Robert McCarty's Blog, page 5

December -- Somehow, Joy and Hope

                                                    Rocking Horse Land Illustration by Angela Carter. 

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The Power of Story 

A Christmas Carol was the catalyst for the holiday season that we observe and celebrate  today.

This is a ghost story, a story of poverty, suffering, fear and redemption -- an unlikely sounding mix -- that comes together in a book that has touched people since it first appeared. 

The power of the Spirit World -- in the form of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet To Be -- is able to transform the cruel and selfish  Ebeneezer Scrooge into a charitable man who embodies the true spirit of Christmas.

The power of this book by Charles Dickens to inspire people and influence their thinking is quite remarkable. It came at a time of great change in the United Kingdom and Europe -- the time of the Industrial Revolution. 

The book cover is by Carol Grange

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Charles Dicken's Brought Joy and Hope 

The industrial revolution was profoundly changing England during the nineteenth century. A burgeoning middle class flourished. At the same time, cities expanded with growing numbers of impoverished factory workers struggling to survive. Health, poverty, and lack of hope made for grim lives. 

Charles Dickens, a boy of 12 when his father was sent to debter's prison, went to work in the harsh conditions of a decrepit, rat-infested boot blacking factory. Like many
children, he worked long hours for very little pay. On Sundays, he visited his family at the  Marshalsea debtor's prison. These hard early years had a profound influence on his later years. His concerns for the poor, and particulary the homeless and orphaned children, were manifested in his writing, in his charity, and in his wide support for charitable organizations like the Hospital for Sick Children; Urania Cottage, a safe house for destitute young women; and the Ragged Schools for poor street children. His early years also influenced his novels. Oliver Twist stands, with its orphan hero, as a compassionate testament to the dangerous and painful life of the masses of poor boys in London.

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A Christmas Carol -- Joy and Hope

"Few works in the history of popular culture have had as much pronounced effect as Charles Dickens���s A Christmas Carol, first published in 1843.  While Christmas Day had always been a sacred, solemn feast day within the Christian faith (just as the Winter Solstice had been in many pagan cultures before it), it wasn���t until the middle part of the 1800s that many began to see it less as a site of religious devotion than as a holiday to be celebrated, and to be celebrated most specifically through the act of giving.  While A Christmas Carol didn���t spawn this tradition itself, it, more than any other force, popularized it throughout the western world. . .

Dickens imparted to all that Christmas was a time to celebrate all that was worthwhile about the human race, most specifically our love for one another, and our compassion for those less fortunate." --  Excerpted from an in-depth article by Jonathan Morris, the Antiscribe. 

The illustration is from a Disney production of A Christmas Carol.

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"Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts." Charles Dickens
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The Grinch -- A Modern Day Scrooge

But the sound wasn't sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn't be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Whoville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

Book cover and text are by Dr. Seuss.

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And in the Land of the Elephants

 

" Children escape into reading not only in search of something beyond the space time to which they are confined, but also for comfort."

-- Maria Tartar, Enchanted Hunters, The Power of Stories in Childhood.

 

The illustration from Babar and Father Christmas is by Jean de Brunhoff.

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A Christmas Tale

"Snow Valley Heroes has the potential of becoming a favorite holiday story for both children and adults."

--Wayne Walker, Stories fof Children Magazine, Home School Buzz, Home School Book Review 

The illustration from Snow Valley Heroes, a Christmas Tale is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.

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Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem

 

We, Angels and Mortals, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.

Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.

The poem is excerpted from Maya Angelou's Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem on Women You Should Know.

The painting, The Free Spirit, is by Sydney Neuwirth

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In Children's Books, Christmas is for All. . .  from mice and badgers to rabbits and birds, from bears and lions to dogs and Moomins, Christmas is for all.

                                                                                                            
        

 

 

 

 

The illustration from the Wind in the Willows is by Inga Moore.

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Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa,,,Celebrating African Culture

"Unlike Christmas and Hanukkah (celebrated Dec to Jan ), Kwanzaa was not born out of religion. Instead it is a largely social and communal holiday that grew out of the civil rights movement. Established by professor and activist Maulana Karenga in 1966, Kwanzaa was meant as a way to bring the African-American community together once a year for a celebration of its culture and heritage.  Over the years, the exclusive nature of Kwanzaa was stripped away by Karenga, and it is now looked at as a chance for people of all races and backgrounds to celebrate African culture the same way we celebrate Irish and Mexican culture on St. Patrick���s Day and Cinco de Mayo."

Here is a link to read more about Kwanzaa

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Movies

His Dark Materials Returns on HBO

A riveting realisation of Philip Pullman's magic . . . This is the headline fom Lucy Magnum's Guardian review of the new HBO series based on His Dark Materials. "Religion, mortality and talking animals combine to gift us a series that captures Pullman���s magnum opus in all its glory. I suppose kicking off the Christmas programming season with an eight-part adaptation of a book about the death of God makes sense in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours."

And here is an excerpt from James Poniewoziks NYTimes review : "In HBO���s spirited fantasy epic 'His Dark Materials', Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), a runaway girl with a secret destiny, comes into possession of an alethiometer, a golden clockwork gizmo with the power to answer any question. One mystery, however, still eludes her. . . . 'I don���t think I understand any grown-ups at all,' she says.

'His Dark Materials'. . . based on the religiously skeptical trilogy by Philip Pullman, is a story about witches and giant polar bears, magic (or quasi-magic) dust and actual spirit animals. But above all, it is a story about parallel worlds, alike and yet wildly different, separated by an imperceptible barrier: the worlds of childhood and adulthood." -- Here is a link to the trailer for the HBO Series of His Dark Materials

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Little Women

In the October edition of this Blog, I wrote about this new film by Greta Gerwig, as well as posts about Louisa May Alcott, the era in which Little Women was written, and the impact of the book on readers through the years. Little Women opens in theaters around Christmas and I anticipate a wonderful film. Peter Bradshaw, in the Guardian, has written an enthusiastic, encompassing, joyous, pre-release review.

Here is a link to an insightful Guardian article by Adrian Horton.

Here is a link to the trailer of the new Little Women.

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Klaus on Netflix

Klaus, is an old-fashioned, animated, story of the beginnings of Santa Claus' (Klaus) Christmas Eve journeys with flying reindeer. I haven't seen this film, but the reviews are good, although with reservations. I have watched the trailer and think kids would much enjoy Klaus. The animation is a delight and I found the character of Santa to be very engaging.

Here is a link to the Trailer: Klaus

 

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Joy and Hope for All Seasons

Is Found Here

This is a link to a very lovely, very brief montage of Hayao Miyazaki's incredible films(3:23). 

 

 

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The Legend Arrives

"And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes���how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!"

The legend of Santa Claus was greatly enhanced by the poem, A Visit from St Nicholas, written for his children, by Clement Clarke Moore in 1823...above is an excerpt with an iconic Christmas illustration (1866) by the extrordinary Thomas Nast.

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 Christmas In A Cabin

Author C.A.Wulff lived in a cabin in the woods with her partner and rescued dogs of various breeds, sizes and shapes. The following is an excerpt from her touching memoir of many years of life as an animal rescue advocate  -- Circling the Waggins-- with heartwarming escapades featuring an array of rescued dogs and other critters.  

"Lammy-Lamb sits under the Christmas tree and looks up at the antique lamb ornament above her head. It���s a funny looking little bauble that looks just like her, all glittery, with its front legs stretched out like airplane wings ��� a little flying lamb. When we decorated the tree, I had held it up for her to see.
'Look at your ornament.' I had said. 'It���s a little Lammy-Lamb ��� just like you!'  She had been so excited that she had done a little dance and wagged her tail like crazy.  She has been obsessed with the ornament since then, and has been spending a little time each day staring up at it. 'Are you looking at your ornament?'  I ask her. She looks up at me, sticks the tip of her tongue out, and wags her stubby tail. A wave of love washes over me." 

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Mr. Dog's Christmas

Mr Dog's Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn is a wonderful Christmas book and a rescued reasure. Originally published in 1898, it was a favorite in the family of Betsy Cordes for three generations. Written by Albert Bigelow Paine, the book was read aloud, every Christmas eve,  to young and old alike. Under the guidance of Ms Cordes, and with delightful new illustrations by Adam McCauley, Mr Dog's Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn has been given a new life.

"Well, the Hollow Tree people had never heard of Santa Claus. They knew about Christmas, of course, because everybody, even the cow and sheep, knows about that; but they had never heard of Santa Claus."

This book will become a favorite with children -- and with any family that reads it aloud on Christmas Eve.

Here's a link to learn more or to order this delightful Christmas book: Mr Dog's Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn.   

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Congratulations to"a folk school for the digital age"

"Lastly, as you may have seen on social media, we are thrilled to say that The Carterhaugh School has been awarded the 2019 Dorothy Howard Prize from the Folklore and Education section of the American Folklore Society!

There really are no words for how much this means to us. To have our work recognized by our field as 'innovative while steeped in pedagogy,' 'a folk school for the digital age,' an 'online program in traditional folk narrative [that] shows an innovative entrepreneurial effort,' and a place that 'provides lifelong learning opportunities globally' (all things they mentioned in their announcement/award letter!) was beyond our wildest dreams. Thank you so much to you all. " Excerpted from the Carterhaugh School Website.

Carterhaugh is now offering two more courses, one on winter folklore: Kindling a Light in the Darkness; and, a reprise of a self-guided Introduction to Fairy Tales. For more information visit: The Carterhaugh School

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Hanukkah -- December 22-30

Hanukkah is the Jewish Holiday that takes place over 8 days in December. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Holiday celebrates Jewish strengths, perseverance, and continuity.  It has origins dating to 165BCE  when Judea was freed from oppression and conquest of the Seleucid king. Hanukkah is a celebration of freedom and being.    

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Awesome Illutrations

The 2019 New York Times/New York Public Library Selection of Wondrous Illustrated Children���s Books

Here is a link to these wonderful illustrations, chosen by jury, of children's books published in 2019. There is great variety and imagination in examples by extremely talented artists from many countries and cultures. In most cases, the artist/illustrators also wrote the books. The results are awesome. Also included, are brief summmaries of story content. Illustrations2019

The illustration is from Child Of Glass, written and illustrated by Beatrice Alemaga.

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A Christmas Kindness

I found this book to be a quiet gem, perfect for kids to understand and connect to kindness. There is no didactic voice. The revelation of kindness, in a realistic story, flows from events in a suble and natural way. And the reader finds that they have shared an experience of kindness. The author, Cheryl Malandrinos, write books for children that "teach kids a lesson" She also writes (since 2009) discerning children's book reviews on her blog: Children and Teens Book Connection . Here is a link to A Christmas Kindness.

 

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Gift Books for Young Mothers

Another 9,583 free copies of Mommy Talk and Talk to Me books went to young families in 2019.  The books focus on the importance of talking to and talking with young children ages zero to 3.  This brings the total number of free books distributed by the Yeager family foundation to 82,925.  Nonprofits, government agencies, pediatricians, pediatric clinics and pediatric hospitals are the primary channels for getting these books into the hands of young families.  But, direct requests are always welcome: write to Douglas M. Yeager at  dglsyg@cs.com

 

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Where Are We?

Imagine shrinking and finding yourself lost on your neighbor's dog. That's part of the adventure of Andrew and Judy when they discover the world of dog. Imagination,suspense, science and fun are the keystones of this deligtful book for kids 6-10. It's part of a wonderful, humorous science series, Andrew Lost, by Judith C. Greenburg. They make science clear and understandable. (I gave them as a Christmas present to my grand children, and they were a big hit). Other titles in the 18 book Andrew Lost series include: In The Garden; Under Water; In The Kitchen, On Earth, and In Time. 

The cover and book illustrations are by Debbie Palin.

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Somehow Hope through Save The Children

This video moved me and gave me hope.Save the Children video 2:25

"Save the Children has a bold ambition: we believe in a world in which all children survive, have the chance to learn, and are protected from abuse, neglect and exploitation."

Here is a link to their website: Save The Children 

The photo of children in an Afghan refugee camp is by Behrouz Mehri,AFR,Getty Images

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 Questions for the NRA

Why don't you want background checks? Why do you think my neighbor needs an assult weapon? What should we say to the students and parents of the murdered and wounded students in the November school shootings? How do I keep from being murdered if people who are not allowed to board a plane can buy guns? I have many more questions. But let's start with these.


Is that a real assault rifle? I think so. Typical cyclic rates of fire are 600���900 RPM for assault rifles.  

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Happy Holidays to All

And a special greeting to the therapy dog owners and therapy and service dog organizations who make this world a better place. We here at Barking Planet continue to be awed by, and grateful to, the dog lovers and their dogs who help so many people, of all ages, in so many ways. Dogs have a unique quality that helps people heal, release fear, find joy, and often, find hope. 


Note:Thanks to Richard Bradley for the photo of Darcy and Caboose . Every year at this time we post a photo of Richard's dogs from his blog, A Rock In My Shoe . 

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Fences for Fido

This vounteer organization brings Christmas joy to dogs all year round.

"Fences for Fido is an award-winning, non-profit organization that builds donor-funded fences free of charge for families who keep their dogs on chains, tethers and in small enclosures. We also provide: A warm, insulated dog house, Spay/neuter services, Critical vet care. . . In the past 9 years, Fences For Fido has unchained over 1600 dogs in NW Oregon, central Oregon and SW Washington! "

Here is a link to their website:Fido 

Here is a link to a delightful:    Unchained Dog Joy Video

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How Long Does It Take to Trim a Christmas Tree? In this link to a  classic video , it takes the dogs only 3.8 minutes. And it made me smile.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Meeting Special Needs with Therapy Dogs

4 Paws For Ability is a remarkable organization where they train service dogs and then give them to children with special needs -- children with epileptic seizures, Downs Syndrome, Autism, physical disabilites, and combinations of these and other challanging conditions; they also provide dogs to combat veterans who have lost their limbs or had their hearing destoyed

4 Paws For Ability has produced a documentary (10 minutes) that follows, step by step, the journey/process to properly train an assistance dog; and to prepare the needy recipient and their family. This is not a slick, PR type video.  Here is a link: 4 Paws Dogs

The photo is from 4 Paws For Ability.

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Can the Dogs Save Christmas ?

If you have any doubts that there was once a time, long ago, when the unthinkabl e happened and there was to be no more Christmas, click this link...Interview with Santa

 

 

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Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale

There can be no more Christmas. Two of Santa's reindeer have been kidnapped by the King of the North.  This is the true story of how dogs came from the Planet Of The Dogs to save Christmas for children everywhere. Here is an excerpt that takes place when the King of the North tries to recover his own reindeer, freed by the dogs:

"His men answered with a warlike shout of loyal agreement as they raced their horses across the snow, following their King.  They were a fearsome sight to see. . . Slowing their pace when they reached the Forest, the horsemen continued on into the trees.  The reindeer tracks remained quite clear as they rode deeper into the woods.  The King, focused on revenge, was slow to realize that the unusual sound he had been noticing was becoming louder.  When he finally looked up from the tracks and through the trees ahead, he saw that the sound was being made by reindeer���his reindeer���running at full speed through the forest, toward him and his men.

In a matter of moments, there were reindeer everywhere, running in panic at them and around them, separating the King and his men from each other and upsetting their horses.  The King was furious and confused.  How could this be?

It was then that Tok, Nor and the big dog from Shepherd Hills came at his horse, leaping, nipping and barking.  The King���s horse reared up on his hind legs and twisted sideways when he came down.  The King, although thrown halfway off the frightened horse, was able to hold on.  Others were not as fortunate.  The horses had never seen dogs before. . .

Separated from the others, and unable to find a way out of the whirling, noisy confusion, the King concentrated on trying to control his horse until he could find a way out of this dangerous place.The dogs seemed to be everywhere, barking, running at the horses, jumping on their legs and moving away quickly.  In the middle of this confusion were the reindeer, running, turning, bumping into one another, and bumping into horses.. ."
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Here is what Don Blankenship, educator and reviewer - Good Books for Kids - and Amazon Hall of Fame Reviewer had to say... ���What a truly wonderful and unique Christmas story for the whole family. Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale, by Robert J. McCarty and illustrated by Stella Mustanoja McCarty is the third offering in the Planet of the Dogs series; What an imagination this team has��� an ideal book to snuggle up with the little ones on a cold winter night and simply enjoy.��� 

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We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. Email us with a postal address to planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent bookstores of all sizes. 

The illustration from Snow Valley Heroes is by Stella Mustanoja M cCarty

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���I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.��� ��� Gilda Radner

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November -- From the Magical to the Mysterious

 

                The illustration from Snow White is by Angela Barrett. The Queen, walking away, has just visited.

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A Collective Fantasy

"But instead of a dream that functions in the individual psyche, the fairy tale seems to function for an entire culture. It is effectively a collective fantasy. As it is told and retold, elements of the story added by the individual teller fall away, like sifted sand, while the more universal themes remain, so it becomes valid for the group of people (the listeners) in general."
 Excepted from a lecture on Snow White by Nancy van-den Berg-Cook. Link: The Magic Mirror in Snow White

The illustration of Snow White running through the forest is by Angela Barret.

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People Believed Them

Though it is impossible to trace the historical origins and evolution of fairy tales to a particular time and place, we do know that humans began telling tales as soon as they developed the capacity of speech. . . People told stories to communicate knowledge and experience in social contexts. Though many ancient tales might seem to us to be magical, miraculous, fanciful, superstitious, or unreal, people believed them; and they were and are not much different from people today who believe in religions, miracles, cults, nations, an   d notions such as ���free��� democracies that have little basis in reality. --  Jack Zipes

The illustration is by Hieronimus Bosch.

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Miracles Abounded

For centuries the unknown prevailed in daily life.  Life was hard and tales were told for relief, for amusement and for hope. Relgion was omnipresent. People prayed for good weather, good crops, and good health. And for victory over invaders, satan, and the  darkside. Holy men and women seeking salvation after death and a more spiritual life created sacred places of isolation: monasteries, convents, and often, caves. People experienced and heard of miracle cures, even occaisions where someone returned from the dead -- usually with help from a saint. By the year 450 AD, 1,085 saints had been recognized by the Catholic Church of Rome. Over 800 have been canonized since then and many more saints have been proclaimed by other churches. 

The painting is of St. Martin of Tours who performed many miracles.

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Lyra Sivertongue's Alternative World Is Back                                             

Lyra was a fiesty and courageoous young girl having extraordinary adventures I when first read her story in Phillip Pullman's triloogy, His Dark Materials. The photo on the left is from Norther Lights, Volume 1 in the trilogy.

Many years have passed, and she is now a young woman in The Secret Commonwealth, the second book in Pullman's new trilogy, The Book of Dust. There are many complex matters to be resolved in the new book. They range from the secret of dust to reuniting Lyra with her Daemon, Pan. Most of them involve magic, the nature of reality, and danger. The Magistarium is ever more powerful and brutal. The parallels with problems in our "real" world are apparent. Courage and loyalty will be sorely tested.  

Lyra Belacqua, seen here in the 2007 movie, The Golden Compass, was renamed Lyra Silvetongue by the bear, Iorek Byrnison . Photograph: New Line/Everett/Rex Features

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Who Is Phillip Pullman ?

I read an exceptional, insightful, candid interview with Phillip Pullman in the New Yorker. It was written by Alexandra Schwartz. Ms. Schwartz achieved a rapport with Pullman, partly through research, and partly because of her own relationship to his writings. Trust followed. Here are excerpts: "Well, reason is a good servant but a bad master. And I think it was David Hume, the English philosopher���Scottish philosopher, I should say���who said that ���reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.��� In other words, reason is there to help us, but our governing passions are the emotions and feelings of human life, whether it���s love, or anger, or tenderness, or revenge, or whatever it might happen to be...

Those are the real governors. Reason points out all the flaws and the snags, and helps us find our way to what we want to do. But, if we lead our life according to reason, we would never fall in love. We wouldn���t look after old people; we���d just let them die. It would be a terrible thing to be governed by reason...

What I���m against is what William Blake called single vision���being possessed by one single idea and seeing everything in terms of this one idea, whether it���s a religious idea or a scientific idea or a political idea. It���s a very bad thing. We need a multiplicity of viewpoints. So I���m perfectly willing to entertain the prospect of 'The Secret Commonwealth'���this world of fairies, ghosts, witches, and so on���side by side with the world of reason. I wouldn���t want to be governed by one or the other....

It was my first real understanding of the fact that poetry is not a fancy way of giving you information; it���s an incantation. It is actually a magic spell. It changes things; it changes you. And that���s been the thing I���ve experienced with great poetry ever since."

Pullman also spoke in Ms Schwartz's interview about Tolkien, Ginsburg's Howl, Sexuality, Mlton, Atheism, his adolescense in the 60's, his books, and more. I found the interview to be remarkably open and candid. It added to the experiece of reading The Secret Commonwealth.

The photo of Pullman is by Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFB/Getty Images.

The illustration of the zeppelin searching for Lyra, from The Secret Commonwealth, is by Chris Wormell.

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The Mysterious Power of Imagination

John Mullan, scholar, author and critic, wrote an insightful article on vexing isssues of contemporary cultue that are woven into The Secret Commonwealth and The Book of Dust trilogy. Here are excepts:

"Imagination, the mysterious power celebrated by the Romantic poets, is the holy spirit of this book. . . The satire of religious flummery is even more explicit and withering than in the original trilogy. Indeed, Pullman is more tempted to draw parallels with our world���s discontents than he has ever been. Our own refugee crises and confrontations with Islamic fundamentalism (here ���the brotherhood of the holy purpose���) have their ready analogies in his fictional universe. Lyra is pitted against not only the agents of theocracy but also a ruthless multinational chemical company.

His main target here, however, is as much intolerant rationality as intolerant theism ��� the life-denying Reason that William Blake, his literary guide, deplored and mocked." Here is a link to the article: John Mullan the Guardian

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Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegatble universe is but a shadow -- William Blake

 

Lyra's Alethiometer.

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The Magic of Transitions

You are in a busy railroad station. You are soon to become a teen and the train will take you to your new school. You must find the track. At last, you do find a sign, but there is no train to board and the track has a number that makes no sense. With only moments to spare, a helpful family with the same destination urges you on, to do as they do, and run through through the wall. Impossible, but with no other choice, you run through the wall -- success! - there is your train and you have entered a parallel universe. You are living in a Wonder Tale...

I am a wonder tale transiton enthusiast. Alice had two transition routes: a rabbit hole and a mirror. And like Track 9 3/4, both allowed her, and me as a reader, to transition easily to another world.

This participation by the reader (or movie goer) in the transition process is woven into many modern classic wonder tales, from the storm in Oz to the young woman named Door in Neil Gaimon's Neverwhere. On The Planet of the Dogs, transitions occur in verdant meadows.

The illustration is from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

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The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange, and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power. --   Toni Morrison

 

The Big Box book was co-written with Slade Morrison (8 years old) and illustrated by Giselle Potter.

 

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MOVIES


Malificent, Mistress of Evil, A War Movie
 
"If 'Mistress of Evil' had any of its predecessor���s flashes of self-aware humor, embellished beauty or basic filmmaking intelligence, it might be easier to take or at least ignore. But it���s a clotted mess. It���s also dispiriting because it has traded a fairy tale about female solidarity for a war movie about what happens when women assume power. It opens with a bent knee and ends with an ever-after kiss, but much of the rest is a convoluted brawl filled with noise and computer minions who are tossed like darts. At center is a grasping, malignant queen (Michelle Pfeiffer), the very stereotype that the first movie rejected."  Excerpted from the NYT review of:  Manhola Dargis.

Here is a link to the trailer: Mistress of Evil
 
The illustration is from Disney.
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Box Office Power through Explosions
I have posted  about the huge spawn of brawl-filled, money-making CGI movies dominated by comic book super hero films from Marvel, DC Comics, Disney, and others. "Earlier this year, Avengers: Endgame became the highest grossing film in history after topping $2.8bn at the global box office (fifth highest after adjusting for inflation). Eight other titles from the same studio feature in the Top 30 (when factored without inflation)." This domimation does not bode well for original, imaginative adult or crossover movies. 
 

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Scorsese Says Marvel Movies Are Theme Parks

"Martin Scorsese, one of cinema���s most venerated current directors, has decried superhero movies ��� the dominant force in today���s industry. The director of films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas told Empire magazine that his attempts to get up to speed with contemporary superhero films had failed.

���I tried, you know?��� the director said when asked if he had seen Marvel���s movies. ���But that���s not cinema.���

He continued: ���Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn���t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.���  From a Guardian interview by Catherine Shoard: Scorsese.

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Coppola Says Scorsese is Being Kind About Marvel Movies

"Speaking to journalists in Lyon following his acceptance of the Prix Lumi��re for his contribution to cinema, Francis Ford Coppola, 80, said: ���When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he���s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration.���

Coppola continued: ���I don���t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it���s not cinema. He didn���t say it���s despicable, which I just say it is.���

Excerpted from an interview in the Guardian by Catherine Shoard: Coppola.
 
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A Six Minute Wonder Tale --
from the Canadian Film Board
Winds of Spring
by Keyu Chen
 
 
 
 
 
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Parasite
 
Parasite is a new crossover film (for adults and older teens) that has rave reviews.
Here is the Critics Consensus from Rotten Tomatoes (217 reviews):: "An urgent, brilliantly layered look at timely social themes, Parasite finds writer-director Bong Joon Ho in near-total command of his craft."

Here is a link to the trailer: Parasite

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Folktale Week Starts November 4, 2019. It is interactive -- if you so choose. There is a lot going on. Here is a complete information link from Gypsy Thornton: Once Upon a Blog
"Originally created by a group of talented artists and children's book illustrators from all around the world, #FolktaleWeek has now expanded to include folks of all kinds, both amateur and pro, and people are encouraged to submit any form of creative work on the theme they wish. Last year they had writers, illustrators, painters, textile artists, embroiderists (!), photographers, papercrafters, cosplayers and more. They're hoping to see even more variety, from even more people this year."
 
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The Music List of Gothic Sleeping Maidens
 

 
Brittany Warman, co-founder of the Carterhaugh School, posted a list of music she likes, and relates to, under the theme of Gothic Sleeping Maidens . I share with Brittany and co-founder Sara Cleto the bond of relating to and appreciating wonder tales and related writings. This closes the generation gap between us. The list of Gothic Sleeping Maidens music is introducing me to a new world. The first song that I listened to was Snow White by Xandria . I found this version of Snow White on youtube, far from Disney: Summer Breeze Festival . Here is a link to the list and its genesis: Carterhaugh Music.
 
 
 
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Two Hundred Years of Brutality A World of Miracles Gone Wrong

Scotland was the locus of an extensive witch-hunting craze from 1550 to 1750. The University of Edinburgh new interactive map shows for the first time the scale of the panic, when the authorities targeted more than 3,000 people throughout the country, from the largest cities to the most remote and sparsely populated islands.

The accused were teachers, nurses, domestic workers, tailors, farmers, ministers, coal miners, mostly female but also male, indicted by men and women alike. They were imprisoned, tortured with brutal creativity, and in many cases, executed. The intensity of the panic rose and fell more than once over these 200 years and, according to scholars, coincided with personal grievances and the state���s insistence that all citizens actively promote God���s will. And then it stopped. -- Excerpted from an article in the NYTimes by Whitney Curry Winbish.

The artwork is from the Scottish National Museum.

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CCBLOG Ten years ago, CherylMalindrinos Childrenand Teen 's Book Connection has evolved
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The Desire to Read, to Learn, to Become 

This photo (left) led me to a remarkable article (excerpts below), a reaffirmation in these painful and troubled times.

"The girls began appearing about 7 in the morning. Seen from a distance, they made up thin blue lines snaking across the barren tan mountainside along narrow trails traced in the dirt, converging from several directions on the little school in the bottom of the valley.

Wearing powder blue school uniforms and white headscarves, many of the girls, ages seven to 18, had already been walking for an hour or more by the time they arrived at the school. There were smaller groups of boys, too, mostly out of uniform, walking apart from the girls.

Only five per cent of the students have parents who can read and write, but that doesn't stop these students and their teachers from having college aspirations..." 

Excerpted from a touching article by Rod Nordland , New York Times via SBS.
 
The photo is by Jin Hulebroek NYTimes
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Healing and the Human Canine Connection

Dogs are quite special. Dogs are forgiving, affectionate, helpful, and unconditionally loyal.

Therapy dogs help  people to heal from emotional problems and support people with physical problems. And they enable kids, helping them to learn to read.

Therapy Dogs have given critical help and support in restoring the lives of vetereans devastated by PTSD.

A new feature length documentary film about therapy dogs, vets and PTSD is now being released: To Be Of Service.

"TO BE OF SERVICE explores the remarkable life enhancements resulting from the introduction of trained service dogs into the lives of veterans with PTSD.  A service dog helps them navigate their days more comfortably and independently,  helps them sleep without night terrors and,  over time, restores their ability to feel safe, to trust and to love.  The unconditional love and support offered by these dogs become the bedrock for veterans to re-engage with the outside world and to learn to feel again." 

Here is a link to the trailer: To Be Of Sevice.  

The photo is from the film.

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More Rescue Smiles -- A New Book

The heart of the animal rescue world lies in its stories���of freedom, of love, and of sacrifice by those who not only acknowledge but embrace the human-animal bond and its wondrous gifts.

The rescue story compilation "More Rescue Smiles" shares a glimpse into the emotional lives of animal rescuers and the living beings they hold close.

You will be captivated by the kinship between humans and animals in their stories, and will get a behind-the-scenes look into the relationships between rescuers and not only dogs and cats, but horses, cows, pigs, birds, and even a ferret.

Stories by: Darla Purgason, Heather Leughmyer, Laurie Lee, Sidney DuBois, Ron Smith, Brece Clark, Thalia Dunn, Stephen Plyler, Paul Ernest, Susan Hartland, Melody Whitworth, Rhi Banks, Johnna L. Seeton, Tamira Thayne, Joseph Horvath, C.A. Wulff, Liz Woloski, and Joe Maringo.

Here is a link: More Rescue Smiles

 
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Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale

There can be no more Christmas. Two of Santa's reindeer have been kidnapped by the King of the North.  This is the true story of how dogs came to Snow Valley from the Planet Of The Dogs to save Christmas for children everywhere. Here is an excerpt:

"Miss Merrie waited a moment and then continued.  'The King of the North is an angry and bitter man.  Several years ago, he and his Royal Guards were banned to the Ice Castle for their cruelty.  And now, he has found a way to have his revenge.  He has a plan to stop Christmas.  Forever!  The girls and boys of planet earth will never again have Christmas.'

An uproar of barking, yipping and growling filled the air until Rex, the biggest and oldest dog on the Council, rose up and barked for silence. Once again, Miss Merrie spoke. 'We believe that we must once again go to planet earth and help the people. We have a plan.' ���

A Reader's Reaction 

 ���While I���m well out of the 4-12 year old range I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The book brought me back to my youth, a time when it seemed my imagination was endless, something that gets lost in adulthood. The holidays are right around the corner and Snow Valley Heroes would make a great stocking stuffer!
Horst Hoefinger, author of Bad To The Bone, Memoir of a Doggie Blogger, reviewing for Dogster. 

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We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. Email us with a postal address to planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent bookstores of all sizes. 

The illustration from Snow Valley Heroes is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty

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���Don���t accept your dog���s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.���   Anne Landers

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October -- Life, Affirmation and Hope

                                                 The photo is by Elena Shumilova

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After the Civil War

During the time (Reconstruction) when Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) wrote Little Women (1868), America was recovering from the darkness and pain of the Civil War. Louisa had served as a nurse during the war, and because her family was poor, she and her sisters worked at menial jobs in the community (Concord, MA). Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a flaky, intellectual, self-obsessed, religous fanatic who failed to provide for his wife and family of four girls. Immigrants, especially Irish and German, were arriving in America in vast numbers, and the growth of factories and mining were changing the industrial landscape. It was an era of transition. In the case of the Alcott family and Louisa in particular, the constraining influence of the transcendentalists ("the chain armor of propriety"), notably by Thoreau and Emerson, was heavily felt.

Little Women has touched vast numbers of people, and as the posts below confirm, in many ways, it was a book of real depth and ahead of the times. Alcott was a gifted writer with the ability to move her readers. . .

T he illustration is of Concord in 1840, home of the Alcott family. 

Turning Point

Louisa was earning money to support her family by secretly writing fiery popular novels under the nom de plume A.M.
Barnard. "A publisher, Thomas Niles, sensed something about Louisa. Or maybe he just saw a market opportunity. If there were tales written specifically for boys���adventure tales���why shouldn���t there also be stories about girls��� concerns, written for them? Girls liked reading more than boys did. (This is still true.) So Niles suggested to Louisa that she write a ���girls��� story.��� She thought this was a stupid idea. ���Never liked girls, or knew many, except my sisters,��� she wrote in her journal. But her family was terribly strapped, so what she did was write a novel about the few girls she knew, her sisters, and her life with them."

Joan Acocella: How Little Women Got Big in the New Yorker

The photo is of Louisa at age 27.

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Jo Is Relevant Today

The Little Women were the sisters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.  They are all quite different from each other. Their mother, Marmee, is also a central character in the family and in the story. Jo, the second oldest, is modeled after the author, Louisa May Alcott.

"It (Little Women) would feel less pertinent were it not for the ���hero��� of the story, Jo March, the second eldest daughter whose plucky spirit and hard-worn attitude transcends era and disposition. Jo is feisty, ruthless, but also noble and warm. She wins the affection of her neighbor, Theodore Lawrence, and their will-they-won���t-they gives the story a sense of urgency, though is never its true purpose. Little Women is not a romance, but rather a coming-of-age, and it���s Jo that keeps it relevant, for she bucks tradition, and gender norms, and paves her way through a male-dominate industry, facing personal and professional setbacks along the way. Every generation needs a Jo or two. Because she���s fighting the seemingly un-winnable fight women face to this day."

Joan Acocella:  How Little Women Got Big

The sisters and Marmee are portrayed in the illustration above by Maira Kalman.

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Alcott Infuenced Many Women Writers 

"My favorite literary heroine is Jo March," Rowling told The Times. "It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer."

Here are some of the other women writers who have stated that they were strongly influenced by the character of Jo in Little Women: Ursula Le Guinn, Cynthia Ozick, Simone de Beauvoir, Ann Pety, and Barbara Kingsolver.

Source: Literary Ladies Guide

The photo of JK Rowling is from The Guardian.

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"I'm happy as I am, and love my liberty too well to be in a hurry to give it up for any mortal man."  Louisa May Alcott

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An Independent, Self Supporting Single Woman

"One era's conservatism, however, may be the liberal protest of an earlier time. When it appeared in 1869, Little Women was in many ways, a redical manifesto. Its author was an independent, self-supporting single woman in an age when, as Meg puts it in the book, 'men have had to work and women to marry for money.' More than forty years before women got the vote, Louisa May Alcott was a committed feminist who wrote and spoke in favor of women's rights. In 1868, while she was creating Little Women, she joined the New England Suffragist Association . . . From a mid-nineteenth-century perspective Little Women is both a conservative and a radical novel . . . Jo, of course, represents the feminist movement; in the phrase of the period, she is a new woman."

Alison Lurie , Boys and Girls Together: Children's Classics from Cinderella to Harry Potter.

The illustration of Louisa May Alcott is by Marc Burkhardt.

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Anne Boyd Rioux's insightful book, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters, was published by WW Norton on August 2018 on the 150th anniversary of the first publication; the book has been very well received by the public and scholars alike.
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Dreams Fulfilled and Dreams Renounced

"Alcott uses the structures that hem women in���marriage, home, religion���both to attract and repel her readers. The homes she depicts are both cozy and claustrophobic, the marriages companionate and perverse, and the March girls��� dreams both fulfilled and depressingly renounced. It���s certainly possible to read Little Women as an untroubled sentimental text about family bonds and individual development, but then, well, you���d miss out on the fun and insight of the novel���s deeply weird and frustrated relationship to femininity."

Rioux concludes "that Little Women has endured because of the power of its 'lessons' about balancing family and career, individualism and selflessness, and the value of (truly) companionate marriage.

Sarah Blackwood in the New Republic

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Alcott's Restless Spirit

"The wealth of adaptations of Little Women over the past century is proof of its durability, and also its malleability. As Anne Boyd Rioux writes, stage and screen versions of the novel have reflected the eras they were made in . . .  Jo���s creativity, her nonconformism, and especially her anger���that energy constantly undercuts the sanctimony Alcott dreaded in a genre that she, without blood and thunder, found ways to sabotage in Little Women. Her ambivalence emboldened her to unsettle conventions as she explored women���s place in the home and in the world���wrestling with the claims of realism and sentimentality, the appeal of tradition and reform, the pull of nostalgia and ambition. Her restless spirit is contagious. The more Alcott���s admirers seek to update her novel, drawing on her life as context, the more they expose what her classic actually contains."

Excerpted from an article by Sophie Gibert in the Atlantic


The illustration of Jo in the Attic is by Norman Rockwell.

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The New Movie Version of Little Women

I recomend the trailer(below) for a sense of the new Little Women. Greta Gerwig's outstanding cast features Saoirse Ronan, as Jo. The film opens at Christmas.

���We wanted it to feel light on its feet,��� Gerwig told Entertainment Weekly (EW) of the film. ���And even though it does take place in the 19th century, we in no way wanted it to feel like it was something that was past. We wanted it to feel like it was present right now. . . . In the trailer, Jo says, impassioned: 'Women have minds and they have souls as well as just hearts. They���ve got ambition and they���ve got talent as well as just beauty. I am so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I���m so sick of it!' The quote, Gerwig told EW, comes not from the book but one of Alcott���s own letters. When she first read it, Gerwig said, 'I just cried. There was something so alive about it.' ���

Excerpted from a Guardian article by Adrian Horton.

Link to the trailer of the new Little Women.

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The Wonder Tales Journey Never Stops

MUSIC

An early memory comes from the time when I played a wonderful recording of Prokoviev's Peter and the Wolf narrated by Peter Ustinov for my children. At that time, my knowledge of Prokoviev and Russian fairy tales was less than minimal. But it didn't matter. We were all mesmerized and we listened together many, many times.

Prokofiev produced detailed performance notes in both English and Russian for Peter and the Wolf. Below is an excerpt of the English version from Wikipedia.

"Each character of this tale is represented by a corresponding instrument in the orchestra: the bird by a flute, the duck by an oboe, the cat by a clarinet playing staccato in a low register, the grandfather by a bassoon, the wolf by three horns, Peter by the string quartet, the shooting of the hunters by the kettle drums and bass drum. Before an orchestral performance it is desirable to show these instruments to the children and to play on them the corresponding leitmotivs. Thereby, the children learn to distinguish the sonorities of the instruments during the performance of this tale."

The illustration is by Christiane Furtges.
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Visions of Wonder and Hope

I don't know how many children over the years have heard  the great classical music, inspired by fairy tales, and composed for ballets and opera by -- among others -- Prokofiev (Cinderella), Tchaikovsky (Sleeping Beauty), and Humperdinck (Hansel and Gretel). However, at Christmas holiday time, many have seen the marvelous Nutcracker ballet with inspired music by Tchaikovsky. Major and minor theater and ballet groups perfom a version of the Nutcracker every year.The story of the ballet was adapted from a Prussian fairy tale,The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816), written by E.T. A. Hoffman. 

Their are many more classical composers influenced by wonder tales, including Antonin Dvorak,Risky-Korsakov,Bartok, Mahler, Greig, Sibelius,and continues through time to include the Phillip Glass opera, Beauty and the Beast.

 

The photo is from the Maryland Regional Ballet production of The Nutcracker.
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Theater Retellings

Wonder tales have inspired wonderful theater that has reached and touched millions of people world wide. The fantastic comes alive in the magic of theater when inspired imagination and creativity become theater.

Wicked

Wicked, the hit Broadway musical, was derived from the a novel by Gregory Maquire which was, in turn, inspired and derived from Frank Baum's Wizard of OZ, as well as the reknowned retelling in the 1939 Judy Garland film musical.

Wicked, which opened to accolades in 2003, has toured the world, and continues to tour as well as play in New York City.  It's interesting to note that one man wrote the original tale, whereas retelling the story in the form of a big musical took a synthesis of many talents in addition to the writers: director, composer, designer, choreographer, lighting designer, costumes, orchestra, musicians, singing actors, dancers and more. 

The photo of the Wicked Witch of the West is from the Movie Version.
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Imagine -- Harry Potter as a married middle-aged father of three school age children and who is now an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic. Moreover, "While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places."

 J. K. Rowling has taken this concept and put together an exceptional creative team of experienced theater people. Their combined talents have produced a magical theatrical experience based on the fantastic stories she created for the world of Harry Potter. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is described as a thrilling, cutting edge theater experience. It continues to play to large audiences in several cities. 

The photo is from a performance.

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The Hungry Catepillar Is Alive On Stage

Jonathan Rockefeller's theatrical retelling of Eric Carle's classic book, The Very Hungry Catepillar, has reached over one million people in over 2,000 performances.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the book's publicatiom. Carle created an illustrated book about a catepillar who eats all kinds of veggies and fruits -- and even some pages in the book -- until he metamorphiisizes into a beautiful butterfly.The book has been  translated into 40 lanquages and sold over 50 million copies.

Here is a link to enjoy one minute of this delightful and imaginative theatrical retelling: HungaryCatepillar:

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"A fairy tale does not take place in the real world but in a separate, often magical space. They frquently invove a quest, supernatural or enchanting elements, the arictocracy or the very poor, and conficts between good and evil. They are not meant to be believed as literally true, though sometimes they have didactic leanings or morals. . ." Excerpted from a Carterhaugh School Grimoire Page

The Carterhaugh School has a  strong sense of community; their knowledge runs deep; and their courses are innovative and interactive. Their latest online course, ���Introduction to British Folklore��� started on September 23. Here is a link to the Carterhaugh School.

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The Lewis Carroll Society of North America Fall Meeting will be held on October 4, 5, 6, 2019; Location: University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare books and Manuscripts, Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Philadelphia, PA --  Check out the Mad Hatter Day Tea Party on Sunday, Oct 6. Here is a link to the website for more info: LCSNA  

 

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Fiction

"Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives.  Neil Gaiman -- American Gods

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Crossover Movies

JoJo Rabbit --opens Oct 17.

Oddly enough, this a comedy set in Nazi Germany. Here is an excerpt from Justin Jones CBR review: "With such potential behind and on camera, it's hard not to be disappointed, but at the very least, Taiki Waititi has found a way to make a fun, hilarious movie about Nazi Germany, and that's got to count for something."

Trailer for JoJo Rabbit

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The Cave -- a  powerful documentary

"National Geographic Documentary Films is adding to its feature documentary slate with a doc from Last Men in Aleppo director Feras Fayyad, about a hidden secret underground hospital in Syria and it���s female-led team.

The Cave, which is slated for a fall 2019 theatrical release, follows 30-year-old Doctor Amani, as she becomes the appointed leader of a team of 130 medical practitioners in a secret hospital that serves the 400,000 civilians in the besieged city of Al Ghouta. From 2012 to 2018, Dr. Amani and her team help the victims who access the hospital through secret entrances and a network of tunnels." 
Excerpted from Realscreen

Triailer for Oscar nominated The Cave

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American Factory 

An Important Crossover Film about people, work, hopes, and life today.

94% of 64 Rotten Tomatoes' critics gave American Factory (Netflix) good reviews. Here is an excerpt from John Powers insightful NPR review: "Reichert and Bognar are clearly on the side of the workers, both American and Chinese, yet their film is no Michael Moore polemic. It's an old-school observational documentary in the very best sense of the term.

Trailer: American Factory

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The USA Summer Shootings -- 126 Dead

"They were octogenarians shopping at a Texas Walmart. They were family members watching TV in California. They were late-night revelers standing on a crowded Ohio sidewalk. They were casualties of a violent summer.

During the unofficial summer season, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, America endured 26 mass shootings in 18 states. One massacre followed another, sometimes on the very same day. In sudden bursts of misery, they played out in big cities, along rural roads, inside trim suburbs. They left behind shaken neighborhoods, tearful memorials and calls for change, but little concrete action . . ." as the NRA surpresses politicians with money and votes.

Excerpted from an excellent article by Mitch Smith in the NYTimes

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An Upbeat 4 min. video - Therapy Dogs at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

"Meet Cyrus, Meatloaf and Cooper, three of the dogs bringing smiles to patients and families at Children���s Hospital of Philadelphia . . . Clinicians say the therapy dogs help children cope with the emotional aspects of their illnesses; families say the dogs offer kids a welcome distraction, reassurance and acceptance."

Here is the video link: Therapy Dogs

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Where Is She Now?

The photo was taken in August, 2014, when the girl and her mother fled to Mount Sinjar to escape the Isis attempted genocide and enslavement of the Yazidis by Isis. Many of the fleeing 40,000 Yazidi refugees died on Mount Sinjar of starvation and disease when Isis surrounded the mountain preventing excape or supplies of food and essentials. Ultimately, 20,000-30,000 escaped when Kurdish Peshmerga forces, supported by US air strikes, freed them. 

Where is she now?

Link to a devestating UN Report 

Photo by Reuters. 

 

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The Planet Of The Dogs Series

The Planet of the Dogs series  of children���s books tell the stories of the first time dogs came to planet Earth to teach people about unconditional loyalty and love -- and to help bring peace from invaders. Here is an excerpt from a review by young Thomas Jarvis, on the Magic Bookshelf.

" Planet of the Dogs is a great read for people of all ages about the love dogs provide for humans all over the Earth. Dogs inside the book negotiate problems throughout the Earth with love as they work together with two children, Daisy and Bean. This heartwarming story shows happiness, love,healing, and teamwork as the dogs treat the world to peace . . . I really recommend these books to all kids looking for some good reading."

We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. Email us with a postal address to planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent bookstores of all sizes. 

The illustration of the Stone City warrior from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.

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The ideal age for a boy to own a dog is between forty.five and fifty --  Robert Benchley

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September -- Retelling Takes Many Forms

" Let���s pretend there���s a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let���s pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it���s turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It���ll be easy enough to get through������ She was up on the chimney-piece while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And certainly the glass was beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist.In another moment Alice was through the glass."
The quotation is from Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll- The photograph is an interprtation by Annie Leibowitz.

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The Many Forms of Wonder Tales

Wonder tales have been told and retold since before recorded time. Centuries passed and with time and the spread of literacy, they were written down and published. The stories were enhanced when talented people created inspired illustrations.

In our era, the reinterpretation of wonder tales and legends has taken many forms, from rewritng the original story, to creating in an entirely different medium -- theater  music, dance, film, video, photography, painting and scupture. The results are often quite extraordinary.

Wonder tales are alive in many forms.

 

The photo is from the Glimmerglass Festival Production of David Lang's The little Match Girl Passion (influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach���s St Matthew Passion); the production is seen as a trbute to Hans Christian Anderson's original fairy tale.

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Improvisation On a Theme

"Fairy tales, like myths, are a part of our cultural heritage passed from generation to generation, connecting us to the dreams and fears of men and women who have gone on before us. . . The literary fairy tale, like the music of jazz, is an improvisation on a theme. . . Like jazz, it is best appreciated by those with an ear for the original melodie on which it is based. The pleasure lies in savoring the writer's  skill as she or he transforms a familiar story, bringing to it their own unique vision of the tale, and of the world around them."

Excerpted from the Introduction to Black Thorn, White Rose.by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow.

The illustration is by Inga Moore for The Secret Garden.
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Visual Retellings

Wonder tales have long inspired creative people. Wonderful illustrators added an imaginative dimension to wonder tales affecting the popularity and sales of childrens books. Publishers in nineteeth century England saw the vaue early on. And gifted illustrators -- some absolutely amazing --  continue to appear. 

In the current era we have developed new forms, animation and computer graphics (CGI) illustration, that have, in turn, created new mediums reaching millions of children and adults.

 

When I think of Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, I think of Lewis Carroll; yet, I also think of John Tenniel and his extraordinary illustrations. They are iconic visual retellings of the stories.

And in our era, when I think of Carroll's Alice books and film, I think of Tim Burton. He takes you to a fantastic wonderland very much in tune with the books. Yet, there are many surprises and amazing moments that take advantage of the film medium.  His film, in IMAX 3D, was very successful in finding a large audience despite critics, and a departure, in the latter part of the film, into heavy handed CGI. The film was released in 2010.

 

As the years passed the use of special effects and CGI, by Disney and others would grow, often as a substitute for story. The mammoth Disney empire, was, of course, built on retelling wonder tales, and many would say, sugar coated distortions that belie the integrity of the originals. Recent examples of Disney's sugar touch, for me, are Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella.

The top illustration is by John Tenniel. The photo is from Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland.

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Animation - From Classics to CGI

Disney probalbly comes first to people's minds when the word animation is mentioned. They are certainly the biggest: this year, they have four films that have already generated one billion dollars at the international box offic.

However, more and more of their films are made by committee and based on market research. Story and the original wonder tale have faded into the background. CGI rules the day.

The days of their great animated films like Snow White, Bambi, and Pinocchio are long gone.

The illustration is from Disney's film, Pinocchio.

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Wonderful animation today lies with dedicated and creative people who pursue their own vision.

Hayao Miyazaki is an extraordinary creator of wonderful animated films. He has returned from retirement and has been working on a new film, How Do You Live?

Inspired by a Book

"Diana Wynne Jones was a talented and succesful British author, poet, and literary critic. She has been cited as an inspiration and muse for several fantasy and science fiction authors: including Phillip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Penelope Lively, Robin McKinley, Megan Whalen Turner, J K Rowling and Dina Rabinovitch."(Wikipedia)

Wynne Jones wrote many well regaded and popular books for children. One of these was a wonder tale, Howl's Moving Castle (1986). Miyazaki was inspired to make it the basis for an animated film (2004). His version of the story, where surprise follows surprise, was, in itself, an amazing wonder tale. 

Here is a link to the trailer: Howl's Moving Castle

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Far from Disney -- The World of Czech Annimation 

 

In the mid-twentieth century there was a creative annimation movement from Eastern Europe that gave us wonderful annimation of varying styles and lengths and totally different from the annimation, in that era, of Disney, Warner Brothers (looney Tunes) and TV in general. The Czechs produced a number gifted annimators, each with their own style. Below are links to three of these exceptional artists.

 

 

 

Link: Jiri Trnka's Archangel Gabriel and Mother Goose

Link: Krysan's Pied Piper.  complete film 

Link: Jan Svankmajer's The Last Trick

Link: Collage of Jiri Trnka's fims.

 

An Art Form

"In Czechoslovakia, animation was both much more generously funded (not least through subsidies from the Ministry of Culture) and taken more seriously as an art form. Major animators such as Ji���� Trnka, Karel Zeman, B��etislav Pojar, and Jan ��vankmajer were able to sustain remarkably uncompromising creative careers, even occasionally producing full-length features.". ��� Michael Brooke

The top illustration is by Karel Zeman. The middle illustration is by Jiri Trnka. The bottom illustration is by Bretislav Pojar.

Here is a link to a website by Zippy Frames for European and Independent Annimation.

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The Wonders of Ireland's Song of the Sea

There is a very special man in Ireland. His name is Tomm Moore. A talented artist/animator, he gathered with others of a like mind and began creating/producing imaginative hand drawn animation of Irish folklore and wonder tales. The results have been brilliant. The first two films, The Book Of Kells and Song of the Sea, went far beyond the five and a half million residents of Ireland and both were nominated fot the Academy Award. In addition, they were able to finance and distribute both films beyond the big film studio system.

Tomm Moore's  next film, Wolfwalkers, has been purchased for release by Apple. Here is a linK to a behind the scenes preview: Wolfwalkers

The illustration from Song of the Sea is by Tomm Moore.

Here is a link to the trailer for: Song of the Sea

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Amazing Animation Talent Keeps Emerging

Here is an eirie interpretation of Rescuing  Rapunzel in a very stylish annimated video by Juan Pablo Machado that I discovered on Gypsy Thornton's remarkable  Once Upon A Blog. Gypsy Thornton reports from the frontiers of wonderland, often with dazzling art. In her blog of August 22, she featured a video of Iron Hans by a new talent, "animation student Xun Wang (aka Bunnyisgood) for her MFA thesis project."

Timeles Tales Magazine.is an affiliate of Once Upon a blog: "Timeless Tales is a digital magazine exclusively publishing retellings of fairy tales and classic myths since 2013."  I found a stunning tale, The Face In The Water by Basilike Pappa, in Timeless Tales, wherein the Evil Queen, mother of Snow White, talks to a magic mirror made of a magic lake. A fascinating retelling I will be returning to Timeless Tales to read more. 

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"The more you can dream, the more you can do." -- Michael Korda
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NEW MOVIES
 
The Angry Birds 2

Review: So Stupid, Yet So Funny said the headline for Bilge Ebi's NY Times review. 
Here is an excerpt: "But as soon as the group arrives on Eagle Island, ���Angry Birds 2��� mostly tosses story, character and sense aside, and opts for a go-for-broke style of humor. The hoops our heroes jump through become increasingly surreal and hilarious. . . Those hoping for a sharply-scripted, well-proportioned work may be disappointed, but one might ask them why they���re seeing a film called 'The Angry Birds Movie 2' in the first place."
Here is the trailet for The Angry Birds 2
 
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The Peanut Butter Falcon 


Here are comments from Nell Minnow about this unusual film. 
"It is remarkably assured for a first film, with an excellent supporting cast of talented pros and superb cinematography and music choices. Gottsagen, who has has Down syndrome, told them he wanted to be an actor, and asked them to write a movie for him...This weird concoction somehow works, thanks in no small part to the acting chops of Shia LaBeouf and the charm of newcomer Zack Gottsagen."
 
Here is a link to read all of her review:  Nell Minnow Huffington Post 
Here is a link to the trailer: Peanut Butter Falcon


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The Return
 
The world of Jim Henson and Lyra Belaqua wii return to TV very soon.
 
For more information, I suggest viewing these trailers where you will visit extraordinary worlds of fantasy.
 
Here are the links:
 
Link to The Dark Crystal: DarkCrystalNetflix
 
Link to His Dark Materials: HisDarkMaterialsHBO
 


The book illustration from His Dark Materials is on the left . On the right. a scene from The Dark Crystal.

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The new Philip Pullman novel, The Secret Commonwealth , the second volume of The Book of Dust trilogy, will soon be published, on October 3, 2019.
 
Lyra is now 21 and is a graduate of St Sophia's College. She still has the alethiometer, the truthtelling device. A new journey to a source of dust occurs when her daemon, Pantalaimon, is witness to a brutal murder.
 
 
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The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic is an online center for classes on folk narrative and fantastic literature. It was created in 2016 by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, two passionate lovers of Fairy Tales, Folklore, Magic and Myth. They both hold Masters degrees in Folklore from George Mason University and PhDs in English and Folklore from Ohio State University. They have taught award winning university courses on "folklore, fairy tales, folk narrative, nineteenth-century to contemporary British literature, fantastic literature, and composition".

Carterhaugh's classes are interactive. Sara and Brittany are personally involved in all that transpires. I asked them what courses are presently active. Here was Sara's reply:

"Our last live course was Seeking the Witch, which just ended. We are about to launch a live course called Introduction to British Folklore, and later this fall, we'll release a self-guided course called Introduction to Fairy Tales and a live course called Enchant, which will explore different kinds of folklore (narrative, ritual, foodways, and more!) and teach how our own lives are shaped by these forces and how to tap into them to create everyday magic and forge connections with our loved ones and communities."
 
For information on courses, articles and insights, and a sense of the enthusiastic spirit of Sara, Brittany, and their school, I suggest a visit. Here ia link: Carterhaugh School
 
Here is a link to several very informative Testimonials, primarily from students: Testimonials  Included is a very positive opinion piece by Gypsy Thornton, founder and editor of Once Upon a Blog. 
 
The illustration is by Vladaslav Erko for Anderson's The Tinder Box.
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Born Without a Tail

Here is a heartfelt review of an inspiring memoir by C, A, Wulff, a life-long animal lover and animal rights -- especially dogs -- advocate. It begins in her formative years and takes the reader into the present.

"This is an inspiring book about a couple that has taken in and helped many animals needing extra help both emotionally and physically.  . . . Inspiring story, very well written and from the heart. Most animal lovers can connect with some of the stories told. . . .Those that have not rescued pets would find this inspiring, heartwarming and a true pet adventure.Nice to read that in hard times there are those that will still reach out to unwanted, high maintenance and ill or handicapped animals. The sacrifice in the honor of these animals is wonderful to read about" . . . Reviewed by Annie on Amazon

Here is al link to: Born Without aTail

The cover design is by C. A. Wulff.
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Terrified of the Gun Lobby

"Mr. Trump was spot on with his observation that Republican lawmakers are terrified of the gun lobby, to the point of consistently prioritizing its desires over those of their voters, not to mention the good of the nation. The big question now is whether the president has what it takes to show leadership."

This quote from the NYTimes Editorial Board appeared afterTrump reversed course about background checks after talking to Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association.

The photo of the El Paso Massacre protest is by C. Sanchez, Reuters.

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Canines for Vets

The efficacy of the human-canine bond and trained service dogs to give vets suffering from the devastating effects of PTSD has been proven multiple times. This healing is going on at this moment in the USA and Canada. Canines for Vets is a non-profit organization devoted to this vital work.In addition, they also train and donates service dogs for those with disabilities. Here is an excerpt from their website.

"Our national program provides quality, trained service dogs to Veterans with service-connected disabilities (i.e., mobility limitations, traumatic brain injury, clinically diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder).

We serve Veterans from all conflicts/wars." 

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The Planet of the Dogs series

"The fantasy involved in the books is appealing. It involves dream sequences, travel through space and time between planets, dogs who can talk to children and healer-women through thoughts and barking, and seeing information through dreams. The reality involved is also appealing. It involves the universal love of dogs by humans and vice versa, human condition of fighting and war and capacity for love and peace. . . 

While reading these, I kept wishing I was reading them out loud to a couple of kids instead. I could imagine each night reading another chapter and the kids waiting with bated breath for what would happen next. I could imagine the kids greeting their own dogs in the kitchen without talking, just squinting up their eyes real tight and sending "thought messages" to the dog much to the wonder of their parents." from a review by Karen Boss

We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. Email us with a postal address at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters or to read reviews of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent bookstores of all sizes. 

The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.

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���Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one is a life diminished.��� ��� Dean Koontz

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August -- The World of Nonsense and Imagination

    The illustration is by Michael Sowa. Many of his paintings and illustrations remind me of Lewis Carroll.

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Who Are You ? 

In the mid nineteenth century, the permissive world of Christ Church, Oxford, was home to many brilliant and eccentric scholars.
Mathematician, wordsmith, photographer and writer, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832- 1898), better known as Lewis Carroll, flourished there for many years. Volumes have been written about his unique books, his private life and his propensity toward and fondness for the world of children.

Dodgson composed a story, Alice in Wonderland, for young Alice Liddell,that became world famous.

Alice In Wonderland (1865), later followed by Through the Looking Glass (1871), are books credited with changing children's literature. They are both brilliant, imaginative fantasies that take place in an alternate reality. They were instant successes, both critically and in sales. They continue today to appeal to both children and adults. 

They can also be frightening for children who read the books at a young age with no adult or older sibling to provide comfort and reassurance. Alice undergoes a disorienting ordeal in a surreal world of nonsense, parody, and danger where disturbing fantasies occur.  Not every child is ready to encounter the madness of the queen ("off with her head") nor a life-size hookah smoking caterpillar resting on a hallucinogenic mushroom. Here is an excerpt about identity from Alice's off-setting encounter with the caterpillar. . .  

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

���Who are you?��� said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, ���I���I hardly know, sir, just at present���at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.���

���What do you mean by that?��� said the Caterpillar sternly. ���Explain yourself!���

���I can���t explain myself, I���m afraid, sir��� said Alice, ���because I���m not myself, you see.���

 

Both the illustrations above are by John Tenniel who illustrated the original Alice books.

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The Identity of the Self

"A philosopher will ask how the identity of the self can be preserved amid the ceaseless flux of experience, but a child���especially a child who is growing so fast that she suddenly fills an entire room���will ask more urgently, as Alice does, 'Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different.' Children, viewed from one angle, are philosophy in motion." --Anthony lane,  Go Ask Alice, New Yorker 

The photo of Alice Liddell, the inspiration for the Alice books, was taken by Lewis Carroll.

 

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Lewis Carroll Moved the Boundaries for Children's Books

"It is one of the ironies of our age that a true understanding of what children want in their books emerged from a pathologically shy mathematician who believed in rules, order, and limits for children but who overcame those convictions in order to produce a book that would entertain the seven year old girl with whom he was infatuated. He inadvertently revealed to us that Wonderland, like Neverland, is a great place to visit whether you are a child or an adult, but you really don't ever want to live there."

Maria Tatar,  Enchanted Hunters -- The Power of Stories in Childhood

The illustration is by John Tenniel.

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"Virginia Woolf observed that ���these are not books for children. They are the only books in which we become children���.
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A Queer World

"We are in a queer world here, and the word (and its variants) appears more than twenty times in Alice In Wonderland and through the Looking Glass. It is the defining word for the Carrollian experience, and it will become the term not just for eccentricity, but for the whole aesthetic experience of children's literary fantasy.

Queer comes from a word that originally meant off-center, diagonal, or askew. It appeared in the sixteenth century, denoting odd things or odd people, and by the nineteenth century it had become one of the most frequently deployed terms to define  experience outside the strictures of Victorian propriety...Life lived on the diagonal or off-center, through the looking glass or upside down, is the world of nonsense imagination, and it is the world that so appeals to childhood."

Seth Lerer --Children's Literature, A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter

The illustration is by John Tenniel.

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"If you don't know where you are going, any road will tale you there."
 Lewis Carroll

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Nonsense

In both of Lewis Carroll's Alice books, she is confronted by nonsense conversations, poems, and incidents.Here is an excerpt from the poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter, recited for Alice by Tweedledum and Tweedledee in the book,Through The Looking Glass. 

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

 

The illustrations are by John Tenniel.
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The Masters of Nonsense 

"The idea of linguistic nonsense takes hold as a force in children's literature in the mid-nineteenth century and never seems to let go. . . the idea of nonsense as a force of the imagination, of nonsense as a challenge to the logic of adulthood and the laws of civil life .. that was a new idea in Victorian England. The masters of that nonsense were, of course, Lewis Carroll and Edmund Lear ."  -- Seth Lerer , Children's Literature. A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter

The illustration is by Edward Lear.

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More Nonsense -- by Edward Lear  

The Owl and the Pussycat -- An excerpt, Part III.
���Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?��� Said the Piggy, ���I will.���
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They din��d on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

The Poem is by Edward Lear. The illustration is by Leslie Brooke.

Here is a Gutenberg link to Lear's poems.

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Edward Lear

In 1846 Lear published A Book of Nonsense, a volume of limericks which went through three editions and helped popularize the form and the genre of literary nonsense. In 1871 he published Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets, which included his most famous nonsense song, The Owl and the Pussycat, which he wrote for the children of his patron, Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby. Many other works followed. Edward Lear Wikipedia

 

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The Jumblies

I have a book of The Jumblies, a wonderful poem by Edward Lear. The brilliant illustrations were created nearly 100 years later by Edward Gorey. They poem and the illustrations are a perfect fit. The book was published in 1963 by Young Scott Books. Here is an excerpt of the first two stanzas:

They went to sea in a sieve, they did,
 In a sieve they went to sea;
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
 In a sieve they went to sea.

And when the sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, ���You���ll all be drowned!���
They called aloud, ���Our sieve ain���t big,
But we don���t care a button! we don���t care a fig!
In a sieve we���ll go to sea!���
 

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Alice Inspired Many Creative Artists

Here is a link to the Mad Hatter Dance from Tim Burton's film of Alice.

Here is a link to Grace Slick singing a timeless rendition of White Rabbit.

Here is a link to Christopher Wheeldon's Alice in Wonderland Ballet.

Here is a link to the highly regarded immersive theater version of Alice, Then She Fell.

Here is a link to the Walrus and the Carpenter scene from Disney's animated version.

 

The illustration is by Lisbeth Zwerger.

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Movies

Honeyland

Honeyland is an exceptional new crossover film.

Pat Mullen wrote a wonderful review in POV Movie magazine (Canada) of this Sundance prize winning movie: "Honeyland is a film of beautiful intimacy and tragedy, a rare glimpse at a dying way of life, and an observation of culture at a crossroads filled with heartache and humour. Here is a link to Mullen's Full Review���

Here is an excerpt from the Sundance review: "Every frame of Honeyland pulses with the cycles of life and glows with Hatidze���s magical vitality and optimism. This visually sumptuous, v��rit�� glimpse into a forgotten world is an ode to two endangered and priceless treasures: human decency and the delicate balance of nature."  Here is a link to the trailer: Honeyland

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Disney Power Grows and Grows and Grows

2019 is a recod breaking year for Disney. . . over $7.61bn to date in 2019.

The following excerpts from an article by Brooks Barnes in the NY Times provide an awesome overview of Disney power. The article began with the title, Lion King' Remake Becomes Disney's Latest Box-Office Smash. . . 

Disney���s domestic market share for the year stands at about 40 percent. On Sunday, ���Avengers: Endgame��� passed ���Avatar��� to rank as the No. 1 ticket-seller on record. . . ���Avengers: Endgame,��� released by the company���s Marvel division in April, squeaked past ���Avatar��� to rank as the highest-grossing movie on record, not adjusting for inflation. ���Avatar��� collected $2.79 billion by the end of its run a decade ago, or about $3.3 billion in today���s money. . . In the coming days, Disney���s remake of ���Aladdin,��� released in May, will cross $1 billion worldwide. ���Toy Story 4,��� which arrived in June from Disney���s Pixar division, is also approaching that threshold; its total now stands at $859 million, according to Comscore. . . And the barrage is nowhere near over: Still to come from Disney this year are ���Frozen 2,��� a ���Maleficent��� sequel( opening in mid-August)  and ���Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker."

There is more information in Brooks Barnes article aboout this growing power, including the fact that Disney intends to stream and compete with Netflix and others.

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Goodbye Dick and Jane, Hello Dr Seuss

Until recently, I had no idea that Dr Seuss (Theodore Geisel) was a major factor in the demise of Dick and Jane in  American classroom education. Dick and Jane have vanished from the teaching world following a change in academic pedagogy which occurred concurrently with the publication of the Cat In The Hat in 1957. I learned about this major turn of events in a New Yorker article by I-Huei Go: How Dr. Seuss Changed Education In America.This article, in turn, was precipitated by a new biography of Geisel by Brian Jay Jones: Becoming Dr. Seuss.

 

The illustrations for Dick and Jane were by Robert Childress.

Below are excerpts from How Dr. Seuss Changed Education in America...
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The Dullest Family On Earth

"For decades, schoolteachers had been parking their youngest students in front of basal readers or primers, exemplified by the Dick and Jane series. The pedagogical approach underlying these primers assumed that beginning readers learned new words best by associating them with pictures and memorizing them through dutiful repetition. By the middle of the nineteen-fifties, this ���whole word��� or ���look and say��� method was just starting to face pushback from proponents of phonics-based instruction, most visibly in Rudolf Flesch���s influential polemic ���Why Johnny Can���t Read.���

It didn���t help that Dick and Jane belonged to what many have dubbed the dullest family on earth. The books were plotless, littered with mind-numbing, repetitious quasi-sentences. (���Look, Jane. Look, look. See Dick. See, see. Oh, see. See Dick.���) The illustrations were stodgy and bland. Flesch deemed the series ���horrible, stupid, emasculated, pointless. . . 

 

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And Then Came the Cat in the Hat

The head of Houghton Mifflin���s education division ( William Spaulding) took note. He challenged Geisel to write a primer that emerging or reluctant readers would actually enjoy, pleading, ���Write me a story that first graders can���t put down". . . 0] Nine months later, Geisel completed The Cat in the Hat, using 236 of the 348 words given to him. It retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Geisel's earlier works but, because of its simplified vocabulary, it could be read by beginning readers. . . In addition to stirring up a revolution in reading instruction, ���The Cat in the Hat��� was an immediate commercial sensation. 'By some accounts,' Jones writes,The Cat in the Hat was selling more than a thousand copies per day, on its way to selling 250,000 copies by Christmas of 1957, and more than three million copies within three years.' ���

 

Here is a link to read more of this fascinating Dr Seuss Article by I-Huei Go- in the New Yorker. 

The illustrations for Dick and Jane are by Robert Childress

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I Don't Patronize Children

���I think I can communicate with kids because I don���t try to communicate with kids. Ninety percent of the children���s books patronize the child and say there���s a difference between you and me, so you listen to this story. I, for some reason or another, don���t do that. I treat the child as an equal.��� -- Theodore Geisel

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Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25, 1930 ��� May 10, 1999)[ was a multifaceted American writer. His work ranged from travel articles and drawings for Playboy to writing popular songs for many singers including Marianne Faithful, Judy Collins, Dr. Hook, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash. He also wrote wonderful children's books; they have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold more than 20 million copies.

Silverstein���s first collection of poetry for children, Where the Sidewalk Ends, was released in 1974 to excellent reviews and became very popular with readers. He also created the illustrations. More illustrated books and poetry followed for many years

 

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"Throughout Where the Sidewalk Ends, there is wit and brilliant linguistic inventiveness, but there is also a strain of sentiment that makes clear that nonsense is but the flip side of desire. Silverstein's poems have an achiness about them, as the speaker longs to be part of everyday soociety and yet is constantly aware that he can never fit in. We feel this throughout Edward Lear, and we feel this, too, in Alice In Wonderland. And so the poet looks for places where acceptance comes: places of fantasy and freedom."  -- This comment, is by Seth Lerer, from his book, Children's Literature. A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter.

The illustration by Silverstein is for Ickle Tickle, a nonsense poem from Where the Sidewalk Ends.

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INVITATION from Where the Sidewalk Ends
If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer���
If you���re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!
............

 

SNOWBALL from Falling Up        
I made myself a snowball
As perfect as could be.
I thought I���d keep it as a pet
And let it sleep with me.
I made it some pajamas
And a pillow for its head.
Then last night it ran away,
But first���it wet the bed.

 

 

 

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Here is a link to Johnny Cash singing A Boy named Sue , written by Shel Silverstein.

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LitWorld

"When I grow up I want to be an engineer and an honest man." These are the words of a young boy in Kenya in this excellent one minute videolink from LitWorld featuring moments of Kids Who Tell a New Story.

"Our programs encourage sharing stories, building community, and cultivating a love of reading and writing to help literacy skills grow stronger. Literacy for LitWorld means reading, writing, speaking, and creating. . . LitWorld has developed a model which taps into a strong network of over 50 diverse partner organizations, in order to train hundreds of mentors who reach thousands of children all over the world. . .

Here is a link to their site: LitWorld

The photo is from LitWorld in Kenya.
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Ariel Wulff's Misfits

"I was belly laughing on the first page. Lammy Lamb is a compulsive foot licker! This short book is so full of love and creative, tender animal care that I forgot I was reading a book. I felt like I was in the house with the dogs, at the Halloween Costume Contest and in every other scene. That's great writing, and great content too. The pictures are adorable."
Amazon review by MaryAnn Fry, Author of Going Naked Being Seen

Here is link to Parade Of Misfits

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K9s for Warriors

"K 9s for Warriors is dedicated to providing service canines to our warriors suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, and/or Military Sexual Trauma as a result of military service post-9/11.  Our goal is to empower them to return to civilian life with dignity and independence. "

���I was a prisoner in my own life. I wanted a service dog to give me the chance to get out and feel safe, thus relieving my social anxieties and overcome my fear of crowds. K9s For Warriors provides a service member with the freedom to experience life and participate/integrate back into civilian life. It gives the warrior hope  to push forward.���

The photo and testimonial is from Dion, shown here with his therapy dog, KC.

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More than 2500 children and teens die of gun violence every year in the USA.

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Save the Children
Save the Children has been responding to crises around the world for almost 100 years. Since the refugee crisis erupted, they���ve been doing whatever it takes to help them survive and thrive in multiple countries Here, for example, is some basic information on their efforts to help with the Syrian nightmare:

As Syria���s conflict approaches its eighth year, Save the Children and partners inside Syria continue work tirelessly to reach Syrian children and families who have been displaced within their country. Our humanitarian teams and partners in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey are also present in camps and host communities, providing Syrian refugees and vulnerable children from these host communities with food, shelter, water and sanitary services, and access to medical care, education and child protection activities.  We have delivered a wide range of aid to 2.8 million Syrians to date, including 1.9 million children."     Here is a link to their website: Save The Children

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Castle In The Mist

The dogs must prevent war. They must free the kidnapped children from the Castle In The Mist.


"What I love most about Castle In The Mist, as well as the other books, is that the focus is mainly about the dogs and how they change the hearts of adults through love, affection, companionship and devotion.
These books are great for dog lovers of all ages. I enjoyed them just 
as much as my children and would not hesitate to give them as gifts to friends and family!" --  from a review by Dawn, MommyPR
 

We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. . . email us with a postal address at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters or to read reviews of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent bookstores of all sizes. 

The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.

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The Canine Therapy Corps of Chicago invites you to Docks and Dogs at the Freedom Boat Club for a fundraiser on Lake Michigan,on August 10,2019

 

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"The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man's". .. Mark Twain

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July -- Statements of Our Existence

 

                       
                                    

 

                                             The illustration from Snow White is by Catherine Cameron.

 

���The great archetypal stories provide a framework or model for an individual's belief system. They are, in Isak Dinesen's marvelous expression, 'a serious statement of our existence.' The stories and tales handed down to us from the cultures that preceded us were the most serious, succinct expressions of the accumulated wisdom of those cultures. They were created in a symbolic, metaphoric story language and then honed by centuries of tongue-polishing to a crystalline perfection....

"And if we deny our children their cultural, historic heritage, their birthright to these stories, what then? Instead of creating men and women who have a grasp of literary allusion and symbolic language, and a metaphorical tool for dealing with the problems of life, we will be forming stunted boys and girls who speak only a barren language, a language that accurately reflects their equally barren minds. Language helps develop life as surely as it reflects life. It is the most important part of the human condition.��� 
��� Jane Yolen, Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie & Folklore in the Literature of Childhood

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Evil, Innocence, and Snow White

This dark tale of a powerful ruling family begins with three drops of blood in the snow and ends with a tortuous dance of death.The origins of this story are lost in time. It has traveled through cultures with many variations, many forms, but the core remains intact: an evil queen, consumed with fear and jealousy, is relentless in her efforts to destroy innocence and beauty, embodied in the form of her step daughter, Snow White.

Illustration by Franz Jutner Schneewitchen

Beyond the Walls of the Castle

I could imagine this tale being popular for centuries as it was told and retold throughout Europe where ruthless rulers were commonplace, and many tales evolved of cruel behavior within castle walls. I was surprised to learn that Snow White is an international phenomenon, having circulated from Africa to Asia Minor and from Europe to the Americas.

I learned of this in a fascinating article by Harriet Goldberg in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales that also delineates a multitude of variations that have appeared. For example: "In the Grimms' version,the Queen stepmother has a magic mirror that she consults to verify who is fairest in the land. . . Elsewhere the stepmother consults an omniscient trout in a well, the sun or the moon: she overhears by remarking on the stepdaughter's beauty. a visiting nobleman prefers her daughter; guests declare the girl more beautiful than she. . ." 

Illustration by Arthur Rackham 

Mirror, Mirror

"Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who's the fairest of them all?"

The mirror replied.

"My Queen, you may be the fairest here,
But Snow White is a thousand times more fair."



"'Snow White' may vary tremendously from culture to culture in its detail, but it has an easily identifiable, stable core in the conflict between mother and daughter." Maria Tatar, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales. 
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The celebrated Disney film of  Snow White (1937) is quite wonderful. Here is a link to the exceptional scene wherein the Evil Queen transforms her self into a witch.

The 2012 version, Snow White and the Huntsman, was considered a mishmash except for visuals and computer graphics. Here is a cheeky review by Emily Asher-Perrin: TOR Snow White and the Huntsman;  Here is a link to the trailer: Snow White and the Huntsman

Illustration by Disney Studios

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"How very many people struggle, how very difficult some of their struggles are, how little control we ultimately have, how much uncertainty and apprehension we live with, even if we bury them deep."  -- Frank Bruni NYTimes

...............................

Edith Nesbit -- "Riding the Wave of The Future" 

Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) was a gifted writer, who lived a stormy, complex life. A political activist, she lived in England during turbulent times. Traditional life was in an ongoing  state of change. The industrial revolution was widespread and led to large population shifts, great wealth and great poverty. The Empire was widespread, always in flux, and employed a vast network of people (including the army and navy). Class consciousness prevailed and World War I was devastating.

Nesbitt wrote more than 60 children's books. Among them: The Railway Children, The Revolt of the Toys, and The Story of the Treasure Seekers.

The painting of Princess Dock,Hull is by John Atkinson Grimshaw.

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Edith Nesbit's Turning Point Books for Children

"Victorian literary fairy tales tend to have a conservative moral and political bias. Under their charm and invention is usually an improving lesson: adults know best; good, obedient, patient, and self-effacing little boys and girls are rewarded by the fairies, and naughty assertive ones are punished. In the most widely read authors of the period. . . the usual tone is that of a kind lady or gentleman delivering a delightfully disguised sermon.

In the final years of Victoria���s reign, however, a writer appeared who was to challenge this pattern so energetically and with such success that it makes sense now to speak of juvenile literature as before and after E. Nesbit. Though there are foreshadowings of her characteristic manner in Charles Dickens���s Holiday Romance and Kenneth Grahame���s The Golden Age, Nesbit was the first to write at length for children as intellectual equals and in their own language. Her books were startlingly innovative in other ways: they took place in contemporary England, and recommended socialist solutions to its problems; they presented a modern view of childhood; and they used magic both as a comic device and as a serious metaphor for the power of the imagination. Every writer of children���s fantasy since Nesbit���s time is indebted to her���and so are some authors of adult fiction. . ."

Alison Lurie

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An Excerpt from The Story of the Treasure Seekers

"We stayed about half an hour, and when we were going away he said again���

���I shall print all your poems, my poet; and now what do you think they���re worth?���

���I don���t know,��� Noel said. ���You see I didn���t write them to sell.���

���Why did you write them then?��� he asked.

Noel said he didn���t know; he supposed because he wanted to.

���Art for Art���s sake, eh?��� said the Editor, and he seemed quite delighted, as though Noel had said something clever.

���Well, would a guinea meet your views?��� he asked.

I have read of people being at a loss for words, and dumb with emotion, and I���ve read of people being turned to stone with astonishment, or joy, or something, but I never knew how silly it looked till I saw Noel standing staring at the Editor with his mouth open. He went red and he went white, and then he got crimson, as if you were rubbing more and more crimson lake on a palette. But he didn���t say a word, so Oswald had to say���

���I should jolly well think so.���"

The photo is of Edith Nesbit.
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Breaking the Barriers

. . ."One especially radical feature of Nesbit���s tales is her implicit feminism. Her full-length books are full of girls who are as brave and adventurous as their brothers; and even in her more conventional short fairy tales, the heroines never sit around waiting to be rescued. . .In the Victorian fairy tale, class lines tend to be sharply drawn, and the superiority of the upper-class child taken for granted. Carroll���s Alice is glad that she doesn���t have to live in a poky little house like Mabel. . .  Though the main characters in Nesbit���s books are usually middle-class, some of her most sympathetic heroes and heroines, such as Mabel in The Enchanted Castle and Dick in Harding���s Luck, come from a lower stratum of society (Dick from the worst slums of East London). Yet they are often more intelligent, imaginative, and courageous than anyone else in the story. This is also true of her short fairy tales. . ." 

The illustration from the Story of The Treasure Seekers is by Gordon Browne.

Alison Lurie

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The information above is edited from an excellent article, Riding The Wave of the Future, by Alison Lurie in the New York Review of Books. 

Alison Lurie is a highly regarded and pioneering scholar of children's literature, prize winning author, and professor emeritus at Cornell University.

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 J.J. Rowling Recalls Edith Nesbit as a Favorite Author

" 'She's the children's writer with whom I most identify. She said, 'By some lucky chance, I remember exactly how I felt and thought at 11. That struck a chord with me. The Story of the Treasure Seekers was a breakthrough children's book. Oswald (a boy character in the story from the Bastable family) is such a very real narrator, at a time when most people were writing morality plays for children."

The illustration by H.H. Millar is from Nesbit's The Magic City.

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The Wouldbegoods

"Now my favorite Bastables book is The Wouldbegoods , which is the name of a good-deeds society that the Bastable children create. I love how E. Nesbit turns the moralizing children's novel inside out. In most moral children's stories from the Victorian and Edwardian periods, the children learn to be good. Or, they learn to be good and then they die. But I love the way the Bastables, while trying to copy these fictional children, end up destroying property, setting farm animals loose, draining a canal, and burning down a bridge. And they never learn their lesson."

Excerpted from the Bamboo Bookcase

The book cover illustration for The Wouldbegoods is by Cecil Leslie. 

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Movies

Briefs on 3 current films for young audiences . . .

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Toy Story 4

Excerpt from a review by Manohla Dargis. in the NY Times

"Much of ���Toy Story 4��� is great-ish. The animation is striking, the jokes amusing and the story sweet, though this being Pixar, the tale is also melancholic enough that the whole thing feels deeper than it is. In other words, the movie is exactly what you expect ��� not more, not less ��� from an estimably well-oiled machine like Pixar."

Preview:Toy Story Trailer

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The Secret Life of Pets 2

Here is an excerpt from the review of The Secret Life of Pets 2 by Bilge Ebiri in the NYTimes.

Too scattered narratively to cohere, and yet somehow still funny enough to justify its existence. . . any cat owner who���s had their pet walk all over their laptop keyboard before knocking over a coffee mug will chuckle in recognition. The movie is a time-waster, but (mostly) in a good way.

Here is a link to the trailer: Secret Life Of Pets 2

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Yesterday



I have read reviews and seen the trailer. Yesterday looks like a delightful film filled with the music of Paul McCartney and the Beatles. The film is a comedy fantasy, with time travel and mystery. A fanciful film for young audiences to experience the Beatles' music and have a good time.




Here is the trailer: Yesterday
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Wigger

An unfortunate characteristic of the book business is that wonderful books are often overlooked or lost in the great whirl of competition and marketing. This includes children's books. Rikva Gaichen is an esteemed journalist, prize winning novelist, and mother of a five year old little girl. She discovered a forgotten treasure of a children's book and she wrote a fascinating article about it for the New Yorker:William Goldman���s Strange, Sad, Captivating Children���s Book About a Girl and Her Blanket. Here is an excerpt that occurs after the central character, a little girl named Susanna, has lost her family:

"Finally, it is decided that she will be put in an orphanage known simply as the Home. Through all this, Susanna doesn���t cry. This is because her blankie, Wigger, repeatedly tells her to keep a smile on, and that ���a cheery face is worth diamonds.��� None of us would give Susanna this advice, of course. But Wigger and Susanna have the loving, bickering dynamic of an old married couple. When Susanna gets down, Wigger complains about what a beautiful and ravishing pink blanket he once was, before Susanna���s ceaseless pulling and rubbing. ���I���m just a pink rag . . . a faded glory gone to seed,��� he says. These bits make Susanna laugh and feel better, ���which was exactly how Wigger wanted her to feel.���

Here is a link to read all of this moving article about Wigger

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Healing and Help in Chicago from the Human Canine Bond.

CANINE THERAPY CORPS HAS APPROXIMATELY 65 ACTIVE VOLUNTEER TEAMS WORKING IN PROGRAMS ACROSS THE CHICAGO METROPOLITAN AREA. More than 5,000 people benefit each year at no charge. 
"The therapy dogs provide immediate and continuous positive feedback in animal-assisted therapy sessions, which catalyzes the motivation participants need to persevere during difficult or painful therapy. Working as a team with their dog also benefits the volunteers. Sharing their love and compassion, working together, and serving the community deepens the bond between the handler and his or her dog." Here is a link to their website: CTC

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Raffy Calfy's Story

Who Chains You Books is releasing the third book in their Animal Protector series on July 15. Raffy Calfy's Rescue is a story about rodeo animals, authored by
Tamira Ci Thayne and illustrated by C.A. Wulff.

Each Animal Protector book teaches children about an animal welfare issue.

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Every Politician and NRA Member Should Watch This Chilling Documentary

This memorable video of 4:42 features a first responder, a doctor.

The NRA successfully fights  changes in gun laws.

Here is the link:Columbine

Photo credit NY Daily News
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Planet Of The Dogs

This excerpt takes place just as the Stone City Warriors, under the leadership of Bik, are about to emerge from the Dark Woods and invade Green Valley. . .

���What���s going on here?��� demanded Bik. At that moment huge, ancient tall trees crashed to the ground with a thunderous noise, blocking the road just ahead.

Howling, barking, and growling sounds filled the air as dogs rushed from hiding places and ran toward the warriors and their horses. More huge trees crashed down, warriors were thrown to the ground, and dogs were running and jumping everywhere. Riders were crashing into each other as they tried to control their frightened horses and retreat to a safe area.

Bik shouted to Ivan, ���Take charge here. I must see to the safety of my children.��� With great skill, he turned his horse to search for Nik and Nikki, who were further back, riding in a horse drawn cart. As he struggled to go back up the road through the confusion of riders, supply wagons, and barking, growling, running dogs, Bik���s anger turned to fear. Not for himself, but for his children.

We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. . . email us with a postal address at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters or to read reviews of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent bookstores of all sizes. 

The illustration from Planet of the Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.
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"To his dog , every man is Napoleon, hence the constant popularity of dogs."  

Aldous Huxley

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June - From the Dark Forest to the Silver Screen

 

  Forests held the unknown. . .

���Forests to the [early] Northern European peoples were dangerous and generous, domestic and wild, beautiful and terrible. And the forests were the terrain out of which fairy stories, one of our earliest and most vital cultural forms, evolved. The mysterious secrets and silences, gifts and perils of the forest are both the background to and source of these tales....

Forests are places where a person can get lost and also hide -- and losing and hiding, of things and people, are central to European fairy stories in ways that are not true of similar stories in different geographies. Landscape informs the collective imagination as much as or more than it forms the individual psyche and its imagination, but this dimension is not something to which we always pay enough attention.��� 
��� Sara Maitland, Gossip from the Forest 

The illustration of the forest is by Richard Kuczek, Deviant Art 

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When the Earth Was Young

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), Nobel Prize winner, wrote fairy tales, and edited collections of German fairy tales, in addition to writing enduring classics that include Siddartha and Steppenwulf. In 1917, during the first World War, while living in Switzerland, he wrote the adult fairy tale, The Forest Dweller. Here is an except from the beginning of the story:

"At the dawn of civilization, quite some time before human creatures began wandering over the face of the earth, there were forest dwellers. They lived close together fearfully in the dark tropical forests, constantly fighting with their relatives, the apes, and the only divine law that governed their actions was ��� the forest. The forest was their home, refuge, cradle, nest, and grave, and they could not imagine life outside it. They avoided coming too close to its edges. . .  where the terrifying nothingness glistened in the deadly fire of the sun.

I found the story of The Forest Dweller compelling. It follows the journey of young Kubu, who must conquer fear, tyranny, and the obstacle of the primal forest itself to move on to a new life.  Like all oppressed people, he must exercise great endurance to survive. His quest requires him to continue when he has little hope. His journey ends suddenly, and he discovers a life beyond the boundaries of the forest, a new life filled with the wonder of light.

"Yellow stripes of beautiful light glimmered in the distance, and the sky seemed to tremble in anticipation, just as Kubu trembled, for he had never seen the beginning of the day in the wide space of air. Yellow bundles of light flamed up, and suddenly the sun emerged in the sky . . . And over his soul in fleeting waves of happiness, the dreamlike presentiment of a bright earth ruled by the sun began to flicker, an earth on which bright, liberated creatures lived in lightness and were subservient to no one except the sun."

Excerpted from: Spells of Enchantment, edited by Jack Zipes. 

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"For centuries the forest represented the boundary of civilisation" . . . 

"In his book The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning And Importance of Fairy Tales , Bruno Bettelheim explores the significance of the forest in fairy tales. He writes: ���Since ancient times the near impenetrable forest in which we get lost has symbolized the dark, hidden, near-impenetrable world of our unconscious. If we have lost the framework which gave structure to our past life and must now find our way to become ourselves, and have entered this wilderness with an as yet undeveloped personality, when we succeed in finding our way out we shall emerge with a much more highly developed humanity.���

The forest offers an antithesis to the town. In ancient times when Europe was greatly covered by woodland, the forest represented the boundary of civilization. The forest was literally a wild place, the village or town merely a place where man had cleared a settlement. There were many who found refuge in the forest, not just criminals, and those in exile, but shamans, holy men and women, poets, freethinkers and of course trolls, elves and fairies.

Here is a link to read more of this informative article by Justine Gaunt on The Fairyland Forest posted on the Woodlands.co.uk website: Fairytale Forest

Fix

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Hope In A Dark and Painful World

I often wonder about the people listening to wonder tales over the centuries as the population in Western Europe continued to grow, and then, for many centuries, the population became much smaller because of famine, disease, and war. However, in wonder tales. . .                                              . . 

Children released in the woods by starving families overcame near death and found prosperity.

Incompetent and cruel kings could be thwarted and fooled, even by a clever cat.

And young boys, acting with courage and using their wits, could overcome dangerous ogres and giants.

Fairy tales brought wonder and hope to a dark and painful world.

 

The illustration of The Black Death (1347-1351) is by Theodor Kittelsen.

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The Tellers of the Tales

..."The tales came to the tellers from other tellers, or they read tales, digested them, and made them their own. Indeed, we always make tales our own and then send them off to other tellers with the hope that they will continue to disseminate their stories..." - 

Jack Zipes, The Forgotten Tales of the Brothers Grimm,  in the The Public Domain Review  

The illustration is from a painting of Peasant Women by Albert Edelfelt.

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War Came from Beyond the Forest

"War came, and the soldiers came with it -- hungry, angry, bored, scared men who, as they pushed through, stole the cabbages and the chickens and the ducks, The woodcutter's family was never certain who was fighting whom, nor why they were fighting, nor what they were fighting about. But beyond the forest, fields of crops were burned and barley fields became battlefields, and the farmers were killed, or made into soldiers in their turn and marched away. And soon enough the miller had no grain to mill into flour, the butcher had no animals to kill and hang in the window, and they said you could name your own price for a rabbit."

Excerpted from Hansel and Gretel as retold  by Neil Gaiman.

 

The illustration is by Lorenzo Mattotti.

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The Golden Age of Children's Books Changed The Forest for Children

New tales of wonder were written for children starting in the nineteenth century as part of the great number of wonder books that followed the publication,in English, of the Grimm's tales, and late the breakthrough by Lewis Carrol.

The forest became an enchanting and friendly place with Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.

There were still dangers and unfriendly creatures, but they were always overcome. And there were never ending wondrous events and adventures. And marvelous illustrations that added another dimension. The forest became a place harboring wonders, surprises, and any number of delightful animals and their homes. 

���Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.��� 
��� Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

The illustration from The Wind in the Willows is by E.H. Shepard.

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The Hundred Acre Wood Was a Wonderful Place To Be

Christopher Robin Milne played with his stuffed animal toys in Ashford Forest which bordered the area where his father, A.A. Milne, had bought a farmhouse. One of his toys was a bear that Christopher had named Winnie, named after a real bear cub that he had seen in the zoo.  The bear became Winnie-the-Pooh and the forest became the Hundred Acre Wood in the wonderful book that A.A. Milne wrote for his son.

The book became a beloved classic and was translated into many languages. Even the Disney Studios have honored the spirit and style of the original.

���If there ever comes a day when we can���t be together, keep me in your heart, I���ll stay there forever.��� ���Winnie-the-Pooh

The illustration is by E.H. Shepard.

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Movies

The Avengers, Endgame 2019, is a modern silver screen version of the ancient wonder tale Six Who Made Their Way In The World, a tale of six men w orking together on a shared quest .. A theme for the centuries.

This violent movie is the 4th version of the tale by Marvel Comics/Disney. The Avengers unifying goal, or quest, is to destroy the Marvel comics super villain, Thanos. The forest has become the universe.

I went to see this 3 hour widescreen movie. The story is simple. The overwhelming 3-D computer animation is excellent, albeit violent and explosive; the visuals are supported by loud dramatic music and a pounding dolby sound track. 

The financial returns for this film are awesome: Over 2 billion, 682 million dollars and still playing; more than 1.8 billion overseas revenues.

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The Avengers --  Where Violence Becomes Trivial

I have a problem with films like the Avengers that trivialize violence. If I was 14, I might react differently. However the world we live in has affected my mindset. The last century was a nightmare of violence and suffering. The world today is filled with refugees and pain. And I see little on the film horizon of stories with meaningful related content.

The newest monster big action adventure hit trivializing violence while glorifying it, John Wick, Chapter Three, is playing worldwide to big audiences. Overseas box office revenues are huge, particularly in Asia, exceeding the already huge domestic grosses.

I understood the great crossover phenomenon created by Harry Potter. But who are the the millions pf people buying tickets around the world to see endless violence, over and over. for their entertainment?

The photo of refugee children is by Behrouz Mehrin AFR/Getty.

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Cash-Filled Dump Trucks at Disney

Film critic Barry Hertz wrote a terrific and very informed review of the Avengers, Endgame. I agree with him.Totally. Here is an excerpt and a link to read all of his review: Barry Hertz, NationalPost, Globe and Mail of Canada.

"Just as in the best of comic books, there is genius, and then there is evil genius. Avengers: Endgame, the 22nd product to roll out from the Marvel Studios factory floor ��� a staggering achievement in corporate synergy, an everlasting testament to the persuasive power of cash-filled dump trucks over even the most pure of artistic souls ��� is most certainly the latter. . . This crass quarterly-profit hunger isn���t new to Hollywood ��� the entire studio system is built on such a philosophy ��� but the sheer scale of it is. Endgame cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make and market, relies on audiences having consumed a decade���s worth of previous cinematic products with a religious fervor. . ." 

Marvel Studios are owned by Disney.

The photo is of the big villain in the Avengers, Thanos.
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The Six and. . . 

Here is a link to Household Tales by The Brothers Grimm (courtesy of the Gutenberg project), translated by Margaret Hunt, where you will find the tale Six Who Made Their Way In The World.

Here is a link to 2 hours and 33 minutes of the precursor myth to Six Who Made Their Way In the World: Jason and the Argonauts

A well reviewed film for the young is Pokemon, Detective Pikachu.

There is a huge difference in the visceral impact of a comic strip and a 3D movie with a blasting soundtrack.

The illustration of Six Who Made Their Way In the World is by Oscar Thomas.

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Why Are There So Ma ny Books About Dogs?

This i s the title of first-class article in the NYTimes about dogs by Vanessa Woods and Brian Hare. Vanessa is a science writer, author, and researcher and Brian is a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke, They are also the authors of ���The Genius of Dogs.��� There are 60 million households in the USA with dogs. Amazon has more than 70,000 dog books. 

"The spate of dog mind-focused books raises the question: After at least 14,000 years of living with dogs, why are we only now getting around to considering what goes on inside their heads? There are many possible explanations, but one is that in the last two decades science has discovered more about dog cognition than in the previous two centuries combined . . .  Then, suddenly, there was an explosion in the field of dog cognition, spanning the fields of psychlogy, anthropology and neuroscience. 

Here ia link to read more: Dog Books

The illustration is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.

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Voiceless Victims

"Social media will continue to change the way we live and work.This book helps animal advocates, regardless of one's experience level,keep up with that ever-changing landscape while making a true difference in the lives of these voiceless victims. Teeming with practical insights and filled with inspiration, "How to Change the World in 30 Seconds" is a must read for anybody who wants to engage in online animal advocacy

Scott A. Heiser, Sr. Attorney & former Criminal Justice Program Director, 
            Animal Legal Defense Fund

The contents and cover illustration are by C.A. Wulff.

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Memories of Rose and the Human Canine Connection

Susan Purser and her therapy dog, Rose, brought comfort and support to the aged, the sick, and kids for over 13 years. I asked Susan to write some of her thoughts for me. Rose has passed on. A therapy dog named Bandit now visits in Rose's place.

"I was asked once what it was like to see so many hands reaching out for my dog, Rose. I hadn't really thought much about it, as she is such a giving Australian Cattle Dog and is continually searching for hands wanting to touch her.  I thought perhaps you might enjoy seeing some of these hands...aged hands, searching for memories and then sharing them with whispers in Rose's ear or while hugging her neck.  Soft spoken or without words, it doesn't get any better than watching this type of unconditional love.

Rose doesn't understand future nor how long or short time is.  She does devote her total attention to these lovely people in their time of need.  She gives comfort that I can only observe and opens those ever so special memory doors that only she can enter."

The photos are by Susan Purser

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Gun Control Law in Illinois Needed for All of the USA

Excerpts from an NEA article by Dave Arnold, gun owner and self proclaimed sportsman who likes hunting and target shooting:

"Being from Illinois, I adhere to provisions of gun ownership. Every gun owner in Illinois must file for and carry with them a Firearm Owners Identification card (FOID). In Illinois, residents must have the card with them when they have a firearm in their possession and when they purchase a firearm or ammunition.

Whenever a firearm purchase is made, they are then subjected to a background check by the Illinois state police. They must then go through a mandatory waiting period: 24 hours for a rifle or shotgun, three days for a handgun. No one under age 18 can purchase a firearm or ammunition and no one under 21 can purchase a handgun. Anyone underage can only use a firearm while under the direct supervision of an adult who has a FOID card.

The FOID card also contains a chip that permits the owner to be tracked by the state police computers. Yes, Big Brother is watching, but my thinking is: If you���re legal and honest then you don���t have anything to hide."

The photo of parent protesters following the Parkland massacre is courtesy of the guardian.

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Castle In the Mist

"The second book, Castle in the Mist, picks up where the first left off in regards to character development and introduces a whole new land and cast of characters (a la Harry Potter). In this one, the past-violent-cum-peaceful Bik of Stone City has his two young children kidnapped by a Prince who doesn't understand peace or dogs or anything really and the dogs, along with the humans, work out a plan to save the children. . .While reading these, I kept wishing I was reading them out loud to a couple of kids instead. I could imagine each night reading another chapter and the kids waiting with bated breath for what would happen next."  -- Excerpt from a review by Karen Boss

We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. . . email us with a postal address at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent bookstores of all sizes. 

The illustration from Castle In the Mist is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.

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"Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful."
Ann Landers
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May -- Pushing the Boundaries

 

 

                                                            The photo is by Chin Bong Leng.

 

Fantasy and imagination push boundaries in content, style, and impact. Tales are reinvented. They move into new media -- music, theater, film, dance.There are no limits to the creative mind. Every day reality is enhanced. The line between young and old is crossed. 

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Fantasy and Imagination
 
KTO theater in Krakow, Poland carries on a centuries old tradition of street theater. Here is an excerpt from a review by a Polish critic. "We face the magical and exotic worlds of memories as well as the world of contemporary brutality. And all of it is truly convincing, moving and unlike anything else, as Zon's productions are phenomenal in their combination of lyricism and dynamism".
Jan Kanty-Pawluskiewicz
Take a look at this brief video trailer and enter the world of Fantasy and Imagination.

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Angela Carter (1940-1992)-- Wonderful Verve and Invention

In the late Sixties and early Seventies, it wasn���t enough to rebel, and young writers and artists were dreaming of reshaping the world in the image of their desires. Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan had done the work of analysis and exposure, but action ��� creative energy ��� was as necessary to build on the demolition site ���of the traditional values and definitions of gender.. . . In this context, Angela Carter made an inspired, marvellous move, for which so many other writers as well as readers will always be indebted to her: she refused to join in rejecting or denouncing fairy tales, but instead embraced the whole stigmatised genre, its stock characters and well-known plots, and with wonderful verve and invention, perverse grace and wicked fun, soaked them in a new fiery liquor that brought them leaping back to life. . . .

Her first collection of tales, Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces (1974), was followed, five years later, by The Bloody Chamber, which has now become a classic of English literature, far beyond the moment and historical circumstances of its origins.

Read more of this excellent article by Marina Warner in: TheScotsman

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"We must all make do with the rags of love we find flapping on the scarecrow of humanity.��� 
���  Angela Carter , Nights at the Circus

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More Complex than the Mythic Version

Edmund Gordon was Angela Carter's first  biographer. The following excerpt is taken from Gordon���s Guardian article following the publication of The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography
   
"This mythic version of Carter soon became the prevailing one. But the otherworldly figure conjured by her obituarists doesn���t do justice to her complexity. Her fundamental vigour, determination and courage all emerge powerfully from the story of her life; her wild, often gleefully crass sense of humour and her strong sexual energy are both conspicuous in her books; and her quick wit and personal charm are apparent in surviving TV footage. In her 40s, newly confident, Carter allowed her hair to turn grey, and grew it down to her shoulders. She became a mother just as she began to look like the cartoon image of a grandmother: her son, Alexander, was born in 1983. He brought her a great deal of joy, and the last decade of her life was also the happiest. "

  The illustration, by Igor Karash, is from The Lady From the House of Love. a story from the Bloody Chamber book.

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Someone Walking a Tightrope

Lorna Sage (1943-2001), highly regarded British critic, author, and scholar became friends with Angela Carter in the nineteen seventies. They remained friends during the turbulent years of Angela's life. In 1990, Sage published a definitive study that explores the roots of Carter's originality, discusses all her novels, as well as some short stories and non-fiction.

Angela Carter's life ��� the background of social mobility, the teenage anorexia, the education and self-education, the early marriage and divorce, the role-playing and shape-shifting, the travels, the choice of a man much younger, the baby in her forties ��� is the story of someone walking a tightrope. It's all happening "on the edge," in no man's land, among the debris of past convictions. By the end, her life fitted her more or less like a glove, but that's because she'd put it together by trial and error, bricolage, all in the (conventionally) wrong order. Her genius and estrangement came out of a thin-skinned extremity of response to the circumstances of her life and to the signs of the times, , ,"

 

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I Found That I Was Trembling

"I found that I was trembling. My breath came thickly. I could not meet his eye and turned my head away,  out of pride, out of shyness and watched a dozen husbands approach me in a dozen mirrors and slowly, methodically, teasingly, unfasten the buttons of my jacket and slip it from my shoulders."

Angela Carter -- The Bloody Chamber

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Labyrinth of Female Desire

"Fairy tales also offered her a means of flying ��� of finding and telling an alternative story, of shifting something in the mind, just as so many fairy-tale characters are shape shifters. She wrote her own ��� the dazzling, erotic variations on Perrault's Mother Goose Tales and other familiar stories in The Bloody Chamber ��� where she lifted Beauty and Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard's last wife out of the pastel nursery into the labyrinth of female desire." Marina Warner British Library

The illustration from the Bloody Chamber is by Igor Karash.

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He Looked At Me With Lust

���When I saw him look at me with lust, I dropped my eyes but, in glancing away from him, I caught sight of myself in the mirror. And I saw myself, suddenly, as he saw me, my pale face, the way the muscles in my neck stuck out like thin wire. I saw how much that cruel necklace became me. And, for the first time in my innocent and confined life, I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption that took my breath away.��� The Bloody Chamber

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An Original Voice

"Carter had always possessed a gift for controlled grotesquery, stylistic flourish, and thematic elegance. She could have remained a quite good, even excellent, Gothic Revival novelist, disturbing and accomplished, but instead chose to evolve into something quite different: an original voice meshed to original subject matter, with the intellect and instincts to become a novelist of the first rank."                            Jeff VanderMeer Scriptorium

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Wolves, Girls, and Angela Carter

There are three stories about young girls and wolves in the Bloody Chamber. Here is a description of Little Red Riding Hood as retold by Angela Carter. The original story, retold many times, dates back over 1000 years.

���She stands and moves within the invisible pentacle of her own virginity. She is an unbroken egg: she is a sealed vessel; she has inside her a magic space the entrance to which is shut tight with a plug of membrane; she is a closed system; she does not know how to shiver. She has her knife and she is afraid of nothing.��� ��� Angela Carter, The Company of Wolves from The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

The Company of Wolves was made into a well received movie. Here is an excerpt from Roger Ebert's review:

"The Company of Wolves" is a dream about werewolves and little girls and deep, dark forests. It is not a children's film and it is not an exploitation film; it is a disturbing and stylish attempt to collect some of the nightmares that lie beneath the surface of "Little Red Riding Hood."

There are many links to The Company of Wolves movie on YouTube. This link will take you to an excerpt with the Wedding Scene. 

The illustration from The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is by KiKi McNee.

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 yes I said yes I will yes . . . Molly Bloom

"I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

Here is a link to read Molly Bloom's Soliloquy from James Joyce's Ulysses

Here is a link to see the wonderful actress Angeline Ball perform Molly Bloom's soliloquy
The photo above is from the film.

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Snow White by Anne Sexton
She would ask, Looking glass upon the wall,
Who is fairest of us all?
And the mirror would reply,
You are the fairest of us all.
Pride pumped in her like poison.

 

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Never Little Red Riding Hood

Abby Wambach, two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion,In her new book, ���Wolfpack,��� Wambach, 38, shares lessons she learned from decades of training, failure and triumph on the field. It is based on the commencement speech she gave at Barnard College in New York last year that quickly went viral. ���If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be this: ���Abby, you were never Little Red Riding Hood; you were always the wolf,������ she told graduates. Here is a link to the article by Maya Salam: AbbyWambach

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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The Hiccup Theater .. Pushing the Boundaries for 3 Years Old and up

Here is an excerpt from a review of Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Miriam Gillinson in the Guardian illustrating that there is no age limit on fantasy and the imagination.

The classic tale plays out on a lusciously crafted eco-friendly set by a company gently pushing the boundaries of kids��� theatre. . .

  "We���re deep in the woods and inside the three bears��� home, which is dappled in golden sunlight. The walls are adorned with quirky scraps salvaged from the forest: a shiny cheese grater, a large wooden wheel and endless knick-knacks. Hiccup Theatre has reimagined Goldilocks from the bears��� perspective in a show for the over-threes that is neither too big nor too small but just right. . .  Every last detail has been designed with care."

The illustration of the Three Bears is by Julian Narvaez.

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Movies

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

The trailer is much fun and AO Scott's NY Times review is guarded but enthusiastic about this film that pushes the boundaries in multiple ways. Here is an excerpt: 

��� 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote' has moments of slackness and chaos (the book does, too), but for the most part it���s a lively, charming excursion into a landscape claimed by Gilliam in the name of Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish gentleman who gave Don Quixote life back in the early 1600s. The filmmaker���s devotion to the novelist adds luster and vigor to the images, but this is more than just an act of literary-minded reverence. It���s a meeting of minds ��� a celebration of artistic kinship across the gulfs of history, culture and technology . . . Gilliam, like Cervantes, is a wily inventor who also serves as an analyst and evangelist of the imagination."

Here is the trailer: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

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Aladdin

Aladdin opens on May 24 and from the trailer it looks like Disney has pulled out all the computer graphics stops.  The film is a live action version  of Disney's 1992 animated film of the same name. The trailer is fun and Will Smith  plays the Genie with original charm, verve, and imagination. Here is the trailer: Aladdin 

 

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How Do You Live -- Update

Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese master, has been working on a new Ghibli film inspired by a Japanese classic book (1937), How Do You Live. This is a coming of age story about a young man. Miyazaki has said the underlying theme of the story about a young man finding his identity is: "No matter how chaotic and cruel life may be, you should always live as a human being. You should always be true to your values." I found much of this information through  a YouTube video by Tokyosaurus : How Do You Live

The illustration is from Miyazaki's wonderful My Neighbor Totoro.Here is a link to the delightful trailer:Totoro

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Amazing Grace

I feel that this documentary, released earlier this year, of Aretha Franklin in an amazing never before released  concert, is a wonderful and inspiring film experience for all ages. The concert took place in a church in 1972. Here is the trailer: Amazing Grace

The photo in the poster is from the film,

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LitWorld is Pushing the Boundaries 

Lit world brings reading, books, and empowerment to children around the world."Our core values guide all of the work that we do, . . . We partner with nonprofit organizations, individuals, and corporations who share these core values with us.
We value the child���s own story.
We value our community-based partners.
We value reading, writing, listening, speaking and viewing as powerful tools.
We value equity of access."

Here is a link to a one minute LitWorld video where the kids Circling the Wagginsmade me smile.

The photo is of a LitWorld Club in the Phillipines

 

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Dogs

What does an author of dog books and a dedicated dog advocate do to reach more people. C.A. Wulff, in addition to  providing a home and a life for many dogs, is an author of several outstanding books involving, or about, dogs. These vary from a personal memoir(Circling the Waggins), to supporting dog rescue (How to Change the World in  30 seconds), and helping dog owners (Finding Fido). She also writes a blog. Here is an excerpt and here is a link: Up On the Woof

"I���ve said it before, and I���ll say it again : I have a hard time trusting people who don���t like dogs. I���m not talking about people who are afraid of dogs because of some trauma, I���m talking about people who for some arbitrary reason decide they don���t like dogs. For those of you who don���t understand my sentiment, let me explain . . .

Dogs are true. They are honest. They never seek to deceive. They don���t hold grudges. They are not manipulative or duplicitous. They are not cruel. They are full of love and joy. They are loyal. They are comforting. They are trustworthy. What���s not to like?"

The photo is of Ms. Wulff and Waldo. Waldo has passed on.

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Gabrielle Gifford and Minnesota Gun Owners for Safety

"The group, Minnesota Gun Owners for Safety, is the second of its kind from Ms. Giffords���s namesake organization, which she founded after the shooting that almost killed her. (The first, in Colorado, started in January.) Ms. Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, who is running for Senate in Arizona, own guns themselves and argue that gun ownership can coexist with significantly stricter gun laws.

That���s what makes Minnesota Gun Owners for Safety, and groups like it, so important. I can���t think of a better way to fix that disconnect than to show how in reality, people that love to hunt or have firearms at home for protection are also in favor of improving the background check system. Or keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.

More and more people are responding to gun violence as a personal issue. They don���t want to see their neighbors or their family or friends get shot. People are pushing back against the false notion that any action to pass laws results in less freedom. In fact, it can bring us more.

Read More: Gabrielle Gifford NY Times

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Human Flow

The refugee crisis continues to grow.

Ruthless forces continue to create violence and brutality that affects all of us.

Over 65 million people in the world today have been forced from their homes

Nearly five million children from Syria alone are refugees.

I urge you to spend 2 minutes and 15 seconds of your life to see the exceptional documentary, Human Flow.

 

The photo is by Syriaby Sameer Al-doumy.

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The Planet Of The Dogs Series

The Planet of the Dogs series of children���s books tell the stories of the first time dogs came to planet Earth to teach people about unconditional loyalty and love -- and to help bring peace from invaders. Here is an excerpt from a review by

"Did you ever wonder how dogs came to be man's best friend? I'm sure that there is some historical explanation, although it may be shrouded in the mists of prehistoric times. But in your mind's eye think back to those times and just imagine for a minute that there is a planet far out in the sky, on the other side of the sun, inhabited by intelligent dogs who live in peace and happiness. As the book opens, the dogs learn that there is trouble on earth."

We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. . . email us with a postal address at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent book stores of all sizes. 

The illustration from Castle In the Mist is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.

 

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Lyra Returns In October -- Phillip Pullman's New Book

The first Book of Dust novel, La Belle Sauvage, introduces Lyra as a baby, as a huge flood hits Oxford and the 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead becomes her protector. The Secret Commonwealth is set 20 years after those events, and seven years after the end of The Amber Spyglass, the concluding volume in the His Dark Materials trilogy.

Lyra is no longer a child and life, warned Pullman, is not easy for this grownup version of a character readers first met as an 11-year-old running wild in Oxford with her daemon Pantalaimon. Now a student, she will travel across Europe and into Asia as she searches for a town said to be haunted by daemons.

���Things have been biding their time, waiting for the right moment to reveal their consequences for Lyra Silvertongue,��� said the novelist. ���The Secret Commonwealth tells the continuing story of the impact on Lyra���s life of the search for, and the fear of, Dust. I found it intriguing and deeply exciting to discover how great events can turn on a little moment, and how revenge can be nurtured and fed and watered till it grows beyond control.���

Excerpted from a Guardian Article by Alison Flood.

 

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"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." .. Roger Caras

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April .. Reality Has Its Limits, Imagination Is Boundless

 

 

                                                   

                                      

   "The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."
                Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- The painting is by Andrea Kowch 

 
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Fantasy and the Real Magic of Fairy Tales  

"By entering the world of fantasy and imagination, children and adults secure for themselves a safe space where fears can be confronted, mastered, and banished. Beyond that the real magic of the fairy tale lies in its ability to extract pleasure from pain. In bringing to life the dark figures of our imagination as ogres, witches, cannibals, and giants, fairy tails may stir up dread, but in the end they always supply the pleasure of seeing it vanquished."

Maria Tatar in her Introduction to The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales.

The illustration is by Jakub Rozalski.
 
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"Throw Out The Rules and Read Fairy Tales"
 
���Those enchanted princes can do anything,��� says the wife of the fisherman who catches a wish-granting flounder that happens to be an enchanted prince. This is not a truth universally acknowledged in our humdrum world, so lacking in magical fish. And yet here, in this one story, the power of enchanted princes is axiomatic, as fundamental as gravity. You can hear trouble coming in the wife���s words, as surely as if this story were by Sophocles. This is one of the ���Children���s and Household Tales��� collected by the Grimm brothers in the early 19th century. In that fictive world, trouble comes abruptly and in threes."

Verlyn Klinkenborg writing in the NY Times about the Brother's Grimm Fairy Tales, and Phillip Pullman's retelling.
The illustration from The Fisherman and His Wife is by Alexander Zick.
 
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Told and Retold

The early centuries, when enduring fairy tales were told and retold, were troubled times for virtually everyone.

Our primary source of fairy tales comes from Europe where wars, droughts, hunger, and sickness were never ending as were mysteries, visions, and powerful religious movements.

Wonder stories were told wherever people gathered: in open market places, in farmhouses, and by camp fires. The stories told were a wecome source of entertainment, relief, and hope.

In the world of the imagination, a child can outwit a giant or an ogre; a young woman can escape cruelty and oppression -- even incest. And magic is always in the air.

The illustration of Princess Tuvstarr is by John Bauer.

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Confronting the Abominable -- Tales of Incest

I understand that oral tales from bygone times -- later written down  -- are, as Jack Zipes writes," grounded in history. . . they emanate from specific struggles to humanize bestial and barbaric forces, which have terrorized our minds and communities in concrete ways. . . The fairy tale sets out to conquer this concrete terror through metaphors."

Donkey Skin, as retold by Perrault, dealt with incest -- a dark and bestial behavior. It spoke of the abusive power of kings, of beauty, courage, and magic. It ended on a note of hope. These were mainstay elements in many fairy tales. I found the story to be quite remarkable as it was the first time I had encountered a fairy tale dealing with incest. In Donkey Skin, the King states unequivocally to his daughter that he will have her as his wife.

The following excerpt occurs after the death of the beautiful Queen:

"For a time the king was inconsolable in his grief, both day and night. Some months later, however, on the urging of his courtiers, he agreed to marry again, but this was not an easy matter, for he had to keep his promise to his wife and search as he might, he could not find a new wife with all the attractions he sought. Only his daughter had a charm and beauty which even the queen had not possessed. Thus only by marrying his daughter could he satisfy the promise he had made to his dying wife, and so he forthwith proposed marriage to her. This frightened and saddened the princess, and she tried to show her father the mistake he was making . . ." 

I learned that Donkey Skin had been classified as ATU 510 B, Unnatural Love, and I have subsequently learned that there are many stories from earlier times that tell of royal incest and paternal abuse of power, and that Donkey Skin has many elements derived from these earlier stories.  

 

The top illustration is by Nadezda Illarionova.  The bottom illustration is by Harry Clarke.

Here is a link to Perrault's story: Donkey Skin 

Here is a link to a scene in the 1970 Jacques Demy film version of Perrault's  tale wherein The King ( Jean Marais) tells his daughter ( Catherine Deneuve) that he will marry her: Donkey Skin Part1

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Incestuous and quasi-incestuous relationships

"Incestuous and quasi-incestuous relationships were hardly unknown at the court of Louis XIV. The king himself had married his first cousin, Maria-Theresa of Spain, largely for political reasons. His brother Philippe, Duke of Orleans, had married another first cousin, Henrietta of England, before marrying a more distant cousin . . .   Various aristocrats at the court followed these royal examples for financial or other reasons . . ."  Excerpted from an article posted by Mari Ness on: Thor.com   

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The Culture and the Times

Fairytales are a reflection of life. The stories that proliferated in medieval (950-1450) Europe were told -- and recorded -- in a world where brutal wars were a near constant among the ruling elite. Religion condoned and indeed fostered war, including crusades in Europe and the holy land in pursuit of power. Miracles, saints, and visions, including those of Joan D'arc, influenced events and lives. And for nearly 500 years, Islamic conquest ruled Spain until driven out in the late fifteenth century. Still, Muslim rule continued across North Africa, through the Middle East, and all the way to India.

Famines occurred on a regular basis and, in the fourteenth century, nearly one half of the people, rich and poor, were killed by the black death. Also known as the Great Plague, it swept relentlessly across the land from 1347 to the early 1350's, from the Eastern Mediterranean to Britain and Sweden.

Life was hard and uncertain. Children and women were often exploited and treated cruelly; sexual abuse was commonplace.

The illustration is from the 15th century book, the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

 

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Incest and the Medieval Imagination

"Medieval incest stories are so numerous that it is impossible to even mention them all let alone discuss them in detail . . . " This is an excerpt from the book Incest and the Medieval Imagination by scholar and author Elizabeth Archibald. Among the many incest stories discussed by Ms Archibald is a story -- in novella form -- entitled Apollonius of Tyre.

This tale appeared in the late sixth century, and has many attributes characteristic of early wonder tales: it can be traced back to ancient Greek and Roman times; multiple versions have been found; there were translations into many languages (in this case, 13). In all cases, beauty is held in very high regard; higher powers (in this case, the gods) affect events; and Kings abuse their power.

Here is a link to Elizabeth Archibald's scholarly book,Incest and the Medieval Imagination

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The Frenzy of Lust

Here is an excerpt from the dark beginning of Apollonius of Tyre:

While her father was considering to whom best to give his daughter in marriage, driven by immoral passion and inflamed by lust he fell in love with his own daughter, and he began to love her in a way unsuitable for a father. He struggled with madness, he fought against passion, but he was defeated by love; he lost his sense of moral responsibility, forgot that he was a father, and took on the role of husband. . . Since he could not endure the wound in his breast, one day when he was awake at dawn he rushed into his daughter's room and ordered the servants to withdraw, as if he intended to have a private conversation with her. Spurred on by the frenzy of his lust, he took his daughter's virginity by force, in spite of her lengthy resistance. When the wicked deed was done he left the bedroom. But the girl stood astonished at the immorality of her wicked father. She tried to hide the flow of blood: but drops of blood fell onto the floor. "

The top illustration is by an unknown Medieval artist. The bottom illustration is from the Garden of Earthy Delights by Hieronymus Bosch

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Straparola, Basile and Many, Many More

In a post entitled, The Father Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter, D.L. Ashliman cites 74 incest story variations ranging from Scotland and Ireland, to Lithuania and the Ukraine. Asliman's list includes stories from the pioneering collections from Italy: Doralice from The Facetious  Nights (1550) by Straparola (Italy); and, The She Bear from The Story of Stories (1643) by Basile (Italy). Both of these stories have many elements found in Donkey Skin and other later tales such as Cinderella.

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All Kinds Of Fur

The Brothers Grimm wrote a version of Donkey Skin that was close to that of Perrault. One of the differences is that the Princess tries to stall her father by asking for, in addition to two extremely beautiful dresses, " 'a mantle of a thousand different kinds of fur and hair joined together, and one of every kind of animal in your kingdom must give a piece of his skin for it.'  But she thought,' To get that will be quite impossible, and thus I shall divert my father from his wicked intentions.' " Thus the name of the tale: All Kinds Of Fur (in German, Allerleirauh).

Here is another excerpt from the Grimm's version: "Now the King had a daughter, who was just as beautiful as her dead mother, and had the same golden hair. When she was grown up the King looked at her one day, and saw that in every respect she was like his late wife, and suddenly felt a violent love for her."

Here is a link to the Grimm's Version, All Kinds of Fur, translated in 1884 by Margaret Hunt: All Kinds of Fur

Andrew Lang in his Grey Fairy Book (1900) softened the story of Donkey Skin and changed the king's daughter into an adopted daughter. His version is otherwise close to Perrault's. 

The illustration above for All Kinds of Fur is by an unknown artist.

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They Stamp Our Minds and Perhaps Our Souls

"We all know that fairy tales are tied to real life experiences more than we pretend they aren���t. We ward off fairy tales and pretend that  they are intended mainly for children because they tell more truth than we want to know, and we absorb fairy tales because they tell us more truth than we want to know. . . . They stamp our minds and perhaps our soul . . ."  Jack Zipes ,  The Oxford University Press Blog

The illustration from Rumpelstiltskin is by Paul O Zalinsky.

 

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A Very Old Classic Wonder Tale of Boundless Imagination from England

The origins of Jack and the Beanstalk have been traced back 5 thousand years by scholars. It is still told and retold, in books and other mediums. It personifies the classic wonder tale elements of courage, magic, danger, obstacles, ogres, smart thinking, and an outcome that gives hope to the listeners -- or readers.

"Your duty requires you to win it back for your mother. But the task is a very difficult one, and full of peril, Jack. Have you courage to undertake it?"

"I fear nothing when I am doing right," said Jack.

"Then," said the lady in the red cap, "you are one of those who slay giants. You must get into the castle, and if possible possess yourself of a hen that lays golden eggs, and a harp that talks. Remember, all the giant possesses is really yours." As she ceased speaking, the lady of the red hat suddenly disappeared, and of course Jack knew she was a fairy.

Jack determined at once to attempt the adventure; so he advanced, and blew the horn which hung at the castle portal. The door was opened in a minute or two by a frightful giantess, with one great eye in the middle of her forehead. As soon as Jack saw her he turned to run away, but she caught him, and dragged him into the castle. . ."

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The Imagination 

As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.

Ursula K. Le Guin

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A Very Special Animated Film Based on Norse Mythology

This delightful video made me feel good. And adding to my reaction was the realization that it was made by a team of students in an Animation Workshop at VIA University College in Denmark. The running time is 7.24 minutes. The excerpt from the full synopsis below appeared with the video on Vimeo. 

Forget Me Not

"Deep in the Norwegian forest, there is an old man, living an orderly and quiet life. Closed off from the rest of the world, he spends his days together with his lifelong friend, a troll. Together they share an everyday routine, drinking tea and taking care of each other. One day the troll begins to hint that the time has come for him to leave the comfort of their home. . ."

Here is a link to the video: Forget Me Not

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THE FORGOTTEN FAIRY TALE GENIUS OF ��DOUARD LABOULAYE

Smack-Bam, or The Art of Governing Men is a recent book presented by Jack Zipes. Zipes has translated, edited, and written a very informative introduction to fairy tales by a multi-talented writer, Edouard Laboulaye (1811-1883). Laboulaye was a French lawyer, a jurist elected to the national assembly, and the man who originated and followed through with the gift of France to the USA, The Statue of Liberty. He was active in the anti-slavery movement and a zealous supporter of the Union effort. Laboulaye wrote poetry, essays, novels, a 3 volume history of the USA, as well as fairy tales. Zipes feels they have been too long neglected by scholars, including himself; Zipes also feels that they are actually adult fairy tales:

 "His fairy tales, however, ostensibly published for and dedicated to children, were actually too sophisticated to be classified as children���s literature or to be read by children. . .  Given his extraordinary past, I believe it is time to reconsider Laboulaye���s achievement as a writer of unusually wry fairy tales filled with biting social commentaries, philosophical reflections, and strong notions of social justice."

Here is an excerpt from the introduction to Laboulaye's fairy tale collection, Contes Bleus (1863)

"In the happy country of fairies, one leaves it only to find one���s way back. One suffers only to become happy, whereas pain is for us an enigma and life a struggle without end where the better people are the first to fall. There, in the country of fairies, one does not get old, and one always loves. Here, no sooner does our heart barely recover from those foolish acts of our youth than it turns serious and begins to love an object worthy of our heart. Then, our face becomes wrinkled, and our hair turns white leaving us with the feeling of ridicule. There, in the country of fairies, one knows everything in one hour or one day. Here, we pursue truth at the cost of our lives as it evades us. It flees like the marvelous bird, and when, at last, after 30 years of pain, we feel it near us, when our hand lowers to seize it, another hand more powerful freezes us and carries us off to the country from which nobody has ever returned. . ."

The illustrator(s) of the book cover and of Laboulaye's tale, Yvon and Finette, are unknown.

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MOVIES.

Dumbo

Alas, the reviews for Disney's Dumbo are mixed. They range from delighted to hard knocks. Tim Burton's creative imaginative is, by and large, appreciated. Here are excerpts (via Rotten Tomatoes) from two critics whom I respect: Peter Travers in Rolling Stone -- "This live-action re-imagining of Disney's 1941 animated classic may be the sweetest film Tim Burton has ever made. It's also the safest." Full review;
Here is an excerpt from Owen Gleiberman in Variety: "The character of Dumbo is still touching, but the tale of entrapment and rescue that surrounds him is not. It's arduous and forgettable, done in busy italicized strokes. Full review

Here is a link to the trailer: Dumbo

 

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The Juniper Tree

The revival of The Juniper Tree movie from Iceland, originally released in 1990, received a very positive NYTimes review from  Glen Kerry 

"In watching a newly restored version, I was struck not only by Bj��rk���s distinctive charisma at 24 years old but also by the talent of the film���s writer, director and editor, Nietzchka Keene. This was Keene���s first feature, and she would die of pancreatic cancer in 2004 with just a couple of other directing credits to her name.

This film is adapted from a tale by the Brothers Grimm ��� one of the gnarly unexpurgated ones, not the bowdlerized kind long served to American kids. Two sisters, Katla (Bryndis Petra Bragad��ttir) and the younger Margit (Bj��rk), find themselves homeless after their mother is burned as a witch. They wander, and in an environment far-flung from their former dwellings, Katla enchants a young widower, Johann. . ."

The film seems to depart substantially from the original Juniper Tree. Here is a link to the JuniperTree trailer.

................

Wonder Park

Critics were not kind to Wonder Park, a movie about a young girl who designs her own amusement park. Here is a summary of the reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:

"Colorful and energetic but lacking a compelling story, Wonder Park is little more 
than a competently made diversion for very young viewers. 

Here is a link to the: Wonderpark Trailer

.............................................................

Meanwhile, the plight of refugee children continues. . . 

Save The Children

"As violence consumed Syria, desperate families fled their homes, many ending up in Lebanon. Now, one in four people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee. Before the Syrian crisis, poverty in Lebanon was already widespread. Many Lebanese children had little access to health care and basic services. Now the strain on the country���s limited resources is putting both Lebanese and refugee children in peril." 
Here is a link to Save the Children

 

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Reading to Your Toddler? Print Books Are Better Than Digital Ones

���The tablet itself made it harder for parents and children to engage in the rich back-and-forth turn-taking that was happening in print books,��� a researcher said. Thus begins an article by Dr. Perri Klass in the NYTimes: Reading to Toddlers

The illustration is of Talk to Me, a free book for new mothers

 

................................

Love on Four Paws

The service dogs provided by Love on 4 Paws change people's lives through training and the human canine bond.

Here is a link to a touching and informative video of a boy, Leo, who suffers from brain aneurysms, his loving mother, and Henry, his wonderful service  dog: DogHelpsBoy

 

The photo is of Leo and Henry. 

.............................

The Animal Protector Series from Who Chains You Books
 
The Animal Protector Series shines a spotlight on animals in need of human protection, using fictional animal characters and action-packed storylines. Often, the highlighted animals are those whose plights have been ignored or overlooked by humans in today���s society. 
 
One of the hallmarks of this refreshing new series is that the animals take steps to become their own heroes, and find their freedom again with the aid of caring people. 
 
To date, there are four books planned in the series: the first, out now, is Smidgey Pidgey���s Predicament , and follows two pigeon siblings who are birdnapped in New York City. What will become of Smidge and Ridge? Will they ever get home again?
 
The second, Spittin��� Kitten���s Speed-Away,   follows a tiny orange kitten determined to bring help for his starving siblings and Mama; he soon gets stuck in a car engine and ends up miles away from home. Will the little guy ever find his family again? 
 
Books Three and Four feature the plights of rodeo calves and hermit crabs, with more storylines planned for 2020. The series, written by Tamira Thayne and illustrated by C.A. Wulff and Rhonda Van, is perfect for ages 9 and up. The books include vocab builders, and are great for humane education efforts; the series makes a wonderful gift for the young reader and animal lover in the family.

The charming illustrations are by Barking Planet author C.A.Wulff, and are from the soon to be released book three, Raffy Calfy's Rescue.


 
Here's a link to WCY books: http://www.whochainsyou.com  P.O. Box 581, Amissville, VA 20106

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Why Am I ?

Why Am I ? ��� a joyous Yelodoggie Book by C.A. Wulff ��� celebrates self-empowerment and the benefits of inclusion. It helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.

Yelodoggie travels far and wide, seeking to answer the question Why Am I different ?...Why Am I Yellow ?

Why Am I ? opens the imagination and perspective of children to the world around them.

We continue searching for a publisher who will love Yelodoggie and Why Am I ?, recognize its potential, and launch it into the world. This is a book for our troubled times. Our primary motive is wide distribution.
....................................

NRA News: Thomas the Train joins the KKK   

Here are excerpts from the story in the NYTimes by Danny Hakim

Last September, the National Rifle Association���s famously combative spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, provoked widespread outrage when she took to the gun group���s streaming service to mock ethnic diversity on the popular children���s program ���Thomas & Friends,��� portraying the show���s talking trains in Ku Klux Klan hoods. Now, growing unease over the site���s inflammatory rhetoric, and whether it has strayed too far from the N.R.A.���s core gun-rights mission, has put its future in doubt.

The site, NRATV, is a central part of the organization���s messaging apparatus. Since its creation in 2016, it has adopted an increasingly apocalyptic, hard-right tone, warning of race wars, describing Barack Obama as a ���fresh-faced flower-child president,��� calling for a march on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and comparing journalists to rodents.

...........................

  The Planet Of The Dogs Series

The Planet of the Dogs series of children���s books tell the stories of the first time dogs came to planet Earth to teach people about unconditional loyalty and love -- and to help bring peace from invaders. Here is an excerpt:

"He was loading his wagon with animal hides in the Stone City market place, when three warriors, dressed in black and green and leading a riderless horse, rode up. The leader of the group looked down at him and said, ���You will follow us now to the fortress. Our chief wishes to speak with you...They rode outside the wooden walls and stone towers of the city, past the great meadow where three huge standing stones had been erected, and over the bridge that crossed the Dark River. Gable saw a black cloud of men on horseback racing across the far edge of a meadow. When he asked who they were and where they were going, he received no answer, only a hard look. Ahead lay the great stone fortress, with the Dark Mountains rising behind it. The sight of the place gave Gable cold chills." 

We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. . . email us with a postal address at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent book stores of all sizes. 

The illustration from Planet of the Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.

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"When a man's dog turns against him it is time for a wife to pack her trunk and go home to mama." - Mark Twain 

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April .. Reality Has Its Limits,, Imagination Is Boundless

 

 

                                                   

                                      

   "The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."
                Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- The painting is by Andrea Kowch 

 
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Fantasy and the Real Magic of Fairy Tales  

"By entering the world of fantasy and imagination, children and adults secure for themselves a safe space where fears can be confronted, mastered, and banished. Beyond that the real magic of the fairy tale lies in its ability to extract pleasure from pain. In bringing to life the dark figures of our imagination as ogres, witches, cannibals, and giants, fairy tails may stir up dread, but in the end they always supply the pleasure of seeing it vanquished."

Maria Tatar in her Introduction to The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales.

The illustration is by Jakub Rozalski.
 
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"Throw Out The Rules and Read Fairy Tales"
 
���Those enchanted princes can do anything,��� says the wife of the fisherman who catches a wish-granting flounder that happens to be an enchanted prince. This is not a truth universally acknowledged in our humdrum world, so lacking in magical fish. And yet here, in this one story, the power of enchanted princes is axiomatic, as fundamental as gravity. You can hear trouble coming in the wife���s words, as surely as if this story were by Sophocles. This is one of the ���Children���s and Household Tales��� collected by the Grimm brothers in the early 19th century. In that fictive world, trouble comes abruptly and in threes."

Verlyn Klinkenborg writing in the NY Times about the Brother's Grimm Fairy Tales, and Phillip Pullman's retelling.
The illustration from The Fisherman and His Wife is by Alexander Zick.
 
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Told and Retold

The early centuries, when enduring fairy tales were told and retold, were troubled times for virtually everyone.

Our primary source of fairy tales comes from Europe where wars, droughts, hunger, and sickness were never ending as were mysteries, visions, and powerful religious movements.

Wonder stories were told wherever people gathered: in open market places, in farmhouses, and by camp fires. The stories told were a wecome source of entertainment, relief, and hope.

In the world of the imagination, a child can outwit a giant or an ogre; a young woman can escape cruelty and oppression -- even incest. And magic is always in the air.

The illustration of Princess Tuvstarr is by John Bauer.

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Confronting the Abominable -- Tales of Incest

I understand that oral tales from bygone times -- later written down  -- are, as Jack Zipes writes, " grounded in history. . . they emanate from specific struggles to humanize bestial and barbaric forces, which have terrorized our minds and communities in concrete ways. . . The fairy tale sets out to conquer this concrete terror through metaphors."

Donkeyskin, as retold by Perrault, dealt with incest -- a dark and bestial behavior. It spoke of the abusive power of kings, of beauty, courage, and magic. It ended on a note of hope. These were mainstay elements in many fairy tales. I found the story to be quite remarkable as it was the first time I had encountered a fairy tale dealing with incest. In Donkeyskin, the King states unequivocally to his daughter that he will have her as his wife.

The following excerpt occurs after the death of the beautiful Queen:

"For a time the king was inconsolable in his grief, both day and night. Some months later, however, on the urging of his courtiers, he agreed to marry again, but this was not an easy matter, for he had to keep his promise to his wife and search as he might, he could not find a new wife with all the attractions he sought. Only his daughter had a charm and beauty which even the queen had not possessed. Thus only by marrying his daughter could he satisfy the promise he had made to his dying wife, and so he forthwith proposed marriage to her. This frightened and saddened the princess, and she tried to show her father the mistake he was making . . ." 

I learned that Donkey Skin had been classified as ATU 510 B, Unnatural Love, and I have subsequently learned that there are many stories from earlier times that tell of royal incest and paternal abuse of power, and that Donkey Skin has many elements derived from these earlier stories.  

 

The top illustration is by Nadezda Illarionova.  The bottom illustration is by Harry Clarke.

Here is a link to Perrault's story: Donkey Skin 

Here is a link to a scene in the 1970 Jacques Demy film version of Perrault's  tale wherein The King ( Jean Marais) tells his daughter ( Catherine Deneuve) that he will marry her: Donkey Skin Part1

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Incestuous and quasi-incestuous relationships

"Incestuous and quasi-incestuous relationships were hardly unknown at the court of Louis XIV. The king himself had married his first cousin, Maria-Theresa of Spain, largely for political reasons. His brother Philippe, Duke of Orleans, had married another first cousin, Henrietta of England, before marrying a more distant cousin . . .   Various aristocrats at the court followed these royal examples for financial or other reasons . . ."  Excerpted from an article posted by Mari Ness on: Thor.com   

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The Culture and the Times

Fairytales are a reflection of life. The stories that proliferated in medieval (950-1450) Europe were told -- and recorded -- in a world where brutal wars were a near constant among the ruling elite. Religion condoned and indeed fostered war, including crusades in Europe and the holy land in pursuit of power. Miracles, saints, and visions, including those of Joan D'arc, influenced events and lives. And for nearly 500 years, Islamic conquest ruled Spain until driven out in the late fifteenth century. Still, Moslim rule continued across North Africa, through the Middle East, and all the way to India.

Famines occurred on a regular basis and, in the fourteenth century, nearly one half of the people, rich and poor, were killed by the black death. Also known as the Great Plague, it swept relentlessly across the land from 1347 to the early 1350's, from the Eastern Mediterranean to Britain and Sweden.

Life was hard and uncertain. Children and women were often exploited and treated cruelly; sexual abuse was commonplace.

The illustration is from the 15th century book,the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

 

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Incest and the Medieval Imagination

"Medieval incest stories are so numerous that it is impossible to even mention them all let alone discuss them in detail . . . " This is an excerpt from the book Incest and the Medieval Imagination by scholar and author Elizabeth Archibald. Among the many incest stories discussed by Ms Archibald is a story -- in novella form -- entitled Apollonius of Tyre.

This tale, appeared in the late sixth century, and has many attributes characteristic of early wonder tales: it can be traced back to ancient Greek and Roman times; multiple versions have been found; there were translations into many languages (in this case, 13).In all cases, beauty is held in very high regard; higher powers (in this case, the gods) affect events; and Kings abuse their power.

Here is a link Elizabeth Archibald's scholarly book,Incest and the Medieval Imagination

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The Frenzy of Lust

Here is an excerpt from the dark beginning of Apollonius of Tyre:

While her father was considering to whom best to give his daughter in marriage, driven by immoral passion and inflamed by lust he fell in love with his own daughter, and he began to love her in a way unsuitable for a father. He struggled with madness, he fought against passion, but he was defeated by love; he lost his sense of moral responsibility, forgot that he was a father, and took on the role of husband. . . Since he could not endure the wound in his breast, one day when he was awake at dawn he rushed into his daughter's room and ordered the servants to withdraw, as if he intended to have a private conversation with her. Spurred on by the frenzy of his lust, he took his daughter's virginity by force, in spite of her lengthy resistance. When the wicked deed was done he left the bedroom. But the girl stood astonished at the immorality of her wicked father. She tried to hide the flow of blood: but drops of blood fell onto the floor. "

The top illustration is by an unknown Medieval artist. The bottom illustration is from the Garden of Earthy Delights by Hieronymus Bosch

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Straparola, Basile and Many, Many More

In a post entitled, The Father Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter, D.L. Ashliman cites 74 incest story variations  ranging from Scotland and Ireland, to Lithuania and the Ukraine. Asliman's list includes stories from the pioneering collections from Italy: Doralice from The Facetious  Nights (1550) by Straparola (Italy); and, The She Bear from The Story of Stories (1643) by Basile (Italy). Both of these stories have many elements found in Donkey Skin and other later tales such as Cinderella

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All Kinds Of Fur

The Brothers Grimm wrote a version of Donkey Skin that was close to that of Perrault. One of the differences is that the Princess tries to stall her father by asking for, in addition to two extremely beautiful dresses, " 'a mantle of a thousand different kinds of fur and hair joined together, and one of every kind of animal in your kingdom must give a piece of his skin for it.'  But she thought,' To get that will be quite impossible, and thus I shall divert my father from his wicked intentions.' " Thus the name of the tale: All Kinds Of Fur (in German, Allerleirauh). 

Here is another excerpt from the Grimm's version: "Now the King had a daughter, who was just as beautiful as her dead mother, and had the same golden hair. When she was grown up the King looked at her one day, and saw that in every respect she was like his late wife, and suddenly felt a violent love for her."

Here is a link to the Grimm's Version, All Kinds of Fur, translated in 1884 by Margaret Hunt: All Kinds of Fur

Andrew Lang in his Grey Fairy Book (1900) softened the story of Donkeyskin and changed the king's daughter into an adopted daughter. His version is otherwise close to Perrault's. 

The illustration above for All Kinds of Fur is by an unknown artist.

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They Stamp Our Minds and Perhaps Our Souls

"We all know that fairy tales are tied to real life experiences more than we pretend they aren���t. We ward off fairy tales and pretend that  they are intended mainly for children because they tell more truth than we want to know, and we absorb fairy tales because they tell us more truth than we want to know. . . . They stamp our minds and perhaps our soul . . ."  Jack Zipes ,  The Oxford University Press Blog

The illustration from Rumpelstiltskin is by Paul O Zalinsky.

 

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A Very Old Classic Wonder Tale of Boundless Imagination from England

The origins of Jack and the Beanstalk have been traced back 5 thousand years by scholars. It is still told and retold, in books and other mediums. It personifies the classic wonder tale elements of courage, magic, danger, obstacles, ogres, smart thinking, and an outcome that gives hope to the listeners -- or readers.

"Your duty requires you to win it back for your mother. But the task is a very difficult one, and full of peril, Jack. Have you courage to undertake it?"

"I fear nothing when I am doing right," said Jack.

"Then," said the lady in the red cap, "you are one of those who slay giants. You must get into the castle, and if possible possess yourself of a hen that lays golden eggs, and a harp that talks. Remember, all the giant possesses is really yours." As she ceased speaking, the lady of the red hat suddenly disappeared, and of course Jack knew she was a fairy.

Jack determined at once to attempt the adventure; so he advanced, and blew the horn which hung at the castle portal. The door was opened in a minute or two by a frightful giantess, with one great eye in the middle of her forehead. As soon as Jack saw her he turned to run away, but she caught him, and dragged him into the castle. . ."

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The Imagination 

As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.

Ursula K. Le Guin

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A Very Special Animated Film Based on Norse Mythology

This delightful video made me feel good. And adding to my reaction was the realization that it was made by a team of students in an Animation Workshop at VIA University College in Denmark. The running time is 7.24 minutes. The excerpt from the full synopsis below appeared with the video on Vimeo. 

Forget Me Not

"Deep in the Norwegian forest, there is an old man, living an orderly and quiet life. Closed off from the rest of the world, he spends his days together with his lifelong friend, a troll. Together they share an everyday routine, drinking tea and taking care of each other. One day the troll begins to hint that the time has come for him to leave the comfort of their home. . ."

Here is a link to the video: Forget Me Not

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THE FORGOTTEN FAIRY TALE GENIUS OF ��DOUARD LABOULAYE

Smack-Bam, or The Art of Governing Men is a recent book presented by Jack Zipes. Zipes has translated, edited, and written a very informative introduction to fairy tales by a multi-talented writer, Edouard Laboulaye (1811-1883). Laboulaye was a French lawyer, a jurist elected to the national assembly, and the man who originated and followed through with the gift of France to the USA, The Statue of Liberty. He was active in the anti-slavery movement and a zealous supporter of the Union effort. Laboulaye wrote poetry, essays, novels, a 3 volume history of the USA, as well as fairy tales. Zipes feels they have been too long neglected by scholars,including himself; Zipes also  feels that they are actually adult fairy tales:

 "His fairy tales, however, ostensibly published for and dedicated to children, were actually too sophisticated to be classified as children���s literature or to be read by children. . .  Given his extraordinary past, I believe it is time to reconsider Laboulaye���s achievement as a writer of unusually wry fairy tales filled with biting social commentaries, philosophical reflections, and strong notions of social justice."

Here is an excerpt from the introduction to Laboulaye's fairy tale collection, Contes Bleus (1863)

"In the happy country of fairies, one leaves it only to find one���s way back. One suffers only to become happy, whereas pain is for us an enigma and life a struggle without end where the better people are the first to fall. There, in the country of fairies, one does not get old, and one always loves. Here, no sooner does our heart barely recover from those foolish acts of our youth than it turns serious and begins to love an object worthy of our heart. Then, our face becomes wrinkled, and our hair turns white leaving us with the feeling of ridicule. There, in the country of fairies, one knows everything in one hour or one day. Here, we pursue truth at the cost of our lives as it evades us. It flees like the marvelous bird, and when, at last, after 30 years of pain, we feel it near us, when our hand lowers to seize it, another hand more powerful freezes us and carries us off to the country from which nobody has ever returned. . ."

The illustrator(s) of the book cover and of Laboulaye's tale, Yvon and Finette, are unknown.

...............................

MOVIES.

Dumbo

Alas, the reviews for Disney's Dumbo are mixed. They range from delighted to hard knocks. Tim Burton's creative imaginative is, by and large, appreciated. Here are excerpts (via Rotten Tomatoes) from two critics whom I respect: Peter Travers in Rolling Stone -- "This live-action re-imagining of Disney's 1941 animated classic may be the sweetest film Tim Burton has ever made. It's also the safest." Full review;
Here is an excerpt from Owen Gleiberman in Variety: "The character of Dumbo is still touching, but the tale of entrapment and rescue that surrounds him is not. It's arduous and forgettable, done in busy italicized strokes. Full review

Here is a link to the trailer: Dumbo

 

......................

The Juniper Tree

The revival of The Juniper Tree movie from Iceland, originally released in 1990, received a very positive NYTimes review from  Glen Kerry 

"In watching a newly restored version, I was struck not only by Bj��rk���s distinctive charisma at 24 years old but also by the talent of the film���s writer, director and editor, Nietzchka Keene. This was Keene���s first feature, and she would die of pancreatic cancer in 2004 with just a couple of other directing credits to her name.

This film is adapted from a tale by the Brothers Grimm ��� one of the gnarly unexpurgated ones, not the bowdlerized kind long served to American kids. Two sisters, Katla (Bryndis Petra Bragad��ttir) and the younger Margit (Bj��rk), find themselves homeless after their mother is burned as a witch. They wander, and in an environment far-flung from their former dwellings, Katla enchants a young widower, Johann. . ."

The film seems to depart substantially from the original Juniper Tree. Here is a link to the JuniperTree trailer.

................

Wonder Park

Critics were not kind to Wonder Park, a movie about a young girl who designs her own amusement park. Here is summary of reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:

"Colorful and energetic but lacking a compelling story, Wonder Park is little more 
than a competently made diversion for very young viewers. 

Here is a link to the: Wonderpark Trailer

.............................................................

Meanwhile, the plight of refugee children continues. . . 

Save The Children

"As violence consumed Syria, desperate families fled their homes, many ending up in Lebanon. Now, one in four people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee. Before the Syrian crisis, poverty in Lebanon was already widespread. Many Lebanese children had little access to health care and basic services. Now the strain on the country���s limited resources is putting both Lebanese and refugee children in peril."  Here is a link to Save the Children

 

..............................

Reading to Your Toddler? Print Books Are Better Than Digital Ones

���The tablet itself made it harder for parents and children to engage in the rich back-and-forth turn-taking that was happening in print books,��� a researcher said. Thus begins an article by Dr, Perri klass in the NYTimes: Reading to Toddlers

The illustration is of Talk to Me, a free book for new mothers

 

................................

Love on Four Paws

The service dogs provided by Love on 4 Paws change people's lives through training and the human canine bond.

Here is a link to a touching and informative video of a boy, Leo, who suffers from brain aneurysms, his loving mother, and Henry, his wonderful service  dog: DogHelpsBoy

 

The photo is of Leo and Henry. 

.............................

The Animal Protector Series from Who Chains You Books
 
The Animal Protector Series shines a spotlight on animals in need of human protection, using fictional animal characters and action-packed storylines. Often, the highlighted animals are those whose plights have been ignored or overlooked by humans in today���s society. 
 
One of the hallmarks of this refreshing new series is that the animals take steps to become their own heroes, and find their freedom again with the aid of caring people. 
 
To date, there are four books planned in the series: the first, out now, is Smidgey Pidgey���s Predicament , and follows two pigeon siblings who are birdnapped in New York City. What will become of Smidge and Ridge? Will they ever get home again?
 
The second, Spittin��� Kitten���s Speed-Away,   follows a tiny orange kitten determined to bring help for his starving siblings and Mama; he soon gets stuck in a car engine and ends up miles away from home. Will the little guy ever find his family again? 
 
Books Three and Four feature the plights of rodeo calves and hermit crabs, with more storylines planned for 2020. The series, written by Tamira Thayne and illustrated by C.A. Wulff and Rhonda Van, is perfect for ages 9 and up. The books include vocab builders, and are great for humane education efforts; the series makes a wonderful gift for the young reader and animal lover in the family.

The charming illustrations are by Barking Planet author C.A.Wulff, and are from the soon to be released book three, Raffy Calfy's Rescue.


 
Here's a link to WCY books: http://www.whochainsyou.com  P.O. Box 581, Amissville, VA 20106

........................

Why Am I ?

Why Am I ? ��� a joyous Yelodoggie Book by C.A. Wulff ��� celebrates self-empowerment and the benefits of inclusion. It helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.

Yelodoggie travels far and wide, seeking to answer the question Why Am I different ?...Why Am I Yellow ?

Why Am I ? opens the imagination and perspective of children to the world around them.

We continue searching for a publisher who will love Yelodoggie and Why Am I ?, recognize its potential, and launch it into the world. This is a book for our troubled times. Our primary motive is wide distribution.
....................................

NRA News: Thomas the Train joins the KKK   

Here are excerpts from the story in the NYTimes by Danny Hakim

Last September, the National Rifle Association���s famously combative spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, provoked widespread outrage when she took to the gun group���s streaming service to mock ethnic diversity on the popular children���s program ���Thomas & Friends,��� portraying the show���s talking trains in Ku Klux Klan hoods. Now, growing unease over the site���s inflammatory rhetoric, and whether it has strayed too far from the N.R.A.���s core gun-rights mission, has put its future in doubt.

The site, NRATV, is a central part of the organization���s messaging apparatus. Since its creation in 2016, it has adopted an increasingly apocalyptic, hard-right tone, warning of race wars, describing Barack Obama as a ���fresh-faced flower-child president,��� calling for a march on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and comparing journalists to rodents.

...........................

  The Planet Of The Dogs Series

The Planet of the Dogs series of children���s books tell the stories of the first time dogs came to planet Earth to teach people about unconditional loyalty and love -- and to help bring peace from invaders. Here is an excerpt"

"He was loading his wagon with animal hides in the Stone City market place, when three warriors, dressed in black and green and leading a riderless horse, rode up. The leader of the group looked down at him and said, ���You will follow us now to the fortress. Our chief wishes to speak with you...They rode outside the wooden walls and stone towers of the city, past the great meadow where three huge standing stones had been erected, and over the bridge that crossed the Dark River. Gable saw a black cloud of men on horseback racing across the far edge of a meadow. When he asked who they were and where they were going, he received no answer, only a hard look. Ahead lay the great stone fortress, with the Dark Mountains rising behind it. The sight of the place gave Gable cold chills." 

We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. . . email us with a postal address at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent book stores of all sizes. 

The illustration from Planet of thr Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.

..........................................................................................................................

"When a man's dog turns against him it is time for a wife to pack her trunk and go home to mama." - Mark Twain 

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