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spooky_miss) wrote2011-01-23 12:13 am
spooky_miss) wrote2011-01-23 12:13 am
Entry tags:
Books Nine To Twelve
Book Nine - Matilda / The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
Source: My bookshelf
Challenges? Children's books
Decade published? 1960s (The Magic Finger), 1980s (Matilda)
Rating: Matilda - 10 / 10 The Magic Finger - 7 / 10
I'd actually totally forgotten about Dahl having written The Magic Finger, so it was nice surprise to find on my shelf! Its about a girl who disgrees with her neighbours hunting, so uses her "magic finger" to make them all have duck wings instead of arms, while ducks - with human arms - live in their farmhouse. Theres an amusing bit about them trying to work out how to make a nest and find food, as ducks, but apart from that I found the story a bit thin, in comparison to the other short stories like Esio Trot and Georges Marvellous Medicine. So thats why the rating is lower.
Matilda, on the other hand, was so brilliant, and so lovely! It tells the story of Matilda, a small girl (about 4 years old I think) who develops a great talent for reading which is far beyond her years. Her parents are pretty neglectful and horrible, her father is a dodgy used car salesman, and her mother is always out at bingo, so Matilda starts to go to the library on her own, and soon has read all the books in the children's section, and a lot of the adult ones. When she goes to school her teacher Miss Honey is astonished by her skill in not only reading but also maths and other subjects. The horrible headteacher, Miss Trunchball, does not see this, and in fact she hates children and wants to be rid of them as soon as possible! While Miss Trunchball is taking the class one day, someone puts a newt in her drinking water - she accuses Matilda of doing this, and when Matilda gets really angry about this she finds out she has a magical power.... :) This is a totally wonderful book, I haven't read it since I was a child, but I remember why it was one of my favourites. The characters are really well written, and you really want Matilda and Miss Honey to end up with happy lives! Highly recommended :)
Book Ten - The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson
Source: My bookshelf
Challenges? Children's Books
Decade published? 1990s
Rating: 8 / 10
I actually found this book quite upsetting, as in it I recognised the cases of some of the families that the social workers work with at work - there are mothers who are actually like the mother in this book, waiting every day for a long lost love (and father of one of her children) to come back, when you know that he won't really. In this book Marigold is the mother of Star and Dolphin, and she's obsessed with the fact that Mickey, Star's father, will come back to her. She holds on to this fact more than anything, even though you know that he won't come back, at least not in the way she wants him to. She stays out all night, and drinks too much, spending all the money on alcohol rather than looking after her children. Eventually Mickey does come back - but to take Star to live with him, leaving Dolphin on her own. In the end Marigold has a mental breakdown and goes to hospital, and Dolphin goes to a foster home. The story is very good, and each chapter is about one of Marigold's tattoos (hence the Illustrated Mum), but it just left me with such a sad feeling - there are actually mothers like this, who live like and neglect their children like this...its just so heartbreaking :(
Book Eleven - When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six by AA Milne
Source: My bookshelf
Challenges? Poetry
Decade published? 1920s
Rating: 10 / 10
These are two wonderful volumes of poetry, written by the same author as Winnie The Pooh. A couple of the poems do mention Pooh, and they're in the same kind of style as the Winnie The Pooh books, but they're not exactly the same. The poems are lovely, great for reading aloud and great for children to read and hear. Most of them are quite short, and they will all make you smile. I wish AA Milne had written more, as everything I have read of his so far is lovely! :)
Book Twelve - George's Marvellous Medicine and The BFG by Roald Dahl
Source: My bookshelf
Challenges? Children's Books
Decade published? 1980s
Rating: 8 / 10
George's Marvellous Medicine is about a little boy left alone with his nasty grandmother one morning, and he decides to make her some medicine to try and cure her of her nastiness! He goes around the house, garage and sheds trying to find all the best things to put in - and he lives on a farm so there are some pretty interesting things to be found! Once he gives the medicine to his grandmother, it makes her taller than the house...and then George's parents come home! His mother is appalled to see her mother like this, while his father is excited about the medicine after seeing a chicken drink it and grow to much larger than its normal size! The medicine soon runs out and they go through various combinations of items trying to make one which makes the rest of the animals bigger - however it doesn't work too well, and George's grandmother, having thought the medicine was tea, ends up shrinking down to nothingness! This book is a great example of Dahl's inventiveness, and I love the way how he describes what each of the items George puts in will do to his grandmother. A great book :)
The BFG tells the story of the Big Friendly Giant, who snatches Sophie from her orphanage one night after she sees him blowing dreams into a child's bedroom. He takes her to where he lives and shows her the other horrible giants who go around eating people. He reassures her that he doesn't eat any children at all, and just eats the horrible Snozzcumbers. He also introduces her to Frobscottle and it's delights!! :) He shows her the dreams he makes, and then Sophie has an idea of getting the Queen to help stop the giants, by the BFG making a dream of them which would then become a reality when she wakes up and sees Sophie sitting on her windowsill. With the help of the Queen and the Army the other giants are captured, and the BFG gets to live in England and not eat snozzcumbers ever again! One of the things I love about this book is that its so English! Who else would think that the Queen would be the best person to ask to help, apart from the English, hehe! The BFG enjoys a breakfast of bacon, eggs and sausages, and when the other giants are captured it says that no one was ever eaten by them again - apart from three men who had had too much to drink at the pub and climbed over the fence! This book has such great little moments in it, but I do think it is just a little bit too long. Still good though!
12 / 120 books. 10% done!
I've read one other book, and two lots of poetry, and have two films to review (one of them was SO brilliant, but so emotionally draining, hence the "sad" mood thingy on this!), but that'll do for now :)
Source: My bookshelf
Challenges? Children's books
Decade published? 1960s (The Magic Finger), 1980s (Matilda)
Rating: Matilda - 10 / 10 The Magic Finger - 7 / 10
I'd actually totally forgotten about Dahl having written The Magic Finger, so it was nice surprise to find on my shelf! Its about a girl who disgrees with her neighbours hunting, so uses her "magic finger" to make them all have duck wings instead of arms, while ducks - with human arms - live in their farmhouse. Theres an amusing bit about them trying to work out how to make a nest and find food, as ducks, but apart from that I found the story a bit thin, in comparison to the other short stories like Esio Trot and Georges Marvellous Medicine. So thats why the rating is lower.
Matilda, on the other hand, was so brilliant, and so lovely! It tells the story of Matilda, a small girl (about 4 years old I think) who develops a great talent for reading which is far beyond her years. Her parents are pretty neglectful and horrible, her father is a dodgy used car salesman, and her mother is always out at bingo, so Matilda starts to go to the library on her own, and soon has read all the books in the children's section, and a lot of the adult ones. When she goes to school her teacher Miss Honey is astonished by her skill in not only reading but also maths and other subjects. The horrible headteacher, Miss Trunchball, does not see this, and in fact she hates children and wants to be rid of them as soon as possible! While Miss Trunchball is taking the class one day, someone puts a newt in her drinking water - she accuses Matilda of doing this, and when Matilda gets really angry about this she finds out she has a magical power.... :) This is a totally wonderful book, I haven't read it since I was a child, but I remember why it was one of my favourites. The characters are really well written, and you really want Matilda and Miss Honey to end up with happy lives! Highly recommended :)
Book Ten - The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson
Source: My bookshelf
Challenges? Children's Books
Decade published? 1990s
Rating: 8 / 10
I actually found this book quite upsetting, as in it I recognised the cases of some of the families that the social workers work with at work - there are mothers who are actually like the mother in this book, waiting every day for a long lost love (and father of one of her children) to come back, when you know that he won't really. In this book Marigold is the mother of Star and Dolphin, and she's obsessed with the fact that Mickey, Star's father, will come back to her. She holds on to this fact more than anything, even though you know that he won't come back, at least not in the way she wants him to. She stays out all night, and drinks too much, spending all the money on alcohol rather than looking after her children. Eventually Mickey does come back - but to take Star to live with him, leaving Dolphin on her own. In the end Marigold has a mental breakdown and goes to hospital, and Dolphin goes to a foster home. The story is very good, and each chapter is about one of Marigold's tattoos (hence the Illustrated Mum), but it just left me with such a sad feeling - there are actually mothers like this, who live like and neglect their children like this...its just so heartbreaking :(
Book Eleven - When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six by AA Milne
Source: My bookshelf
Challenges? Poetry
Decade published? 1920s
Rating: 10 / 10
These are two wonderful volumes of poetry, written by the same author as Winnie The Pooh. A couple of the poems do mention Pooh, and they're in the same kind of style as the Winnie The Pooh books, but they're not exactly the same. The poems are lovely, great for reading aloud and great for children to read and hear. Most of them are quite short, and they will all make you smile. I wish AA Milne had written more, as everything I have read of his so far is lovely! :)
Book Twelve - George's Marvellous Medicine and The BFG by Roald Dahl
Source: My bookshelf
Challenges? Children's Books
Decade published? 1980s
Rating: 8 / 10
George's Marvellous Medicine is about a little boy left alone with his nasty grandmother one morning, and he decides to make her some medicine to try and cure her of her nastiness! He goes around the house, garage and sheds trying to find all the best things to put in - and he lives on a farm so there are some pretty interesting things to be found! Once he gives the medicine to his grandmother, it makes her taller than the house...and then George's parents come home! His mother is appalled to see her mother like this, while his father is excited about the medicine after seeing a chicken drink it and grow to much larger than its normal size! The medicine soon runs out and they go through various combinations of items trying to make one which makes the rest of the animals bigger - however it doesn't work too well, and George's grandmother, having thought the medicine was tea, ends up shrinking down to nothingness! This book is a great example of Dahl's inventiveness, and I love the way how he describes what each of the items George puts in will do to his grandmother. A great book :)
The BFG tells the story of the Big Friendly Giant, who snatches Sophie from her orphanage one night after she sees him blowing dreams into a child's bedroom. He takes her to where he lives and shows her the other horrible giants who go around eating people. He reassures her that he doesn't eat any children at all, and just eats the horrible Snozzcumbers. He also introduces her to Frobscottle and it's delights!! :) He shows her the dreams he makes, and then Sophie has an idea of getting the Queen to help stop the giants, by the BFG making a dream of them which would then become a reality when she wakes up and sees Sophie sitting on her windowsill. With the help of the Queen and the Army the other giants are captured, and the BFG gets to live in England and not eat snozzcumbers ever again! One of the things I love about this book is that its so English! Who else would think that the Queen would be the best person to ask to help, apart from the English, hehe! The BFG enjoys a breakfast of bacon, eggs and sausages, and when the other giants are captured it says that no one was ever eaten by them again - apart from three men who had had too much to drink at the pub and climbed over the fence! This book has such great little moments in it, but I do think it is just a little bit too long. Still good though!
I've read one other book, and two lots of poetry, and have two films to review (one of them was SO brilliant, but so emotionally draining, hence the "sad" mood thingy on this!), but that'll do for now :)