garden…

The main character Mary Lennox is all at once a child and a young woman, a little girl and a force - a catalyst. She is weak and strong, innocence and experience. In the film version, the character is exquisitely played by Kate Maberly. When Mary arrives at Misselthwaite Manor she is defiant and haughty in her speech and attitude and yet the body language she uses is that of a little girl afraid and unsure. This is excellent acting and portrays the layers of this character that are also evident in the book.

Isn't this just how we all feel day to day? We like people to think we know what we are doing, to think we are sure and capable adults… but inside we are still children. I have an excellent childhood memory. I can remember my emotions and responses to situations and experiences from as early as age 2. I can still recognise that 2 year old in myself today. I am the same person inside and I will be that person when I am 80. In some ways The Secret Garden is also about learning to be that person, whatever age we are.

With the girls I am currently enjoying this book Isabella's Toybox by Emma Thomson  within which a little girl discovers that the toys in her old forgotten toybox can 'come real' .  Throughout the book there are little flaps to lift up and find out a 'secret' about each toy.  Our favourite is "Oscar the giraffe has a secret spot drawn on with a felt tip pen..." 

we're off to see the tin man

Last week when we were walking back from swimming to catch the train home J spotted a 'tin man' in a garden.  She called him a 'metal man' and asked me to tell her a story about him... so, inspired by The Wizard of Oz I made up a quick tale about a tin man who rusted in a garden because of the rain.  She was very captivated by this, so when we got home a pulled out my copy of The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum .  My copy has lovely illustrations every few pages so I used the illustrations to tell her the whole story. 
After nursery yesterday she asked to go to the bookshop to get a copy of The Wizard of Oz "with not so much words in it" as Mummy's one.  I'll never refuse to buy her a book... so we went in and found this one which is just the right length for her.  The pictures are lovely too:

I am sure there is a picture book version out there somewhere too (which Santa might be able to advise me about).

I have really enjoyed being able to share one of my own childhood favourites with J this week.  Who would have thought that an ordinary day trip would take us all the way to OZ.

The Dolls' House Fairy by Jane Ray

I recently bought 3 Jane Ray picture books for J.  I have been fascinated by Jane Ray’s artwork for years.  When I worked in bookselling, I purchased all of the Berlie Doherty Fairy Tales, having been drawn in by the wonderful pictures that decorated the pages and brought the words to life.  I only wished there were more drawings...  How could I resist then The Doll’s House Fairy, Can you Catch a Mermaid? And The Apple Pip Princess. 

Our favourite of these titles and the best one for J’s age group is The Doll’s House Fairy. 

The story goes like this... Every Saturday morning Rosy and her Dad work on decorating her doll’s house together but when he suddenly becomes ill Rosy is surprised to find a little fairy in the doll’s house.  A messy, cheeky, quite unconventional little fairy...

This book is exquisite both in the simplicity of its story and the detailed, satisfying interpretation of the story in the illustrations.  Each page is full of colour, childhood wonder, nostalgia and tiny details which little girls just love to spot and point out to you... A miniature toy deer, and another one and another one, the cat sneaking a taste of the Saturday morning hot chocolate, the fairy peeking out from the doll’s house bedclothes...  Scenes are built as the reader either looks into the doll’s house or cleverly into the real house where the little girl, Rosy, lives with her family.

I love real doll’s houses for their tininess and this book captures the love of ‘tiny’ perfectly, right to the very last page and right to the very sweet happy ending. 

This book is such a pleasure to read to J, a pleasure to look at and a pleasure to hold in my hands... thank you Jane Ray.

for the love of hand-me-downs

Our local shops are so full to brimming with the brand new but incredibly cheap things we need and don't need that I am often more inclined towards a hand-me down, a secondhand, a used or previuosly loved item... 
Around half of J's toy boxes are filled with toys from my parents attic or charity shops or other hand-me-downs.  These, strangely are the most played with toys.  Do toys grow more intriguing once used by another child?  Do hand-me-downs have a little aura about them?  I think so.  Perhaps hand-me-downs feel unique as they stand alone, not chosen from a row of identical toys on the shelf?

Today has been a hand-me-down sort of day.  First some books, 10p each from the library sale.  Things like Goldilocks & the Tree Bears by Lauren Child and Polly Borland (which we already own in hardback but now I don't have to worry about it being torn!)  J loves the Goldilocks story and this version is particularly well done, quirky and each photograph illustration is exquisite in tiny, pretty detail; little teddy, little apples, little bowls of real porridge, little red shoes.  For 10p I feel like I stole it.  We also picked up Monkey & Me by Emily Gravett (we already own the brilliant Orange Pear Apple Bear, great for the tiny ones and later they can 'read' it themselves).  each page is a surprise on first reading and again the illustrations are fantastic, full of detail and yest mostly simple in red and black sketches.  Lastly a book full of the most wonderful artwork and a simple cat & mouse chase story, Mouse, Look Out by Judy Waite & Norma Burgin.  If you love black cats and old houses full of lost things then you will enjoy reading this to your little one.  Again I love the detail in this one, fallen leaves and ivy creeping, cobwebs, old newspaper and broken crockery.  Some very hasty reviews, but check these books out if you can... and hopefully you'll find them for 10p somewhere!

I heart hand-me-downs... and the same goes for clothes, particularly baby and little girl clothes that they grow out of so quickly.  Freecycle is great for this of course but also my friends and I with similar age girls, share clothes among them.  We live at different ends of the country but post the most pretty 'good will' clothes packages to each other now and again.  Its the most fun package to receive and we had one today for B!  So our living room floor is currently scattered with books and pretty prints in pink and red... not to mention the baby and the 3 year old ...  So I better get back to them.

The Lying Carpet

We are in the library at least twice a week so I always spot the new titles and am often the first person to hire things out (!) Last week I took home The Lying Carpet by David Lucas. It is the most head spinning book. I think it reminds me that life is a choice, its about truth and lies, inertia versus adventure, whether to watch or whether to 'do'.... that sort of thing. It involves a talking tiger rug which frankly I just love... and a beautiful little girl statue called Faith. The drawings are perfect too. Anyway its wonderful, mysterious, a fairytale, a bedtime story... and now I want to own it so that I might read it whenever I like.

White as Snow

I have a tendancy to move from obsession to obsession when it comes to fairytales... Most recently it was The Princess & the Pea and for the longest time Beauty & the Beast was my fixation. Over the past weeks it has been Snow White. I find that these obsessions overtake me quite naturally. I will be sitting there and suddenly think "I must read Snow White". I think its because in some ingrained way these tales are part of my psyche and whenever I need a little help to work things out, the right tale for the job pops into my head.
If you analyse it, Snow White is about change and the steps we go through to reach maturity. I may be married with a house and kids, but I still need to enter that glass box now and again for some thinking time. We all do. 

I really love the above edition by Josephine Poole which I amazingly found in the charity shop around the corner from my house. Why do people give these things away? It was 35 pence.

I also love this edition by Berlie Doherty which I bought ages ago in 2004:

Just look how beautiful Snow White is in the illustration.

On peas and princesses...

I seem to move from obsession to obsession, especially when it comes to reading and fairytales... Whatever the tale, I read every version I can find, I buy the editions I can afford, I read the literary crit on the tale and then come up with my own interpretations too...
This month I have been obsessing over 'The Princess & the Pea'. Its certainly a very pretty tale. I say this because there is so much art work out there, like that above by E. Dulac, which has been inspired by it.

It is a very visual tale. It conjurs up strong images of soft versus hard, little versus big, rich versus poor, lies versus truth and not forgetting a very Royal Pea indeed.
I just love the idea of the tower of mattresses. I wish I could sleep on a bed like that. I also love the idea of the pea itself. Where does this come fom I wonder? I can find so little that attempts to explain any underlying meanings to this tale. Its joy comes from the fact that it is so simple and so short. Perhaps this is why there is so little written about it in response?

 

I have just finished reading Lauren Child's gorgeous photo art version of the tale. Its such a beautiful book. Oh and also I re-read The Pea and the Princess by Mini Grey, told from the perspective of the pea. ha! I remember reading this for the first time many moons ago when I worked in children's publishing. It made me laugh. It still does.