j – Page 9 – Triple Take

J’s Take on Warriors of Alavna

Warriors of Alavna was M’s choice for this month. Meaning she already read it and suggested we read it.

For that reason, I wanted to like it. Alas, I did not.

The problems started right off, and while it did improve after that, its other problems became more obvious.

The basic plot is that two kids get transported to the past. Or another world. Just which it is is never clear. (Until you get to the afterward.) They get caught up in the local Celts’ battle with invading Romans.

In the beginning, I thought what the book needed was a good editor. So I was surprised to find the publisher was Bloomsbury. Do they not have editors at Bloomsbury?

The story starts en media res. (Did I spell that right?) Unfortunately, that is not always the best tack to take! We start with the boy, Dan, going through a mysterious mist. We learn through an almost immediate flashbacktracking that he’s chasing a girl in his class. They were on a class trip. So right there, I would’ve started the story on the class trip, so we get to see their normal environment and normal interactions with each other (if any). And then have this weird mist show up at the end of chapter one.

We then proceed to jump from his point of view to that of Ursula’s. And then for a number of chapters there is no dialogue. Another problem! At least for me. I think I need dialogue to keep me interested. Which is a definite benefit to first person — the whole story is a dialogue between the narrator and the reader. At any rate, once we do have people talking to each other, it gets better.

But it still has problems. There’s one paragraph that goes on for 3 pages. There’s another paragraph with 13 different names in it. And the tentative hold the author had on point of view and point of view shifts goes out the window. To mix my metaphors.

So that’s my opinion on the writing. As for the characters, they’re.. well, I was going to say they’re all right, they’re interesting. But no, actually, because Dan and Ursula are very passive. They’re swept up in things way too easily. Oh, you want me to kill people? Okay, if I have to. Oh, you want me to take an oath? Okay. Ursula figures out how to summon up the mist stuff. But does she use it to take them home? No. She decides that to help fight a Roman legion, you need… to drag in another Roman legion! What. The. Frell?

I did like that Ursula is mistaken for a boy, and then uses her newfound magic to make that rather more of a reality. And I do have a newish interest in British history. Unfortunately, those two aspects aren’t enough to overcome the other problems I had with the book.

One final comment I have is on Alavna. There’s this village that was pillaged and burned by the Romans. It’s called Alavna. The two kids and the people they’re with go check it out, knowing it’s been burned and whatnot, and decide to take Alavna into their hearts, or something, by naming themselves after it, and seeking revenge for it.

Which would be all fine and stuff if I had felt any emotional attachment to what happened at Alavna whatsoever. But I did not. I think it must have been described in very vague terms, with no clear visual, and done altogether too briefly for it to have any impact on me whatsoever. So I had trouble understanding why it had an impact on them.

To end with, I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t like this. And I could find little to redeem it either. I will not be seeking out more books by the rather mysterious N. M. Browne either.

Though I still feel an editor could’ve improved this greatly. That’s an editor’s job!

J’s Take on The Railway Children

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit is K’s suggestion to the two of us to read. I didn’t really know much about this book going into it. I had read probably only one other book by the author, and that was Five Children and It. So I suppose I had a rough time period in my head, an idea that it might be fantasy. And would involve children and trains.

I read this off of Project Gutenberg, first online (for something to do while trapped at a computer) and then on my Sony e-reader. Let me just take one paragraph to rave about PG. They have free, legal books! In nicely-formatted EPUB! DRM-free! Did I mention free? And quality? We should read more public domain books so I can read them this way. Only one minor quibble: in one instance the children all run their words together without spaces. The EPUB format and my e-reader combined meant I only saw part of that. It didn’t line-wrap. The condition was made worse when I increased the font size. So that’s something to be ware of if you’re editing your work and youhaveasentenceyou’vewrittenlikethisforeffect. Maybe throw in a space. I don’t think a hyphen will work, but it might.

Moving on..

Three siblings are the focus of this story. We meet them in their natural habitat, living a comfortable life in the city with servants and whatnot. But foreshadowing and then calamitous circumstances befall them. Rather mysterious ones. Their father goes off and their mother is in tears, but won’t tell them anything. And at first I made the connection with things that were said with the title of the story and thought we were in for a story about the child evacuation of London. Until I recalled that this book was at least 20 years older than that. And a vague idea it was closer to 40 years before that.

Once I got over that notion, it didn’t take long to realize where their father had gone. If I had read this when I was a kid, I don’t think I would’ve picked up on it quite so quickly. But since I did, it was a little annoying that their mother wasn’t just straight with them and telling them what was going on. Just that all of a sudden they’re poor and have to move to the country.

Once there, their mother spends all her time writing, so the kids are left on their own to amuse themselves. They discover the train station and spend a lot of time there after that. And I learned way more about trains than I ever really wanted to know.

The chapters tended to be episodic. Not quite like short stories strung together, but quite like a serial. And the impression that it was a serial became very strong near the end where one chapter ends with the kids shouting, and the next chapter picks up with them repeating it and a short reiteration of their circumstances.

So if it was a serial, I will forgive one quibble I had with it, which is that time will have passed and they’ll be on to something new and the author will throw in like ‘oh yea, when they first got here, they each started a garden’. This wasn’t important to mention at the time it happened? I hate when authors do that.

As for the episodes, the children explore places and meet new people. And do rather a lot of saving people. When their mother is sick, when debris falls on the tracks, when a kid hurts his leg, when a boat catches on fire. I think England was a dangerous place a hundred years ago!

On to things I particularly liked. I liked that the girls had male nicknames. And that right in the first chapter, their father is telling them that the girls can fix engines or be a firewoman (meaning, I believe, the person who chucks coals into the er.. furnace, steam, thingee). What was I saying about knowing more about trains now? Heh.

I also liked that the author described some of the emotional, relationship stuff that was going on. I can’t quickly lay my hands on an example, but such as explaining why someone said something or acted the way they did. Or why their mother was reluctant to let them walk on the rails, but ultimately let them, though it hurt her to let them. Just things like that. Which I think would be very helpful to a kid reading the book, especially when it comes to understanding the adult characters. And it was done in a way that didn’t annoy me. Though it probably does require authorial intrusion to get away with it. And reminds me of Lemony Snicket.

As with any story where one of the characters is a writer, as a reader I have to wonder if any of it was autobiographical. I shouldn’t do that, but it’s difficult when she deliberately omits a character’s name. Like if she said it, it would give away the whole game. Or something.

While in the end it wasn’t a fantasy, the detail about the trains that she went into did remind me of science fiction of the 40s and 50s. It could’ve easily been a spaceport and rockets she was describing the workings and everyday running of.

So in the end, I like that this story exposed girls to train technology and exposed boys to interpersonal dynamics. Because I’m quite sure this is a story boys and girls would equally read.

Would I have liked it as a kid? Honestly, I don’t think so. Between the trains and the unfamiliar setting and language of Edwardian England, I think I’d’ve had trouble being interested. Though how I went so long without encountering any of her books, I don’t know.

There’s a WGBH live action of this book, produced in 2000 (the image above is from there). Unfortunately, it looks like our library’s copy is missing. I would like to watch it now. K, you have a copy of it on your DVD shelf?

J’s Take on Fiction “Halloween” Children’s Books – II

This is Part II of my reviews on fiction children’s books with the word “Halloween” in the title. As before, they are mostly picture books and early readers.

Introduction
Nonfiction
Fiction Part I

Super Why: The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Halloween adapted by Samantha Brooke from a script by Jennifer Hamburg (2009)

I should get a job adapting scripts for children’s books. So, this was a little confusing brand-wise. At the top of the cover it says ‘All Aboard Reading(TM) Station Stop 1’ and ‘Super WHY’. Because why be part of one series when you can be part of 2?

I had not heard of this television series, but you could rather tell it was from television from the picture on the cover. They look like computer animated round characters. The general gist of the story is that these superhero kids with various abilities like ‘spelling power’ go into a book and change the story. One of the four is scared of Halloween, so they find a book about a ghost who’s afraid of Halloween. Then they make a change so the ghost and everyone else knows that Halloween is make-believe.
Continue reading “J’s Take on Fiction “Halloween” Children’s Books – II”

J’s Take on Fiction “Halloween” Children’s Books – I

For October, we’re doing books with ‘Halloween’ in the title. I’ve grabbed a bunch from the children’s room. Here are reviews of a slew of fiction books. Mostly picturebooks or easy readers. Can we spot any trends or common themes? (Did that question sound too much like English class?)

My “Halloween” introductory post
My nonfiction children’s “Halloween” post

The Dragon Halloween Party: A Story and Activity Book by Loreen Leedy (1986)

A mother and her dragons plan a Halloween party. The tale is told in verse, and while you’re reading there are a lot of instructions. How to make various costumes, decorations, how to carve a pumpkin. There’s even some recipes. I didn’t like at first that all the dragons were blue. But when the guests arrived, they were different colors. So it started making a little sense to me that all the related ones would be the same color. At the end is instructions for how to make a dragon costume. It’s cute. It’s short. There are things to do if you’re motivated to do them. And, well, dragons are always a bonus.
Continue reading “J’s Take on Fiction “Halloween” Children’s Books – I”

J’s Take on Nonfiction “Halloween” Children’s Books

What follows are short reviews of nonfiction children’s books with ‘Halloween’ in their title. Let’s see if we spot any trends.

Halloween: Why We Celebrate It The Way We Do by Martin Hintz & Kate Hintz (1996)

A plain, old boring pumpkin on the cover of this. It might as well be a pumpkin book. Or an autumn book. Or, heck, Thanksgiving. Seriously, they couldn’t even be bothered to carve the thing?

Page 8 starts ‘wear for Halloween’. What happened to the first part of the sentence? I scan back. The previous two pages are pictures of two kids in costume. The line before that on the previous page is apparently a caption for another photo. Or something. Continue reading “J’s Take on Nonfiction “Halloween” Children’s Books”