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How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books
by
Joan Bodger,
Mark Lang
Over forty years ago, Joan Bodger, her husband, and two children went to Britain on a very special family quest. They were seeking the world that they knew and loved through children’s books.
In Winnie-the-Pooh Country, Mrs. Milne showed them the way to “that enchanted place on the top of the Forest [where] a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.” In Edinburgh the...more
In Winnie-the-Pooh Country, Mrs. Milne showed them the way to “that enchanted place on the top of the Forest [where] a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.” In Edinburgh the...more
Hardcover, 249 pages
Published
March 27th 1999
by McClelland & Stewart
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Written back in the late 1950s, this is the tale of one family's travels around Britain, in search of the sites featured in their favourite children's books.
It is a fun read, capturing a taste of life just before things started changing in that country.
The story is engaging, and well written. The adventures they have are often inconceivable today, though it evokes imagery from many children's books written back around that time.
The author even got to meet some of the people she was writing about...more
It is a fun read, capturing a taste of life just before things started changing in that country.
The story is engaging, and well written. The adventures they have are often inconceivable today, though it evokes imagery from many children's books written back around that time.
The author even got to meet some of the people she was writing about...more
In the late 50's, when her children were, I believe, 2 or 3 and 9, she and her husband took them to England for an extended trip during which they visited places relevant to the many children's books they had all read. Some of them are books you don't hear much about these days (such as Kipling's "Puck of Pook's Hill," "Johnny Crow," and Caldecott's illustrated verses), but many are familiar: "The Wind in the Willows," "The Tailor of Gloucester," "The Chronicles of Narnia," and "Swallows and Ama...more
This book kidnapped my imagination in a way I was hardly expecting it to. Bodger narrates a trip she took with her husband and two children to the UK with one purpose in mind: finding the real geographical points/locations of their beloved children's books. This seems silly and a wild goose chase, but as they did research, they found (as do you as the reader) that many of these fictional lands are rooted in the real surroundings of the author's lives.
It was interesting to read just how willing B...more
It was interesting to read just how willing B...more
considering this is such a slim little book, it certainly took me long enough to get through it. it's one of those books you can easily pick up, read a few pages and put down. when next you visit - it is like time stood still and the the family is right where you left them. i can only imagine how much more enjoyable this book would be for someone who was more familiar with the stories and poems the family investigates for, without a doubt, the best parts for me are when she is talking about some...more
I loved this memoir of a family's trip to Great Britian in the late 1950's in search of the actual places where famous children's books were set. I certainly wish I could have seen the river where Water Rat and Mole might have boated, the place where Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle did her laundry, and the settings for Caldecott's illustrations. They even got to meet Christopher Robin's mother and play poohsticks from the bridge! I later learned, from her obituary, that Joan didn't have a perfect life, but sh...more
A children's literature-loving family decides to go to England and look at various places from cherished books. Among the authors referenced: Arthur Ransome, Beatrix Potter, Rosemary Sutcliffe, CS Lewis, Kipling, Howard Pyle, Kenneth Grahame, Robert Louis Stevenson, etc. It was enjoyable to hear about their travels and to see how they did their research in pre-Internet days: the trip took place in 1958. The only thing that would have made it better would have been photos of the locations they to...more
I LOVED THIS BOOK! If you've ever read Puck of Pook's Hill, Wind in the Willows, stories of King Arthur, Robin Hood, etc., you will too. Essentially, this is the story of a trip taken by the author Joan Bodger with her husband and two children to discover the "roots" of their most beloved British children's literature. So they drive through the English countryside looking for Toad Hall, or Pook's Hill, or Piglet's house...I just loved this book. The writing was beautifully lyrical in keeping wit...more
Lovely, enchanting book about a family retracing the roots of stories and illustrations from famous British Children's Literature. My favorite quote:
"T.H. White was all his life concerned with the clash of Might and Right, the relationship of Big and Little. One might say that this is the central them of English children's literature; indeed, of English history. It is well to remember that Anne Frank was held, and finally crushed, by men who had never known- or had lost- all sense of proportion....more
"T.H. White was all his life concerned with the clash of Might and Right, the relationship of Big and Little. One might say that this is the central them of English children's literature; indeed, of English history. It is well to remember that Anne Frank was held, and finally crushed, by men who had never known- or had lost- all sense of proportion....more
I'm an Anglophile and a children's fiction connoisseur. Does this book not fit me like a glove fits a hand? Many may find passages a wee bit slow, but I savored every word. Be forewarned, however: at the close of each chapter, you will come down with a bad case of travel-mania, best cured by a quick perusal of plane ticket prices.
If you love children's literature and are interested in the authors and where they live and the places they wrote about, you will love this book. It would be wonderful to get to mimic her journey and go to all these places, but reading her book is the next best thing.
This would have been an interesting and well-written travel book on its own, but I liked it even better because it brought back memories of a lot of books I enjoyed as a child.
Somehow I had managed to misunderstand what the book was about, so in case others are under the same misconception, I'll state it clearly. This is not a book about books. It's a book about the scenery of books. As such, it is a very charming travel account, but as I only knew very few of the books listed (probably one of the problems with only having grown up with those English books that have been translated to Danish), and don't care much about book settings in the first place, I probably didn...more
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Totally delightful account of an American couple, in the 1950's, with British roots, taking their 2 young children on a ship to England, to explore the sites of many of their favorite children's books. Told in the mother's voice it is full of education, fun and a host of charming moments.
I rarely re-read books, especially nonfiction, but this was my third trip through How the Heather Looks. This time where possible I stopped mid-chapter to read the children's book whose setting the family was visiting: R. Caldecott's picture books, Leslie Brook's Golden Goose and Johnny Crow books, The Wind in the Willows, The Borrowers, Winnie the Pooh, Beatrix Potter.
** Please support your local independent bookstore when buying this book! Buying from Amazon.com hurts your local economy. If y...more
** Please support your local independent bookstore when buying this book! Buying from Amazon.com hurts your local economy. If y...more
Gosh! Love the cover! Love the premise. Hope this is as good as I'm hoping it will be :-)
I enjoyed this one, though it made me want to do more research into early British children's literature. Beatrix Potter and the Wind in the Willows I know, but many others are just not familiar enough for me to visualize the artwork and stories that inspired this journey. Still, I envy them their experiences and enjoyed the humor and obvious joy they found in their trip. This edition is also nice for the afterword in which the author discusses life after the trip and how this book was received.
This book is about a trip the author & her family took to Britain one summer, in the late 1950s. They organized their travel to visit a number of sites where notable children's authors & illustrators came from, & the settings of many family favorites. The book is a delight from start to finish, but be forewarned; if you like it & want to read more by Joan Bodger, her memoir is quite different.
One of my new favorite books. I absolutely LOVED this "tour of English books" The chapter on Arthur Ransome alone was enough. I kept reading snippets out loud to my English-literature-loving son. We ate it up like chocolate chip ice cream. Could not possibly recommend more highly for all bookophiles.
I'm reading this right now and it's quite lovely!
Oh, this sounds lovely!
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