LOVE

There are many different kinds of love.  In my experience love comes up as a topic in books fairly often. One of my favorite movies starts with the quote that ” If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around…Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.”

This week’s books deal with love. The first book is an old favorite. Often it is not read until High School ( maybe that was just my experience) but for me the story of “The Little Prince” is a story about love. Originally written in French, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, it chronicles the life of a little Prince who comes from another planet, as seen through the eyes of a pilot who has crash-landed in the Sahara. The Prince has left his planet of three small volcanoes and a single rose in search of answers to his questions. His travels take him to many other planets before he finally lands on Earth and meets the hapless pilot. It is in these travels that he learns “The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words….But I was too young to know how to love her…”  This book also has one of my favorite quotes.  “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” 

Our second book is not so grand as the Little Prince, but I fell in love with it when I read it. “The Great Fuzz Frenzy” by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel is about a prairie dog colony, and the madness that ensues when a golden retriever drops a tennis ball into their hole.  This book is intended for a younger audience.  But the love shines through. We meet the Prairie Dogs – Big Bark and Pip are the two main characters, and discover that although Big Bark has some serious flaws ( just like the Prince’s flower) he is still found to be loveable by his colony. And just like the child in the Emperor’s New Clothes, Pip tells it like it is.

Recommended ages for these two books: 10 and up for The Little Prince, and 6 and up for The Great Fuzz Frenzy.

Happy Reading!

Classics

I recently had the opportunity to see the film “Saving Mr. Banks” with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson.  I enjoyed the film and recommend it, but definitely for older children, as it has some themes that children under, say the age of 10 might not understand, and  has a sadness to it.
Which brings me to today’s theme: Classics.  “Saving Mr. Banks” is about the efforts of Walt Disney to bring the book “Mary Poppins” to the screen.  I often tell my daughters that one of the great things about movies made from books or with books inspiring them in some way is that hopefully, it creates a desire in the movie-goer to READ THE BOOK!  And so it is with “Saving Mr. Banks”.

“Why, children,” said Mrs. Banks, noticing them suddenly, “what are you doing there? This is your new nurse, Mary Poppins.  Jane, Michael, say how do you do! and these” – she waved her hand at the babies in their cots- “are the Twins.”

Oh yes, there are FOUR children. Not just Jane and Michael.  And, there is a series of Mary Poppins stories, not just the one book. In the edition of Mary Poppins that I have, interestingly enough, there is a quote from P.L. Travers ( the author) which I think  gives us a little insight into her desire to keep the book separate from the film.  She says “It is interesting to see how books undergo a sea change when transferred to another medium.  What is subtle, unexplained, but still clear to the reader must, for the film-goer, have an external manifestation.  Magic when translated to the screen inevitably becomes trick.  Mr. Disney has deployed all his technical virtuosity in making the film, and I am sure it will give pleasure to a great many people.  And for those who want to know more about the original Mary Poppins and the world she inhabits – there are, of course, the books.”

Other children’s books that have made the leap to film ( and this is a partial list, to be sure!)

Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, My friend Flicka, Harriet the Spy, The Little House series, Treasure Island, The Secret Garden,  A Little Princess, Heidi, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and for me one very notable little story, “Stuart Little” by E. B. White.  I must say that I thought the film was very sweet.  It starred Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis, and a  computer animated mouse voiced by Michael J. Fox.  I hope that it too, will inspire people to read the original book.

And to close, I want to note something I once read somewhere (of course!) – “A book  is a present you open again and again.”

Happy Reading!