Robert McCarty's Blog, page 8

August -- Stories Without Boundaries, and Centuries of Magical Tales

     

                          
                        
                                    

The illustration is by Ireland's Tomm Moore from his magical film, Song of the Sea. The story concerns a quest by a boy and his mute sister to free the fairies. The young girl is actually a selkie, a magical spirit from the sea in the form of a seal who has changed into human form and lives on the land as part of a family.   Here is a link to the trailer: Song Of The Sea

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Selkies...Shape-shifters from the Sea

Selkies are mythological creatures who live in the sea in the form of seals; they are also shape-shifters, and may live on land as humans if they wish to do so. However, this requires the selkies to shed their skin. Selkies are living legends, part of the ancient folklore of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Certainly, Tomm More was inspired by the legends.

"Kalsoy, a rugged island in the Faroes, has many legends, the best known of which is the legend of the  Selkie  or Seal-Woman of Mikladalur...  A young farmer from the town of Mikladalur on Kalsoy island goes to the beach to watch the selkies dance. He hides the skin of a beautiful selkie maid, so she cannot go back to sea, and forces her to marry him. He keeps her skin in a chest, and keeps the key with him both day and night. One day when out fishing, he discovers that he has forgotten to bring his key. When he returns home,
the selkie wife has escaped back to sea, leaving their children behind. Later, when the farmer is out on a hunt, he kills (unwittingly, I believe)  both her selkie husband and two selkie sons, and she promises to take revenge upon the men of Mikladalur. Some shall be drowned, some shall fall from cliffs and slopes, and this shall continue, until so many men have been lost that they will be able to link arms around the whole island of Kalsoy; there are still occasional deaths occurring in this way on the island."

This revenge has always been taken seriously, not only in Kalsoy but in the Faroe Islands generally. The descendants of the "Seal-woman" are still known in the country by certain characteristics, especially their short fingers." Deaths of men at sea and by falling from cliffs still take place in the Faroe Islands, leading many people to think that the selkie's revenge continues- 

The top photo was taken on the isle of Kalsoy.

The statue of the Selkie of Mikladalur is found on Kalsoy island. 

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Fantasy and Real Life

"At heart, the issues raised in a work of fantasy are those we face in real life. In whatever guise -- our own daily nightmares of war, intolerance, inhumanity, or the struggles of an Assistant Pig-Keeper against the Lord of Death -- the problems are agonizingly familiar. And an openness to compassion, love, and mercy is as essential to us here and now as it is to any inhabitant of an imaginary kingdom." -- Lloyd Alexander,  Newbery award winning author of children's fantasy literature.

Here is a link to read all of Lloyd Alexander's insightful comments on  Terri Windlng's Myth and Moor

The painting is by Andrea Kowch.

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On Reading

But surpassing all stupendous inventions, what sublimity of mind was his who dreamed of finding means to communicate his deepest thoughts to any other person, though distant by mighty intervals of place and time! Of talking with those who are in India; of speaking to those who are not yet born and will not be born for a thousand or ten thousand years; and with what facility, by the different arrangements of twenty characters upon a page...

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).

The photo is of the Long Room in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. 

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Opening the Door to Magic...The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer's Apprentice, An Anthology of Magic Tales, edited by Jack Zipes, opens, in the preface, with   a powerful and highly personal statement:

"As I was developing this project (over the course of six years), it gradually became clear to me why I had become infatuated with these tales: they have given me some signs of hope when it seemed that we were living in hopeless times..."

Why Magic Matters

Zipes then goes on in his introduction (77 pages), Why Magic Matters, to speak to the relevancy of the Sorcerer's Apprentice Tales -- whose origins are ancient -- to painful societal problems that continue to endure today:

"Though many of the diverse tales about sorcerer's apprentice's are quite old, they still speak to contemporary problems of mentorship, child abuse, and exploitation as well as the misuse of cultural and political power. For instance, during the past thirty years there has been a worldwide crisis that involves the maltreatment of young people by sorcerers, the degeneration of public education, slave labor, child abandonment, poverty, and violence..."

" 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' tales inform our lives more than we realize.They are historically and culturally prominent in our cultural memories. They make us aware that magic matters, no matter what its substance may be, no matter what form it takes,"

Self-Empowerment Through Magic 

Zipes illustrates the theme of transition from domination and abuse to self.empowerment and a new life through the taking of power through magic. He offers over 50 tales and examples of the sorcerer's apprentice, ranging across time and cultures including, Ovid, Goethe, Strapola, the Grimms, Ursala LeGuin, and J.K. Rowling, as evidence. 

He shows how there are two versions of the basic tale that have continued through the millennia . There are stories about "humiliated apprentices" who are defeated by magic, and there are stories of "rebellious apprentices" who work hard, endure hardship, learn how to use their cruel master's (the sorcerer) magic for themselves, and ultimately, triumph. As did Harry Potter.

As a reader with an ongoing interest in  the evolution, meaning, and relevance of tales of wonder from the past, I found the insights and information in this fascinating book quite compelling; it opened new awareness and new understanding for me. 

The top illustration is by wyldraven.

The lower illustration is by Hiro Isozaki.

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Her Love Of Animals Shouts Out From Every Page

C.A. Wulff's Born Without A Tail, a memoir about growing up connecting to and loving animals from childhood to womanhood, established her as an author who drew the reader into her world...

 "I can't say too much about this book, it's more than a 'dog book' it's a people, animals, life book. I was hooked from the first page and read it straight through"-- from a review by an Amazon Verified Reader

Circling The Waggins, How Five Misfit Dogs Saved Me From Bewilderness, is a continuation of Wulff's life story in her mature years as an animal advocate, rescuer, artist, and author...

"I am not really sure what it is about these books by Wulff, but I simply love them. The story telling and commentaries are engaging, honest and sincere. And, her love of animals shouts out from every page." -- Amazon review by Nancy Segovia, NY Times and USA Today award winning author.

 

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Castle In The Mist

"Do you think that it is possible for dogs to stop a war?...  Children will enjoy the story (Castle In The Mist) about dogs who come from another planet to help people on earth.  But under the surface are the important messages of friendship, love, loyalty, and how to overcome evil with good���  It will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next..." 

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker, Stories for Children Magazine, Home School Book Buzz

Here is the link to read sample chapters of Castle In The Mist: Planet Of The Dogs 

 

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

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Time Gone By...Visions, Miracles, Angels, and Devils

For hundreds of centuries, people have lived in a world of many dangers from wars, natural disasters, famine and sickness. They found support in stories and events that gave them hope. They became integral to cultures, and unlimited by time and borders; they have been passed on to us today. Often they have become memes, themes that touch us deeply and color our perceptions. We know them today as myths, folktales, fairy tales, and legends.

Among the stories and events from past times that gave hope and also explained the mysteries of existence were those relating to religion. Life was short and difficult, but holy men and saints had the power to help and even to protect people in myriad ways.

There are records, from past ages, of miracles in many forms: holy men and women driving out devils and disease, speaking to angels and devils, making predictions, and even bringing the dead back to life. Such a man with this power was the fourth century Saint, Martin of Tours. In his early life, he was a soldier; in his later life, he was a holy man and a miracle worker.

A Dead Man Returns to Life

Here is an excerpt from the story of St. Martin's life written by a man who met with, and spoke with  the him, Sulpitius Severuson. This excerpt tells of the occasion when St Martin brought a dead man back to life:

"The body being laid out in public was being honored by the last sad offices on the part of the mourning brethren,
when Martin hurries up to them with tears and lamentations. But then laying hold; as it were, of the Holy Spirit, with the whole powers of his mind, he orders the others to quit the cell in which the body was lying; and bolting the door, he stretches himself at full length on the dead limbs of the departed brother...Martin prays and exalts, and then...those who had been standing at the door immediately rush inside. And truly a marvelous spectacle met them, for they beheld the man alive whom they had formerly left dead. Thus being restored to life, and having immediately obtained baptism, he lived for many years afterwards...From this time forward, the name of the sainted man (Martin) became illustrious..."

Here is the link to read more of Sulpitius Severuson's story of this miracle and the life of Saint Martin: St Martin

 

The top photo is of the Famine Walk Memorial, Delph Valley, County Mayo, Ireland
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The forest will answer you in the way you call to it ~ Finnish proverb  

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I Would Like to Be There in November ...

I would like to be there at the KidLit Conference in Hershey, PA, among the annual gathering of people who care about, and blog about, children���s and young adult books, including librarians, teachers, authors, illustrators, parents, and book reviewers.

Here is what author  Jen Swann Downey wrote after attending last year's KidLit  conference:
 
" The organizers and attendees of the event are passionate committed appreciators, evaluators, and disseminators of fiction for young people. Panels and talks addressed kid lit matters seminal, philosophical and practical. In the spaces between these official events, attendees forged friendships, had enthusiastic discussions about the role of stories in kid���s lives, and explored possibilities for collaborations on various projects. The net effect of the event was to renew my belief in the power of children���s literature to help kids navigate, and when necessary or desirable, reimagine life; and feel encouraged in my efforts as a writer."
 
 
Here is a link to read more about the next KIDLITOSPHERE Conference (November 4-5) 
 
The illustration from the Grimm's Maid Maleen is by Arthur Rackham.
  

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���Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will.��� 

"This supremacy of sensibility is no doubt due to the child���s voracious and indiscriminate curiosity, which furnishes a mastery at the art of observation superior to the adult���s by immeasurable orders of magnitude. This seer���s superpower is what glimmers in the personal histories of geniuses, in their recollections of those memorable moments in which they first glimpsed their artistic sense of purpose..."

The above is an excerpt from Maria Popova's article, Baudelaire on the Genius of Childhood ,  on her fascinating website, Brainpickings .

The photo illustration is by Laurent Lavender.

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Haunted in Real Life by the Myth of the Fairy Stepmother  

The fairy stepmother in fairy tales is often cruel and heartless.  Author and new stepmother Leslie Jamison found herself confronting the legacy of fairy tale mythology when she became stepmother to a lovely little girl named Lily. The situation was compounded by the fact that Lily's mother had died. Here is an excerpt from this fascinating account of a new life for both Leslie and Lily.

"I wondered if it was comforting for Lily to hear stories about fairy-tale children who had lost what she had lost ��� unlike most of the kids at her school, or in her ballet classes, whose mothers were still alive. Or perhaps it brought the stories dangerously near, the fact that she shared so much with them. Maybe it peeled away their protective skins of fantasy, made their pepper water too literal, brought their perils too close. When I read her the old fairy tales about daughters without mothers, I worried that I was pushing on the bruises of her loss. When I read her the old fairy tales about stepmothers, I worried I was reading her an evil version of myself."

Here is a link to read all of Leslie Jamison's account:   FairyStepmother

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The Nightmare Plight of the Yazidi and Their Children

The photo is of a Yazidi woman and her family. The Yazidi are caught up in genocide. The following is excerpted from the Guardian

"Islamic State  fighters are committing genocide against Yazidis in Syria and Iraq by seeking to destroy the group through murder, sexual slavery, gang rape, torture and humiliation, UN investigators have said.

"One Yazidi woman recalled being bought by an Isis fighter at a Raqqa slave farm. On placing her in his car, he told her: ���You are like a sheep. I have bought you.��� He sold her seven days later to an Algerian Isis fighter living in the Aleppo area..."

One very active source of aid amidst this madness is the UNHCR. I salute them. They seek funding. This is from their website..."UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people.  

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MOVIES

 Okja...an Adult Crossover Fantasy

"Okja is a most remarkable pig. As big as a medium-sized elephant, with a snout that looks more canine than porcine, she is slobbery and sometimes flatulent, but also loyal, gentle and brave. Okja is devoted, above all, to a girl named Mija. They have grown up together on a remote mountain farm that belongs to Mija���s grandfather, inseparable companions in a classic literary and cinematic tradition... But anyone familiar with that tradition ��� I���ll mention ���Old Yeller��� and leave it at that ��� knows that stories of children and their pets are almost inevitably shadowed by tragedy and loss. The adult human world regards animals through a callous, utilitarian lens, as sources of food, labor or ornamental cuteness, a fact that ���Okja,��� Bong Joon-ho���s wonderful new film, takes to a dystopian but also an unnervingly realistic extreme." -- excerpted from A.O. Scott's review in the NY Times.

Here is a link to the very engaging  OKJA Trailer

Captain Underpants...a Movie for Kids

I haven't seen the movie and I haven't read the book, but to my surprise, the reviews are mostly excellent; apparently, the movie is smart, creative, definitely for kids, and very funny. Here is an excerpt from Wendy Ide's review in the Guardian:

"Although one of the foundations on which much children���s cinema was built, lavatory humour was always perceived as an inglorious last resort. Can���t think of a funny line? Have a character break wind instead. By this logic, Captain Underpants, a film almost entirely crafted out of lavatory humour, should be a soul-crushing, puerile slog. However, David Soren���s animation, which was adapted from the children���s books by Dav Pilkey, is a delightful surprise. It���s a celebration of friendship, of the boundless creativity of children���s minds. It���s a dizzily silly collection of sly cultural references. It���s visually inventive, narratively agile. And yes, it has fart gags..."

Here is a link to the trailer for Captain Underpants.

A Disappointing Valerian... despite limitless imagination 

The consensus seems to be that Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets has very imaginative animation, excellent CGI, but a disappointing story that bogs down...Here is an excerpt from a review by Thelma Adams in the New York Observer:"In the end, Besson���s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a mixed bag: a ripe visual adventure of limitless imagination hamstrung by an undercooked plot propelled by lackluster heroes.

Here is an action filled trailer (there are several) for Valerian

Miyazaki Studio Ghibli Film Festival USA

Thanks to Once Upon a Blog (INK Gypsy), I learned of the Miyazaki Ghibli Fim Festival, happening now and through the fall, in multiple locations, across the country. To locate when and where one of these six extraordinary films is playing in your area, click this link, MIYAZKI      

The festival films are: My Friend Totoro; Kiki's Delivery Service; Howl's Moving Castle; Nausica, Valley Of The Wind; Castle In The Sky; and Spirited Away.

 

The illustration is from Howl's Moving Castle.

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The Man Who Read 100,000 of Lewis Carroll's Letters

A co-founder of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, Morton Cohen, died last June. People from many walks of life, and many countries, who have an active interest in Alice or Lewis Carroll, are members. The following is excerpted from Morton Cohen's NY Times obituary article in the NY Times.

"Morton Cohen, a scholar of Victorian literature who spent much of his career editing the letters and writing the definitive biography of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the author, as Lewis Carroll, of ���Alice���s Adventures in Wonderland��� and ���Through the Looking-Glass,��� died on June 12 in Manhattan. He was 96....Carroll was such an astonishingly prolific correspondent ��� he wrote at least 100,000 letters in his lifetime ��� that the project, a feat of prodigious research and patience, took Mr. Cohen and Mr. Green nearly two decades to complete. It was published in 1979. Mr. Cohen notably tracked down many of the adult women to whom Carroll had written when they were children... "

Here is a link to the Richard Sandomir's NYTimes article/obituary of Morton Cohen

Here is a link to the Lewis Carroll Society of North America.

 

The illustration, Never too Late, is by Lyndsey Pyne

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Paws Giving Independence

Paws Giving Independence (PGI) is a multi-faceted, grass roots, volunteer organization, located in Peoria, Illinois, that does wonderful work in providing service dogs for people with disabilities. Their dogs serve people ranging from the Jesse Brown Veteran's Hospital in Chicago to the Peoria Children's Home Youth Farm. PGI is non-profit. They depend on volunteers and donations.

The photo on the left is of Monty, a PGI trained dog, going to school with his friend, the young girl in the photo. They are both in fourth grade. Monty lives with her in her home, and they go everywhere, including the school bus, together. I  have posted this photo in the past; it I am heartened and touched by this little girl and Monty.

Monty was trained by a Bradley University student as part of the Wags for Mags program, initiated by Paws Giving Independence  .This ongoing program of student volunteers train dogs for people with disabilities. Anyone with a disability can apply for a PGI service dog. There is no charge for the dog, the training, or the service. And, many of the PGI trained dogs are rescued dogs.

The PGI annual Running With The Dogs fundraiser will be held in Peoria on September 30. There will be medals), and the annual pet costume contest.  

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Excerpt from The Tailors Apprentice...a sixteenth century Sorcerer's Apprentice Tale

 "Lattantino...practiced in public, namely his trade of a tailor, while the other, the art of necromancy, he did in secret. Now, one day Lattantio took the son of a poor man as his apprentice in order to make a tailor of him. This young man was called Dionigi, an industrious and smart fellow, who learned everything as soon as it was taught to him. One day, when Maestro Lattantino was alone, he locked himself in his chamber and began conducting experiments in magic. When Dionigi became aware of this, he crept silently up to a crack in the door and saw very clearly what Lattanto was doing. As a result, he became so entranced and obsessed by this art that he could think only of necromancy and cast aside all thoughts of becoming a tailor."

Excerpted from Straparola's  Pleasant Nights (1553), his collection of oral tales which were told to him, "by the ladies, nobles, learned men and gentlemen who gathered together for recreation." One of the stories appearing in Zipes' Sorcerer's Apprentice.

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The Yelodoggie Book Search Continues

Why Am I ? is a joyous book that helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us. Why Am I teaches tolerance.

We are actively searching for a publisher who will love Why Am I, embrace its potential, and launch it into the world.

We believe that Why Am I ?, C.A. Wulff's wonderful new Yelodoggie book should have wide distribution. Kids 4-8 love it and we see it as the beginning of a series.

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The Planet Of The Dogs Series

We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email 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 on the many sources on Internet and through independent book stores. 

The photo of Jordy reading is by Jennifer Wykham.
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 "I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons." -- Will Rogers

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July -- Alternate Reality from Coraline to the Seven Sisters and Beyond

                     

                                  

                                                     
                                       

 Illustration from Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book by Dave McKean

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"Fantasy is a different approach to reality, an alternative technique for apprehending and coping with existence. It is not antirational, but pararational; not realistic but surrealistic, a heightening of reality.  In Freud's terminology, it employs primary, not secondary process thinking. It employs archetypes, which, as Jung warned us, are dangerous things. Fantasy is nearer to poetry, to mysticism, and to insanity than naturalistic fiction is. It is a wilderness, and those who go there should not feel too safe."   - Ursula K. Le Guin 

The illustration is by Nikolaus Hedeibach
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Neil Gaiman...The Master of Alternate Reality

I first encountered Neil Gaiman in Coraline, the story of a little girl who finds a secret door in her family's new house; the door leads to a passageway that brings her to an eerie parallel reality. At first, she is intrigued and enchanted by this world where she has myriad adventures. In time she becomes frightened and senses that she is in great danger.

In Gaiman's own words in the Introduction to Trigger Warnings, "I'm thinking...about those images or words or ideas that drop like trapdoors beneath us, throwing us out of our sane, safe world into a place much more dark and less welcoming...there are things that wait for us, patiently, in the dark corridors of our lives."

The variety, volume and quality of Gaiman's work is awesome. He is also a terrific speaker as evidenced by numerous YouTube videos for audiences ranging from devoted fans to the Julius Schwartz lecture at MIT. He is actively concerned regarding humanitarian issues like the refugee crisis, at risk children, and the failure of the UK in these matters.

The photo at left was taken when Gaiman visited two refugee camps (2014) in Jordan run by the UN Refugee Agency...In May, 2017, Gaiman "offered to stage a dramatic reading of Dr Seuss���s Fox in Socks, if fans pledge $1m (��769,000) to help refugees. The British author made the offer after accepting a previous challenge to read out the menu of a US dessert chain in exchange for $500,000-worth of pledges to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)."

The photo of Neil Gaiman with refugee children in camp Azrag (Jordan) is by Jordi Matas/UNHCR

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Who Else but Neil Gaiman Would Write this Book?

The Graveyard Book (2008) by Neil Gaiman is the story of a boy whose parents are brutally murdered and who is adopted and raised in a graveyard by dead spirits and other supernatural inhabitants. 

Is this a story concept that one would predict would sell over a million copies and win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medals? I don't think so. And yet, this is what happened. The book was on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year

I was skeptical of its appeal. I have now read the book and been won over. It is truly fascinating. It was inspired by watching his young daughter happily riding her bike in a graveyard. Many years later, he wrote the book.

The Graveyard Book       

The illustration from the Graveyard Book is by Dave Mckean.

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"Parents shouldn't assume children are made out of sugar candy and will break and collapse instantly. Kids don't. We do." Maurice Sendak.

 

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Beyond Versatility... Retelling Stories and Myths from the Past

Neil Gaiman is able to enhance old fairy tales, myths, and stories handed down from the past in remarkable ways. Here are just three examples: 

Hansel and Gretel

Gaiman wrote a version of the Grimm's Hansel and Gretel and made it even darker and more compelling. Here is an excerpt from Barking Planet blog when I wrote about this extraordinary book as well as earlier versions of Hansel and Gretel. 

"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." 

The illustration from Gaiman's Hansel and Gretel is by Lorenzo Mattotti.

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The Sleeper and the Spindle

Gaiman wrote a  fascinating version of Sleeping Beauty entitled      The Sleeper and the Spindle , wherein Snow White, now a Queen, with the help of four devoted dwarfs, resists the sleeping spell, and brings life to thousands caught in the timeless paralysis of sleep. I found this story to be a delightful mix of surprises, awakenings, and empowerment. Here is an excerpt...

"She was sitting up in bed. She looked so beautiful, and so very young. The queen looked at the girl, and saw what she was searching for: the same look that she had seen in her stepmother's eyes, and she knew what manner of creature this girl was."

Illustration from The Sleeper and the Spindle by Chris Riddell.

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And recently, Gaiman wrote his version of Norse Mythology...

Norse Mythology��� is a playful retelling of ancient northern stories about the creation of the world and other pressing matters featuring Odin; Thor, the not-so-bright god with the hammer; and Loki, the god who makes all the trouble....

His new book starts with the beginning of the world and ends with its destruction by ice and fire and darkness before hope is restored, gingerly and tentatively, with the beginnings of a new earth from the ruins of the old one. Its message seems relevant just now." (excerpted from Sarah Lyall, New York Times ). Norse Mythology is another Gaimen best seller.

Here is a link to Gaiman discussing Norse Mythology, refugees, and writing.

 
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The Seven Sisters...the next book

Gaiman is currently writing a sequel to Neverwhere, entitled, The Seven Sisters. The book was partially inspired by his vist to UN refugee camps as well as "the shape London is in now." .
 

 

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Beyond Frontiers

"Theories about world literature, of which fairy tale is a fundamental part, emphasize the porousness of borders, geographical and linguistic: no frontier can keep a good story from roaming. It will travel, and travel far, and travel back again in a different guise, a changed mood, and, above all, a new meaning."

  Marina Warner (by way of Terri Windling)

Illustration by Charles Vess.

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Oxfam

"Oxfam is an international confederation of 20 ngos working with partners in over 90 countries to end the injustices that cause poverty...
We are in the middle of the most serious refugee crisis since the Second World War, with millions of people risking everything to flee terrifying conflict, disaster and poverty. More than 65 million people worldwide have been forced to flee their homes. The majority ��� more than 38 million people ��� are displaced within their own countries. Others shelter in neighbouring countries or are still on the move, putting their lives in danger on treacherous journeys to seek refuge further from home...

And yet, having escaped the unthinkable, many vulnerable families are met by closed borders, hostility, discrimination, abuse and worse. Pushed into poverty by circumstances beyond their control, terrified of what their future might hold, these desperate families need safety and protection ��� and have a right to be treated with dignity."

Here is a link to this wonderful organization: Oxfam

Photo by Marco Djurica/Reuters

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Planet Of The Dogs...An Alternate Reality Series

"Planet of the Dogs is an adorable children���s book���especially for kids who love dogs.  On a deeper level, this work teaches lessons relevant to today���s world; namely that loving one another unconditionally is better than greed and war...The author is able to impart these principles in a way suitable for children to understand.  As well, the original illustrations add an extra dimension to the Planet of the Dogs.

My children and I look forward to reading more books from the Planet of the Dogs series.  I give it five stars."

Charyl Miller Pingleton, The Uncommon Review 

Here is a link to read sample chapters of the Planet Of The Dogs Series.

The illustrati on is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty

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The New Sorcerers Apprentice Book

Jack Zipes has edited a new book, "A diverse new anthology that traces the meaning and magic of the sorcerer's apprentice tale throughout history." Here is an excerpt from the publisher's (Princeton) announcement.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" might conjure up images of Mickey Mouse from the Disney film Fantasia, or of Harry Potter. As this anthology reveals, however, "sorcerer's apprentice" tales���in which a young person rebels against, or complies with, an authority who holds the keys to magical powers���have been told through the centuries, in many languages and cultures, from classical times to today...

In an extensive introduction, esteemed fairy-tale scholar Jack Zipes discusses the significance and meaning of the apprentice stories, the contradictions in popular retellings, and the importance of magic as a tool of resistance against figures who abuse their authority. Twenty specially commissioned black-and-white illustrations by noted artist Natalie Frank bring the stories to visual life."

Here is a link with more information about the Sorcerer's Apprentice

 
I will review The Sorcerer's Apprentice next month in this blog.

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Stories from the Oral Tradition

���For most of human history, 'literature,' both fiction and poetry, has been narrated, not written ��� heard, not read. So fairy tales, folk tales, stories from the oral tradition, are all of them the most vital connection we have with the imaginations of the ordinary men and women whose labor created our world.���  -- Angela Carter     

 

Illustration by Francois Millet.

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Movies

Marvelous Miyazaki...the Master of Alternate Worlds in Cinema

Visit Hayao Miyazaki at this link, Alternate Reality, for a marvelous visual video journey of 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

Miyazaki's films are extraordinary and this is a lovely montage of wondrous moments. 

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Disney...The Early Days

Disney has received much criticism for failing to give credit to original sources, and for compromising fairy tales by reducing/compromizing the stories and substituting excessive sugar coating for content. I agree with this criticism. Like virtually all film producers, Disney is focused on profit. They now use market research to guide the "creative process". This leads to compromises, sugar coating, and disregard for the original sources.

However, in my experience, in the early days, they produced some films that were wonderful experiences, very imaginative, and a wonderful introduction to the world of fantasy. To illustrate my early Disney experiences, I present three excerpts :
 

The transformation of Snow White's stepmother, the Queen, into a witch... Transformation 

 

The death of Bambi's mother.

Bambi

 

 

Pinocchio becomes a jackass.

Pinocchio 

 

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Despicable Me 3

I saw the trailer for Despicable Me 3  and enjoyed this imaginative animated alternate reality. It was new to me, but has proved very popular with audiences in two earlier versions. And so, I  share with you a review excerpt from a man who has seen all the films in the Despicable Me series:

The Despicable Me series has shown there is life outside Pixar and Disney, both commercially and artistically,... While all the elements that brought the first two Despicable Mes inordinate popularity are present and correct, it might perhaps be churlish to suggest that the charm is beginning to wear off ��� just a tiny bit... Despicable Me 3 will certainly keep the younger elements of its audience happy, with its dose of aspartame-rush hyperactivity. But for everyone else it may prove decent rather than captivating.

To read more... Here is Andrew Pulver's Review in the Guardian:

 

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Dr. Seuss Museum has Arrived


The Dr Suess museum has opened in Springfield, MA., the hometown of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991) whose books sold over 600 million copies and were translated into over 20 languages by the time of his death.

"Through the front door of the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield, Mass., the mind of the beloved children���s book author Theodor Seuss Geisel springs to life. The new three-floor museum is lush with murals, including one with a proo, a nerkle, a nerd and a seersucker, too. Around one corner, visitors will find an immense sculpture of Horton the Elephant from ���Horton Hears a Who!���

Excerpted from an article by Sopan Deb in the NYTimes.

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Susan Purser and Her Therapy Dog, Rose

I have been in touch for many years with Susan Purser, a retired school teacher. I recently received a warm, thoughtful, message -- and photographs -- regarding the hands that reach out for Rose. Here is an excerpt..."aged hands, searching for memories and then sharing them with whispers in Rose's ear or while hugging her neck...Rose has been therapy dog for Tidewell Hospice and Palliative Care for fifteen years...she 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...I am a facilitator and I do believe, if she could drive, she would not need me! Pet therapy is such a special part of the people's lives and I am truly blessed to have entered this treasured space for just a little while and then I think, where have fifteen years gone? "

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Circling The Waggins... How 5 Misfit Dogs Saved Me from Bewilderness

This book, by dog advocate and author C.A. Wulff, is a terrific memoir of life in a cabin in the forest where rescued dogs and other critters are an integral part of human life filled with surprises and love. 

 "The author brings alive the small pleasures and also the pain of those who live with a pack. Rescue people have some of the most extraordinary stories to tell and this book tells them well. The pain of loss and the unexpected beauties of life are shared in this book and I'm the richer for the reading. I have a pack myself and I could empathize with the author and feel as though I'd recognize the dogs and cats if I saw them! The author has spent a lifetime in exploration of the terrain where human and non human lives intersect and left us this treasure map. Read it, you'll be glad you did." - Kindle customer

Circling The Waggins

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The Frog Prince and the Middle Age Woman

"There is a joke about a middle-aged woman who happens upon a frog in the woods. 'Kiss me, kiss me.' says the frog,' and I'll turn into a handsome prince!'  The woman stares, entranced, but doesn't move.

'What's the matter'? asks the frog, growing impatient. 'Don't you want a handsome prince?'

'I'm sorry,' says the woman, 'but at this stage in my life I'm actually more interested in a talking frog.'"

Excerpted from a short story, Paris, by Lorrie Moore.

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Trump Becomes First President to Fall Down the Rabbit Hole

The president fell down the rabbit hole and lives there in an alternate reality where he is never wrong. A fact takes new form whenever it's brillig. Humpty Dumpty is in line to replace the Attorney General and Tweedledum has negotiated fantastic new tax exemptions for billionaires. Golf has replaced tea parties and the Mad Hatter has resigned as Trump's hair dresser. It's fantastic and another promise of new jobs fulfilled.

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Guns In America

National Geographic produced a thoughtful and disturbing documentary on Guns In America. In 50 minutes, this video delivers a comprehensive portrait of people in many walks of life and the impact of guns that affects all of our lives. 

 

Here is a link to National Geographic's Guns in America 

The photo was taken in Sandy Hook following the murders

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 The NRA is Rewriting Fairy Tales

 

The illustration of Little Red Riding Hood is by Laura Zombie

 

 

 

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The Yelodoggie Book Search is On

We are now actively searching for a publisher who will love the book, Why Am I, embrace its potential, and launch it into the world.

Why Am I ? is a joyous Yelodoggie book that helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us. Why Am I teaches tolerance.

We believe that Why Am I ?, C.A. Wulff's wonderful new Yelodoggie book should have a big marketing push and wide distribution. Kids 4-8 love it and we are hoping it will be the beginning of a series.

 

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The Planet Of The Dogs Series

We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email 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 on the Internet through independent book stores, as well as : Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Walmart, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino. 

 
The photo of Kite and Rose, the therapy dog, is by Susan Purser.
 
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"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn���t merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.��� ... Edward Hoagland

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June -- From Hogwarts to His Dark Materials and Beyond

                                             
                                            
                                         
                                               "Imagination, not intelligence.made us human" -- Terry Pratchett

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Journeys of the Imagination

As a young reader, I saw the illustration of the man tied to the ground and surrounded by little armed people; my curiosity was aroused, and I was immediately drawn in to the reading of Gulliver's Travels. 

It was many years later that I learned that this extraordinary book -- an adventure story and a wonderful journey of the imagination -- which has captivated children since its publication in 1726, was also a political and cultural satire, written under a pseudonym during turbulent times, by the Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift.

..."when I awaked, it was just day-light.  I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for, as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner...I heard a confused noise about me; but in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky.  In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left leg..." Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels was one of many books that took me to other worlds. Like so many other books, especially in those early years, it was recommended by a thoughtful librarian. As a result, I have long regarded librarians as unsung guides to the great wonders of reading.

Storytellers have always been a gateway to the imagination.

Here is a link to an excellent Project Gutenberg version of Gulliver's Travels adpapted from the D.C. Heath illustrated edition(2005)  

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"Everything you can imagine is real" --  Pablo Picasso

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Rowling and Pullman...remarkable storytellers of today

Two of the most imaginative and creative writers of children's literature in today's world are very different in the stories they create and in their writing style. Yet the completeness of their vision and their attention to details is boundless and quite remarkable.  And they continue to bring us new wonders. 

Each of them creates full blown worlds of wonder and magic that resonate with their very large, passionate following of readers.

They both have huge numbers of older as well as younger readers; and have had their work transposed to other creative mediums, from theater and dance, to  movies and TV, to comic books and games.

And both are also deeply concerned with the humanitarian and political events of our contemporary world.

The illustration is by Pawlel Kuczynski

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J.K. Rowling...The Promise of Another World

What would it be like to be Harry Potter's son?  What conflicts were taking place in the world of wizardry before Harry Potter's time? J. K. Rowling's creative responses to these questions have resulted in a magical prize winning London play, Harry potter and the Cursed Child and a new series of delightful films, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (the first film in the series was reviewed here in January, 2017 ). Books of both the play and the film are best sellers.

The play --  it is it is in two parts and runs on consecutive nights -- has proved to be popular with adults and children. It has also brought large numbers of people to the theater for whom attending the theater is a new experience. It is coming to the USA in April, 2018.

There will be five films in the Fantastic Beasts series with the next one scheduled for release in November, 2018.  In this sequel, we will meet Newt Salamander's older brother, Theseus (Callum Turner) and see Albous Dumbledore in his younger days as portrayed by Jude Law.

Insights Into J.K. Rowling

Sarah Crompton, in the Guardian, conducted an interview, prior to the opening of the play (after two years of pre-production collaboration), with Rowling, writer Jack Thorne, and director John Tiffany. Here are two very personal insights by Rowling that came from the Crompton interview:   

���It has been almost a decade since she put pen to paper for the final book in the sequence. ���But I carry that world around in my head all the time, she acknowledges. ���I am never going to hate that world. I love that world. But there are other worlds I want to live in too'..."

"People came inside the world with me...The big reason why people loved Potter was that it felt like it could be. That sense that there is more to the world. Just on the other side. Even within touching distance. There���s more. It is the promise of another world and it doesn���t have to be a magical world but to a lonely child or an insecure person or anyone who feels different or isolated, the idea of having a place where you do belong is everything.���

..Here is a linlk to the Sarah Crompton interview in the Guardian. 

Here is a link to Rowling's lively and imaginative website: Pottermore .

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"The power of imagination makes us infinite"-- John Muir

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 Phillip Pullman...Lyra Lives On

"Philip Pullman has ended years of speculation by announcing that The Book of Dust, an epic fantasy trilogy that will stand alongside his bestselling series, His Dark Materials, will be published in October around the world.

The as-yet-untitled first volume of The Book of Dust, due out on 19 October, will be set in London and Oxford, with the action running parallel to the His Dark Materials trilogy. A global bestseller since the first volume, Northern Lights, was published in 1995, Pullman���s series has sold more than 17.5m copies and been translated into 40 languages."

Excerpted from an article in the Guardian by Danuta Kean. Here is a link:  Danuta Kean in the Guardian 

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Pullman...Why Retu
rn to Lyra's World?

Why return to Lyra���s world? Dust. Questions about that mysterious and troubling substance were already causing strife 10 years before His Dark Materials, and at the centre of The Book of Dust is the struggle between a despotic and totalitarian organisation, which wants to stifle speculation and enquiry, and those who believe thought and speech should be free. The idea of Dust suffused His Dark Materials. Little by little through that story the idea of what Dust was became clearer and clearer, but I always wanted to return to it and discover more. Questions about our existence are infinitely interesting to me. There���s always more to explore..."

excerpted from Pullman's website


Illustrations from His Dark Materials by Peter Bailey, Folio Society 

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The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship

It seems that Phillip Pullman, like Neil Gaiman, has also written a comic strip, now a book, that has great appeal to adults as will as younger people. Here is an excerpt from a rave review in the Guardian by Rachel Cooke 

"This column doesn���t usually include comics that were written mostly with children or teenagers ... But I���m making an exception for The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship, first because its author is Philip Pullman, Carnegie medal winner and bestselling author of His Dark Materials, and second ��� by far the more important reason ��� because it���s fantastic...

Beautifully drawn by Fred Fordham, The Adventures of John Blake first appeared in The Phoenix, the weekly comic published by David Fickling Books

Fickling will also publish Pullman's Daemon Voices ��� Essays on Storytelling in Autumn 2017.

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Trump's Alternate Reality

I learned that President Trump has found a portal to an alternate reality of his own. No glaciers are melting there. Twitter is a beacon of enlightenment. He can do whatever comes into his mind and he is always right. He can keep his tax returns a secret forever. And the NRA is everybody's friend. Except maybe non-whites and refugees. The problem with Trump's alternate reality is that it comes from the Dark Side.


Illustration of the Blind Leading the Blind is by Pieter Bruegel

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Imagine

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world... You...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one...John Lennon


The photo, taken in Killarney, is by David Sedlmayer 

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Loyalty, Dogs and Kids...the Planet Of The Dogs Series

How do you explain loyalty to children? Does loyalty have a place in the world outside? Is it a virtue? Does it bring trouble or problems? Or Is it rewarding? Does loyalty have a beginning and an end? 

Where can a child find examples of loyalty that they can experience and understand? 

Dogs offer a wonderful way for a child to understand loyalty. Dogs are the embodiment of loyalty and a story with dogs can illustrate loyalty.

Suppose it is long, long ago.

Invaders are coming, but they have never seen dogs...

Here is a link to sample chapters of all books in the Planet Of The Dogs series.



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

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Rowling and Pullman...Humanitarian and Political Involvement

LUMOS

Named after the light-giving spell in the Harry Potter books, Lumos is an international non-governmental, non-profit organisation founded by J.K. Rowling to help the eight million disadvantaged children in orphanages around the world to be returned to their family or placed in a loving family environment... Lumos��� mission is to end the use of orphanages and institutions for vulnerable children around the world by 2050. 

In Addition...

J.K. Rowling is no longer a billionaire���because she donated so much money to charity. In 2011, she gave away about 16% of her net worth, or $160 million dollars.

Over the years, she has continued to donate millions to charities including  AIDS & HIV, Cancer, Children, Creative Arts, Education, Family/Parent Support, Health, Homelessness, Human Rights, Hunger, Literacy, Mental Challenges, Miscellaneous, Physical Challenges, Poverty, Refugees, Women

Her efforts on the part on the part of orphans and homeless children are ongoing.

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The Thousand Causes for Brexit

Phillip Pullman is a commendable activist in cultural and political affairs. Here is an excerpt from an powerful article he wrote for the Guardian on Brexit ...

"This catastrophe has had a thousand causes. Here are some.  There is our country���s post-imperial reluctance to let go of the idea that we are a great nation, combined with our post-second-world-war delusion that we were still a great power..."

Children's Books -- Let the Readers Decide for Themselves 

"In 2008, Pullman led a campaign against the introduction of age bands on the covers of children���s books, saying: 'It's based on a one-dimensional view of growth, which regards growing older as moving along a line like a monkey climbing a stick: now you're seven, so you read these books; and now you're nine so you read these' ...

In 2014, Pullman supported the Let Books Be Books campaign to stop children���s books being labelled as ���for girls��� or ���for boys���, saying:'I'm against anything, from age-ranging to pinking and blueing, whose effect is to shut the door in the face of children who might enjoy coming in. No publisher should announce on the cover of any book the sort of readers the book would prefer. Let the readers decide for themselves' ".  Excerpted from Wikipedia

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 "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere." --  Carl Sagan 

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Imagination Made Tangible

Imagination comes alive --often initiated by myth and fairy tales --  in all the arts.

The European tradition of street festivals and outdoor celebrations has produced extraordinary results in the creative work of Jerzy Zon and the KTO Theater of Krakow. Some of their productions, dealing with the human condition, allegories of war and survival, take place a at night in large open spaces and are intended for adults. Others, however, are meant for  both children and adults. Both can be seen among the spectators reacting with wonder to this KTO production entitled Peregrinus:  Teatr KTO "Peregrinus"

Footnote: There is a myth that a dragon once lived in a cave under Krakow. There are several versions of how a young shoemaker was able to kill the dragon after many knights failed to do so and had been killed. Here is a link to the story; Once Upon a Time In Poland

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Hours of Laughter and Joy

C.A. Wulff is an author of dog books and a passionate animal advocate. She is an expert on using the Internet for dog rescue and all related matters. Wulff is also an expert on the benefits of dog rescue. This is an excerpt from her blog: Up On The Woof.

"And what about that dog you saved? There is nothing more joyous and grateful than a dog who has been saved. Dogs don���t keep those sorts of feelings to themselves, they want to share them. That dog becomes the most loving, faithful companion you can imagine. He will protect his new family in times of danger and comfort them in times of sadness. He will teach the children in the family to love and respect animals... The dog will bring hours of laughter and joy to his people." ...

How to Change the World in Thirty seconds can be found on Amazon.

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Intuition and Imagination  Amidst Form Follows Function

The architecture and design that emanated from the Bauhaus personifies the underlying idea that form follows function. Clean,often austere,  highly functional designs became a hallmark of the buildings, tools, machines, and artifacts created by a multitude of top architects and designers worldwide. 

Johannes Itten, who developed the initial course that taught students the basics of material characteristics, composition, and color, was also an advocate of developing intuitive creative powers.  Itten believed that intuition was a principal source of artistic inspiration and practice. However, this led to substantial conflicts with Walter Gropius ( founder of the Bauhaus in 1919) and ultimately, the departure of Itten in 1922.

Here is a quote from Itten that is clearly at odds with the austere Bauhaus philosophy..."Play becomes joy, joy becomes work, work becomes play.

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Return to Gun Nation -- Home of the NRA

In the 18 years since Zed Nelson���s seminal photography book Gun Nation was published, 500,000 Americans have been killed by firearms in the US.

Half a million people dead and many more injured; Nelson returns to the people he met, re-photographs and videos them, and asks why America is a nation still with an insatiable appetite for firearms. 40% of all gun sales in the USA are "private" -- no background check required.

Here is a link to this incredible Guardian documentary: Return to Gun Nation

I wrote about Nelson's original film -- Gun Nation, a journey -- in this Barking Planet blog in October 2016. 

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Assisting Refugees

I first read this story by Dan Barry before the inauguration of Donald Trump. Months have passed, and the compassionate and practical work of CWS (Church World Service) is even more vital today...

"A dull gray house on a hillside has to become a home. Another Syrian family of refugees will be arriving soon, and this empty, echoing old place needs to be readied in welcome...In Lancaster, Pa., where resettlement work dates back decades, volunteers and staff members from the Church World Service prepared a home for a family of new arrivals..." Here is a Link to read all of this story;  NYTimes A Joyful Bustle story 

CWS helps refugees around the world and supports legislation for immigration reform that will provide a permanent solution and a path to citizenship..."Church World Service was born in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II. Seventeen denominations came together to form an agency ���to do in partnership what none of us could hope to do as well alone.��� The mission: Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, comfort the aged, shelter the homeless."

Here is a link to read more about the wonderful work of CWS    The photo is by Sergey Ponomarev, NYT

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Sharing the World of Myth and Imagination

Writing this blog is an ongoing learning experience. My reading varies, from fairy tales to writings about children's literature, past and present. When I want to immerse myself in informed ideas, art work, and information -- as well as the spirit of "folklore, fairy tales, fantasy, mythic arts & mythic living" -- I visit the world of Terri Windling in her Dartmoor studio. In my experience, there is nothing else quite like Terri Windling's Myth and Moor blog.

Here is an excerpt from the opening of a Myth and Moor post on Dark Beauty: 

"Having grown up amidst violence and ugliness, I have long dedicated my life to kindness, compassion and beauty: three old-fashioned ideals that I truly believe keep the globe spinning in its right orbit. William Morris, artist and socialist, considered beauty to be as essential as bread in everyone's life, rich and poor alike. It is one of the truths that I live by. Beauty in this context, of course, is not the shallow glamour peddled by Madison Avenue; it's a quality of harmony, balance and interrelationship: physical, emotional, and spiritual all at once...We are living through a time when dark, violent forces have been released, encouraged, and amplified, on both sides of the Atlantic...

The world of Myth and Moor is the work of a committed, gifted, and relevant artist, always reaching for higher self, and always generous in the ways she shares her journey.

The photo is of Terri, in Dartmoor, with her dog, Tilly.

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The Fairy Tale Tradition

"From the very beginning, thousands of years ago, when tales were told to create communal bonds in face of the inexplicable forces of nature, to the present, when fairy tales are written and told to provide hope in a world seemingly on the brink of catastrophe, mature men and women have been the creators and cultivators of the fairy tale tradition..."

Jack Zipes, Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture

 

The illustration and book cover is by Arthur Rackham.

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���Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them,��� Albert Camus
 

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MOVIES

Arthur...The story has traveled through the centuries as legends and myth, in oral tales and written stories...and now, a new film version for the CGI era.

Here is Rotten Tomatoes' Critics Consensus (based on 189 critic's reviews): "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword piles mounds of modern action flash on an age-old tale -- and wipes out much of what made it a classic story in the first place."

On the other hand, here is an excerpt from a rather positive review by Manohla Dargis in the New York Times: 

"The Arthur story has played out differently across the centuries, from the Middle Ages to T. H. White���s novel ���The Sword in the Stone��� to Disney���s 20th-century cartoon take, and each moment in time shapes the way it���s told. In this case, that means something old, something blockbustery and that Guy Ritchie je ne sais quoi.

Put differently, this variation on the Arthurian legend fleetingly brings to mind ���Game of Thrones��� but mostly plays out according to the Ritchie template: a self-amused, endlessly resourceful laddish hero gets in and out of trouble with winks, smarts and brute force, sometimes in the company of Jude Law. This time the resident rogue is Arthur, played with easy, low-wattage charisma by Charlie Hunnam, who has a gift for delivering nonsense without seeming embarrassed.

Here is a link to the entire review;ManohlaDargis

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Last Men In Aleppo

This is a searing and very touching documentary about the White Helmet volunteers who risk their lives, after a bombing or shelling, to try and save people trapped in the ruins. The focus is on three men and their families, and their struggle to save lives and protect their families amidst the chaos...winner of the Grand Jury Documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

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False News: While researching the White Helmets on You Tube, I found false videos and fake documentaries apparently posted by Russian or Syrian Government Sources. I also found what appear to be ISIS  sponsored videos. Very disturbing.

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Buena Vista Social Club, Adios

Several years ago, Wim Wenders made an excellent documentary about the Buena Vista Social Club, their captivating music, and their new found success.

I watched the trailer for a new documentary that appears to be an affectionate follow-up. I hope it succeeds in opening the doors to this wonderful music for a new generation.  

Here is a link to the trailer of the Buena Vista Social Club, Adios

 

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"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination" -- John Lennon 

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A Dog's Prayer

Dear God: We Dogs can understand human
verbal instructions, hand signals, whistles,
horns, clickers, beepers, scent IDs,
electromagnetic energy fields, and Frisbee
flight paths. What do humans understand?

The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty

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Harvey
  

Harvey makes me smile. Harvey, the media dog, works for a living with some very imaginative people. If you like dogs, click here for a link: Harvey

 

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The Yelodoggie Search

Why Am I is a joyous Yelodoggie book that helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.

We believe that Why Am I, C.A. Wulff's wonderful new Yelodoggie book should have a big marketing push and wide distribution. Kids 4-8 love it and we are hoping it will be the beginning of a series. We are now actively searching for a publisher who will also love the book, embrace its potential, and launch it into the world.

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The Planet Of The Dogs Series

We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email 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 on the Internet through independent book stores, as well as : Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Walmart, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino. 

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



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 "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principle difference between a dog and a man." -- Mark Twain
 
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May -- Springtime, Hope and the World of Imagination

 

                   
                                  

   

                        The illustration from Charlotte Zolotow's Mr Rabbit and the Lovely Present is by Maurice Sendak

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My First Encounter

I read Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are to my children many years ago, I was unaware that many academics, librarians, and psychologists had initially considered it too dangerous and frightening for children. My four children, rather than finding it frightening, were very taken by the book and asked me to read it again. They were also fans of the Little Bear Series (Else Helmelund Minarik), illustrated by Sendak.

This was before I was aware of Where the Wild Things Are receiving the Caldecott Award. Over the years the book has won prizes, been reinterpreted for theater and film, and sold over 19 million copies.

Sendak's (1928-2012) lifelong connection to the world of children permeated his wonderful creativity and versatility over the years. His remarkable work as an author, illustrator, and designer continued until his death, at 82, in 2012. 

The illustration from Where the Wild Things Are is by Muarice Sendak

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The Brink Between Dreams, Imagination, and Reality 

"Maurice Sendak... was one of the few ��� and rare ��� writers who truly wrote for children. Not to entertain their parents, or to improve their social skills ��� he told the stories that children live themselves, wobbling on the uncomfortable brink between dreams, imagination and reality, where truth is whatever can be remembered, whether it really happened or not... 

Although Sendak's work can seem dark, and a little unsettling (my favourite of his illustrations is skinny, sinister Mr Rabbit, from Charlotte Zolotow's  book ��� surely an influence on Donnie Darko), the freedom that he allows his children to be scared, to be wild, to be naughty, to be unlikeable, and yet still to be loved ��� will always be a comfort."

 Excerpted from commemorative article in the Guardian by Morvin Crumlish 

The illustration from Charlotte Zolotow's Mr Rabbit and the Wonderful Present is by Maurice Sendak.

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An Early (1966) Video Visit with Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak, sitting in his New York City studio apartment, shares his thoughts on influences ranging from composers to painters and illustrators from the past. He talks about his childhood, and shows fascinating animated toys he made his brother on fairytale themes. The video was made following his winning the Caldecott Award for Where the Wild Things Are.

Here is the link: Caldecott. 

 

The illustration from Where the Wild Things Are is by Maurice Sendak. 

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Dear Mili -- A Grimm Tale Discovered in 1983, Illustrated by Sendak

Maurice Sendak was deeply moved by this story and saw parallels with the fate of many of his Jewish Polish relatives during World War Two. He knew of these events through the stories he heard as a child from his immigrant parents.

"Preserved in a letter written to a young girl , Mili, in 1816 (by Wilheim Grimm ) and not discovered until 1983, the Grimm story is prefaced by a tender address in which he underscores the story's message: although there are many obstacles that can prevent people from being together, `one human heart can go out to another, undeterred by what lies between.' The story that follows implies that love transcends even death. Like many fairy tales, this one deals with extraordinary events. A widow sends her child into the forest to protect her from an approaching war ...The volume may have more appeal for adults than for children, but nonetheless it contains unforgettable artwork of resonant power."

Excerpted from a PW (Publishers Weekly) Review

The illustration from Dear Mili is by Maurice Sendak ...

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

They Want to Survive

"I have always had a deep respect for children and how they solve complex problems by themselves...through shrewdness, fantasy, and just plain strength -- they want to survive, they want to survive." -- Maurice Sendak

From a PBS blank on blank animated interview with Sendak

The illustration from Charlotte Zolotow's Mr Rabbit and the Wonderful Present is by Maurice Sendak.

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

The Sendak Legacy Lives On In Media

Sendak is remarkably open and candid in these fascinating interviews..."Tell the truth as best you can, the people who need the truth the most are children..."

TV Interview 19993 with Charlie Rose.

TV interview on PBS with Bill Moyers, 

Here is a link to read a fascinating interview by author Cynthia Zaren in the New Yorker with Sendak prior to and during the revival production of Brundibar (2006). Brundibar was originally performed by Jewish children in the Czech Therestienstadt concentration camp during World War Two. Tony Kushner wrote the libretto for the US revival.

Here is a link to a You Tube trailer for a 2009 film version of  Where the Wild Things Are ,directed by Spike Jonz. Worth a look if you like Sendak.

You Tube has many Sendak related videos, an indication of his talent, diversity, and ability to connect with readers through his work. 

The illustration by Sendak is from The little Bear Series by Else Holmelund Minirak.

......................... 

Understanding and Empathy 

Charlotte Zolotow, author of the classic Mr. Rabbit and the Wonderful Present, wrote over 90 books for children -- a staggering figure -- and edited hundreds more at Harper and Row. Like Sendak, she had a nerdy, difficult childhood and a difficult mother. She is regarded as having great understanding and empathy for children. These qualities are reflected in her books. Zolotow was a devoted mother to two children, and lived to be 98.

Here is a video link to an insightful appreciation of Charlotte Zolotow, focused on the diverse universe of books she created.  The presentation was made by librarian Megan Schliesman on the occasion of the Charlotte Zolotow Award for best children's picture book to Jacqueline Woodson in 2013.

Here is a link to read more about this fascinating woman: Charlotte Zolotow

The illustration from Charlotte Zolotow's Sleepy Book (1958) is by Vladamir Bobri.

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

The Seashore Book by Charlotte Zolotow

"Let's pretend," she said. "It is early morning at the seashore, and its hard to tell where the sea stops and the sky begins."

These are the words of a caring mother as she shares memories and evokes the experience of the seashore for her young son -- who has never seen the sea. The mother's caring voice is also the voice of this evocative book that tells of how the seashore looks and feels, impressions of nature, the sand and the sea. This is a voice that understands the world of children. Wendell Minor's illustrations are in perfect harmony with Zolotow's words, creating a warm, symbiotic relationship.

I read The Seashore Book in a lovely 25th anniversary edition, reissued and redesigned by Charlesbridge.

I will be giving The Seashore Book to my youngest grandchildren who live near the sea and who will see a world they well know lovingly brought to life in a book.  

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

Here is a link to a smile... Prescription Dog

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

How Much Do Dogs Understand

C.A. Wulff is a dog advocate and author who lives in a house in the woods with 5 adopted dogs. Her books range from a memoir (Circling the Waggins) about adopting and living with the surprises and affection of dogs and other critters, to a step by step book on preventing dog loss (Finding Fido), and what one can do to recover a lost dog. The following was excerpted from her Up On The Woof Blog.

"Over twenty years ago I came across this Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson. Although I often joke in this vein that our dog, Rocket Boy, only understands his name and the word Chew-eez, the truth is that dogs understand far more than that...Stanley Coren, author and former professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, writes about Dog-Human communication in his book How to Speak Dog.  Coren states that the average dog knows between 200 and 300 words. That puts a dog���s language comprehension on par with a 2-1/2 ��� 3 yr. old child.  An extra intelligent dog may even know more words than that, and one dog trainer has reported that his dog knows as many as 350 words...

Here is a link to read more of Wulff's article: Up On The Woof 

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Castle In The Mist is the second book in the Planet Of The Dogs Series

"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

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

 

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Books Were the Most Loving and Trustworthy Things in My Life 

"As a child, I read because books���violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not���were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life. I read widely, and loved plenty of the classics so, yes, I recognized the domestic terrors faced by Louisa May Alcott���s March sisters. But I became the kid chased by werewolves, vampires, and evil clowns in Stephen King���s books. I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life..."

Excerpted from Sherman Alexie in WSJ .

The art is by Ellen Forney

 

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THE WESTCOUNTRY SCHOOL OF MYTH ...immersion into myth, wilderness and soul. 

In the words of the School..."This learning community on Dartmoor in the far west of the United Kingdom, believes that myth has something vital to say about the condition of both our lives and the earth. That certain stories we need right now arrived, perfectly on time, about five thousand years ago.

Central to this is the notion that culture and wildness have experienced an artificial separation, and that both initiation and myth can create what Shaw calls a Culture of Wildness. It is such a culture that the school and its scholars endeavour to raise up."

Discovered courtesy of Terri Windling's exceptional Myth and Moor . Here is a link to the Westcountry School of Myth

The photo of Dartmoor, West Devon, is by David Gibbeson

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Music Fills The Sky

"Some people talk and talk
and never say a thing.
Some people look at you
and birds begin to sing.

Some people laugh and laugh
and yet you want to cry.
Some people touch your hand
and music fills the sky."

From Charlotte Zolotow's All That Sunlight (1967)  

The illustration by Maurice Zendak is from Charlotte Zolotow's Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present 

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Oxfam Brings Hope to Refugees 

 
One person in three in the world lives in poverty...

Famine and disease threaten the lives -- at this very moment -- of millions of children from Syria to Yemen.

This is a crisis we cannot ignore. Worsening hunger and the spread of famine are imminent, but not yet inevitable.

We can stop the worst from happening and prevent a catastrophic loss of life if we act now.

Help save lives by supporting Oxfam���s work and providing emergency aid to those who need it most. 

Here is a link to the Oxfam humanitarian website.

 

 ...................

 A Story Like The Wind

I learned on the kid lit site Achuka about a book to be released May 4 that promises to be a very special children's fiction story about the refugee crisis: A Story Like The Wind, by Gill Lewis, illustrated by Jo Weaver. 

Oxford University Press (OUP) Children���s has acquired the book; Nicky Parker, publisher at Amnesty International UK, said the book ���celebrates our common humanity and upholds the human rights values of love, friendship, kindness, home, family, culture and safety���.

" A moving and surprising tale about an unlikely storytelling session that takes place on a dinghy of refugees after the boat���s engine has, near literally, given up the ghost...Lewis writes a powerful story, an intelligent conversation between myth and crude reality that wakes you up with a cold splash, but avoids mawkishness and pity -- Excerpt from a review by Alex O'Connell in the Times of London.

The cover design is by Jo Weaver.

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Movies

Your Name...a movie about becoming someone else 

I haven't seen this Ghibli film but Manhola Dargas thought it to be terrific. Here is an excerpt from her review.

"It isn���t until well into ���Your Name,��� a wistfully lovely Japanese tale about fate and time, that its two teenage characters meet. By that point, Mitsuha (a girl yearning to leave her small town) and Taki (a boy in Tokyo) have come to know each other as well as two people can. For reasons they don���t understand, each���s consciousness has been temporarily jumping into the other���s physical shell, only to jump back. This happens at night, which means that Mitsuha regularly wakes up in Taki���s body, and he wakes up in hers, a swap that he likes to confirm by fondling his (her) breasts.

...By the time these two (and you) have figured out what���s happening, and why, Mr. Shinkai has set another change in motion, and ���Your Name��� has shifted from a comedy of confusion into a deeply moving meditation on nation, history, catastrophe and memory. It���s a touching, soaring switcheroo, one that Mr. Shinkai achieves with help from Masayoshi Tanaka, who did the character design, and Masashi Ando, the animation director and a veteran of Studio Ghibli. " Your Name is popular world wide with box office sales approaching 354 million.

Here is a link to the full 

Here is the trailer for Your Name

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Colossal...a Variation on Beauty and the Beast/the BF Giant/ and Robotic Mayhem


"The fantasy of ���Colossal,��� Nacho Vigalondo���s new genre mashup, starring Anne Hathaway, does two things well at the same time: it embodies a strong idea and it delivers aesthetic pleasure...it revels in the power of cinematic artifice to tell a story that confronts big questions about real life...Colossal��� reaches that level only intermittently, but it���s rare for any filmmaker to achieve it at all; it���s also a conceptual achievement that makes its very description a pack of spoilers"...Here's a link to the full review in the New Yorker: Richard Brody

Here a link to an entertaining trailer that will make things clearer: Colossal

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The Boss Baby

The Boss Baby is a huge worldwide box office success...more than $365 million. I haven't seen it, the critics were not enthralled, but the audiences keep coming.

The movie was produced by Dreamworks Animation and is loosely based on a 2010 picture book by Marla Frazee.

Here is a link to the trailer for Boss Baby 

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NRA Fairytales...(get the kids a gun, Bubba)

 Illustration by Stanfill

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 "The ���KidLitosphere��� is a community of reviewers, librarians, teachers, authors, illustrators, publishers, parents, and other book enthusiasts who blog about children���s and young adult literature. In writing about books for children and teens, we���ve connected with others who share our love of books. With this website, we hope to spread the wealth of our reading and writing experience more broadly."

 The illustration from Alice in Wonderland is by John Tenniel.

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The Yelodoggie Search

Why Am I is a joyous Yelodoggie book that helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.

We believe that Why Am I, C.A. Wulff's wonderful new Yelodoggie book should have a big marketing push and wide distribution. Kids 4-8 love it and we are hoping it will be the beginning of a series. We are now searching for a publisher who will also love the book, embrace its potential, and launch it into the world.

........

The Planet Of The Dogs Series

We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email 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 on the Internet through independent bookstores,  as well as online, including: Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Walmart, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino. 

The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.
 
 
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 "A cat, after being scolded, goes about its business. A dog slinks off into a corner and pretends to be doing a serious self-reappraisal" --  Robert Brault

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April -- Springtime, Turning Points, and the Wonders of Nature

                                   
                                 

                                              

                                               Illustration from Wind In the Willows  by Inga Moore

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The Joy of Springtime

Mole emerged from his underground home and "found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow...���This is fine!��� he said to himself. ���This is better than whitewashing!��� The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow..."

 From The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

The illustration of Mole coming into the sunlight is by Arthur Rackham,

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An Era of Tea Parties, Picnics, and Classic Children's Books 

Edwardian England 1901-1914), often viewed with nostalgia for its gardens, tea  parties and picnics by the river, was a time of prosperity for many. There was a growing middle class, and more wealth from the industrial revolution as well
as England's enormous colonial empire. It was also a time, especially for the aristocracy and the wealthy business class, of great self satisfaction..."the sun never sets on the British Empire."

This time period (1901- 1914) also saw a proliferation of outstanding children's books and is often called the Golden Era of children's books. Among them were these classics: The Wind in the Willows, Peter Rabbit, Peter Pan, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, and The Railway Children. The Edwardian influence can also be found in later books, including, notably, the Hobbit, Winnie-the-Pooh, Mary Poppins and Harry Potter.

It's hard to imagine the energy that writers, as well as the reading public, must have felt from such an incredible array of children's books (and the play of Peter Pan). And for children, it was a true bonanza. It all ended with the debacle of World War One.

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

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A Longing for A Simpler Past

"In hindsight these books seem to reflect the long, sunny afternoon of Edwardian England, a moment of arrested innocence before the outbreak of the Great War. Many of them also yearn for a rural, preindustrial England that was already vanishing. Part of their appeal is that they���re nostalgic, as we are, for childhood itself, or for a simpler past that seems to embody childhood virtue."

From an article by Charle McGrath in the NYTimes.

The illustration is by E.H.Shepard

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Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)...Solace in the wonders of nature

The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame's wonderfully well written book, originated with stories that Grahame told to his troubled young son, Alastair (nickname, Mouse). The boy suffered from poor health, a blind eye, and apparently had some type of emotional disturbance. He committed suicide at 20 by lying on train tracks. At the time, Alastair was a student at Oxford. This was a horrendous event and Grahame lost his desire to write.

When Grahame was a child, his mother died and his father became an alcoholic; Kenneth and his three siblings were sent to live with their caring grandmother in the bucolic village of Cookham. As a boy and young man, he had deep feelings for the meadows, hills, and the river flowing through the countryside.  This connection to the natural world was later reflected in his writings. He pursued a successful career in banking. During this time, he also wrote successful stories for children including the Reluctant Dragon. 

He suffered a bizarre experience (1903) when a deranged man entered his bank (The Bank of England), and not finding the manager to vent his rage, attempted to murder Kenneth Grahame. He fired three shots, all of which missed, directly at Grahame. In 1908, he retired from the bank, published The Wind in the Willows, and moved back to the pastoral world of Cookham where he continued to write for children until his son's demise. Throughout the years, it appears that he found solace in the natural world.

The illustration of Grahame is by John Singer Sargent

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The Irrepressible Mr Toad

Mr Toad... wonderful parody of the wealthy self-satisfied British landed gentry.  Myopic, unaware of the lives of others and in denial about how his behavior affects others, he is a brilliant creation. Despite  shortcomings, all his friends forgive him, and so do we, the readers and children who visit Grahame's book. He is jolly fellow, a great and generous host and totally irresponsible. He is like a child without boundaries.

The illustration is by Charles Van Sandwyk

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An Idyllic Celebration of a Time That Never Was

"The imaginative force of Grahame's writing is remarkably vivid, and can be compared to the likes of Carroll and Lear in his creation of a fantastical world that follows a clear set of values. Here, perhaps unsurprisingly, those values are those of the conservative gentleman that he was...Of course, all must end well, and so the book ends stirringly (explicitly inspired by the climax of The Odyssey) with the villainous weasels routed from Toad Hall, where they have taken occupation, and the idle gentry once again taking hold. Rather different things were to take place across the world within the next decade, making this remarkable book's hazy, idyllic celebration of a time that never was both an elegy for a bygone age and a fascinating work of imaginative genius."

Excerpted from a sparkling and incisive article in the Guardian by Alex Larman.

The illustrations are by Inga Moore.

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

Our default mode of childhood

"In many ways, modern children's literature remains an Edwardian phenomenon. This period defined the ways in which we still think of children's books and of the child's imagination. During its few years, the age produced a canon of authors and works that are still powerfully influential in the field. ...

Our default mode of childhood, if you like, remains that decade or so before the First World War; the time between the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and the assassination at Sarajevo in 1914, the time when writers looked back over loss and could barely anticipate the end of the old order."  

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

The chapter entitled Pan in the Garden from Seth Lerer's book on Children's Literature, and his Introduction to The Annotated Wind In The Willows were prime influences for this blog. 

The illustration from Winnie the Pooh is by E.H. Shepard. 

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From Tea Parties to Trenches...The End of the Edwardian Era 

World War One changed the lives of many... Rudyard Kipling, Nobel Prize winner and extremely popular author, including, during the Edwardian era, the books Kim and Just So Stories, had a complete turn around in his thinking and writing. Where once Kipling was a jingoist and military enthusiast, the First World War, with its horrible massacres, bungling leadership, and the death of his son (Jack) in battle, totally changed his thinking. Here is an excerpt from a poem of bereavement that he wrote:  

My Boy Jack, by Rudyard Kipling

"Have you news of my boy Jack?"
Not this tide.
"When d���you think that he���ll come back?"
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Has any one else had word of him?"
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide..." 

Here is a link to the poem, My Boy Jack

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Truth and Hope

���The mission that I feel like I have is to figure out how you can tell the truth about how tragic and unfair life actually is without destroying hope.��� --  from an interview in the NY Times with Oskar Eustis, artistic director of New York's renowned Public Theater. 

The illustration is by Hironymus Bosh

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 The Extraordinary White Helmets Video

This is a documentary of valor and courage. It takes you into the mind-boggling world of the White Helmets, the Syrian men who risk their lives to save others...to save children and adults caught in the destruction caused by ruthless Russian and Syrian bombing, shelling, and rocketing of homes and hospitals. The documentary goes far beyond the violence into the hearts and minds of these men who devote themselves to saving others. It can be seen on Netflix. It won a 2017 Academy Award for best documentary. One of the people who made this film could not attend the Award ceremony because of Trump's travel ban. I hope the president and his associates see this film.

For readers who don't have Netflix, here is a link to see the White Helmets video via a one month free trial.

........................ 

Planet Of The Dogs....wherein dogs find a non-violent solution to war. 

"I love this series of books and this first, Planet of the Dogs, sets the stage for those works that follow...This story borders between reality, a dream world, fantasy, fiction, reality and wonderful imagination...a first rate fantasy read, while at the same time addressing quite real problems and indeed, how to fix those problems... these books are excellent motivators, not only for reading, but for generally living life as it should be led. Finally, the entire work is almost irresistible to dog lovers." -- from a review by  Don Blankenship, Good Books for Kids

Here is a link to read sample chapters of Planet of the Dogs 

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

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The Quiet of The Woods

"These quiet hours in the dappled light of the greenwood, with my good dog beside me. It changes my world. It changes me...I pin my own hopes to the rustle of leaves, the murmur of water, the grace note of the birdsong overhead; to the ordinary, daily domestic act of rising in the morning and walking the dog. And to art, of course, but also to this. To the quiet of the woods."

An excerpt from author, editor, and painter Terri Windling's wonderful Myth and Moor blog. Here is the link to read more of Terri, the woods, and Tilly: Myth and Moor. The photo of Tilly is by Terri Windling.

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

Movies

Another Beauty and the Beast... 

Emma Watson is excellent, the Computer Graphics are state of the art, and huge profits are rolling in; however, critics like Ty Burr of the Boston Globe are asking questions...

" The question, obviously, is why we need a new ���Beauty and the Beast��� in the first place. Even a reasonably sentient 8-year-old might ask as much if he or she has seen the 1991 animated Disney version...So we have the current wave of Disney remakes of classic Walt ���properties���: ostensibly live-action but resting on oceans of CGI; upscale in terms of directors, cast, and approach. It can work, as witness the charming ���Cinderella��� (2015) and the dazzling ���Jungle Book��� (2016). Or it can feel secondhand and unnecessary ��� an ersatz 3-D theme park ride based on a beloved source ��� as does too much of ���Beauty and the Beast.���....

I think the answer to the question is fundamental,,,Disney's primary role is  to operate a business that makes money. Everything else follows.

Maria Tatar's blog, Breezes from Wonderland, has a bounty of fascinating information regarding Beauty and the Beast ranging from Disney to Zeus and Europa...her newest book is Beauty and the Beast: Tales about Animal Brides and Grooms from Around the World. See the review -- below -- by Heidi Anne Heiner. 

The illustration is by Anne Anderson.

My Life as a Zucchini, an Oscar Nominee With Depth and Soul


Here is an excerpt from the very positive review by By A. O. SCOTT  in the NY Times.

"The point of the story, in any case, is not horror but healing. It���s a bittersweet celebration of friendship and empathy, as Zucchini makes peace with a bully named Simon and develops a crush on a newcomer named Camille... all rendered in expressive and imaginative visual detail. The animation technique is in some ways cruder than the digital dazzle that kids see all the time, but also more soulful. The round, wide-eyed faces of the orphans... are enigmatic and individual in ways that are hard to forget." Directed by Claude Barras

Here is a link to My Life as a Zucchini

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Saving a Dog...an excerpt from C.A. Wulff's blog, Up On The Woof 

There is nothing more joyous and grateful than a dog who has been saved. Dogs don���t keep those sorts of feelings to themselves, they want to share them. That dog becomes the most loving, faithful companion you can imagine. He will protect his new family in times of danger and comfort them in times of sadness. He will teach the children in the family to love and respect animals. Maybe knowing him will inspire a child to grow up to be a vet, or a zoologist. The dog will bring hours of laughter and joy to his people. He will keep them healthier in body, mind and spirit...

 

 C.A. Wulff is a dog rescuer, advocate, artist and author. Her books range from How To Change the World in Thirty Seconds  to her memoir, Circling the Waggins. She is also the creator of Yelodoggie. 
 

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Bookstores Stoke Trump Resistance With Action, Not Just Words by Julie Bosman NYTimes

"Ann Patchett, a novelist and an owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, said she had simply embraced the notion of her bookstore as a place where anyone could come, get information and exchange ideas. ���I have written on the bookstore website about the election and the importance of reading and community and how more than ever we need to,��� Ms. Patchett said. ���That is outwardly as political as we���ve gotten.���

She echoed one of the biggest blows of Mr. Trump���s election for people in the literary world: the realization that the new president is not much of a reader. That is a stark contrast to former President Barack Obama, a devoted reader, writer and frequent visitor of independent bookstores while he was in office. ���Now more than ever, books are so important,��� Ms. Patchett said. ���The only way we���re going to get out of this in the larger sense is through education.���

 ........................

A Sense of Wonderment

"The literary fairy tale became an acceptable social symbolic form through which conventionalized motifs, characters, and plots were selected, composed, arranged, and rearranged to comment on the civilizing process and to keep alive the possibility of miraculous change and a sense of wonderment.���

��� Jack Zipes -- Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture

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

 

Heidi Anne Heiner, blogger of Sur La Lune, and herself the author of Beauty and the Beast, Tales From Around the World, has written a positive and very informed article/book review about Maria Tatar's new book, Beauty and the Beast, Classic Tales About Animal Brides and Grooms from Around World. Here is an excerpt: 

"In this fascinating volume, preeminent fairy tale scholar Maria Tatar brings together tales from ancient times to the present and from a wide variety of cultures, highlighting the continuities and the range of themes in a fairy tale that has been used both to keep young women in their place and to encourage them to rebel, and that has entertained adults and children alike. With fresh commentary, she shows us what animals and monsters, both male and female, tell us about ourselves, and about the transformative power of empathy.

Here is a link to read Heidi Anne Heiner's  Sur La Lune article.

The illustration is by Mercer Mayer

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The Human Canine Connection 

The benefits of the human canine connection continue to help people in a multitude of situations from veterans with PTSD to school children learning how to read. A man named Mike Callahan has developed a site that describes in some detail the many ways in which service dogs as well as therapy dogs enable people to benefit. He notes the special qualities of service dogs as defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Here is a link to his site: CompanionAnimals 

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

The Yelodoggie Search

We believe that Why Am I, C.A. Wulff's wonderful new Yelodoggie book should have a big marketing push and wide distribution. Kids 4-8 love it and we are hoping it will be the beginning of a series. Accordingly, we are searching for a publisher who will also love the book, embrace its potential, and launch it into the world.

Why Am I is a joyous Yelodoggie book that helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.

........

The Planet Of The Dogs Series

We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email 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 on the Internet through independent bookstores, Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Walmart, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino. 

The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty

..............................  
 
"I like a bit of mongrel myself, whether its a man or a dog; they're the best for everyday." -- George Bernard Shaw
 
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March - Ancestors, Spoken Tales, Myths and Fairy Tales...books, children, movies, and dogs

                                   

                                                        
"For most of human history, 'literature,' both fiction and poetry, has been narrated, not written ��� heard, not read. So fairy tales, folk tales, stories from the oral tradition, are all of them the most vital connection we have with the imaginations of the ordinary men and women whose labor created our world."     ��� Angela Carter

The illustration is from Norway.

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The Iliad and the Odyssey... Centuries of Oral Tradition

"Our version of the 'Iliad' was composed toward the end of what we assume were centuries of oral tradition ��� the 'Iliad', like the 'Odyssey' and other oral poems, had a genetic ability to reproduce itself, changing with each recital, picking up new details even as old ones were discarded, but always remaining recognizable. Almost nothing material in the poem can be traced with certainty to the Mycenaean Greeks." 

From William Logan's NY Times review of Memorial, Alice Oswald���s version of the Iliad

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There Is Always Hope

Fear, wars and famine dominated the days of people for centuries. Evil spirits, mysteries, and the unknown were part of daily life. 

Stories, entertaining and often fantastic, were told where people gathered -- in the spinning rooms, the taverns, the market square, in the fields.

In the oral tales that have been preserved, no matter how dark,  there is always hope

 

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Fables...a Lesson in the Arts Of Literary Imagination 

"No author has been so intimately and extensively associated with children's literature as Aesop. His fables have been accepted as the core of childhood reading and instruction since Plato, and they have found their place in political and social satire and moral teaching throughout medieval, Renaissance, and modern cultures... Their readerships have included parents as well as children, masters as well as slaves. rulers as well as subjects...

Fables are, quite simply, literature at its most simple and direct, and instruction in the fable is a lesson in the arts of literary imagination."

Seth Lerer writing on Aesop's Fables and Their Afterlives in his book, Children's Literature, A Reader's History From Aesop to Harry Potter.

 The illustration of the Lion and the Mouse is by John Vernon Lord

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Aesop Memories

I remember early reading days when Aesop's Fables were a source of fun and opened the doors to understanding connections between actions and outcomes...  a source of aha moments in childhood. What could be clearer to a child than the story of the Lion and the Mouse? Here's a link to a delightful version of this story and many more of Aesop's fables: Aesop

 

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From the Very Beginning  

���It has generally been assumed that fairy tales were first created for children and are largely the domain of children. But nothing could be further from the truth.

From the very beginning, thousands of years ago, when tales were told to create communal bonds in face of the inexplicable forces of nature, to the present, when fairy tales are written and told to provide hope in a world seemingly on the brink of catastrophe, mature men and women have been the creators and cultivators of the fairy tale tradition...." 

 The quotation is by Jack Zipes, author of many books on children's literature including The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of The Brothers Grimm,

The illustration of the Grimm's Maid Maleen is by Arthur Rackhanm. I was motivated by the illustration to read this exceptional tale...

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Maid Maleen...Darkness into Sunshine

Maid Maleen endures imprisonment for true love. After her escape, she finds the world she once knew has been devastated by war. Accompanied only by a loyal handmaiden, she must travel great distances and survive starvation; but just when there seems to be no hope, events turn her way, and she has a new life with her first love. Here is an excerpt from the Maid Maleen's final speech to the Prince...it contains a multitude of the classic elements found in Grimm's fairy tales. 

���I am Maid Maleen, who for thy sake was imprisoned seven years in the darkness, who suffered hunger and thirst, and has lived so long in want and poverty. To-day, however, the sun is shining on me once more. I was married to thee in the church, and I am thy lawful wife.��� Then they kissed each other, and were happy all the days of their lives. The false bride was rewarded for what she had done by having her head cut off."

The illustration of the wedding procession from the story of Maid Maleen is by Paul Hey

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Planet Of The Dogs...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."

Here is a link to read more excerpts from the Planet Of The Dogs Series 

The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty

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Sleeping Beauty Retold

Sleeping Beauty has been retold since at least the 14th century. The culture and events that people lived through have impacted the telling, whether orally or in writing and there have been many iterations. In the past, Sleeping Beauty has had a nasty cannibalistic mother-in- law; a prince has had sex and impregnated her while she slept, unaware; and, in a recent movie version, she is rescued by an angel deprived of her wings. And the story goes on.

Vera Ferra- Mikura (1923-97) was a very popular writer of children's books. She lived in Vienna through the great depression, World War 2, and the hard years of recovery. Here is the closing excerpt of her incredible poem of Sleeping Beauty:

Come back in a hundred years my prince
In a hundred years the cannon will have rusted.
In a hundred years peace will be here.
Come softly like the wind
Blast open the hedge, but not with hand grenades,
Don't drive tanks up to the gates.
In a hundred years the hedge will part itself,
Then I'll be able to love you. 

The translation is by Jack Zipes from his book, Breaking The Magic Spell 

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Where Are They Now ?

The photo of this Yazidi refugee family stays with me. It was taken as they rested after fleeing the murders, rapes, and violent destruction of their home in Sinjar by Isis in 2014. Survivors fled to the mountains.

The young girl in the photo was five years old. Are she and her  family still alive? Do they have food, shelter, and access to medicine?

Does the young girl attend a school, perhaps in a refugee camp? Does she have  books? Doe she have hope? 

" Most of the trapped people are members of the Yazidi religion, one of Iraq���s oldest minorities. They were forced to flee to Mount Sinjar in the Iraqi north-west region, or face slaughter by an encircling group of Islamic State (Isis) jihadists. The UN has said that roughly 40,000 people ��� many women and children ��� have taken refuge in nine locations on the mountain..." excerpted from The Guardian

The Pesh Merga drove Isis from Sinjar. Much of the city was in ruins and booby-trapped. Many survivors went in to refugee camps. The news headlines now focus on Mosul. where many Yazidi men are fighting against ISIS. Where is this young girl now?

The photos are by Reuters

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Disney -- Profit First and Wonderland Second 

The conflict between the profit motive and creating the best films for children and young adults exists throughout the film marketplace and especially at Disney.

I experienced this conflict when I saw Rogue One, Disney's highly profitable prelude to the Star Wars series. I sat and enjoyed the first two thirds of an imaginative Lucas-like sci-fi fantasy tale. The lead actress, Felicity Jones, was excellent and several new characters -- a blind warrior monk; a clever and articulate robot with attitude, a hybrid general -- added to the entertaining non-stop story.

And then, Rogue One became lost in unrelenting explosions, violence, and bloody mayhem that continued to the end of the film. This, to me, is an example of Disney pandering to their marketing department in the quest for profit with no thought as to (or perhaps not caring) the influence that this overwrought carnage has on the young.

Rogue One opened in December, and has grossed over two billion dollars. I believe the film would have made even more money, especially over time, if  Disney had kept the imaginative story alive that I witnessed in the first two thirds, and extended it well into the denouement. This would have made a better, more entertaining film, and reduced the need for such extensive explosive, violent, carnage in resolving the story. For all the misgivings one can have about some of the late Walt Disney's own films, I think Walt would not have indulged in so much carnage. 

Beauty and the Beast

On March 17, Disney will bring us their 3D musical version of Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson. I hope Disney was able to create a captivating fairy tale film. I posted about Beauty and the Beast -- the story, the movie, and related matters --  in the Feb 2016 Barking Planet blog. 
Maria Tatar's new book about Beauty and the Beast will be published this month.

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Empowerment and Warm Moments for Dog Lovers and Animal Advocates 

How to Change the World in Thirty Seconds, by C.A. Wulff, is empowering...it's  the internet made easy, the internet as a tool, the internet as a dog's best friend... a book  and a way to make a difference...  for dog lovers, animal advocates and anyone who wants to make the world a better place..."This is probably the best 'how-to' book I have ever seen"( from the Amazon review by Johanna).. 

The ebook version of this unique book is on sale at amazon.com for 99 cents from 3/2 - 3/4!
 
Parade of Misfits is a charming introduction to the world of C. A. Wulff, her dogs, and her memoir "Circling the Waggins: How 5 Misfit Dogs Saved Me from Bewilderness."  Included in this mini ebook are never before published essays about the author���s dogs. 
 
The ebook version is free for download on amazon.com from March 1 through March 5.  All those
who post a review of the book on amazon and tell us in the comments of our blog, will be entered into
a drawing for a copy of Circling the Waggins.

 

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Therapy Dogs Continue to Help Heal Children in Amazing Ways

The world of medicine is embracing the healing ability of therapy dogs with children. Children with disabilities, children with autism, children with type one diabetes, children in hospitals...the list keeps growing as the tangible and intangible benefits continue. The human canine bond is extraordinary and the outcomes are often amazing. 

Here is a link to a very touching video of a boy with Down's Syndrome bonding with a dog

This link to a CNN video report (3 minutes) will take you into the Pet Prints therapy dog program at Boston Children's Hospital where the healing benefits are are taking place.

The photo is from Boston Children's Hospital

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Talk to Me and Mommy Talk

Doug Yeager has written and  published two delightful books, free for mothers and children, that support early childhood development.

He was motivated by the work of his wife, the late Nancy M.Yeager, a dedicated educator. They are illustrated with sweet illustrations by Susannah Franklin. And they are free to mothers of pre-school children and organizations that support them. These include pediatric hospitals and clinics in Texas; a number of pediatric hospitals and clinics in the New York Metropolitan Area;  Read to Me in Albuquerque; TWYB in South Bend; Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Nassau University Medical Center and many more.
Perhaps, you know of an organization or pre-school that would put these in the hands of mothers. Here is a link to the Foundation that supports this wonderful endeavor:Yeager Foundation.  As you will see on their website, you can obtain free copies of these books by sending an email to Doug Yeager at: dglsyg@cs.com

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Lewis Carrol Society of North America

The next meeting of the Lewis Carrol Society of North America will be March 31 ��� April 2, 2017, in the San Francisco Bay Area...speakers include Amanda Lastoria, editor of the Lewis Carroll Review, Howard Chang, creator of the Chinese annotated version, Stuart Moskowitz, math professor at Humboldt State, Joseph W. Svec, on Sherlock Holmes/Lewis Carroll Crossovers, Peter Hanff, deputy director of the Bancroft Library, on ���Baum���s American Wonderland,��� and Amanda Kennell, on Japanese translations. There will be a reception afterwards at the San Francisco Center for the Book. On Sunday, April 2, members and guests are invited to visit the Brustein collection where there will also be food and socializing. Here is a link to the website: Alice 

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Children's Books of Boston

I went to a book swap/get- together held by Children's Books of Boston and I left with two totally different, charming books. Kiristi Call's The Raindrop Who Couldn't Fall, follows the journey of a raindrop in an imaginative story where the raindrop loses her fear and becomes part of the great water cycle. There is an educational component built into the book and sweet illustrations by Lisa M. Griffin.

Lauren Scheuer has written and illustrated Once Upon a Flock, Life With My Soulful Chickens, a unique book about chickens. Based on her true life family adventures, all the chickens become personalities, and the readers is pulled into Lauren's often funny and rather poignant book. I found this a book for both kids and adults and was surprised at how I was pulled into the story...Here's a link to Lauren's Chicken Book.  And Here's a link to Kristi Call's Raindrop book. 

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The Yelodoggie Search

We believe that Why Am I, C.A. Wulff's wonderful new Yelodoggie book should have a big marketing push and wide distribution.  Kids 4-8 love it and we are hoping it will be the beginning of a series. Accordingly, this month begins our search for a publisher who will also love the book, embrace its potential, and launch it into the world.

Why Am I is a joyous Yelodoggie book that helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.

 

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The Planet Of The Dogs Series

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available on the Internet through independent bookstores, Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Walmart, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino. 

We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books.  

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

The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty 

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 "I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult." Rita Rudner

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February - Imagination and the Song Of The Dream...books, kids, movies and dogs

 

         

 

Tales of the imagination have evolved and endured through the centuries. They have been told for entertainment and enlightenment. They have been a source of hope to help ward off the darkness. They were the source of fairy tales. The song of the dream is timeless.

 The photo of the Merrivale Stone Row is by David Gibbeson

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Magical Stories 

"Though now we think of fairy tales as stories intended for very young children, this is a relatively modern idea. In the oral tradition, magical stories were enjoyed by listeners young and old alike, while literary fairy tales (including most of the tales that are best known today) were published primarily for adult readers until the 19th century.���
 
--Terri Windling, Black Swan, White Raven 

 

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Courage in the Vastness of Nature

The Nordic lands have their own heritage of oral tales, myths, and legends. They use language differently than the Grimms' Germanic fairy tales. Their stories are embellished by description. As with the classic tales of Western Europe, they also embody fantasy, open the imagination, and give hope to the listener or reader. 

In both Finland and Norway, the heritage of Nordic oral tales actually influenced history. Dedicated people went to the countryside, wrote down the ancient stories and songs and published them. They were widely read and played a major role in raising awareness and pride and influencing the rise of nationalism in the 19th century in both Norway and Finland.

Both countries had witnessed centuries of intermittent war and oppression by others, namely, by Sweden, Denmark, and Russia. In both countries, there was a deep connection to nature -- to the land, the lakes, the mountains and the sea. In Norway, the oral tales were collected by Peter Christen Asbj��rnsen (1812-1885) and Jorgen Moe (1813-1882). In Finland, a country doctor, Elias L��nnrot (1802-1884), traveled throughout remote areas where thousands of verse-songs from the Finnish past could still be heard. 

The photo of the Finnish forest is by Mikko Lagerstedt

The Kalevala

For over 3000 years, the Rune singers of Finland had been singing/reciting the mythic stories known as The Kalevala. Finnish Rune singers had rather prodigious memories. Among those singers who contributed to L��nnrot's research was a woman, Larin Paraske (1833-1904) who could recite 32,000 verses. At the time of the Finnish Renaissance of the nineteenth century, artists, writers, and composers (including Jean Sibelius), students and ordinary people were moved by -- and influenced by -- the Kalevala.  

It is difficult to describe the rhythm or meter of the Kalevala as it was sung -- sometimes accompanied by the soft string sound of the kantele. However, if one reads the verses with the same rhythm used to recite Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha, the correct meter emerges.

J.R.R. Tolkien, already a scholar of Beuwulf and the Norse Sagas, learned Finnish in order to explore the Kalevala for himself. Here are quotes of Tolkien's relating to the Kalevala: he said that The Story of Kullervo was "the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own," and was "a major matter in the legends of the First Age."..In 1955, writing to his friend W.H. Auden, he says that "the beginning of the legendarium [...] was in an attempt to reorganize some of the Kalevala, especially the tale of Kullervo the hapless, into a form of my own".

The illustrations of the Kalevala are by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The bottom illustration is of Kullervo.

Expressions of the Norwegian Soul 

"Asbj��rnsen and Moe developed a friendship while still attending school and together and together they determined to do for Norwegian folklore what the Brothers Grimm had accomplished for German folklore...(they) sought to preserve a national treasure, one that both reflected and shaped  a national identity...preserving the most profound expressions of the Norwegian soul...Asbj��rnsen and Moe preserved a robust folkloric tradition and did for Norway what the Sagas did and the Kalevala did for Finland." -- Maria Tatar, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales.

Several editions of the Norwegian tales were published beginning in 1841. They were very well received and very popular; they had a profound impact on the Norwegian nationalism that swept the country in the 19th century. The first English translation was published in 1859. Perhaps the greatest international impact came from two stories: Peer Gynt and East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Peer Gynt inspired the great playright, Henrik Ibsen, to write a verse play, that is still performed and celebrated today. Edvard Greig composed the incidental music for the play, including the well known "In the Hall of the Mountain King"  

The photo of the medieval Borgunt stave church in Norway is by Svein Harkstad/wikimedia

East of the Sun West of the Moon

Here is an excerpt from this captivating tale of a maiden who must overcome enormous obstacles and make a journey to find true love by freeing her beloved Prince from bewitchment. One of her problems is to find the castle. No one seems to know where it is...only that it is located East of the Sun and West of the Moon (a fabulous title for a story). Scholars say the story may have origins in the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche 

"What have you done?" he cried; "now you have made us both unlucky, for had you held out only this one year, I had been freed. For I have a step-mother who has bewitched me, so that I am a White Bear by day, and a Man by night. But now all ties are snapt between us; now I must set off from you to her. She lives in a Castle which stands East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and there, too, is a Princess, with a nose three ells long, and she's the wife I must have now."

Here is a link to read the entire story: ProjectGutenberg

The illustration from East of the Sun West of the Moon is by Kay Nielsen
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 Fantasy and the Perilous Realm...Tolkien

"I am thus not only aware but glad of the etymological and semantic connexions of fantasy with fantastic: with images of things that are not only ���not actually present,��� but which are indeed not to be found in our primary world at all, or are generally believed not to be found there. But while admitting that, I do not assent to the depreciative tone. That the images are of things not in the primary world (if that indeed is possible) is a virtue, not a vice. Fantasy (in this sense) is, I think, not a lower but a higher form of Art, indeed the most nearly pure form, and so (when achieved) the most potent...

Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else (make something new), may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds." --  J.R.R. Tolkien Tales from the Perilous Realm

The illustration from The Hobbit is by Eric Fraser

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"Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song..."
Jorge Luis Borges

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An Old Book Holds the Song of the Dream

Hans Christian Andersen's stories were as varied as the winds of springtime.His descriptions of of places and events were integral to his creating a doorway into a world of fantasy.  Here is an excerpt from The Goblin and the Grocer where a student finds, in a very old book, that a world of dreams comes alive:

"A candle still burned there, and by peeping through the keyhole the goblin could see that the student was reading the tattered old book he had brought upstairs with him.

But how bright the room was! From the book a clear shaft of light rose, expanding into a stem and a tremendous tree which spread its branching rays above the student. Each leaf on the tree was evergreen, and every flower was the face of a fair lady, some with dark and sparkling eyes, some with eyes of the clearest blue. Every fruit on the tree shone like a star, and the room was filled with song."

Here is a link to the story of the Goblin and the Grocer: H.C. Andersen Center

 

The illustration is by Henry Justice Ford

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Thousands of Children's books are published each year. I try to read enough reviews and articles to obtain a reasonable awareness of what is happening, especially as regards the truly special books. 

I found that an excellent survey of 12 new illustrated books (and a couple of classics) by Maria Popova in her Brain Pickings blog took me into many wonderful places. The imagination, range of concepts, and writing that I encountered in her chosen books, and the passion and lucidity with which she presented them, was first class.

Her selections are wonderful examples of books where writing and illustrations very much enhance one another. They include; The Day I Became a Bird; Du Iz Talk; What Color Is The Wind, and Cry Heart, But Never Break.

In her introduction, Popova writes that she has reviewed, "the picture-books I found most imaginative, intelligent, and warmhearted this year ��� books that speak, even sing, to hearts of all ages and embody E.B. White���s proclamation that successful writers of children���s books ���have to write up, not down.���

Here's a link: Maria Popova on Brain Pickings. 

The illustration from Du Iz Talk is by author/illustrator Carson Ellis 

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Children's Book Sales Continue To Grow

Here are excerpts from Sydney Karrad's  Bookweb article on children's book sales: 

"At Nielsen���s annual Children���s Book Summit in New York City on October 27 (2016) industry experts and executives discussed important issues in children���s publishing, particularly relating to digital content.  The opening keynote was presented by Kristen McLean, Nielsen Book���s director of new business development...Among her key insights:  The U.S. book market is stable, with little change year over year... The children���s book market shows more growth than the overall U.S. book market: While the overall book market has grown 33 percent since 2004, the children���s book market has grown 52 percent growth since 2004  ... Children���s book sales are still going strong in 2016...

Here is a link to the complete article: Bookweb 

The illustration is by Catherine McSherry

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  Why the Grimms' Tales Will Always Be Relevant

"The atavistic and simoultaneously feudal-transcendental world from which the fairy tale stems and to which it seems to be tied, has most certainly vanished. However, the mirror of the fairy tale has not become opaque, and the manner of wish fulfillment that peers forth from it is not entirely without a home. It all adds up to this: the fairy tale narrates a wish fulfillment that is not bound by its own time and the apparel of its contents In contrast to the legend, which is always tied to a particular locale, the fairy tale remains unbound. -- Ernst Bloch, "The Fairy Tale Moves on Its Own Time"

from: Grimm Legacies - The Magic Spell of the Grimm Folk and Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes

 The illustration of the Grimms' Frog Prince is by Walter Crane.

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Obama���s Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books
Here is an excerpt from an excellent article by Michiko Kakutani in NY Times:

..."Seven days before his departure from the White House, Mr. Obama sat down in the Oval Office and talked about the indispensable role that books have played during his presidency and throughout his life ��� from his peripatetic and sometimes lonely boyhood, when ���these worlds that were portable��� provided companionship, to his youth when they helped him to figure out who he was, what he thought and what was important.

During his eight years in the White House ��� in a noisy era of information overload, extreme partisanship and knee-jerk reactions ��� books were a sustaining source of ideas and inspiration, and gave him a renewed appreciation for the complexities and ambiguities of the human condition..."

Here is a link to the article: ObamaNYT

Photo by Doug Mills - NYTimes

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Civil Rights and Children's Books

Martin Luther King Day was celebrated on January 16. A fine appreciation was written by Jerry Griswold (emeritus Professor of Children's Literature and author) regarding  Dr. King's heritage. In the article, he included comments and insights regarding books written for black children to raise awareness and understanding of both their heritage and the civil rights movement. The books include, Remember -- The Journey to School Integration, by Toni Morrison and The People Could Fly, by Virginia Hamilton. 

Here is the link to Jerry Griswold's post

 

The AP photo from 1960 shows US Marshals in New Orleans escorting Ruby Bridges, 6 years of age, home from school. 

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Inside the World of Story
I  go back to the reading room, where I sink down in the sofa and into the world of The Arabian Nights. Slowly, like a movie fadeout, the real world evaporates. I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favourite feeling in the world.���
 Haruki Murakami --  Author of The Windup Bird Chronicle

 

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The Song of Yelodoggie is Coming This Year

The joyous new Yelodoggie book, Why Am I ?, is a song of the imagination, a song to help children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.

Yelodoggie  travels far and wide, up and down, inside and outside,  from outer space to the waters of the sea, seeking the answer...why am I different...why am I Yellow?  

Yelodoggie is a creation of C.A. Wulff.

Here's a link to Wulff's Yelodoggie  paintings. This link is to her Zazzle Store. Here's a link to her Up On The Woof website. Wulff is the author of other wonderful books about dogs.
 

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Planet Of The Dogs 

Long ago there were no dogs on planet earth. They came down from their own planet to help people who were threatened by invaders...to teach people about loyalty, courage, and love...and how non-violent methods can bring peace. Here is an excerpt: 

...As the farmers worked to repair the fence, it was clear that many of them thought Tomas must have been dreaming about this new kind of animal he and the children called a dog. ���What does this mysterious creature look like?��� asked one. ���Do you only see these strange creatures at night?��� asked another. ���Oh look,��� asked a third, ���Isn���t that a green one over there in the tree?��� Tomas, although he had still had some worries about what would happen next, simply smiled and said, ���Joke all you want. Soon, you will see.���

���A charming book and fun to read with a good story, plenty of suspense, and such a warm and fuzzy feeling. I love the characters������

Markell Shriver, Retired College Counselor

Read sample chapters:Planet Of The Dogs

The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty

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 Parade Of Misfits 

Parade of Misfits is an introduction to the world of C.A. Wulff.  The mini e-book contains 2 chapters from her memoir "Circling the Waggins: How 5 Misfit Dogs Saved Me from Bewilderness." as well as never before published essays about the author���s dogs. 


"Her simple affirmation that 'My dogs are not perfect.... but they are perfect for me', guides the telling of these gentle stories. For dog lovers everywhere." - an amazon reader
Only 99 cents (Kindle) from Amazon.com.

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The Global Video Games Market

Violence...

It's not all Angry Birds. According to a Fortune report, the ten most popular video games of 1966 featured 8 that deal with combat and violence and 2 that deal with sports. Here are excerpts from an article by Don Reisinger:

In 2016, many video game players across the U.S. took a liking to shooter titles, according to new data from research firm NPD. The most popular video game for all gaming platforms...was Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The game, which puts players into a war zone, was followed by another first-person shooter from Electronic Arts called Battlefield 1. Capping off the top three is yet another shooter, Tom Clancy's The Division, developed by Ubisoft...

For an overview, with illustrations, of 25 video games released in 2016, click here: PASTE 

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Alternatives... 
 
However, its not all explosions and sports. Here are excerpts from an NPR report by Marcelo Gleiser on  No Man's Sky:

"Marcelo Gleiser is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist ��� and professor of natural philosophy, physics and astronomy
at Dartmouth College. He is the co-founder of 13.7, a prolific author of papers and essays, and active promoter of science to the general public. His latest book is The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning...

...Games like this have an enormous potential, not just as plain fun but as pedagogical devices. I'm not sure yet how consistent with modern science the dream-like worlds of No Man's Sky will be. However, I imagine that, with some modifications, different versions of the game could turn into amazing educational tools to explore cosmology, astrophysics, chemistry, biology and life's evolutionary history. If we have the power to create a hypothetical universe in a game console, we can unleash the human exploratory drive to go where no one has gone before, learning as we wander about..

Here is a link to read the entire article: NPR No Man's Sky

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 LitWorld Brings Books and Reading to Children of the World..."Our Mission: Strengthening kids and communities through the power of their own stories. Together, authoring a bold new world of equity and opportunity."
World Read Aloud Day is a Lit World annual celebration of reading.

Here is a link to the Litworld Video...They are a force for hope and the rights of girls and women around the world. 

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A Hearbreaking Experience -- Refugee Children and Families Rescued at Sea  

This is a link to 4.1 Miles, an incredible NY Times documentary that has been nominated for an academy award.

 "This short documentary follows a Greek coast guard crew as they pull family after family, child after child, from the ocean to save their lives...

Directed by Daphne Matziaraki, 4.1 miles is an extraordinary documentary and a heartbreaking experience. 

 

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Military Veterans Have Joined with Americans for Responsible Solutions to  Help Control the Assault Weapon Insanity

Retired General Stanley McCrystal wrote an excellent Opinion Piece for the NY Times regarding this national crisis. Here is an excerpt from Home Should Not Be a War Zone.

"...In 2014, 33,599 Americans died from a gunshot wound. From 2001 to 2010, 119,246 Americans were murdered with guns, 18 times all American combat deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan...That is a national crisis. And as a combat veteran and proud American, I believe we need a national response to the gun violence that threatens so many of our communities...Today, some of our politicians and the people who back them seem to promote a culture of gun ownership that does not conform with what I learned in the military..."

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Movies

Beauty and the Beast

I was quite taken, many years ago, when I saw Jean Cocteau's film of La Belle et La Bete. A romantic fantasy in black and white, it was first released in 1946 -- a film of hope, released in the aftermath of World War 2. The script was based on Jean-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's 1757 fairy tale of the same name. The photography and lighting, the costumes, the settings, the exteriors (filmed on location at the ancient Chateau de la Roche Courbon), and the acting were blended to create an atmosphere of fairy tale magic that exists to this day.

And now, on March 17, Disney will bring us their 3D musical version of Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson. I hope Disney also creates a captivating atmosphere of fairy tale magic..

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Coming to Your Local Theater

Sci-Fi fantasy for 2017 

I watched several trailers on YouTube for upcoming sci-fi-fantasy movies. I found the story source for a great many are taken from successful comic books. OK. However, the prevalence of endless 3D-CGI-graphic violence is very disturbing. Expletives abound in many. Ugh.

They make Disney's Rogue One, A Star Wars Story, look, by comparison like an upscale model for more balance. I wonder how so much violence affects the YA audience of teenagers.

I found Arrival to be an engrossing, provocative, sci-fi fantasy...an example of a crossover film that demonstrates the possibilities of high level, imaginative, crossover films of this genre.   

 

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Is This A Crossover Film ?

I wonder about a new movie, opening in the USA on February 3, entitled, The Space Between Us.  I have only seen the trailer...It's a boy meets girl teenage movie...however the boy is from Mars...

Here is a link to see the trailer that I saw:The Space Between US. 

Its Sci-Fi but it doesn't appear to be filled with violence.

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You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.��� 

��� A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh 

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We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

Our books are available on the Internet through independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Walmart and many more.

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is also available in digital format suitable for any device at: .Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino.

Librarians, teachers and bookstores ..the Planet Of The Dogs series is available through Ingram with a full professional discount. 

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

The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty 


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"When the Man waked up he said, ���What is Wild Dog doing here?��� And the Woman said, ���His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always.'���
 Rudyard Kipling -- The Jungle Book

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January -- Fables, Fairy Tales and Life...kids, books, movies and dogs

 

                      

 

The Tinder Box

"'It is midnight,' said the soldier, 'yet I should very much like to see
the princess,if only for a moment.'
The dog disappeared instantly,and before the soldier could even look round,
he returned with the princess. She was lying on the dog's back asleep,
and looked so lovely,that every one who saw her would know she was
a real princess.The soldier could not help kissing her, true soldier as he was.
Then the dog ran back with the princess; but in the morning,while at breakfast
with the king and queen,she told them what a singular dream she had had
during the night, of a dog and a soldier, that she had ridden on the dog's
back, and been kissed by the soldier..." 
Quoted from Hans Christian Anderson's The Tinder Box... Illustration by Vladislav Erko 

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Old Legends Live On

"Denmark is rich in old legends of historical persons, churches, and manors, of hills, of fields, and bottomless moors;  sayings from the days of the great plague, from the times of war and peace. The sayings live in books, and on the tongues of the people;  they fly far about like a flock of birds, but still are as different  from one another as the thrush is from the owl, as the wood-pigeon from the gull. Listen to me, and I will tell you some of them"...

Excerpted from Hans Christian Anderson, Danish Popular Legends


The Illustration of the Snow Queen is by Vladislav Erko
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A Reflection of Myself...The Stories of Hans Christian Anderson

Hans Christian Anderson was an enigmatic man, a fertile writer, and a children's literature pioneer. He lived in a turbulent era of Danish and European history. His childhood was difficult and painful.

He was recognized as a fine writer of adult novels, plays, and poetry in Europe. His children's stories first became popular in England. His stories (168) are sweeping in their subject matter and often poignant. Scholars write that they have origins in fables; however, they were transposed by Anderson's imagination into wonderful new stories.  "Most of what I have written is a reflection of myself. Every character is from life. I know and have known them all"

His stories have mixed messages about hope, and are often flavored with melancholy. They range from magical events -- as in The Tinder Box -- to those that evoke real life -- like the Little Match Seller. The titles, alone, of some of his best known works, evoke a dazzling array of images : The Little Mermaid, The Red Shoes, The Princess and the Pea, The Wild Swans, The Snow Queen,The Emperor's New Suit, The Nightingale...

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Words Can Work Wonders


"Hans Christian Anderson's, The Emperors New Clothes, famously punctures pomp and self-importance...The story has achieved a certain global currency, in part because it enacts in so appealing a fashion the cultural fantasy about innocence speaking truth to power.  Anderson's story does much more than send life lessons about hypocrisy, vanity, pretentiousness, and conformity. This widely known fairy tale, I would argue, remains memorable not only because  it implies that words can work wonders but also because it outlines a strategy for making that happen...It is not hard to imagine the invisible cloth used to make the emperor's new clothes, because we learn so much about it...until it finally nearly materializes before the mind's eye of the reader."

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

 

The illustration is by Munro S. Orr 

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The Emperor's New Clothes


The folly and arrogance of royalty, and the willingness of the ruled to indulge those in power, has never been better demonstrated than in Anderson's wonderful story of The Emperor's New Clothes. Anderson often read his stories to children while in the process of developing them. This must have been a great favorite. Here is an excerpt:

"The emperor marched in the procession under the beautiful canopy, and all all who saw him in the street and out of the windows exclaimed: ���Indeed, the emperor���s new suit is incomparable! What a long train he has! How well it fits him!��� Nobody wished to let others know he saw nothing, for then he would have been unfit for his office or too stupid. Never were emperor���s clothes more admired.

���But he has nothing on at all,��� said a little child at last. ���Good heavens! listen to the voice of an innocent child,��� said the father, and one whispered to the other what the child had said. ���But he has nothing on at all,��� cried at last the whole people. That made a deep impression upon the emperor, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, ���Now I must bear up to the end.��� And the chamberlains walked with still greater dignity, as if they carried the train which did not exist.

The illustration is by Edmund Dulac

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Inspiration from the Little Match Girl

Composer David Lang was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in music for his composition The Little Match Girl Passion.

The piece, based on Hans Christian Anderson's story, The Little Match Girl," was inspired by Bach's St. Matthew Passion, The recording of The Little Match Girl on Harmonia Mundi received a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance.

Two recent highly regarded and imaginative theatrical interpretations of The Little Match Girl Passion were inspired by Lang's music. One version is the Arts West Production involving singers, actors and stylized staging. The other production involves the extraordinary puppets of  Figures of Speech Theater 

"No one had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had anyone given her even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along; poor little child, she looked the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her long, fair hair, which hung in curls on her shoulders, but she regarded them not."

The illustration is a photo from the Figures of Speech Theater Production ofThe Little Match Girl Passion. 

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The Island of Innocence...the Private Life of Hans Christian Anderson

I am often disturbed by critics, media, and, sometimes, the academy, prying into the personal life of writers, artists and others in the public eye. Much has been written, based on speculation and second hand research about the private life of Hans Christian Anderson. Much of this speculation has been concerned with whether he was a closet homosexual. In this regard, I found a fascinating article in Welt by Elmar Krekeler (in an awkward Google translation from German) that places Anderson's sexuality in a much larger context. It was published on the occasion of the 200th anniversary (2005) of Anderson's birth and the publication of an authoritative biography by Jens Andersen. Here is an excerpt: 

"He does not want to go beyond the ideal of Platonic friendship...He must be innocent, must remain a child. Because the paradise of the imagination is open to the naive. Inner sense, according to the biographer Jens Andersen, was "an existential and artistic necessity". An act of sublimation, certainly because the great Platonian Andersen simply was afraid. Fear of sexuality, and of being driven out of the "island of innocence" by the real execution of physical love, on which, according to Jens Andersen (biographer), he wanted to spend his life: 'Here he had free and unimpeded access to fantasy, Wealth of ideas, play, and pleasure, which was absolutely necessary for an improviser like him.' Hans Christian Andersen - a Peter Pan long before his literary birth - refuses to grow up."  

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UNHCR

I write of children's wonder books, of extraordinary writers like Hans Christian Anderson, and stories that make a difference in children's imaginations.

I also see on TV and read in the media of the explosive events propelling hundreds of thousands of refugees trying to escape death and pain...trying to find food, shelter, safety and hope...trying to save their children and give them a life of promise.

It is often difficult to reconcile these different worlds.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is providing help to refugees and their children in multiple ways -- around the world. Here is an excerpt from their website:  

"We strive to ensure that everyone has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to eventually return home, integrate or resettle.

During times of displacement, we provide critical emergency assistance in the form of clean water, sanitation and healthcare, as well as shelter, blankets, household goods and sometimes food. We also arrange transport and assistance packages for people who return home, and income-generating projects for those who resettle." 

"Our help transforms broken lives."

Here is a link, relevant to this blog, to the UNHCR website

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���There are some themes, some subjects, too large for adult fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children���s book.��� --  Phillip Pullman

The illustration for Pullman's Northern Lights is by Marie Livingston

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The Planet Of The Dogs series...Long ago there were no dogs on planet earth.

A time came when invaders were taking over farmlands, villages and towns. 
Dogs, who were living in peace and happiness on their own planet, came to earth to help people find peace.

"There are so many stories about battles between good and evil, and at times it���s hard to know who���s on which side, when so many lives are lost. So it���s a breath of fresh air to see a book presenting a peaceful resolution. Planet Of The Dogs may be a fairy tale, but it gives us hope that peace may someday be restored on earth through kinder and gentler means. Dog lovers and those who love a nice story will really enjoy this book." 
Reviewer: Alice Berger, Berger's Book Reviews

We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books.  

The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty

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Born Without A Tail

C.A. Wulff is a lifetime animal advocate. Her books focus primarily on her caring relationships with dogs and the rewards that she receives in turn. Born Without A Tail ranges from her youth through maturity. A compelling memoir, it speaks to both children and adults. Rocket Boy, one of her current pack family, is on the left. Here is a review:

An energetic page-turner that catches the reader by surprise. What seems, at first, to be a simple memoir about pets becomes an astounding love story about commitment and responsibility in the face of insurmountable obstacles. Ironically, Cayr Ariel Wulff's riveting adventures with animals - some hilarious, some heartbreaking - become lessons in what it means to be truly human. -- Amazon reader Review by Marse  

 

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Fairy Faith...Exploring the Enchanted Realm

You Tube has a mixed bag of videos regarding fairies.  Fairy Faith stands out as a responsible and intelligent documentary video by John Walker, (with support from the Canadian Film Board), that explores the known and the unknown. Walker travels to many places, including Ireland, Devon and the Isle of Skye, where people are interviewed regarding their experiences, beliefs, and ideas regarding the fairy world. There are people who have seen fairies and others who are quite articulate about the phenomenon.

It seems that in the Victorian era, fairies were homogenized with romantic simplification and turned into all sweetness and light. In the past, especially in the countryside, there were all kinds of fairies, and many were far from benign.

The personalities and experiences of those interviewed vary a great deal: there are at least two PhD's, a carpenter, an artist, a harpist, a retired school teacher, scholars and more than one person who has seen, or still sees, fairies. 

If this is a subject of some interest to you, this video (1:14) is worth a look. It can be viewed in sections. Here is a link to The Fairy Faith.  

The illustration is of The Large Ring, Kerry, Ireland. 

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Children and Adults Alike

 "Anderson combined humor, Christian sentiments, folklore, and original plots to form tales which amused and instructed old and young readers at the same time. More than any other writer of the 19th century, he fulfilled what Perrault had begun: to write tales such as 'The Ugly Duckling', 'The Little Mermaid', and the 'Princess and the Pea' which could be readily grasped by children and adults alike." 

 -- Jack Zipes... Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales

The illustration from the Snow Queen is by A.W. Bayes.

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NRA Markets Guns To Children with Rewritten Fairy Tales

For National Rifle Association (NRA) families there are children's fairy tale books where Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother all use guns: Here is an excerpt from the NRA version of Little Red Riding... 

"The wolf leaned in, jaws open wide, then stopped suddenly. Those big ears heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun���s safety being clicked off. Those big eyes looked down and saw that grandma had a scattergun aimed right at him.  He realized that Grandmother hadn���t been backing away from him; she had been moving towards her shotgun to protect herself and her home.  

'I don't think I���ll be eaten today,' said Grandma, 'and you won't be eating anyone again.' ���

If you want to read more, here's a link to the NRA Family website.

The photo is of a home town memorial to the 20 children, between six and seven years old, as well as six adult staff members who were shot dead in the Sandy Hook school shootings. 

 

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MOVIES 

Disney Power

The power, financially and culturally, of Disney is difficult to comprehend. They continue to produce and release more films for the children's and YA marketplace than any other entity. Their 2015 release, "The Force Awakens", the Disney sequel to the Star Wars series, grossed over 2 billion dollars worldwide. 

The Disney box office results for 2016 are staggering: Rogue One, the latest Star Wars spinoff has already grossed over 363 million dollars in only 3 weeks. Moana, an imaginative animated story of good vs bad set in the Pacific islands, has grossed over 350 hundred million dollars since opening in late November. Also, in 2016: Zootopia grossed over a billion dollars and The Jungle Book has brought in over 900 million dollars.

The box office results represent only the beginning of Disney's cultural impact Theatrical releases are followed by TV, the Internet, DVDs, books, merchandise, digital games..

And -- coming in March is what promises to be another hit: Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson. 

The illustration is from The Force Awakens.

More Billions

Disney paid Lucas film 4 billion dollars for the rights to the Star Wars films and franchise.  Four billion! Disney previously bought Pixar for $9 billion in 2006, and Marvel for $4 billion in 2009...

Jim Mclauchlin, In an excellent article article in Wired makes sense of the Lucas purchase and how it ties in with Disney's total operation. Here is the opening of his article:

"DISNEY���S PURCHASE OF Lucasfilm, and by extension Star Wars, in 2012 wasn���t cheap. At least, not on the face of it. But once you add up all those movie tickets, action figures, and limited-edition Coffee-mate creamers, billions will come back to replace the billions spent. Just how do those billions stack up, though? While the exact math is fuzzy, the long-term picture is clear. Disney immediately started making money on an investment that will continue to pay off in a huge way���likely for years to come..."

Here's a link to read all of Mclauchlin's article about Disney movies, power, money, marketing, and merchandising: Wired.

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Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them -- A personal report

J.K. Rowling has again opened up the world of magic for all who have a mind open to the world of fantasy and imagination. I had a delightful and entertaining visit to her word of Fantastic Creatures. Once again, I admired Ms. Rowling's ability to create a fully realized alternate reality filled with surprises. My one caveat: as I sat in the theater toward the end of the film, I questioned the heavy hand of special effects mayhem (including the sound) and the impact this might have on children. However, Fantastic Beasts is a wonderful journey of the imagination for older children, the YA audience, and adults who enjoy fantasy. 

Here's a link to the trailer: Fantastic Beasts

The illustration is from Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.   

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The Power Of Story

���I do believe in the power of story.  I believe that stories have an important role to play in the formation of human beings, that they can stimulate, amaze andThe Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic inspire their listeners.���

��� Hayao Miyazaki 


The illustration is from Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro.
 
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Victorian Values for Children's Books
 
In England in the 19th century, advances in printing methods, combined with the rise of a prosperous middle class, engendered a booming new industry of books published just for children. Casting about for cheap story material, English publishers laid hands on the subtle, sensual adult fairy tales of the Continental tradition and revised them into simpler stories instilled with Victorian values. Although these simplified versions retained much of the violence of the older stories, elements of sexuality and moral complexity were carefully scrubbed away ��� along with the fiesty heroines who appeared everywhere in the older tales, tamed now into models of Victorian propiety and passivity.


Terri Windling writing in the anthology Black Swan, White Raven
 
 
 
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The Carterhaugh School for Folklore and the Fantastic

"Carterhaugh is an online center for classes on folk narrative and fantastic literature created in 2016 by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman. We both hold Masters degrees in Folklore from George Mason University and are currently completing PhDs in English and Folklore at the Ohio State University.

At OSU we have taught courses on folklore, fairy tales, folk narrative, nineteenth-century to contemporary British literature, fantastic literature, and composition, earning nominations for teaching awards and commendations from both supervisors and students."

Here is a link to their website: Carterhaugh

 

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Fences for Fido

There are two things that stand out for me as I read about Fences for Fido. One, is the wonderful, tangible result of giving a new life to chained dogs (and their owners), secondly, the wonderful positive energy that the volunteers bring to their work...and the reward they get when their work is done as they witness the joy of the dog's new-found freedom.

In nearly 8 years, the volunteers of Fences For Fido have unchained almost 1500 dogs in NW Oregon, central Oregon and SW Washington. Here are excerpts from their website:

"Fences for Fido is an award-winning, non-profit organization that builds fences free of charge for families who keep their dogs on chains, tethers and in small enclosures. (and much more)...There are many testimonials on their site. I chose this one..." 

���I just wanted to thank your organization again for all the work and effort that was put into building a fence for Gunnar last weekend. I couldn't believe it when I looked in my backyard and saw about 20 people, in the rain, ready to work! Not only all of that, but the kindness and understanding about the challenges a pit bull can sometimes present was also just awesome. Suffice it to say, Gunnar LOVES his new yard, is off the chain, and doing great!���
--Laurie, Gunnar���s Family, Amity

 

Here's a link to their site with several excellent documentary videos Fences For Fido 

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Yelodoggie

The joyous new Yelodoggie book, Why Am I ?, is coming out next year.

Yelodoggie's book will help open the imagination and perspective of children to the world around them.

It will help children to recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.

Yelodoggie is a creation of C.A. Wulff.
Here's a link to Wulff's Yelodoggie  paintings. This link is to her Zazzle Store. Here's a link to her Up On The Woof website. Wulff is the author of other wonderful books about dogs.
 

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The Planet Of The Dogs Series

We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

Our books are available through independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's and many more.

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist, and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is also available in digital format suitable for any device at: .Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino.

Librarians, teachers and bookstores ..the Planet Of The Dogs series is available through Ingram with a full professional discount. 

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

The illustration from The Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty 

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" Labradors are lousy watchdogs. They usually bark when there is a stranger about, but it is an expression of unmitigated joy at the chance to meet somebody new, not a warning."
-- Norman Strung

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December -- Hope, Dreams, Children and Christmas...books, kids, movies, and dogs

 

       
       
                                        The illustration, Waiting for Christmas, is by Grandma Moses

                Hope, Dreams, Children and Christmas 

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Transforming the Spirit of Christmas

Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol transformed Christmas in Victorian England. The industrial age had resulted in cities filled with the poor people, uncared for orphans, and multitudes of street children. Dicken's notion that the true Christmas spirit embodied caring and generosity -- especially for those less fortunate --  influenced the thinking of those more fortunate and helped to transform the holiday.  The book went on to influence much of Europe and the USA.  

A Christmas Carol (1843) was written with the passion born of Charles Dicken's painful childhood as an impoverished 12 year old boy from a broken family.With his father in debtor's prison, Dickens was forced to leave school and work ten-hour days for six shillings a week under harsh conditions in England's new industrial economy.  

Ultimately, the book influenced the thinking of generations of readers, and transformed the spirit of the Christmas holiday. The transformation was influenced by Dickens' passionate belief that the true Christmas spirit embodied caring and generosity -- especially for those less fortunate. 

The power of the marketplace has influnced the celebration in myriad ways and much has changed with the passage of time, but the Spirit Of Christmas lives on.

Here is a link to the Project Gutenberg's free ebook of the original Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

 The illustration of Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit is by Harold Copping.

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Dickens and the Weight of Truth

"The language around Christmas is usually pretty treacly, as befits the season. But future writers should remember that one of the amazing things about the holiday���s ur-text, Charles Dickens���s 1843 novella, ���A Christmas Carol,��� is that it���s pretty grim, that is to say realistic, when it comes to depicting Scrooge���s past and Tiny Tim���s present. Without Dickens���s eye and ear for extreme emotional and fiscal predicaments, the story���s more fantastic moments wouldn���t have the weight of truth." 

Here is a link to more of Hilton Als New Yorker Christmas article about Dickens, Dylan Thomas, and Horton  Foote.

 ���I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!��� ... Ebenezer Scrooge

The illustration of Scrooge is by John Leech
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Here is a link to the reading of Dickens Christmas Carol  by Neil Gaiman at the NY Public Library  

 

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Dumbledore and Harry, in The Sorcerer���s Stone, in a room with the Mirror of Erised ���

���The Mirror shows us nothing more nor less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts.���

���Sir- Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?���

���Obviously, you���ve just done so,��� Dumbledore smiled. ���You may ask me one more thing however.���

���What do you see when you look in the mirror?���

���I see myself holding a pair of thick wool socks.���

Harry stared.

���One can never have enough socks,��� said Dumbledore. ���Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn���t get a single pair. People insist on giving me books.���

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���Children ��� are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth,���  -- by E.B. White in his counsel on how to write for children.
 

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Mr Dog's Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn is a wonderful Christmas book and a rescued treasure. 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. Paine, in his day, was a highly respected author. His work included a three volume biography of Mark Twain.

"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."

Under the guidance of Ms Cordes, and with the wonderful illustrations by Adam McCauley , Mr Dog's Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn has been given a new life. Driven by happy personal Christmas memories, the book was produced and published with great care. It has the makings of a holiday classic 

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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 Dicken's Influence Gathers Momentum 

Manifestations of Dicken's influence ranged from the royalty family's  much publicized celebration of Christmas to the birth of Christmas cards. These events both added momentum to the cultural change that took place, especially with the middle class and more prosperous families.. Queen Victoria, herself, is considered a major influence in this transformation of the Christmas spirit. 

"Many attribute the change to Queen Victoria, and it was her marriage to the German-born Prince Albert that introduced some of the most prominent aspects of Christmas. In 1848 the Illustrated London Newspublished a drawing of the royal family celebrating around a decorated Christmas tree, a tradition that was reminiscent of Prince Albert's childhood in Germany. Soon every home in Britain had a tree bedecked with candles, sweets, fruit, homemade decorations and small gifts.

In 1843 Henry Cole commissioned an artist to design a card for Christmas. The illustration showed a group of people around a dinner table and a Christmas message. At one shilling each, these were pricey for ordinary Victorians and so were not immediately accessible. However the sentiment caught on and many children - Queen Victoria's included ��� were encouraged to make their own Christmas cards. In this age of industrialisation colour printing technology quickly became more advanced, causing the price of card production to drop significantly. Together with the introduction of the halfpenny postage rate, the Christmas card industry took off. By the 1880s the sending of cards had become hugely popular, creating a lucrative industry that produced 11.5 million cards in 1880 alone. The commercialisation of Christmas was well on its way."

Here is a link to read more: Victorian Christmas 

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Save the Children

More than 28 million of the world's refugees are children driven from their homes by war and violence, a number so large that it staggers the mind. Save The Children is a major resource in bringing assistance and hope to children in need in 120 countries. Here are excerpts from their website: Save The Children . 

"More than half of the world's refugees are under the age of 18. They have had their childhoods interrupted, and half of all refugee children are out of school. Save the Children calls on the international community to ensure that every refugee child has access to education and is learning. No refugee child should be without education for more than one month after being displaced."

"Education sets children up for success, provides hope and opportunities for the future, as well as a sense of stability and normalcy for those who are overcoming traumatic events. It also prepares children with the skills needed to rebuild and help develop their home countries if and when they return."

Save The Children has produced an exceptional video (under 2 minutes duration), guaranteed to move you. The video is entitled, Still the Most Shocking Second a Day.  Here is a link to this important video of a young refugee girl: Save The Children Video. 

The photo of the Yazidi refugees is from Reuters/Time Magazine

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Little Red Riding Hood Has a Gun

Where does violence begin? In the rewritten NRA versions of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood, the children have guns. Here is an excerpt from the Guardian:

"Little Red Riding Hood Has A Gun. Red is off to visit grandma, as usual, but when she���s approached by the predatory wolf things unfold rather differently: 'As she grew increasingly uncomfortable, she shifted her rifle so that it was in her hands and at the ready. The wolf became frightened and ran away.'

In the NRA re-telling, little old grandma doesn���t fall foul of the salacious beast either. The story doesn���t get as far as the wolf gobbling her up and the usual 'what big eyes you���ve got' exchange, it stalls when grandma whips out her scattergun. What a big gun you���ve got, indeed."

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Kwanzaa,,,Celebrating African Culture

"Unlike Christmas and Hanukkah, 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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Paws for Purple Hearts uses therapy dogs trained by veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) to help their comrades with combat-related injuries... "PPH is built upon the trusted and time-honored tradition of Veterans helping Veterans... PPH initiated and trained staff to operate canine therapeutic programs at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (Maryland), the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (Maryland), and Fort Belvoir (Virginia). These programs have changed the lives of many Veterans struggling with PTSD. The PPH program has been requested at several other sites."

An excellent documentary (4 minutes15 seconds) takes the viewer into the world of veterans with PTSD and other disabilities whose lives have been helped in tangible ways through PPH therapy dogs. Here is a link to this excellent video: PPH Video

 Here is a link to their website Paws For Purple Hearts 

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A Doggy Christmas

Author C.A. Wulff lives in a cabin in the woods with her partner and five 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." 

The photo is of Lammy Lamb resting after a big Christmas celebration.

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Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale

Santa's reindeer have been kidnapped by the King of the North. There can be no more Christmas. 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 from Snow Valley Heroes wherein the Tundra Town traders, in an emergency meeting regarding the kidnapped reindeer, are introduced to dogs for the first time:

���It is good that you want to help,��� said Paoli.  ���But you do not know the King of the North.  And you do not know the Ice Castle, a fortress of rock that an army could not enter.���

Daisy then spoke.  ���What you say is true sir.  But you do not know about dogs.  They are
clever, brave, and can see in the dark with their noses.  They can speak with children.  Your caravan would have been warned before the attack was made, if you had dogs.  Dogs would have interfered with the attackers and their horses.  And if they were bigger dogs, like Tok or Nor, they might have stopped the attack.���

Here is an excerpt from a review of Snow Valley Heroes by Su Chin for Parent Reviewers.

 "I personally enjoyed reading this book very  much. I found Mr. McCarty���s story-telling to be absorbing and a real page turner... My 8 year old son, enjoyed the book tremendously... Although it had more words than pictures (he���d rather read comics), he was very amazed that he followed through each chapter and finished it...This is a great Xmas gift for any boy or girl, who loves reading. Definitely a huge bonus for kids who are dog lovers!"-- 

Here's a link to read sample chapters of Snow Valley Heroes

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The Night Before the Night Before Christmas

I have long been a fan of Richard Scary's wonderful books. I have spent many hours in Busytown. I recently made a belated discovery while perusing my grandsons' books: there is a delightful Richard Scary Christmas book, The Night Before the Night Before Christmas, wherein -- surprise -- Mr. Frumble, after many crashes and other mishaps. saves Christmas. Good for you Mr. Frumble!

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Yelodoggie is going home to celebrate Christmas.

The joyous new Yelodoggie book, Why Am I ?, is coming out next year.

Yelodoggie's book will help open the imagination and perspective of children to the world around them.

It will help them to recognize and appreciate differences: to understand issues of belonging and acceptance: and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.

Yelodoggie is a creation of C.A. Wulff. Here's a link to Wulff's Yelodoggie  paintings. This link is to her Zazzle Store. Here's a link to her Up On The Woof website. Wulff is the author of other wonderful books about dogs.


 
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Movies

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

J.K. Rowling continues to open up her fantasy world. She has sequels that will follow the world of magic and muggles that begins with the book and movie Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them. The film is drawing huge audiences -- passing $500 million at the box office -- and fans will find many updates, background, and information about future plans on Pottermore.

If you haven't seen the movie, I suggest taking a look at this action packed trailer: Fantastic Beasts

 

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SING

SING opens in theaters on December 21...I haven't seen it, however the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are favorable... Here is the plot in one sentence:  "A koala impresario stages a grand singing competition for the world's animals in order to save his elegant theater in this quirky animated musical."

Clicking this link will take you to a very engaging trailer: SING

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Beauty and the Beast

Disney is bringing Beauty and the Beast to theaters on March 17. Emma Watson will tame the Beast in this interpretation of the classic fairy tale. I am a enthusiast of Ms Watson's and hope that she can combine in her portrayal an appropriate blend of strength, vulnerability , and purity. The trailer is visually stunning.  

Here is the trailer to Disneys new Beauty and the Beast  

 
The illustration is by Angela Barrett.
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Acts of Imagination 


"A great writer of fiction both creates ��� through acts of imagination, through language that feels inevitable, through vivid forms ��� a new world, a world that is unique, individual; and responds to a world, the world the writer shares with other people but is unknown or mis-known by still more people, confined in their worlds: call that history, society, what you will."
 
Excerpted from At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches by Susan Sontag 
 
 
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We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

Our books are available through independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's and many more.

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist, and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is also available in digital format at..Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino.

Librarians, teachers and bookstores ..You can order the Planet Of The Dogs series through Ingram with a full professional discount. 

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

Merry Christmas to All!

The illustration from Snow Valley Heroes is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty 
 
 
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 Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail. -- Kinky Friedman

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November -- The Known and the Unknown...books, kids, movies, and dogs

                           

 

"Anyone who returns to the original Grimms after their modern saccharinization sees the deep horror in the tales, the gruesomeness, the tragedy, the dark beliefs and practices."

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

The illustration is by Pieter Bruegel.

'''''''''''''''''''''''' 

The Juniper Tree...a fearful tale

This is one of the original Grimm stories that Seth Lerer refers to above. I first read the Juniper Tree some time ago and I still find it disturbing, made somewhat more palatable because of the unadorned, matter-of-fact style and also because I know it is a mirror of history, of life in times gone by. Like many of the tales written down in France and Italy in previous centuries, it deals with horrible behaviors and events. However, this tale compounds dark actions in a way that makes Snow White's stepmother, the queen, by comparison, seem less evil. 

The irony of having a pretty little bird sing in the voice of the dead son (below) is a fascinating aspect of this gruesome tale with a deceptive title..."The bird flew away and alighted on the house of a goldsmith and began to sing:

���My mother killed her little son;
My father grieved when I was gone;
My sister loved me best of all;
She laid her kerchief over me,
And took my bones that they might lie
Underneath the juniper-tree
Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!���"

 

The illustration is by bluucat. 

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There Was Hope, Even in the Unknown  

Fear, wars and problems of the day dominated the days of people for centuries. 

Evil spirits, mysteries, and the unknown were part of daily life. 

Stories helped relieve fear and stress.

They were told where people gathered -- in the spinning rooms, the taverns, the market square, in the fields.

In the oral tales that have been written down and preserved, no matter how dark,  there is always hope.

.

The illustration of Mother Goose reading to the children is by Gustav Dore for Perrault's book of fairy tales. 

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Fairy Tales As A Civilizing Process 

"At their best, the storytelling of fairy tales constitute the most profound articulation of the human struggle to form and maintain a civilizing process. They depict metaphorically the opportunities for human adaptation to our environment and reflect the conflicts that arise when we fail to establish civilizing codes commensurate with the self-interests of large groups within the human population. The more we give into base instincts ��� base in the sense of basic and depraved ��� the more criminal and destructive we become. The more we learn to relate to other groups of people and realize that their survival and the fulfillment of their interests is related to ours, the more we might construct social codes that guarantee humane relationships. Fairy tales are uncanny because they tell us what we need and they unsettle us by showing what we lack and how we might compensate for lack." - Jack Zipes

The above is an excerpt from an interview with Jack Zipes on the Art of Storytelling Show: 

The illustration is by Hugo Simberg

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The Secret Garden...An Enduring Children's Classic 

In the bleak distance, over the moors, lies Misselthwaite Manor, a place of sadness and mourning, and the new home of the unloved orphan girl, Mary Lennox. The scene is from Agnieszka Holland's 1993 film of The Secret Garden. 

Here is the trailer for the film of the Secret Garden directed by Agnieszka Holland.

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The Known and the Unknown in the Secret Garden

The secret garden at Misselthwaite Manor has been closed for ten years. It lies behind a high wall, overgrown with ivy, and with no visible door and a key long buried.

Mary, an unhappy, orphan girl, filled with curiosity, will find a way, with the help of a robin, to enter the garden.

She will find delight working in the garden, and creating life and beauty. Mary and the garden will both be transformed. In turn, she will help to heal and transform Colin, the sickly son of the unhappy absentee owner. Colin is a cripple who has been living a lonely and unhappy existence, alone except for servants, shut off from the world in this manor of over 100 darkened rooms.

In the course of the story, the abandoned garden is transformed and becomes a place of beauty, healing, and hope. 

 
The illustration is by Julie Sarda.
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The Secret Garden Is A Catalyst

"For Mary, it's not a benefactor or romantic love that catalyses her growth. Rather, she learns to take care of herself, to experience un-lonely solitude in the natural landscape...

The secret garden is a catalyst for healing in the characters who see it, and with Colin the effect is literal. Unable to walk when we meet him, he discovers in the garden that he can stand. He secretly practices until he is able to shock his father by getting out his wheelchair and walking...

In The Secret Garden, the orphan Mary's rightful inheritance is ultimately herself and the natural world, the ability to speak truth to others and to have it spoken back to her ��� to live a full life of both the body and the imagination."

The excerpts above are from The Secret Garden's Hidden Depths by Anna Clark in the Guardian.

 

The illustration is by Inga Moore.
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The Role of Positive Thinking In American Children's Books

"In the variations that American authors play on this ur-story (The Secret Garden), a distinctive national characteristic is the advocacy of positive thinking. For the most part, this feature seems largely absent from Children's Literature of other countries; it would be difficult to say for example that the aim of Peter Rabbit or the Wind in the Willows or Pinochio is to open a clarion call for mental optimism...

The mental nature of American children's books is signaled in their preoccupation with feelings...And more than the Children's Literature of other countries, it seems, American children's books tell us of the inner lives of children...Bad feelings, negative emotions, "bosom enemies", wrong thoughts -- these are the problems in such books as Toby Tyler, Hans Brinker, Little Women, and The Secret Garden. Not surprisingly, positive thinking is their cure. 'Believe in yourself!' -- that is the lesson that the Wizard gives to Dorothy and her three companions..."

The excerpts above are from Jerry Griswald's  2014 version of Audacious Kids, A History of American Children's Books.
The illustration is by Inga Moore. 

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Lost and Found: The Orphaned Hero in Myth, Folklore, and Fantasy 

"We find them everywhere in fantasy fiction: the 'orphaned heroes', young men and women whose parents are dead, absent, or unknown, who turn out to be the heirs to the kingdom, the destined pullers of swords from stones, the keys to the riddles, the prophesies' answers, the bearers of powerful magic. 

The orphaned hero is not, however, a mere fantasy clich��; it's a mythic archetype, springing from some of the oldest stories of the world. This archetype includes not only those characters who are literally orphaned by the death of their parents, but also children who are lost, abandoned, cast out, disinherited by evil step���parents, raised in supernatural captivity, or reared by wild animals. We can trace the archetype back ... to a world���wide body of folk tales and myths about children orphaned and abandoned. Alongside these stories is another deep cache of tales on the "stolen child" theme..." --Terri Windling

Here is a link to read all of this fascinating article: Terry Windling-JoMA Archives

The cover illustration is by Inga Moore.

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Beyond The Garden Door 

"Wonder is the chief affect aroused by the discovery of the secret garden at Misselthwaite, which owes much to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's educational tract Emile and to contemporary British efforts to deploy gardens as sites of therapeutic benefit for children (the kindergarten was all the rage), as well as to Burnett's own love of gardening. Pointing to the pastoral as well as to the utopian,the enclosed space at Misselthwaite is discovered when nature 'speaks' to Mary in the form of a chirping robin and leads her to both the door and the key. Fitting the rusty old key into the keyhole of the once hidden door: 'Then she slipped through it, and shut it behind her, and stood with her back against it, looking about her and breathing quite fast with excitement, wonder, and delight.'" -- Maria Tatar

The above is an excerpt from Maria Tatar's Enchanted Hunters, The Power of Stories in Childhood.

The illustration is by Inga Moore.

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Hope
 
" Do not lose hope.
We found new hope.
There is no hope.
You have no hope.
Its my last hope,
There's always hope.
It grows on trees."
 

From Jana Prikryl's book of poems, The After Party  

 

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Yelodoggie is Coming Next Year

Yelodoggie will help open the imagination and perspective of children to the world around them. It will help then to recognize and appreciate differences.

After all, Yelodoggie isn't quite like other dogs.

The joyous new Yelodoggie book, Why Am I ?, addresses issues of belonging, acceptance, inclusion, and embracing that which is unique in each of us. 

The Yelodoggie spirit is all about celebrating life ��� events both big and small.  

Yelodoggie is a creation of C.A. Wulff. Here's a link to Wulff's Yeloddoggie  paintings. This link is to her Zazzle Store. Here's a link to her  Up On The Woof  website. Wulff is the author of other wonderful books about dogs.  

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Save The Children

The presidential election race in the USA has diverted media attention from the pain, fear, and chaos driving refugees to flee for their lives. Save The Children is working in 120 countries around the world. Last year they helped a staggering 185 million children.

"Approximately nine million registered refugees globally are children and youth. Their number is growing dramatically as a result of escalating crises in places where violence, persecution and conflict are uprooting entire populations...

Children and families are fleeing out of fear for their lives and embarking on perilous journeys. Many hope for the chance of a better life and the opportunity for asylum. But while they are on the move, they are extremely vulnerable..."

This is a link to a  video of children from war ravaged Syria who tell us what they have experienced. It is a moving experience to witness this brief (2:18) video. It is frustrating and sad to know that this nightmare continues. It was produced by the wonderful Save The Children organization.
 
Here is a link to their website. Save The Children
The photo is by Rena Effendi

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 The NRA Marches On
 
Despite the murder of 20 children and 6 adults with an assault weapon by a deranged teenager at the Sandy Hook School; and despite the fact that children continue to be killed by guns, the NRA fights any changes to gun laws.
 
In 2015, there were 36 deaths of children ages 12 and under; and 23 deaths of children ages 13-17).
 
Buying an assault weapon is easy, even for violent criminals, in the USA. Over 33,000 Americans died from guns 2014.  

A person not allowed to board a plane because Homeland Security has found them to be a dangerous threat and capable of violence, can buy a military assault weapon without a background check.

Even fairy tales will never be the same...Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and soon, the Three Little Pigs, all use guns in the NRA rewritten versions of these children's stories.

Here is a link to an excellent New York Times article about gun death and damage to children in the USA: Untold Damage.

The illustration is by Laura Zombie.

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The Imagination

"According to my present theme, the writer of imagination would attain closest to the conditions of music not when his words are disassociated from natural objects and specified meanings, but when they are liberated from the usual quality of that meaning by transportation into another medium, the imagination.���

��� William Carlos Williams 

Slowa the Bear

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How The Dogs Saved Christmas

Who were the Snow Valley Heroes? Did they really save Christmas? Children and adults have asked these questions for many years, and there have been many who tried to answer them. The confusion and uncertainty is because the Snow Valley Heroes came from the Planet of the Dogs long, long ago. This is the true story of how the dogs saved Christmas.

Review: "This is a great fantasy/holiday book for children and adults alike...Additionally, the author has done a great job of making the children and dogs the heroes of the story, and adding little bits of responsibility throughout the book. Read the book over and over to peel back the layers and see something new!" -- Wendi Barker, Wendi's Book Corner

Click here to read Sample Chapters of Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale.

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For The Dog Lovers on Your Holiday List

Barking Planet Books
For Dog Lovers of All A ges

 

 
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Movies:

The long awaited --  especially by Potter fans -- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,  the new  J.K. Rowling fantasy drama will open in movie theaters worldwide on November 18th in 3D, IMAX, and 4K Laser. It stars Eddie Redmayne.
 
The book of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be published on November 18, simultaneously with the movie release, and along with a number of tie-ins including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Fashion Sketchbook; the Magical Movie Handbook; and a Character Guide. Other titles will release prior to, and after, the release of the film Fantastic Beasts.
 
 
 Here is a trailer for Fantastic Beasts 
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
 
Tim Burton's latest fantasy adventure was adopted from a neverland story created by author Ranson Riggs. The film received mixed reviews from film critics. However, audiences have given it a warm reception. Here's an except from Peter Bradshaw's Guardian review:
 
"Everything but the kitchen sink goes into this buoyant fantasy-adventure from Tim Burton, adapted by Jane Goldman from the 2011 bestseller by Ransom Riggs. It rattles amiably along, although it���s a little overextended and loses something of its control and focus by the end...Engaging, watchable, with sweet-natured freewheeling eccentricity." 
 
Tim Burton is recognized as a premier creator of films dealing with the Known and the Unknown. He has been
prolific; his films include Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and now, Miss Perregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. An excellent video interview with the charismatic Burton is on the Guardian Review Page . Produced by the Guardian (Andrew Pulver and Gary Marshall), Burton's candid interview offers insights into his imagination and creativity, particularly regarding Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  
 
Here is a link to the trailer: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
 
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 Girl Asleep

I was quite taken by Stephen Holden's NY Times review when I read that the adolescent angst of a young girl, Greta, drives her into the woods where she has a through-the-looking-glass adventure. Here are excerpts from the review of this fantasy comedy of modern life.

..." she flees the party, plunges into the woods behind her house and embarks on a through-the-looking-glass adventure that is the movie���s centerpiece. In the forest she flees the sounds of barking wolves and encounters mythological creatures as well as family members in storybook disguises. The movie is so aggressively art directed that its strongest creative force appears to be its scenic designer, Jonathon Oxlade, whose imaginative whimsy evokes Tim Burton at his most lighthearted...

The movie was inspired by the writings of the psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, whose most famous work, ���The Uses of Enchantment,��� analyzed fairy tales from a Freudian perspective...For all its flirtation with nightmarish imagery, it is too sweet-natured to be scary."

Here is a link to Stephen Holden's NYT review of Girl Asleep  

Here is the trailer for ���Girl Asleep��� .

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 PGI Therapy Dogs -- The Human Canine Connection 
 
PGI = Paws Giving Independence, was founded and is sustained by, people coming from the heart. PGI is based in and has become part of the culture in Peoria, Ilinois.
"The objective of PGI is to train service dogs to assist people with a variety of different disabilities while providing support to encourage independence. PGI educates the public to the benefits of service dogs and encourages animal rescue by obtaining many of our animals from shelters and rescue groups...Mobility Service Dogs help by performing functions for a person that is limited by a disability...These include:
Mobility impairments (wheelchair, unstable walking, balance difficulty)
Medical Response (Seizures, Epilepsy, Diabete
Visual impairment (Partial site)
Hearing impairments
Other physical/mental disabilities


If you haven't seen a service dog in action, PGI has made several basic documentaries of the dogs in action with their owners. Here is a link that will show you two young people and their devoted dogs: PGI  Demo Video


 Here ia link to the PGI website.
 
 Photo by Micheal Duncan
................
 
Meet Mardi...a charming new puppy story for young children

In real life, Mardi is a Shi Tzu-Poodle, and a therapy dog at St John's Hospital in Santa Monica, CA. His owner, author Linda Dembo, has written a sweet book for young children about a puppy who likes to play, and his journey to a new life. Published by the Independent Press, Mascot Books, the book is filled with illustrations by Romney Vasquez  of this endearing puppy. 


Kids and parents will find free games on Mardi's website 
 
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The Book Market and The Secret Garden

"Although it sold well enough at first, The Secret Garden lapsed into a kind of near oblivion for many decades. Critics ignored or disparaged it, even at a time when children���s literature began receiving more and more critical and scholarly attention. It was the children, along with librarians, who saved it, passing on the book to readers and friends, and creating a special place in their hearts for the story. By the 1960s, its fortunes began to revive, and when the book went out of copyright in 1986, dozens of illustrators and publishers rushed to reproduce it."

The above is an excerpt from an informative article by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina in the PublicDomain Review 

 
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We have free reader copies of the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians and teachers...simply send us an email at planetofthedogs@gmail.com and we will send you the books. 

Our books are available through independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's and many more.

The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist, and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is also available in digital format at..Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino.

Librarians, teachers and bookstores ..You can order the Planet Of The Dogs  series through Ingram with a full professional discount. 

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

The illustration from Snow Valley Heroes is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty 

 

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���A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart..."

--John Grogan, Marley and Me, Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog

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