Robert McCarty's Blog, page 9

October -- Fantasy Puts the World in Perspective..Books, Kids, Movies, and Dogs

                                
 

"In fantasy stories we learn to understand the differences of others, we learn compassion for those things we cannot fathom, we learn the importance of keeping our sense of wonder. The strange worlds that exist in the pages of fantastic literature teach us a tolerance of other people and places and engender an openness toward new experience. Fantasy puts the world into perspective in a way that 'realistic' literature rarely does. It is not so much an escape from the here-and-now as an expansion of each reader's horizons."

Jane Yolen, award winning author and editor, quoted by Terri Windling in Myth and Moor

 The illustration is by Christophe Vacher

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You're being someone else...

"When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world, and people it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You���re being someone else, and when you return to your own world, you���re going to be slightly changed."

The above quote is from an excellent article/review by Maria Popova on Brain Pickings of Neal Gaiman's book "the view from the cheap seats". 

The illustration, from Neal Gaiman's Coraline, is by Dave Mckean.

 

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Never Grow Up 

I wondered how a play about a flying boy and some kids who go with him to an an island where the big attraction was a cliche pirate and some runaway boys could be the the biggest theatrical event of London, in 1904, with 145 performances. It didn't make sense to me. I remembered Disney's Peter Pan film, and a Disney book (many years ago) and I thought I knew the story.

However, I hadn't  read the play or the original book by J.M. Barrie. Apparently, if I was to understand the immediate success of Peter Pan, I needed to read the play, Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. And after reading the play, I realized that Disney was the primary reason that the success of the play -- and the books that followed -- didn't make sense to me.

Reading the play, and about the production, was a fascinating eye opener. The writing, ideas, characters, and staging (50 cast members) was very impressive. Apparently, my thinking had been clouded by Disney's saccharine, romantic version of the story.

Theater in those days was primarily entertainment and melodrama. There was, of course, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Shaw, and Chekhov. However, eternal youth, the underlying concept of Peter Pan, and the magical play with clever writing, music , and special effects galore, gave birth to a wonderful entertainment, and two years later, to the book, Peter and Wendy. This, in turn,was followed through the years by numerous theatrical productions, musicals, movies, and TV shows.

Peter Pan. himself, It turns out, was also rather complex. Finding Neverland and having perpetual youth meant living forever in a difficult and dangerous world. Peter Pan had problems with his memory, had no stories to stimulate his imagination, and wanted to have a mother. In addition, his personal fairy, Tinker Bell, was mordantly possesive and capable of nasty tricks (unlike Pinocchio's loving fairy). In short, life in Neverland was not simple. It was in perpetual motion filled with danger, surprises, drama and slapstick.

My understanding of the peter Pan phenomenon  also benefited greatly from reading insights from Maria Tatar's book, Enchanted Hunters-the power of stories in childhood, and Seth Lerer's book, Children's Literature  --  a Readers History from Aesop to Harry Potter.  I have quoted excerpts from them here...

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Children Must Grow Up

"Barrie recognized that children must grow up and that they cannot make a go of it alone with that pal from Neverland who will never grow up. He knew that trying to stay in Neverland would doom Wendy and her brothers to perpetual amnesia (before long, they forgot all kinds of details about their mother and father) and arid repetitions of the same adventures. By creating a theater for the imagination stage-managed by a child who will always remain a child, he grudgingly discovered the emptiness of a childhood without end...he was also able to channel the inner child, creating a new world that was truly for children even as it reminded adults of what they had lost."  -- Maria Tatar

Peter Pan seeks a meaning in fantastic

Peter Pan is a play that looks back to a lost age of Victorian security, It seeks a meaning in fantastic rather than in empirical or scientific life. It sees life as theatrical and performative, rather than as authentic and sincere. It exposes the conventions of social life as conventions, and in the process calls attention to the gap between morality and propriety.. -- SethLerer 

The top illustration of Peter Pan and Wendy flying over Kensington is by Charles Buchel.
The other two illustration are by F.D. Bedford from the original J.M. Barrie book, Peter and Wendy.

Link to the transcript of the Play Peter Pan as produced in 1904.
Link to information about the original production from SDSU:  Peter Pan, 1904 Stage play 

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Fairytale is a Country of the Mind

"Impossible ��� absurd ��� enchantments define fairytale as a form of storytelling, but the magic also gives expression to thought-experiments: the wicked fairy turning out to be capable of love, the Frozen princess thawed into humanity by her heroic sister���s staunchness and love. Fairytale is a country of the mind made by imagery, by riddles and charms, spells and nonsense; it uses language to create imaginary structures in which language itself is supremely powerful: Rumpelstiltskin is undone when the heroine discovers his name..."

Marina Warner. How Farirytales Grew Up in the Guardian

 

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 Yelodoggie is Coming

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

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

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

 

 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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"I have an issue with people trying to protect children from their imagination."    JK Rowling  

 

 

 

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Fantasy and My Neighbor Totoro Travel to the Digital World

There seem to be few limits to the digital imagination.  I am not a knowledgeable person about computer games, and I am not often a visitor to the digital game world. However, I did watch this Minecraft HD video wherein I saw the world of Totoro in the process of becoming a game.  The images flow and move the story forward just as they do in Miyazaki's films. I am certainly in favor of more kids knowing this wonderful story -- a fantasy classic -- and learning of Miyazake's films

Here is a link to the trailer for My Neighbor Totoro

Here is a link to the film  My Neighbor Totoro    

The illustration from My Neighbor Totoro is by Miyazaki. 

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SAVE THE CHILDREN

The refugee crisis impacts all of us. Not since WW2 have there been so many people displaced from war-torn areas.  Save the children is a wonderful organization helping children and their families in meaningful ways and with proven humanitarian programs that have been developed from hard experience.Save The Children was founded in the United Kingdom in 1919 and has now grown to where there are Save The Children organizations in 30 countries.

 

 

"Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.

We do whatever it takes for children ��� every day and in times of crisis ��� transforming their lives and the future we share.

In 2015, we reached over 62 million children directly through our and our partners' work."

  Here is a link to their excellent video on  violence in children's lives -- an international problem.

Here is a link to their website: Save the Children.

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Gun Nation...where anybody can buy an assault weapon 

Even after watching remarkable Zed Nelson's documentary, Gun Nation, courtesy of the Guardian, I  still can't understand why so many Americans are opposed to any modification, of the gun laws in the USA. This is a video of the very best kind of objective investigative video journalism. Nelson let's people speak for themselves and the results are awesome and disturbing. 

A link to the Guardian documentary, Gun Nation, a journey

 

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

"Loving, brave dogs come to Earth to help oppressed forest people; in this fantasy of kidnapping and war. Short, inviting chapters keep the pace going. And, in spite of war, an underlying atmosphere of kindness prevails; there is little actual violence." -Nancy Warren Ferrell, librarian, Juvenile Book Review Committee, Juneau Public Libraries

Here is an excerpt,,,,

"This good feeling changed almost at once into a moment of fear when they saw a fast moving group of men coming toward them and carrying the banner of the Black Hawk.  They were led by a powerful looking older man wearing light body armor and two other warriors on horseback.  More men, twenty soldiers armed with swords, shields and spears, marched behind them..."

Read sample chapters on our Planet Of The Dogs website.  

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Alice is Is Visiting New York City

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright���
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night... from Tweedledee's poem, Through the Looking Glass

"The Lewis Carroll Society of North America is back in New York City for their upcoming Fall meeting on October 15. They will be at the home of their archives, the Fales Library at NYU, thanks to host Marvin Taylor. The varied and fascinating program includes a study of The Walrus and the Carpenter, the story of NYU's Alice150 exhibition, and reflections on using Alice to process Alzheimer's, all bookended by thoughts on Alice in the classroom..."

http://www.lewiscarroll.org/   

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Paws for People

 Three hundred and fifty volunteers, with their specially trained pets, in four states, reach out and help individuals, from hospitals and convalescent homes to schools and training centers. Founded by a woman, Lynne Robinson, with three rescued dogs and  a desire to help others, the organization has helped thousands of people. Here are excerpts from their website:

PAWS for People��� (Pet-Assisted Visitation Volunteer Services, or PAWS) is a non-profit organization committed to providing therapeutic visits to any person in the community who would benefit from interaction with a well-trained, loving pet... PAWS visits people of all ages, ethnicities and income levels.

Paws for People is a non-profit organization and has been helping people, including those with disabilities, since 2005.

Here is a link to Paws for People.

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Movies

Hope, Dreams, and Children 

"I would like to make a film to tell children 'it's good to be alive'.��� Hayao Miyazaki...

Treat yourself to this 17 minute visual delight...a montage of film wonders from the imagination of the extraordinairy  Miyazaki.. in a video, The Essence of Humanity, written and narrated by Lewis Criswell

 

The illustration is from Miyazake's Spirited Away
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Memory Lane with Pixar

 
Earlier this year, Rotten Tomatoes posted an excellent article with a ranking, summary, illustration, and link to the trailer of every Pixar movie from Toy Story to Finding Nemo...remarkable animated story films that transport children and adults into the realm of fantasy. Here is their lead-in... 

"Once upon a time, animation could be neatly divided into two eras: BD and AD, or before and after Disney. That all changed, however, with the release of 1995���s Toy Story, a movie that ��� although it bore the Disney logo ��� marked the feature-length debut of an upstart studio named Pixar. Pixar has released 14 films since then ��� 13 of which are Certified Fresh ��� and with the studio���s 16th outing, Finding Dory, landing in theaters this weekend, we thought now would be an opportune time to take another fond look back at the studio���s extraordinary full-length filmography.

Whether you���re an avowed animation buff or simply a fan of innovative, entertaining movies, you���ve probably got your own list of favorite Pixar moments, so let���s relive them now, shall we? From Toy Story to The Good Dinosaur, to infinity and beyond, here���s this week���s Total Recall!"

The top illustration is from Inside Out. The bottom illustration is from The Incredibles

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Entering an Enchanted Forest via Virtual Reality

Mikado Murphy, in a New york Times article entitled,  Gnomes and Goblins , writes about an interactive virtual reality experience where you create a fantasy with a goblin. Here are excepts...

"Now, with virtual reality tools, the film director Jon Favreau wants to give viewers the opposite experience, taking them inside the movie and having their actions dictate what comes next.

���Gnomes & Goblins��� is Mr. Favreau���s experiment with virtual reality, or VR. Hovering somewhere between a movie and a game, the preview version of the project makes you the protagonist and sets you in the middle of an enchanted forest, where you can build a relationship with a timid, tiny goblin living there. How you choose to interact with him determines where the story goes.

The environment has the tactile nature of the jungle in Disney���s new version of ���The Jungle Book,��� which Mr. Favreau directed. But in this project, it���s as if instead of watching Mowgli, you are Mowgli, free to wander and explore at your own pace." 

 

 Credit: VR studios Wevr and Reality One collaboration  

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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 the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

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

 

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"I like a bit of mongrel myself, whether it's a man or a dog; they're the best for everyday." 
 George Bernard Shaw

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September-- Lost Fantasies Found plus kids, books, movies, and dogs

 

 
               

Here is a world of fantasy alive. 

Fantasy belongs to all the arts.

Fantasy lives in the imagination. 

Fantasy is not limited by time or place. It is limited only by the mind of the individual.

Fantasy opens the mind to possibilities, to discovery, to hope.

Fairy tales -- wonder tales -- are a home for fantasy.

Here is a link to Pina Bausch (above) and her world of fantasy and imagination. Photo by...

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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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Perrault and the Rise of Fantasy in English Children's Literature 

"In any case, the more respectable children's literature that began to emerge for the first time in the 18th century was far from devoid of fantastical elements. One highly regarded favourite in middle- and upper-class families were the fairytales
of Charles Perrault, first published in France in the 1690s and in English in 1729. They contained morals alongside the supernatural elements. ���The Little Red Riding Hood���, for instance, ended with a warning for ���growing ladies fair��� against wolves ���With luring tongues, and language wondrous sweet��� who ���Follow young ladies as they walk the street���. And although fairytales continued to be criticised by Lockean educationalists, new editions were printed especially for children throughout the century...

Whatever led to the rise of fantasy literature, two things are clear. Firstly, by the end of the 19th century children were having a vast range of fairytales and fantasy literature written for them. And secondly, this literature was not quite so different as we might at first think from the realistic and didactic texts that fantasy and fairytales have sometimes been seen as displacing..."

The above is an excerpt from an inclusive article by Matthew O Grenby, Newcastle University, that explores, with a fresh voice, the relationship between fantasy and morality in 18th- and 19th-century children���s literature.

The illustration of Little Red Riding Hood is by Walter Crane. 

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Edgar Taylor -- Opening the Door for Children's Imagination
 
Edgar Taylor spoke German, Italian, Spanish and French in addition to his native English. He is responsible, along with his collaborator, David Jardine, for translating and publishing the first English edition of the Grimms fairytales, under the title German Popular Stories (1824-26).
 
Taylor believed in the power of stories to ignite the imagination. The excerpt quoted below, from his Preface to German Popular Stories , shows that he also held powerful beliefs in the benefits children derived from fairy tales, tales of wonder.
 
"Our imagination is surely as susceptible of improvement by exercise as our judgement or memory; as long as such fictions only are presented to young minds as do not interfere with the important department of moral education, a beneficial effect must be produced by the pleasurable employment of a faculty in which so much of our happiness in every period of our life exists."
 
In order to ensure acceptance by both children, parents, and the academy, Taylor, according to Jack Zipes, omitted some of the cruelty and bawdier elements from the original tales. In addition, the devil became a giant. Two editions were published and both were very popular. 
 
The illustration of Rapunzel is by Walter Crane

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Children's Versions of Grimm Tales 

The Grimm's, learning of Taylor's success in England, edited their later German editions of the original Tales in a similar manner, and thereby achieved a wider audience.

In England, the market for children's books continued to grow and the tales were further modified by publishers to accommodate 19th century tastes. And to sell more books.

In 2014, Jack Zipes commented further on these edited versions in the Introduction to his newly translated edition of The Original Folk and Fairy Tales. 

���Many of the tales in the first edition are more fabulous and baffling than those refined versions in the final edition for they  retain the pungent and na��ve flavor of the oral tradition. They are stunning narratives because they are so blunt and unpretentious���not yet censored with sentimental Christianity and puritanical ideology..In fact, the Brothers endeavored to keep their hands off the tales, so to speak, and reproduce them more or less as they heard or received them.���

The first edition of the Grimm's tales was published 1812-15. Six more editions were published; the final version appeared in 1857. These publications precipitated a turning point in children's literature.

 

The Illustration, by Andrea Dezso, of The Three Sisters is from Jack Zipe's translation of The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brother's Grimm.

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Snow White, The Original Ending 

It only makes sense that the early versions of the Grimm's stories, taken from the adult oral tales that reflected the hard uncertain lives of ordinary people, would be modified for children. An example of a fairy tale that needed modification, including a new ending, is the story of Snow White. Here is the Grimmm's 1812 ending to Snow White translated by D.L. Ashman.

"Their wedding (Snow White and the Prince) was set for the next day, and Snow White's godless mother was invited as well. That morning she stepped before the mirror and said:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?
The mirror answered:
You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But the young queen
Is a thousand times fairer than thee.

She was horrified to hear this, and so overtaken with fear that she could not say anything. Still, her jealousy drove her to go to the wedding and see the young queen. When she arrived she saw that it was Snow White. Then they put a pair of iron shoes into the fire until they glowed, and she had to put them on and dance in them. Her feet were terribly burned, and she could not stop until she had danced herself to death." 

The top illustration of Snow White and the seven dwarfs is by Walter Crane.

The illustration from Snow White of the queen and the mirror is by an unknown artist.

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Discovering Real Magic

"Stories ignite not just the imagination but also intellectual curiosity, tugging at us and drawing us into symbolic other worlds, where we all become wide-eyed tourists, eager to take in the sights. Like Lucy on the threshold to Narnia, we are both "excited" and "inquisitive"...

As readers, we traverse vast regions "without moving an inch". discovering the thrills of story worlds, recoiling from their villains and empathizing with their champions, all the while shaping our values as we build a relationship with the book and discover its real magic..."

Maria Tatar in her book, Enchanted Hunters, the power of stories in childhood.

The illustration is by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Yelodoggie is Coming 
 
The Yelodoggie spirit is all about celebrating life ��� events both big and small.  The joyous new Yelodoggie book addresses issues of belonging, acceptance, inclusion, and embracing that which is unique in each of us.
 
After all, Yelodoggie isn't quite like other dogs.
 
Yelodoggie helps open the imagination and perspective of children around the world and the world around them.
 
We hope this will be the first of many more Yelodoggie books.


Yelodoggie is a creation of C.A. Wulff. Here's a link to Wulff's Yeloddoggie  paintings.
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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 In A Wonderland

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream���
Lingering in the golden gleam���
Life, what is it but a dream?

--Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking Glass 

 The photo, taken by Lewis Carroll, is of Alice Liddel, who was the major inspiration for Alice.
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The Heritage of Found Fantasies in an Era of Turbulence

Children���s book publishing saw continued large growth after Edgar Taylor published his version of the Grimm���s tales in 1824, and I try to image the impact, the influence, of these stories on British culture in those turbulent times. This was an amazing period of time in England���it was the era of worldwide colonialism from India to Africa and beyond. It was the time of the industrial revolution with its rapid urban growth, a burgeoning middle class, new wealth, and great poverty. It was the time of new discoveries, a time of challenging ideas and political change���It was the era of Darwin and Dickens, of Mathew Arnold and Alice in Wonderland, and of John Ruskin, Rudyard Kipling, and Treasure Island.

Toward the end of this era, the heritage of the Grimms lived on. Publishing  books for children continued to grow as a thriving business. Between 1889 and 1913, Andrew Lang published 12 collections of fairy tales and 13 collections of other stories and poems for children. They were immensely popular, as were the books of L.M. Montgomery, Kenneth Grahame, Francis Hodgson Burnett, J.M. Barrie, and others.

A new era began in 1913 with the shot fired in Sarajevo and the advent of World War One. Children's literature, however, would continue to have a substantial and meaningful place in the world of children and the reading public. 

The illustration for the Secret Garden is by Inga Moore.

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Living Life as it Should Be -- The Planet Of The Dogs Series

Don Blankenship, Teacher, Reviewer at Good Books for Kids, and dog lover wrote:

"I love this series of books and this first, Planet of the Dogs, sets the stage for those works that follow���This book can be, and should be, read on several different levels. First, it is completely appropriate for children from about the age of eight
and up. While not a beginning reader by any means, the story could be read to children of a younger age and I feel there would be complete understanding with little explanation of the reader's part.

Secondly, this book is quite sneaky about throwing in wonderful facts about dogs, such as their ability and method of communication, life style, temperament and abilities.

Thirdly, this book makes some very insightful observations of the general human condition.

Fourthly, 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."

The photo is from teacher Julie Hauk's therapy reading dog program, Pages for Preston.

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Imagination and the Reader

"What I've learned to do, and what I really feel proud about, is being able to say more with less. Let the reader enter within his or her own imagination -- and that makes us co-conspirators as it were, together, the reader and me."

Toni Morrison, author, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner

Cover and book illustrations by Giselle Potter.

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The Forest Where the Wind Returns... 

"The next project from the famed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki isn���t a film���it���s a nature sanctuary for children. Miyazaki, the visionary behind Howl���s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and other animated films, announced that he will invest 300 million yen (about $2.5 million) to create a nature park called 'The Forest Where the Wind Returns.'...

The park���s 10,000 square meters will be located in the Zendo Forest Park on Kume Island in Okinawa, Japan. Think of it as the anti-Disneyland: In contrast to the American animation company���s carefully branded theme park, Miyazaki aims to turn the landscape into a serene natural playground, using trees and boulders rather than swing sets and trampolines in order to encourage kids to explore the natural world.."

 Here is a link to read the complete article by Katharine Schwab in the Atlantic

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 World Vision 

World Vision is working in nearly 100 countries around the world  to help refugee families. Here are excerpts from their website:

Between 2 million and 3 million Syrian children are not attending school. The U.N. children���s agency says the war reversed 10 years of progress in education for Syrian children.

Syrian refugee crisis: Fast facts

13.5 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance due to a violent civil war.
4.8 million Syrians are refugees, and 6.5 million are displaced within Syria; half of those affected are children
Children affected by the Syrian conflict are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused, or exploited. Millions have been forced to quit school. See new photo slideshow.
Most Syrian refugees remain in the Middle East, in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt; slightly more than 10 percent of the refugees have fled to Europe.

The photograph of the refugee child is by Muhammed Muheisen.

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Anne Frank Today Is a Syrian Girl 

This is the headline of a very poignant article by  Nicholas Kristoff in the New York Times...the parallels are disturbing. 

 

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Opening the Door To Wonder with 6.5 Million Books

REACH OUT AND READ gives young children a love of reading and a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together...

"Reach Out and Read incorporates early literacy into pediatric practice, equipping parents with tools and knowledge to ensure that their children are prepared to learn when they start school...

Reach Out and Read's thousands of doctors and nurses promote early literacy and school readiness to young children and their families in all 50 states. Each year, medical providers at the nearly 5,000 Reach Out and Read program sites nationwide distribute 6.5 million books to children and invaluable literacy advice to parents..."
 
Here's a link to their website: Reach Out and Read   
 
Here's a link to a heartening  PBS documentary on Reach Out and Read

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Movies
PETE���S DRAGON

I haven't seen this movie yet, but Richard Brody, a film critic for whom I have great respect, wrote that Pete's Dragon has "heartfelt wonder"...and so I'm posting an excerpt here.

"The director David Lowery brings natural sweetness and heartfelt wonder to this remake of the 1977 fantasy. Young Pete���s parents are killed in a car accident in the rural Pacific Northwest, and Pete, who survived, heads for the woods, where he���s rescued by a furry green dragon���more like a gigantic, winged, fire-breathing dog���which he calls Elliot. Five years later,.."

Here's a link to read all of Richard Brody's review. Here's the link to the trailer for Pete's Dragon 

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The Nutcracker Returns

I realize Disney has trampled on children's classic stories and not given credit to the original. It is with some trepidation that I am reporting their planned production of the Nutcracker. Here is an excerpt regarding their plans from Variety:

"Helen Mirren is in talks to join Keira Knightley in Disney's new retelling of ���The Nutcracker. Mackenzie Foy is on board to play Clara, with Misty Copeland and Morgan Freeman also attached to the movie.

The live-action film ��� based on E.T.A. Hoffmann���s 1816 story ���The Nutcracker and the Mouse King��� ��� is titled ���The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.��� In the pic, one of Clara���s Christmas toys ��� a Nutcracker doll ��� comes to life and battles the evil Mouse King with seven heads..." 

Here's a link to read the full article in Variety 

The illustration is by Maurice Sendak from E.T.A. Hoffman's book The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

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Curious George is 75...

The mischievous monkey, Curious George, celebrates his 75th birthday this September! Here are excerpts from the publisher's announcement:

"September 17th marks the annual  ���Curiosity Day���, in which the publisher, HMH, celebrates the magic of learning and discovery through reading as only George and The Man with the Yellow Hat can...  In celebrating his diamond jubilee, George remains one of the most recognizable children���s��� icons with his distinct look and unflinching curiosity, delighting readers young and old for generations with his playful antics. Curious George swung into the hearts of millions since  H.A. Rey and Margaret Ray created and published the first book, Curious George in 1941".

Here is a link to the nicely done  Curious George  HMH 75th Anniversary promotional video (1 minute)

 

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Sunbear Squad is a leading source for information and guidance in dog rescue and care. Here is an excerpt from their site about Sunbear --  the original inspiration for all the good work they do...

"Who was Sunbear?...He was a young dog who died tragically of neglect in an empty townhouse in 2002 even though there were neighbors on both sides. Sunbear's highly-publicized case had a huge effect on humane laws in West Virginia, and his story inspires thousands worldwide to help save animals in distress today. Read his true story here."

 

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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 the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty
 
 
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"To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boredom -- it was peace."
-- Milan Kundera
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August -- Virtual Reality and Wonder Tales...books, kids, movies, and dogs

    

Life and human beings are only an illusion, a phantom, a dream image --  August Strindberg 1901 

The photo is by Gregory Crewdson

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Virtual reality has been with us since humans first told stories.

Today, the term has become identified with the digital world and computer games.

Virtual Reality lives in the imagination.

Virtual reality lives in fairy tales...wonder tales.

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Worlds of Wonder

Oz, Wonderland, Hogwarts. Middle Earth, Neverland, and The Hundred Acre Wood all offer worlds of wonder for young imaginations to explore. They are books for young minds and they inspire other forms of virtual reality...movies, theater, music, dance, television, digital games...

They have evolved, from centuries of adult oral tales and myths into stories and books for children, opening the doors to worlds of wonder.

"The serious point of children's books is not to improve behavior but to expand the imagination. Great children's literature creates new worlds that children enter with delight and perhaps with apprehension and from which they return with understandings that their own experience could not have produced and that give their lives new meaning."

The quotation by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. is taken from Maria Tatar's Enchanted Hunters, the power of stories in childhood.

The illustration of Alice in Wonderland is by Arthur Rackham. 

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Virtual Reality from the Past

"  Wonder Tale...An alternative term for 'fairytale' is 'wonder tale', from the Germanwunderm��rchen, which catches a quality of the genre more eloquently than 'fairytale' or 'folk tale' because it acknowledges the defining activity of magic in the stories. The suspension of natural physical laws produces a heightened and impossible state of reality, which leads to wonder, astonishment, the ���ajaib (astonishing things) sought in Arabic literary ideas of fairytale...

Children around the world continue to grow up with the magic of fairytales in books, and to relish the multiple ways they are adapted, updated and put on to stage and screen. But the 'realisation of imagined wonder', which JRR Tolkien saw as the aim of the genre, isn���t always bright and shiny any more; its skies have clouded over."

 

The quote is an excerpt from How Fairy Tales Grew Up, by Marina Warner, author, critic, in the Guardian 

The illustration of the Arabian Nights is by Kay Nielson. 

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Pinnochio ...A Classic Emerges in 19th Century Italy 

I have just completed a fantastic journey to another reality. I have read the 1883 version of Carlo Collidi's amazing book, The Adventures of Pinnochio, the story of the wooden puppet who wanted to be a real boy. Hailed as a "vivacious masterpiece" by Ann Lawson Lucas, the book was an instant success and has been translated into over 120 languages. 

Collodi, a hard working,  multi-faceted and educated man, rose from poverty, worked as a civil servant in his native Florence, and became a respected writer and translator. His translations included the works of Perrault. Mme d'Aulnoy, and two works by Mme Leprince de Beaumont. He lived in a turbulent Italy, and twice fought in the cause of the Risorgemento for a independent and unified Italy. 

The first version of The Adventures of Pinnochio appeared in serial form in 1881 over a 15 week period in a children's weekly paper, Il Giornale per i Baminino. Pinnochio was a mischievious rascal, and easily led astray by temptation. Woven into the story are lessons for the young reader on how to lead a responsible and productive life through school and good behavior. l found all the chapters to be lively, with many twists and turns.

Collodi was an very imaginative and creative writer. Alas, the first version of the tale ended with Pinnochio hanging by his neck and swinging in the breeze.

The illustration of Pinnochio  is by Erico Mazzanti from the original edition.

Reprieved By Popular Demand

The story was so popular and sold so well that Collodi was commissioned to continue the serialization. In 1883, the serialized version of the extended story -- now 36 chapters -- was completed. It was then collected and published as a book with line illustrations by Enrico Mazantti (above). The first English version, translated by Mary Alice Murray, and published 1892, also found many enthusiastic readers. 

Pinnochio survived his hanging and had many more trials and adventures Here is an excerpt regarding his lies and his nose...
"If you lost them in the near-by wood," said the Fairy, "we'll look for them and find them, for everything that is lost there is always found."

"Ah, now I remember," replied the Marionette, becoming more and more confused. "I did not lose the gold pieces, but I swallowed them when I drank the medicine."

At this third lie, his nose became longer than ever, so long that he could not even turn around. If he turned to the right, he knocked it against the bed or into the windowpanes; if he turned to the left, he struck the walls or the door; if he raised it a bit, he almost put the Fairy's eyes out.

The Fairy sat looking at him and laughing..."

The photo above by Elisabeth Careccio  is from a highly regarded theatrical presentation by Joel Pommerat. Here is a link to a two minute highlight video from that production featuring the nose that grows with every lie he tells: Pinnochio by Pommerat. 

More Tumultuous Adventures and a Happy Ending

Ultimately, however, Pinocchio becomes brave, responsible, and compassionate. In the course of things, he is helped by a lovely fairy with azure hair, and gets advice and forgiveness from a wise cricket. Animals and birds talk, transformations occur -- at one point Pinnochio becomes a donkey -- and after saving his father from the belly of monstrous shark, there is, in Chapter 36, a happy ending. In the words of Collodi....

"After that he went to bed and fell asleep. As he slept, he dreamed of his Fairy, beautiful, smiling, and happy, who kissed him and said to him, "Bravo, Pinocchio! In reward for your kind heart, I forgive you for all your old mischief. Boys who love and take good care of their parents when they are old and sick, deserve praise even though they may not be held up as models of obedience and good behavior. Keep on doing so well, and you will be happy."

At that very moment, Pinocchio awoke and opened wide his eyes.

What was his surprise and his joy when, on looking himself over, he saw that he was no longer a Marionette, but that he had become a real live boy!"

The illustration of Gepetto and Pinnochio escaping from the monster shark is by Carlo Chiostri. 

Disney's Pinnochio

Pinnochio was developed and revised during the depression over a seven year period. It was Disney's second animated feature film, the cost of which was paid for by its very successful predecessor, Snow White. The film was a great critical success, but  a financial failure because of WW2. After the war, the film was reissued several times. Ultimately, Pinnocchio found a world-wide audience and was a financial success.

The story in the movie version remained much the same, but was softened and made more palatable for children by the colorful animation. The  literary academy has deservedly been critical of Disney's sweetening of most of the fairy tales he has adopted for the screen. However, when I saw Pinnochio as a child, I found it to be quite wonderful.

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Ann Lawson Lucas is the translator and editor of The Adventures of Pinnochio (19996), editor of The Presence of
the Past in Children's Literature  (2003), lecturer in Italian at the University of Hull. I found her contributions to The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales clear and  informative.

Here is an online link to the original Pinnochio, translated from the Italian by Carol Della Chiesa  

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Yelodoggie Is Coming 

The Yellodoggie spirit celebrates life and the new Yeolodoggie book will often be joyous.

Yelodoggie will also address issues of belonging, acceptance, and being different.

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

Yelodoggie will have the potential to open a child's imagination and perceptions of the world around them.

Here's a link to C.A. Wulff's original Yeloddoggie paintings.

Here's a link to her Up On The Woof website. C.A. Wulff is the author of many wonderful books about dogs

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Refugee children worry us. Families have been rendered asunder. School, books, food and medical support are often missing from their lives.

Save the Children works to benefit the lives of children in need in 120 countries. Save the children brings assistance and hope.

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."

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

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Can Dogs Prevent War?

Prince Ukko, the ruthless leader of the Blackhawk tribe, has kidnapped the two children of his rival, the Warrior Chief of Stone City. There will be war unless the dogs can free the children from The Castle In The Mist.

" I feel Castle in the Mist is also a beautifully-crafted tale.  This particular book has a slightly darker tone, but is still completely readable by children.  As a matter-of-fact my 10-year-old son, Michael, says the book is ���great��� and thinks: 'it is cool that the dogs come from their own planet.' As well, the illustrations really give depth and visual characterization to the manuscript.  

Charyl Miller Pingleton -- The Uncommon Review

Read sample chapters on our website: Planet Of The Dogs 

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Art Auction for Valley Save-a-Pet...Online at FB...Donated by Pet Loving Artists

Artwork for every budget...originals & prints, ceramics & jewelry, landscapes, wildlife, florals, comic book art...from August 1 at 10 AM to August 13 at 10 PM  

Valley Save-a-Pet was founded with the belief that animals should never be euthanized unless it is medically necessary, and the belief that spay and neuter was the path to solving the overpopulation of unwanted animals. In that first year, 1976, the organization performed one spay. Today, that number has grown to more than 950 per year. In its early years, the goal of VSAP was to have a shelter, but the focus changed with the realization that animals do better in foster homes than in a prolonged shelter environment. Abandoned pets are cared for by volunteers until permanent new homes are found...Valley Save-a-Pet.also runs pet food drives that help pet owners in
need,  and helps with emergency vet bills.  
 
VSAP has always been an all-volunteer organization, relying on donations and bequests to operate. 100%  of the funds raised or donated go toward helping the animals.

Art 4 Paws -- Benefiting Ohio Valley Save-a-Pet, a501c3 nom-profit, on their 40th Anniversary here is a link to their website:  www.valleysaveapet.org/

Here is the link to the Art 4 Paws Auction

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

The new play has opened in London to excellent reviews and a plea to not reveal the plot. It apparently doesn't require being very knowledgeable about the world of Harry Potter, but it enhances the experience if one has prior Potter knowledge. Here is an excerpt from Michael Billington's review in the Guardian.

"Keep the Secrets��� is the injunction on badges handed out as we leave the theatre. It���s a motto that makes life hard for us hacks, but I am happy to divulge that John Tiffamny as director of this pair of two-and-a-half-hour plays, has masterminded a thrilling theatrical spectacle.

It is also one that will make much more sense to hardened Potterheads than to anyone who is not a member of the global cult. What we have is a brand new work by Jack Thorne based on an original story by himself, Tiffany and JK Rowling: a venture that I approached in a state of benign semi-innocence. I���ve read one of the seven Potter books and seen a couple of the eight films, and enjoyed them without becoming an addict... But, while it helps to be a paid-up Potterhead, Tiffany and his team stage the piece with such dazzling assurance that I finally began to see the point of being wild about Harry."

Photo by Manuel Harlan in the Guardian. 

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Movies

The Little Prince Movie is Wonderful

The book is a classic. We wondered how it could become a film that does justice to the book. We have seen it and we found it marvelous; as in the book, a tone of wonder prevails throughout. The result is a seamless film within a film, created by director Mark Osborne and writers Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti. 

Chris Knight, in his excellent review in the National Post, said it so well..." If what is essential is invisible to the eye, then The Little Prince has accomplished the impossible; it has made the invisible visible, and in 3D no less."

 
Here is a link to the trailer for The Little Prince.

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The BFG is Gentle, Funny, and Truly Spectacular

I'm happy to report that The BFG is a box office and critical success. Here is an excerpt from Peter Bradshaw's review in the Guardian:
 
"Capturing brilliantly the magic available only to children, Steven Spielberg���s big-hearted, family-friendly adaptation is a triumph... Spielberg���s gentle, funny and truly spectacular new movie, based on the Roald Dahl classic, features a digitally captured performance from Mark Rylance as the big friendly giant himself. Those two adjectives don���t do justice to his sympathy or scale.



It is the final work from the screenwriter Melissa Mathison, who died of cancer last November. The movie has the wonder and reverence of Mathison���s masterly ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, directed by Spielberg and interestingly first released at the same time as Dahl���s book, 1982. There is the same sense of loneliness and vulnerability in childhood, the same rapture at a world whose true magic is available only to children...".

Here is a link to the trailer for The BFG.

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Virtual Reality Today... Do Ogres die or just find new homes?

Ogres have apparently evolved into Orcs. Orcs have found many homes in the internet's Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). The games are a form of today's virtual reality and are based on technology and computer generated imagery (CGI). There are also Warcraft books.

The computer adventures of the Orcs have generated millions of young fans -- both female and male -- and massive revenues. Despite the name change, from Ogres to Orcs, Tom Thumb would recognize them immediately.
 
The lucrative Warcraft game series recently gave us a movie that is also a huge moneymaker.(I had hoped that Peter Jackson had satiated the market for violent Orcs in his lucrative filmic abuse of Tolkien's virtual reality. I was wrong). Warcraft, filled with violence as orcs come from outer space and invade Azeroth (where very powerful and valiant people live), already has worldwide box office receipts of in excess of $433 million dollars. 
 
Here is a link to the movie: Warcraft
 

Here is a link to an article on the how the Orcs today are related to Tolkien: Aubrey Sitterson in Geek

Here is a link to an article on 360 degree virtual reality films at the Tribecca film Festival  

 

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Volunteers and their therapy dogs from People Animals Love (PAL) bring bring love, support, and peace to people...

They bring the human-canine connection and all its benefits to a very large number of people in the greater Washington, D.C. area. This includes Maryland and Northern Virginia. Here is an excerpt from their site:

"In the Pet Visit Program, extraordinary dogs give love to all sorts of people in all sorts of places ��� the elderly in nursing homes, families grieving in hospice, children frightened in the hospital, and military veterans recovering from injury.

Pet therapy dogs help kids learn to read because they simply listen. Dogs do not try to correct your spelling or pronunciation, they simply smile and wait patiently for the next part of the story. They visit schools serving children with disabilities and mental illness and low-income communities, providing confidence to students who are lacking the ability to feel comfortable.

Visit the PAL Facebook page, where hundreds of volunteers share their pictures and warm stories."

PAL also runs an ongoing school program for disadvantaged kids in the Washington that continues in the summer. They have made a delightful video with music sung by a man who reminded me of Bobby McFarrin. Here is a link tothe video: PAL Club

Here is a link to the PAL website

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Gun Sales Are Breaking Records 

"More American civilians have died by gunfire in the past decade than all the Americans who were killed in combat in the Second World War...In recent years, in response to three kinds of events���mass shootings, terrorist attacks, and talk of additional gun control���gun sales have broken records. ���You know that every time a bomb goes off somewhere, every time there���s a shooting somewhere, sales spike like crazy,��� Paul Jannuzzo, a former chief of American operations for Glock, the Austrian gun company, told me."...

This is an excerpt from   Making a Killing, by Evan Osnos in the New Yorker, an outstanding article on the business and politics of selling guns. 

Here's a link to read all of this awsome article: Evan Osnos

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-- In the USA, 358 Children, ages 0-11, were killed or injured by guns thus far in 2016 --

Here is a mission statement from the vital Gun Violence Archive; MISSION..."Gun Violence Archive (GVA) is a not for profit corporation formed in 2013 to provide free online public access to accurate information about gun-related violence in the United States. GVA will collect and check for accuracy, comprehensive information about gun-related violence in the U.S. and then post and disseminate it online."

Gun Violence website 

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An Alternate Reality Where Struggling People Find Happiness  

 

"The reason we have always been attracted to fairy tales is because of their reassurance. They offer counter worlds to our real world; counter worlds in which there is always justice. The nasty queens and the nasty kings are always punished by the ���small��� people in fairy tales and folk tales; those who come from the lower classes and generally strive to better their situation, and quite often succeed in doing so. There are some fairy tales that end tragically, but for the most part they end on a note that provides happiness to the people that have been struggling, and they also provide social justice. You can understand why people want to escape into the worlds of fairy tales, because they can see alternatives to the bleak conditions in which we���re living today."

Jack Zipes in an interview with James Gracey. Here is a link to James Gracey's interview.

The illustration is by Paul Hey for the Grimm's story, The Six Who Made Their Way In The World.

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Soviet Russia Cleaned Up Children's Book Illustrations

Removing the past and changing it to conform to politician's orders, a new virtual reality -- just as they do with history -- is a disturbing practice of contemporary Russia. This fascinating Guardian article by Stuart Jeffries, Out with bourgeois crocodiles! How the Soviets rewrote children's books, offers background, history, and examples from an earlier era. Here is an excerpt:

"This call to revolutionize children���s illustration was part of socialism���s bigger political struggle. 'In the great arsenal with which the bourgeoisie fought against socialism, children���s books occupied a prominent role,' wrote one L Kormchii in the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda in 1918, 'The bourgeoisie, well aware of the force of children���s books, took advantage of them to strengthen their own power ��� We struggle and we die, but before we drown in our own blood, we must seize these weapons from enemy hands.'

'The idea was to abolish fantasy literature and illustration because they were seen as bourgeois and unhelpful to the revolution,' says Olivia Ahmad, curator of A New Childhood: Picture Books from Soviet Russia. Imagine if Harry Potter or Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's Room on the Broom were deemed unacceptably counter revolutionary."

Here is a link to the article Soviet Children's Books 

A New Childhood is at the House of Illustration in London until September 11, 2016.

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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 and 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 the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs  

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

 

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Summer Travel With A Dog 

Sunbear Squad is a primary source of information for dog lovers...filled with information and guidelines, ranging from helping an abandoned dog to building a proper doghouse. Here is an excerpt from an article on Traveling By Car Or Truck With Pets by Edward Green, TruckersReport.com...

Taking the family pet along for the ride is a part of the vacation plans of families across the nation. These trips can be quite memorable and enjoyable���but only if you take the proper safety precautions for your animals. This guide will help you travel safely and comfortably with your favorite pet...Link to  Read the rest of this entry ��

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" A dog can express more with his tail in seconds than his owner can express with his tongue in hours." -- Author Unknown

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July - Hard Times, Victorious Outcomes - Kids, Books, Movies, and Dogs

                                  

 
How would it feel to be the smallest child in a family of seven brothers when famine is sweeping the land?
When there is no end in sight to starvation, when illness and war seem to be endless...
Hope comes from those with courage, cleverness, and heart, even if they are the smallest.
Welcome to the world of Charles Perrault's Little Thumb.

The Illustration is by H.M. Brock
 
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Storytelling Could Thrive

"In the late Middle Ages, extended families, drawn together by feudal solidarities, gathered around a common hearth to cook, sew, repair tools, and even to sleep. There was, after all, no warmer spot available. The light and heat of the hearth created a luminous space in which storytelling could thrive while a multitude of household activities took place. Images preserved in engravings and paintings show young and old gathered arpund a roaring fire, with adults chatting and carrying out domestic chores while children sport with animals, engage in rough and tumble play, watch the fire, or simply settle down for the night."
 
From Maria Tatar's Enchanted Hunters, The Power of Stories In Childhood
 

The illustration, Winter Evening On a Farm is by Claudine Bonzonnet-Stella
 
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Turmoil, Survival, and Hope
 
In writing the extraordinary story of Little Thumb, Perrault echoed the hard lives that ordinary people endured.
Little Thumb was one of eight stories published in Perrault's book, Stories or Fairy Tales from Times Past with Morals or Mother Goose Tales.
 
Perrault worked and wrote amidst the splendid court of Louis IV. Yet the stories that he wrote were an amalgam of 17th century oral tales told by ordinary people. They were a reflection of life's struggles outside the royal world, stories told by people trying to survive amidst plague, droughts, disastrous harvests, and, often, famine. In addition, war with its marauding armies and violent destruction welled up in Europe throughout the centuries.

The origins of Little Thumb are lost in time. No doubt the story was changed and embellished by story tellers. The Grimm's published their versions, based on Perrault. I have used Andrew Lang's version, translated from Perrault and published in England in 1889 in the Blue Fairy Book. I feel that calling Little Thumb -- also known as Little Tom Thumb --     a Fairy Tale is a misnomer. Like many adult oral tales that found their way into children's books, this is a story that could be very difficult, if not impossible, for young minds.

Running through this episodic story are a horrible dilemma; brutal events; great dangers;  magic and mystery, and victorious outcomes...reasons for hope.
 
The illustration is the title page of Perrault's Contes (1695) showing the title of Mother Goose Tales.
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 A Horrible Dilemma
 
Little Thumb was born the size of a thumb. However, when the story takes place, he has grown to the size of a small child. At home, he is largely ignored and considered to be unintelligent, the runt of a large, poor family. And then... 

"There came a very bad year, and the famine was so great that these poor people decided to rid themselves of their children. One evening, when the children were all in bed and the woodcutter was sitting with his wife at the fire, he said to her, with his heart ready to burst with grief, "You see plainly that we are not able to keep our children, and I cannot see them starve to death before my face.

I am resolved to lose them in the woods tomorrow, which may very easily be done; for, while they are busy in tying up the bundles of wood, we can leave them, without their noticing."

"Ah!" cried out his wife; "and can you yourself have the heart to take your children out along with you on purpose to abandon them?"

In vain her husband reminded her of their extreme poverty. She would not consent to it. Yes, she was poor, but she was their mother. However, after having considered what a grief it would be for her to see them perish with hunger, she at last consented, and went to bed in tears.

Little Thumb heard every word that had been spoken; for observing, as he lay in his bed, that they were talking very busily, he got up softly, and hid under his father's stool, in order to hear what they were saying without being seen."

Great Dangers and Brutal Events

Imaginative twists and turns follow...Little Thumb uses his wits and courage to save himself, and his brothers from a series of great dangers. A turning point occurs when he saves his sleeping brothers by deluding an ogre, resulting in an act of great brutality when the ogre slits the throats of his sleeping daughters... 

"He then went, groping all the way, into his daughters' room. He came to the bed where the little boys lay. They were all fast asleep except Little Thumb, who was terribly afraid when he felt the ogre feeling about his head, as he had done about his brothers'. Feeling the golden crowns, the ogre said, 'That would have been a terrible mistake. Truly, I did drink too much last night.'

Then he went to the bed where the girls lay. Finding the boys' caps on them, he said, 'Ah, hah, my merry lads, here you are. Let us get to work.' So saying, and without further ado, he cut all seven of his daughters' throats. Well pleased with what he had done, he went to bed again to his wife."

Magic, Mysteries and Victorious Outcomes

I wonder about the origins of the extraordinary seven-league boots...great magic indeed, the equivalent of flying...neither long distances nor muddy roads nor mountains can slow down Little Thumb as his story continues...   

"The ogre was very tired from his long and fruitless journey (for seven-league boots are very tiring to wear), and decided to take a rest. By chance he sat on the rock where the little boys had hid themselves. He was so tired that he fell asleep, and began to snore so frightfully that the poor children were no less afraid of him than when he had held up his large knife and was about to cut their throats. However, Little Thumb was not as frightened as his brothers were.... Little Thumb came up to the ogre, pulled off his boots gently and put them on his own feet. The boots were very long and large, but because they were enchanted, they became big or little to fit the person who was wearing them. So they fit his feet and legs as well as if they had been custom made for him."

With the boots and his courage and wits, Little Thumb obtains fame and fortune for himself and his family... a  victorious outcome offering hope to all.

Here is a link to read all of Perrault's Little Thumb 

The illustrations above are by Gustav Dore.

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Unforseen Events...Perrault's Moral 

It is interesting that Perrault chose the story of Little Thumb from among the many oral tales being told. He had many to choose from. At the age of 67, having had a successful career in the the court of Louis lV, he decided to write stories for children. Where and how did he encounter this tale? What motivated him to write these Stories From Times Past with Morals?   Perhaps there are clues to answering these questions in the Morals that he wrote for every tale -- these included Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. Here is a verse excerpt of Perrault's Little Thumb Moral. 

...But if perchance an offspring prove but weak,

Him they revile, laugh at, defraud and cheat.

Such is the wretched world���s curs���d way; and yet

Sometimes this urchin whom despis���d we see,

Through unforeseen events doth honour get,

And fortune bring to all his family.

The illustration of baby LittleThumb is by Jacom Hood for Lang's Blue Fairy Book.

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England's  Tom Thumb

Gentler tales, comic tales, and no doubt bawdy tales of Tom Thumb were part of English forlklore dating back to the 17th century or before. Tom was the beloved thumb-sized son of poor farmers and his adventures range from being swallowed by a cow, a fish, and a giant, to becoming the favorite dwarf in King Arthur's Court.

Generally regarded as the first English fairy tale (printed by Tomas Langley in a 40 page booklet in 1621), Tom Thumb books were popular with children as chapbooks and later, beginning in the 17th century, as printed children's books. Here is a typical example of why the Tom Thumb books were popular. This sample is a translation from The Grimm Brothers: 

"The maid happened to be just then milking the cow; and hearing someone speak, but seeing nobody, and yet being quite sure it was the same voice that she had heard in the night, she was so frightened that she fell off her stool, and overset the milk-pail. As soon as she could pick herself up out of the dirt, she ran off as fast as she could to her master the parson, and said, ���Sir, sir, the cow is talking!���" 

The illustration is from the History of Tom Thumb, Mary Bell's Series, Peter G Thompson, publisher

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The Magic and the Power of Words...from Myth and Moor

"... I believe that words have a magic and a power of their own, which those of us working in mythic arts and the fantasy field would be wise to remember. A good fantasy novel is literally spell-binding, using language to conjure up whole new worlds, or to invest our own with magic. The particular power of fantasy comes from its link with the world's most ancient stories, and from the author's careful manipulation of mythic archetypes, story patterns, and symbols.

A skillful writer knows that he or she must tell two stories at once: the surface tale, and a deeper story encoded within the tale's symbolic language. The magical tropes of fantasy, rooted as they are in world mythology, come freighted with meaning on a metaphoric level. A responsible writer works with these symbols consciously and pays attention to both aspects of the story.

 I believe that those of us who use the magic of words professionally should remember how powerful stories can be -- for children especially, but also for adults -- and take responsibility for the tenor of whatever dreams or nightmares we're letting loose into the world. This is particularly true in fantasy, where the tools of our trade include the language, symbolism and archetypal energies of myth. These are ancient, subtle, potent things, and they work in mysterious ways."

I find myself in another world when I visit Terri Windling's  Myth and Moor. She takes you with her into her world. 

The photo and  thoughts are from Terri Windling's Myth and Moor

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 "The invisible is only another unexplored country, a brave new world.��� ��� Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

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You Can Be A Terrorist or Mentally Deranged and Buy a Military Assault Gun

Gun control legislation is blocked by the NRA (National Rifle Association).

The NRA is now publishing fairy tales where rifles are used in Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel. You can read these gun toting fairy tales on the National Rifle Association���s NRA Family Website. The NRA has announced they are next publishing a version of the Three Little Pigs where the Big Bad Wolf will die by gun.

The illustration of Grandma about to shoot the wolf is from the NRA's Little Red Riding Hood

Children Killed by Guns in 2015 in the USA

Last year, 36 children, age 12 and under, were killed by guns in the USA; 23 children between the age of 13 and 17 were killed by guns. 

Here is a link to the NYTimes article regarding shooting deaths of children and the source of these statistics: Untold Damage. 

The photo from the Sandy Hook Shooting massacre in 2012 is by Sandy Hicks,AP. 

Firearms vs Frappucinos

A study was made to determine the number of gun dealers in the USA compared to Starbucks, grocery stores, and McDonalds. The results are staggering and offer insight into the dues paying gun store members of the NRA who don't want laws to encumber their sales. General McCrystal (below) reports over 33,000 Americans died from guns 2014.

 "...In their analysis, Beltz and colleagues found that there were six gun dealers in the U.S for every Starbucks (of which there are 10,843, according to 2013 data). Gun sellers also outnumber grocery stores (37,716 in 2014), McDonald���s (14,350 in 2014), and total coffee shops (55,246 in 2016)"

Source:From the Atlantic City Lab

The photo is by Tracey Eckert.

Military Veterans Have Now Organized to Help Control the Assault Weapon Insanity

Retired General Stanley McCrystal wrote a terrific Opinion Piece, Home Should Not Be a War Zone for the NY Times. Here is an excerpt:

"...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..."

McCrystal has joined with other concerned citizens to correct the out-of-control gun violence in the USA. They have organized  Americans for Responsible Solutions. I have joined. 

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 The Ogre's Kind Wife

There is an endless array of cruel queens, witches, and stepmothers in wonder tales. I find, however, that the wives of ogre's, giant's, and inn keepers show compassion and provide help to endangered young protagonists. Jack In The Beanstalk beguiled the wife of the giant; the inn keeper's wife tried to prevent the death of the Boy who Sought the Shivers; and certainly Little Thumb and his brothers were saved by the wife of the cruel, children-eating ogre. 

"...Little Thumb told her they were poor children who had been lost in the forest, and begged her, for God's sake, to give them lodging.

The woman, seeing that they were good looking children, began to weep, and said to them,  "Alas, poor babies, where are you from? Do you know that this house belongs to a cruel ogre who eats up little children?"

"Ah! dear madam," answered Little Thumb (who, as well as his brothers, was trembling all over), "what shall we do? If you refuse to let us sleep here then the wolves of the forest surely will devour us tonight. We would prefer the gentleman to eat us, but perhaps he would take pity upon us, especially if you would beg him to."

The ogre's wife, who believed she could hide them from her husband  until morning, let them come in, and had them to warm themselves at a very good fire..." 

Here is a link to read more: Perrault

The illustration of the Ogre's wife shining a light on Little Thumb and his lost brothers is by Gustav Dore.

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Books Are Good Company

A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book."

E. B. White author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little.

 

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Castle In The Mist

Children have been kidnapped and taken to the castle in the mist. War threatens. Can the dogs save the children and prevent war? Here is an excerpt...the Prince is standing on a castle wall and looking down...

"Prince Ukko���s face suddenly became red and he could barely speak.  ���What is that?��� he demanded.

He pointed to a dense cluster of tall pines on the edge of the forest.  Walking slowly out of the mist was Tok, a son of Rex, and the biggest dog to come down to planet Earth.  His long winter fur of brown and white made him appear even bigger.  His head was raised.  He looked directly at Prince Ukko as he slowly walked to the center of the open space in front of the castle.  There he stopped, raised his head and howled.  And when he did, the voices of all the dogs from Snow Valley, hidden in the misty forest, howled at the same time.

Ukko, watching in horror, turned to Narro, and growled, ���Stop them.  They must be stopped.���

Narro, running to the stone stairway shouted to the sentry to sound the alarm bell.  As the bell rang, and soldiers took their weapons and ran to assemble in the courtyard, Tok turned and walked back into the misty forest..."

The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Muustanoja-McCarty 


Read sample chapters on our website: Planet Of Thr Dogs  

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The new Yelodoggie book is a very active work-in-progress. Here is the cover of our new book that will answer the age old question, Why Am I...? Well,at least it answers the age-old question for Yelodoggie...More news from Yelodoggie soon.

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An Open Letter to the Female Hat-Wearing Dog in Go Dog Go

by Raquel D'Apice

"Dear female hat-wearing dog,

I bought your book to help my son learn prepositions and adjectives and was, from the first read, inexorably drawn in by your heart-wrenching struggle for approval.  Momentarily distracted by the humdrum parade of big dogs, little dogs, black and white dogs, I watched as you walked in, brimming with joy and confidence, and looked on as some total nobody, indistinguishable from most of the other dogs in this book, crushed you with his subtle rejection.

And you don���t even know me, but I wanted to take a minute to tell you that what matters is that you like your own hat, hat-wearing female dog.  Who is this guy anyway, some sort of dog hat expert??  Who cares what he thinks???  Wear a hat you love and if he doesn���t like it?  F*#% him..."

 Here is a link to read all of this letter to the Female Hat Wearing Dog: theuglyvolvo

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Up On The Woof Update

Up On the Woof is the blog of Barking Planet author C. A. Wulff. A great deal of her life is devoted to animal rescue and the world of dogs. Her many dog books range frpm personal memoirs to dog rescue. Here are a few excerpts from recent blogs. Her concern and passion for dog rescue is unlimited, and ongoing...

"I am a part of a pretty extensive rescue network. That network includes breed rescues, pound rescues, lost & found services, transporters, legal advisors, veterinarians, groomers, trainers, fosterers and bloggers. One of the most valuable things about having a network like that is the ability to reach out to people who have the answers that you do not.

 

You���ve heard the saying ���No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.���

Say it out loud. Memorize it. Live by it.

All of us working in pet rescue have the same goals: to save as many animals as possible from death or suffering. It���s really that simple.

But first we have to agree on some basic tenets:

Here is a link to the 8 Basic tenets

Counter Productive  

Here���s another saying. ���Don���t engage in counter-productive practices, because it wastes your time and mine.���  Have that one tattooed. If you want some examples of counter productive practices, check out these recent blog posts:

An Open Letter to People Who Flag Pet Ads on Craigslist

A Statement Regarding the Trumbull County Pound

Here is a link to Up On The Woof

The top photo is of C.A. Wulff and rescued dog, Waldo; the bottom photo is of her rescued dog, Troll.

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Survival in Dark Times

ISTANBUL ��� When he was 9, Ahmad Suleiman watched his father die from a battlefield wound in Syria. Four years later, he now puts in 12-hour shifts at a damp and squalid textile factory in Istanbul as the primary breadwinner for his family, which fled to Turkey after his father���s death.

Over one million Syrian children live in Turkey, and thousands of them, like Ahmad, are in sweatshops, factories or vegetable fields instead of in a classroom, members of a lost generation who have been robbed of their youth by war.

Like many others in his situation, while he toils for his family, Ahmad is paying a steep price. ���I want to send Ahmad to school because he doesn���t know how to read and write and can���t understand the bus signs,��� said his mother, Zainab Suleiman, 33. ���But I have no choice. He has to work to survive.���

Many of the children who arrive in Turkey have already lost years of schooling because of the war. Before the conflict, nearly 99 percent of Syrian children were enrolled in primary schools and 82 percent in secondary schools, Unicef has reported. Today, nearly three million Syrian children are out of school, and for those in Turkey, the education gap has either grown longer or become permanent.

This is an excerpt from an article by Ceylan Yeginsu in the NY Times. 

Photo by Chris McGrath, Getty Images.

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Movies...From 17th century Basile to Disney giants

Tale of Tales
I blogged about this landmark movie in November 2015 when it still had limited distribution. Now it has somewhat wider distribution (USA and UK and..?) and more very good reviews. Here are excerpts from two... 

This lustily fantastical English-language feature from the Italian writer-director Matteo Garrone is described on screen as being ���loosely based onThe Tale of Tales by Giambattista Basile���, the Neapolitan writer whose 17th-century fairytales inspired Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and more...Although also currently available via on demand TV, Tale of Tales really needs to be seen on the big screen. Having watched it both ways, I can attest that much devilish detail is missed on home viewing. This is a theatrical piece: a three-ring circus of a movie for which front row seats are highly recommended.  Mark Kermode in the Guardian

Earthy, Bracing and Unsentimental..."Wonders are everywhere (if you slice into a tree, it will bleed water, like a spring), as is a casual carnality. Luxury entwines with filth.Following Basile, Garrone grasps a basic rule of folklore; nobbody must flinch at prodigious events, for they are part of the mortal deal." Anthony Lane in the New Yorker 

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Finding Dory 

In a way that is both emphatic and subtle, ���Finding Dory��� is a celebration of cognitive and physical differences. It argues, with lovely ingenuity and understatement, that what appear to be impairments might better be understood as strengths. The inclusiveness of the film���s vision is remarkable partly because it feels so natural, something that no adult will really need to explain. Children will get it, perhaps more intuitively and easily than the rest of us.  A.O Scott's Review in the NY Times. 

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THE BFG...the Big Friendly Giant

The reviews have been favorable (72%); Disney is not releasing box office information. Here is an excerpt from Richard Brody's review in the New Yorker..

Steven Spielberg lavishes extraordinary care and skill on this live-action adaptation of a story by Roald Dahl, about an orphan named Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) who is plucked from a London orphanage by a giant named Runt (Mark Rylance) and brought to his home in Giant Country, somewhere to the north of north. There, Runt is bullied by nine even bigger giants, child-eating cannibals who mock him for being a vegetarian and try to hunt Sophie, whom he valiantly defends. Meanwhile, Runt plies his gentle trade as the world���s dream-catcher and dream-brewer... The film���s technical achievements may be complex, but its emotions are facile. Richard Brody The New Yorker

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J. K. Rowling Just Can���t Let Harry Potter Go

Sarah Lyall in the New York Times wrote about the many new creations of J.K. Rowling, including a movie (scheduled for Fall 2017), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Here is an excerpt...

"...What���s an author to do when she once seemed to be done? Taking an approach that some fans love and others do not, Ms. Rowling has never made a secret of her continued immersion in Potter-world. Over the years, she has regularly interjected new elements into the old stories, sometimes through sudden Twitter pronouncements, sometimes by other means...She also regularly produces fresh ancillary material ��� new stories, new elaborations ��� on her Pottermore website, most recently a series of fictional essays about the history of magic in North America...."

Here is a link to her new play :���Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,���  Here is a link to read all of Sarah's article:  Sarah Lyall

The photo is of Eddie Redmayne in the trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

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The Human Canine Connection Has Many Manifestations

"New York Therapy Dogs R.E.A.D.�� teams are being placed in a variety of schools and the NY Public Libraries working with children with Autism, ESL students and developmentally and emotionally challenged children as well as children who are just curious about reading to a therapy dog. The response from the staff and families has been remarkable.

Our motto for New York Therapy Animals is Excellence through Education with ongoing New York City therapy dog training classes every Saturday morning. We are teaching the ITA workshop at the Ronald McDonald House-New York every month educating the human end of the leash..."

Here is a link to a PBS video about N.Y. Therapy Dogs (kids, dogs, readers, and dog owners):  Reading

Here is a link to the N.Y. Therapy Animals website: Therapy

 

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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 and 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 the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

 
The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty
 
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Sunbear Squad offers free information and guidance ranging from dog rescue to guidelines for building a dog house. Here is an excerpt:

"...In the western world, we are taught at an early age to greet new people by approaching them with upright posture, looking directly into their eyes and offering a hand to shake or squeeze. It becomes second nature to us, so as a result, many of us animal lovers greet every living thing���except bugs���using those same 'good manners'.���...

We must UNLEARN that set of social rules to avoid frightening dogs, cats, and other animals... read it all on SunBear Squad.

 
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"There is no faith that has never yet been broken, except that of a truly faithful dog."  -- Konrad Lorenz, Nobel Prize Winner
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June -- The Sky Opens, Kids, Books, Movies, and Dogs

 

                

 

 

Overcoming, Defeating, and Conquering -- The Giant(s)

Five thousand years ago, people were telling the story of a boy who overcame the ogre.

Ogres are all powerful, huge, and devour people --  much like giants.

In nineteenth century England, the boy, now known as Jack, became famous through chap books and story books. He was outwitting and killing giants.

And in our era, the giants have returned...this time through the movies.

The story that was told around campfires before the bronze age has endured through time, and continues to be told and even seen around the world -- in 3D movies with music and sounds.

Tales of wonder, indeed.

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Fairy Tales Have Ancient Origins

From Africa and Asia to Europe and the Americas, anthropologists continue to uncover information about our past and our cultural history. Recently, Durham University anthropologist Dr Jamie Tehrani, and folklorist Sara Gra��a da Silva, from New University of Lisbon, made a breakthrough in the world of wonder tales. Here are excerpts from an informative article about their discoveries written by Allison Flood in the Guardian.

"Analysis showed Jack and the Beanstalk was rooted in a group of stories classified as The Boy Who Stole Ogre���s Treasure, and could be traced back to when eastern and western Indo-European languages split ��� more than 5,000 years  ago. Beauty and the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin  were found to be about 4,000 years old. A folk tale called The Smith and the Devil was estimated to date back 6,000 years to the bronze age..." 

"The author and academic Marina Warner, who has written a history of fairytales, called the paper 'fascinating'. 'What���s interesting to me is it shows how deeply this creative power of the imagination lies in the human being, how it���s about making sense of your world by inventing narratives that resist its difficulties..." - 

Here is a link to the article by Allison Flood in the Guardian.

Here is a link to the original article, published by the researchers, in the Royal Society Open Science Journal  The photo is of the Celtic Janus Stone, Boa Island, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland

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Tales of Hope

People have always needed hope. Life was a constant struggle in the early days of fairy tales. Life expectancy was less than thirty years.

Fairy tales, with their happy endings, gave people hope. They helped people to cope with the wars, hunger, disease, poverty and religious conflicts that characterized their lives.

Fairy tales, tales of wonder, told of struggles to survive, of finding light in the darkness. They told tales where a brave boy, using his wits, could overcome evil forces, and destroy the ogres and giants.

Through the eons of time, stories of this boy were tales of hope. 

The illustration is by Jean Francois Millet 

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Jack, A Quick-witted Cornish Farm Boy

Jack and the Gyants, published in 1708, was an immediate success and initiated a variety of tales where Jack, through quick-witted chicanery, good luck, and violent death overwhelms many giants. He also achieves wealth, and a noble wife. "An immediate success, Jack and his giants were frequently alluded to in familiar terms by eighteenth century writers lilke Henry Fielding, John Newberry, Dr Johnson and Boswell, and William Cowper...When Jack tales were rewritten for refined sensibilities in the 18th and 19th centuries, the cruelty of their gory killings disappeared...Jack became an earthy Everyboy, and the Giant a geographically unlocalizable married oaf, reachable only by the magic of a bean that grew endlessly heavenward."

Ruth B. Bottigheimer -- The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales

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English Fairy Tales-Joseph Jacobs

" 'Who says that English folk have no fairy tales of their own?' Jacobs asked with a rhetorical flourish in the preface to English Fairy Tales (1890)...These collections were the British answer to Perrault in France, and to the Brothers Grimm in Germany, aiming to capture an oral tradition before it died out and to reveal that the British could pride themselves on a powerful, imaginative native lore...

'This book,' he wrote of English Fairy Tales, "is meant to be read aloud and not merely taken in by the eye' "...

Jack and the Beanstalk was one of the tales included in Jacob's book.

from Maria Tatar, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales

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The Tellers of the Tales

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

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

The illustration is a detail from a painting by Peiter Bruegal

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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.."  William Logan in his NY Times review of ���Memorial,��� Alice Oswald���s Version of the ���Iliad��� 

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Fantasy Is True

"For fantasy is true, of course. It isn't factual, but it's true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that's precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life that they have let themselves be forced into living. They're afraid of dragons, because they are afraid of freedom."

Ursula Le Quin(The Language of the Night) as quoted by Terri Windling's Myth and Moor. 

The sculpture of Spider Maman is by Louise Bourgeois

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Castle In The Mist

���Do you think that it is possible for dogs to stop a war?

Author Robert J. McCarty has created a charming fantasy-allegory that can be read and understood on at least two different levels.  Children will enjoy the story 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.���  The same things are true as the story continues in Castle in the Mist.  The book is well written and easy to read.  It will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next..." 

From a review by Wayne Walker -- Stories for Children Magazine, Home School Book Review, and Hone School Buzz

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

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Before the Coming of Civilized Man.

"John Matthews writes in Taliessin, Shamanism and the Bardic Mysteries of Britain & Ireland (1992) that giants are very common throughout British folklore, and often represent the "original" inhabitants, ancestors, or gods of the island before the coming of "civilized man", their gigantic stature reflecting their otherworldly nature. Giants figure prominently in Cornish, Breton and Welsh folklore..." from Wikipedia  
The illustration of the giant is from Game Of Thrones 

 
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National Rifle Association (NRA) Adds Guns to Fairytales.

Maria Tatar, in her Breezes from Wonderland blog, has joined those protesting or questioning the NRA's insidious
publication of revised fairy tale violence. In the NRA's versions, both Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel use rifles to destroy their enemies. Tatar's post is entitled, I Finally Net Some Fairy Tales I Do Not Like. 

 John Schwartz  interviewed Ms Tatar for an article he wrote about the NRA in the NYTimes. Here's an excerpt:

"I got in touch with Professor Tatar, because how often do you get an excuse to talk with a professor of Germanic folklore and mythology? She said that one of the problems with these gun-toting, sanitized tales was that they missed the point of Grimm. Success in fairy tales, she explained, comes down to more than tight shot grouping. 'They are very much about problem-solving, using your wits and courage to get out of trouble,' she said. 'Unfortunately, because they take up very basic cultural contradictions and are supremely malleable, they can also be harnessed for almost any purpose. The Nazis recast Little Red Riding Hood as the innocent Aryan victim of a Jewish wolf.' "

The illustration is by Henry Justice Ford

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Untold Damage...

The New York Times posted a report on children killed in the USA from Gun Deaths in 2015

36 age 12 and under

23 age 13-17

Children Injured/wounded by guns in the USA in  2015

36 age 12 and under

77 age 13-17

Here is a link to the article: Untold Damage,

The photo is by Phillip Townsend/WFAA

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Breezes from Wonderland

Once again, I have had a very rewarding visit to Maria Tatar's blog. Currently, in addition to her criticism of the NRA's gun-toting fairy tales, she writes about the impact of story, fairy tales, and animated film in a complex family situation..."It���s a film that ends up animating us, rewiring our brains and rearranging our senses.  And it lets us look inside the minds of others in compelling ways���suddenly we see what they see, feel what they feel as we discover how the symbolic helps us navigate reality." 

Her current blog also has fascinating and provocative insights on women, Game Of Thrones. our fairy tale heritage, and the outrageous graphic violence of TV and film..."Our on-screen entertainments rarely replay real-life anxieties. Instead they haunt us in ways that are often errant and unpredictable. In a culture that has renounced the ideal of beauty, the beautiful dead woman of Edgar Allan Poe���s fantasies may now have moved into middle age..." 

The illustration is of Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones

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The New Yelodoggie Book Is Coming

What do others think when they see Yelodoggie?

Is this really a dog?

If so, why is Yelodoggie   yelo?

Yelodoggie must find the answer. 

This is the story in the new book.

Yelodoggie is a creation of C.A. Wulff. Here's a link to Wulff's Yeloddoggie  paintings.

Here's a link to her Up On The Woof website. Wulff is the author of wonderful books about dogs

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Amazon Review of Circling the Waggins by BrittdogPub

..."The book is filled with funny animal stories... The book also includes many sad times when one pet after another made the sad journey to the Rainbow Bridge. I highly recommend this book to animal lovers. You will definitely laugh and cry. You may even learn a few things about animal care and the treatment of various health issues pet owners often face. I enjoyed this book so much that I am now reading another of this author's pet tales." 

Circling the Waggins is also an Amazon Kindle Book

 

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Kids, Books, and Dogs

Here is a link to a touching 30 second video  reaffirming the hope engendered by the human canine bond...Every Thursday, Jacob, a 6-year-old boy with autism brings a small mat to the Carson Animal Shelter and sits down in front of Pirate the pit bull's cage to read to him. "If I read to the dogs, they will come out of their cages and find homes," says Jacob.

 

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Good Giants, Bad Giants, and a Young Girl

Stephen Spielberg, the gifted director of films ranging from Schindler's List to Indiana Jones, and The Color Purple to Saving Private Ryan, has a new film, the BFG, opening on July1. The man who gave us E.T., has now made a film based on Roald Dahl's book, the BFG (the Big Friendly Giant). Disney, a co-producer with Amblin Entertainment and others, will distribute the film in 3D. The writer is the late Melissa Mathison, who also wrote E.T..

Here's a wikipedia link regarding Dahl's book,the BFG. 

Here is a link to the trailer for the BFG. 

 

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Movies That Are Good For The Soul

Stephen Speilberg was interviewed by Manhola Dargis of the New York Times. Here is an excerpt from a Speilberg reply:

" My only advice ��� and I don���t have a studio, I have a very small company ��� is that there needs to be a good balance of crowd-pleasers and movies that are good for the soul, that get us to dwell in the aftertaste of an experience that is so far-fetched or out of the box, but three days later we realize that we saw something that might change our lives..."

Here is a link to this excellent Manohla Dargis  interview with Stephen Speilberg

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Disney has announced that Gigantic is coming in 2018... a 3D musical loosely based on Jack and the Beanstalk. The story includes a young girl giant inspired by Gulliver's travels. (More news on this next month)

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Do They Have Hope ?
I don't know the answer. But they certainly have experienced the painful wrath of the Ogre. He sits in Aleppo and does't care about their pain. He keeps destroying more lives and creating more pain.

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 continues.

It was produced by the wonderful Save The Children organization. The following information is from their website:

Approximately half of the 19.5 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...

Here is a link to their website. Save The Children
Photo by Behal Halebi Anadolu, Agy/Getty Images

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The Society of Bloggers in Children���s and Young Adult Literature 

I highly recommend Kidlitosphere as a source for anyone interested in children's literature.

The following is excerpted from their site ..." Some of the best books being published today are children���s and young adult titles, well-written and engaging books that capture the imagination. Many of us can enjoy them as adults, but more importantly, can pass along our appreciation for books to the next generation by helping parents, teachers, librarians and others to find wonderful books, promote lifelong reading, and present literacy ideas.

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...".

The illustration of "We Wish fof Wings" is by Lucy Campbell

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Congratulations to Nancy Houser, Sandra Marquiss, and Marita Megan on their 1,000 blog posts dedicated to helping dogs and dog lovers. Here is an excerpt from their website based in their home and rescue center in Wilcox, Nebraska...

"We���ve created WayCoolDogs.com about seven years ago, in March of 2009, with the purpose of helping dog owners understand their dogs better so they can provide quality care for them.

We have worked very hard ever since to provide you with the best information about dog health, dog insurance, breeds, the latest in dog research, dog worms, military dogs, therapy dogs and lots of how-to articles on many other topics!

Or perhaps you just want to read some dog stories, like the one of Jerry Mathers and his hero dog Ron Ton Ton."

Here's a link to WayCoolDogs

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Why do you think it's so important that young people read?

For the same reason that I think it's important that they breathe, eat, drink, sleep, run about, fool around, and have people who love and look after them. It's part of what makes us fully human. Some people manage to get through life without reading; but I know that if I'd had to do that, an enormous part of my mind, or my soul if you like, would be missing. No one should be without the chance to let their soul grow.

Phillip Pullman in the Guardian. The question was asked by Luke, 13 years old.

The illustration is from Pullman's book, Northern Lights.

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 "I would not, for any quantity of gold, part with the wonderful tales which I have retained from my earliest childhood or have met in the progress of my life." -- Martin Luther
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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 the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

 The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty
 
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If you see a dog in trouble or encounter a lost dog and you are uncertain as to what to do, you'll find the information on Sunbear Squad..."Transforming animal lovers into welfare defenders with knowledge, tools, and inspiration."
 
 
 
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"Ever wonder where you'd end up if you took your dog for a walk and never once pulled back on the leash?" -- Robert Brault
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May - The Doors Open...Books, Kids, Movies and Dogs

 

                                  

     

Doors, Rabbit Holes, Mirrors, Middle Earth, Platform 9 3/4, Garden Gates, Beanstalks, Wardrobes, A Crashed Airplane in the Desert...all open doors to new worlds of magic. From wizards to witches, they are all within reach of a child's imagination...and, maybe, ours.

Alice Is Back

Actually, she may never have gone away.

She is an unusual young girl who goes down rabbit holes and walks through mirrors.

Cranky flowers talk to her and she walks backwards to climb a hilltop that lies in front of her.

She has fantasy adventures that are real, but not true. Her adventures are often quite scary.

She also has people who make movies based on her adventures.

Many thousands of people went to see the last one and they paid over a billion dollars. And so, they have made a new one.

Once again, millions of people, young and old, will live in wonderland with Alice.

Long live Alice!

The illustrations are by John Tenniel.

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Wonderland, Like Neverland , Is a Great Place to Visit, But...

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

Maria Tatar, writing about Theaters For The Imagination in her book, Enchanted Hunters.

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Liberating the Fairy Tale In Victorian England

"Like Dickens, Carrol fought tenaciously to keep the child alive in himself and in his fiction as a critic of the absurd rules and regulations of the adult Victorian world...

Carroll's contribution to children's literature and the fairy tale is immense for his Alice books served to liberate the fairy tale from moralism  and encourage young readers to think for themselves and question the mores of the adult world."

Jack Zipes, writing in his book , Victorian Fairy Tales: The Revolt of the Fairies and the Elves.

 

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The New Movie --  Alice Through the Looking Glass

Alice Through the Looking Glass is Directed by James Bobin, who brings his own version to the spectacular world that Tim Burton created on screen in 2010 with "Alice in Wonderland". The film, written by the excellent Linda Woolverton, is based on the characters and story created by Lewis Carroll.

Johnny Depp is back as the Mad Hatter, Mia Wasikowski is back as Alice, and Helena Bonham Carter is back as the Queen of Hearts.

The film opens in U.S. theaters on May 27, 2016 .. It will be presented in Digital 3D���, Real D 3D and IMAX�� 3D,

Reports are that Alice must turn back time to save the Mad Hatter.

The film features Pink���s cover of the Jefferson Airplane song ���White Rabbit.��� You can here it on the Trailer: Alice Through the Looking Glass. 

And, here is a link to Grace Slick singing the original version of White Rabbit with Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock: 

Alice has inspired several Pop Music and Rock and Roll music videos including: Tom Petty and The Hearbreakers, Kerli , The Bunny The Bear,  Avril Lavigne and others...here is the link to all these music videos: horroraddicts

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Nonsense, Contradictions, and Queer Things

Alice's reaction to Tweedeldum, Tweedeldee and the White Knight's Dream

'Well, it no use your talking about waking him,' said Tweedledum, 'when you're only one of the things in his dream. You know very well you're not real.'

'I am real!' said Alice and began to cry.

'You won't make yourself a bit realler by crying,' Tweedledee remarked: 'there's nothing to cry about.'

'If I wasn't real,' Alice said���half-laughing through her tears, it all seemed so ridiculous���'I shouldn't be able to cry.'

'I hope you don't suppose those are real tears?' Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of great contempt.

'I know they're talking nonsense,' Alice thought to herself: 'and it's foolish to cry about it.' So she brushed away her tears, and went on as cheerfully as she could.

Alice's reaction after running faster and faster with the Red Queen:  'Well, in our country,' said Alice, still panting a little, 'you'd generally get to somewhere else���if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing.'

'A slow sort of country!' said the Queen. 'Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!'

Alice's reaction after reading the Jabberwocky poem: 'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's rather hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, ever to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) 'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas���only I don't exactly know what they are!... 

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We Are In A Queer World Here

"In Wonderland, the word that expresses Alice's amazement at the world is the word 'queer'. Humpty Dumpty is, in her eyes, a 'queer creature', and when he attempts to do the arithmetic to discern just how many birthdays a person has in a year, he holds Alice's notebook upside down.

'That seems to be done right' --  he began.

'You're holding it upside down,' Alice interrupted.

'To be sure, I was!' Humpty Dumpty said gaily, as she turned it round for him. 'I thought it looked a little queer.'

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

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

Seth Lerer, in the chapter Ill-Tempered and Queer , from his History of Children's literature.

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PBS is starting a new 24-hour channel dedicated solely to children���s programming.

The following is from a report by John Koblin in the NY Times

"The channel, which will be called PBS Kids will be free. It is expected to debut later this year ��� most likely in the fall. PBS Kids will also be available online with a live stream.

More children���s programming is available than ever, much of it being watched through streaming services and on-demand. Netflix has significantly increased its children���s offerings in recent years, and it is expected to have 35 original series for children by year���s end. Last month, HBO began broadcasting the latest season of ���Sesame Street,��� after it took over first-run rights for the series from PBS. HBO has said more children���s programming is coming, and Amazon has also produced shows aimed at that demographic.

PBS will use the channel to broadcast popular shows already on its stations, like ���Daniel Tiger���s Neighborhood,��� ���Dinosaur Train��� and ���Wild Kratts.���

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Questions for Librarians About Reading Alice

Adults and children are both quite taken by the Alice books. However, if I was a librarian, I would want to ask myself...

Under what circumstances and at what age should a child, alone, read these books set in a rather dangerous, claustrophobic, and absurd wonderland? Why is this young girl of 7 1/2 years of age being scolded, yelled at, and contradicted? Is she frightened?...If not, why not?  And what do I tell a child about the rude and sometimes cruel behavior of the extraordinary characters -- from the Mad Hatter and Humpty Dumpty to Tweedledum and TweedleDee? If I was a librarian, I would suggest that a parent could best answer all these questions; perhaps, when reading bedtime stories...

The photo of Alice Liddel, the inspiration for the Alice books, is by Lewis Carroll

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Prisoners Train Dogs for Disabled Vets

Planet Dog is a company that sells top quality items for dogs. They give 2% of their sales to support the Planet Dog Foundation (PDF). PDF, in turn, supports organizations throughout the USA that train and support  therapy dogs. Here is an excerpt about one of their many grantees America's VetDogs from the Planet Dog Blog.

"As we know, the unconditional love of a dog is unlike anything we have felt before and can change all of us. That love reminds us of hope, respect, and purpose. It is a blind love. Dogs want to please us. Consider for a moment what that love
can do for a veteran and for a prisoner. Being a trainer in this program takes professionalism and discipline. It is intense work and a serious responsibility. It takes and fosters love and trust. The inmate trainers are proud of the work they do, they understand the ���why��� of the program, where these dogs are going and who they will be helping, and that helps with the feelings of loss when it is time for these dogs to leave for their new homes.

America's VetDogs conducts prison programs wherin inmates train dogs. They then become partnered with a disabled veteran for a lifetime. There are benefits for all in these programs. And the vets receive a double benefit as bonding with their dog brings unconditional emotional support as well as physical support for disabilities..."

Here is a link to this informative and inspiring article on the Planet Dog Blog

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Who Was Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll 

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Oxford don and acclaimed author of the life of Dickens, has written a very well received book, The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland. His book is both an insightful biography of Lewis Carrol, as well as an account of events surrounding the Wonderland books.  

Anthony Lane, inspired by Douglas-Fairhurt's book, wrote an excellent article for the New Yorker: Go Ask Alice, What Really Went on in Wonderland. Here are excerpts:  

"But who reads the Alice books nowadays? Everybody knows Alice, but that is not the same thing. There are countless ways to know something, or someone, without firsthand evidence, and Alice, as familiar as a household god and as remote as a child star, is a prime case of cultural osmosis. Having seeped through the membrane of the original books, she has spent the past century and a half infusing herself into the language, and the broader social discourse; as a result, we can all too easily picture her, quote her, or follow her example in the nonsense of our own lives without having read���or even feeling that we need to read���a word of Lewis Carroll.

Yet the need is more urgent than ever. Carroll wrote with a peppery briskness, impatient of folly, and always alive to the squalls of emotion that we struggle to curb...Here is a link to read all of this insightful article:  Anthony Lane

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"These dream-books are hypnotically nostalgic. Virginia Woolf identified this when she observed that 'these are not books for children. They are the only books in which we become children'" --from the review of The Story Of Alice by Robert McCrum in the Guardian

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"The books I loved in childhood - the first loves - I���ve read so often that I���ve internalized them in some really essential way: they are more inside me now than out..."

-Donna Tartt, Pulitzer Prize winning Author 

 
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The Planet Of The Dogs series...

Long ago there were no dogs on planet earth.

A time came when when invaders were taking over farmlands, villages and towns.

Dogs, who were living in peace and happiness on their own plant, came to earth to help people find peace.

The dogs were able to communicate with children; and, through their actions, they were able to communicate with adults

The dogs taught loyalty, courage, nonviolence, and peace to people. They worked together and found non-violent ways to overcome invaders.

The Planet of the Dogs Series tells the stories of these events.

 

The illustration, from Castle In The Mist, is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty
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The Yelodoggie Book is Coming

We have long been fans of C.A. Wulff's Yelodoggie illustrations. 

The illustration on the left triggered something in my mind.

Where is Yelodoggie going? Why? What has happened?

The answers to these questions and the wonderful visual imagination of Ms Wulff will soon be found in...

 A new creation -- the one and only Yelodoggie Book... 

Here's a link to Wulff's Yeloddoggie  paintings.

Here's a link to her Up On The Woof website.

 

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The Lewis Carroll Society of North America

Here is a link to The Lewis Carroll Society of North America, a fascinating oganization that opens the door for all who are interested in ongoing involvement in the world of Alice...

"The Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA), founded in 1974, is an organization of Carroll admirers of all ages and interests, as well as a virtual center for Carroll studies. The Society has members throughout the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, and the UK, with interests in virtually all of Lewis Carroll���s many pursuits and in his continuing impact on our current culture." 

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"Oh Grandmother, what a big gun you have: The NRA rewrites classic fairy tales...

Imagine a world where the characters from your favorite childhood fairy tales and fables are armed.

Hansel with a hunting rifle. Or Little Red Riding Hood���s granny with a shotgun.

That world now exists on the National Rifle Association���s NRA Family website, which partnered with author Amelia Hamilton ���to present her twist on those classic tales��� ��� a series that has infuriated gun-control advocates, some of whom called it 'disgusting.' ���

The Three Little Pigs is to be the next NRA gun slinging tale.

Here is the link to read all of Lindsey Bever's  article:  WahingtonPostFairytales  

The illustration is from the NRA version of Little Red Riding Hood.

 Twitter parodies of gun slinging fairytales...

"Prince traveling kingdom 2 find owner of glass slipper shot dead by gun wielding evil stepmother," @SarahFMcD wrote.

"The porridge was too cold, the bed was too hard, but this AK47 is just right,"@Scott_Craven2 offered. "Who's up for some bearskln rugs?"

"Jack & Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and the gun accidentally discharged. Jill is dead." #NRAFairyTales from Aaron Duncan ���@AaronCDuncan

The illustration is from the NRA version of Hansel and Gretel.

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Fewer Americans Are Visiting Local Libraries���and Technology Isn't to Blame

Here are excerpts from the article by Robinson Meyer in the  Atlantic 

To the Pew, the decline in library use is driven by technological change, so the report implicitly recommends that more libraries publicize their non-print services. Ninety percent of U.S. local libraries offer ebook lending, for instance, but 38 percent of Americans either don���t know or don���t think that their local branch does so. What if they did?...

What do revenues have to do with declining use? Possibly everything. In 2012,the IMLS���s yearly report examined whether more people use public libraries after they receive more public investment. In a word, yes ...
We found that as investments, such as revenue, staffing, and programs, increased, so did critical use measures, such as visitation and circulation. In the same way, as investments were reduced, mostly in reaction to post-recessionary budgetary reductions, we saw decreases in library use. Another important finding is that even though investments might have declined, any decreases in use did not drop by the same magnitude. People continue to use their local public libraries���for access to books and information and..." 

Photo: Northmont Library in Englewood, Ohio

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"For me, music begins where words end..."

"Until I was fifteen, I was the great Nimrod. I could roam the forests and meadows for days on end." 

-Je an Sibelius

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Relief & Reconciliation, a small, hands-on NGO, is making a big difference and changing the lives of displaced Syrian Refugee children...I learned of this dedicated organization through the unique newsletter, Syria Comment, written and published by Joshua Landis  a dynamic and caring Middle East expert and activist (Director: Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor,University of Oklahoma)

"According to UNICEF, about 440,000 of the officially registered 1.2 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon alone are school-aged children. Only 40,000 of them could access regular schools in 2014.

The small international non-profit, Relief and Reconciliation for Syria (R&R), provides support to the most in need. In 2014 in northern Lebanon, R&R provided schooling to 240 children as well as language courses and tutoring for many more."

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I worry about refugee children, running in fear from pain, hunger, and wars.

What is the impact if a child has no school, no books, and cannot read?

In their struggle for survival, what is their tomorrow, their future?

I am grateful for the dedicated people working to bring some relief and some hope to these children.

The photo is of Zahra, a five year old Syrian refugee; photo taken by Muhammed Muheisen/AP

 

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Movies

Scathing Reviews of  The Huntsman:Winter's War

 "It���s everything wrong with Hollywood today stuffed into a little less than two hours."

...said  A.O. Scott's review of this sorry special effects movie by Universal Pictures. Here are excerpts:

"Is The Huntsman: Winter���s War the worst movie of the year? It���s too early to say, of course, and it���s a complicated question, since there are so many varieties of bad movie. There are grandiose failures driven by overreaching ambition. There are spectacles of stupefying incompetence...Its badness is not extreme, but exemplary: It���s everything wrong with Hollywood today stuffed into a little less than two hours... Every resonant theme or intriguing story possibility is stripped away and replaced with a ready-made franchise-movie conceit. The filmmakers compensate for emptiness with redundancy.

Here it is: the least keenly anticipated prequel-slash-sequel of the year. It is the follow-up that nobody much wanted to the film that nobody much liked, resulting in something even more visually elaborate and boring, and about which the number of tosses that can be reasonably given is lower than ever."

And here are excerpts from Peter Bradshaw's review in the Guardian 

"What on earth is the point of this dreary sub-franchise fairytale product? It takes its audience to a Zen state beyond pointlessness, an incoherent CGI (computer generated images) world created by an army of execs at a million dire meetings, grimly hashing out the ways in which the profitability of the first film could be continued and maximised by pinching plot points from Frozen, and set-dressing from Narnia and Middle Earth.

Four years ago, Snow White and the Huntsman was a unimaginative reimagining of the Snow White legend which comprehensively misunderstood its delicacy, charm and mythic power, wasting the talents of Charlize Theron as the wicked queen, and promoting the huntsman (the guy who passes off an animal heart as Snow White���s heart) to a fully hunky romantic lead, played by Chris Hemsworth. It���s a film which played up a Twilight-y implied contest between two suitors and in fact owed its commercial existence to the presence of Kristen Stewart as Snow White."

The Huntsman: Winter's War, is a Universal Pictures release with a budget of $115 million. 

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Good Movies 

To feel better about movies and fairy tales, I recommend : The Essence of Humanity; (17 minutes, YouTube) a loving montage of compelling moments from the wonderful films of Hayao Miyazaki Films...included are scenes with Miyazaki, himself. Written and narrated by Lewis Bond

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The Door Seems Always Open for The Season of the Witch

The musical,Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz, has been playing on Broadway for thirteen years; The Witch, the new low budget movie, is still playing in New York and over 50 other theaters, grossing over $25 million to date; and Ben Brantley, in the NY Times, had high praise in his recent review of the revival of the Crucible, Arthur Miller's classic play about the Salem witch trials. Here are excerpts:    

"The Devil has returned to Broadway, with the power to make the strong tremble. It is time to be afraid, very afraid, of a play that seemed perhaps merely worthy when you studied it in high school English class.

The director Ivo van Hove and a dazzling international cast ��� led by Ben Whishaw, Sophie Okonedo, Saoirse Ronan and Ciaran Hinds ��� have plumbed the raw terror in Arthur Miller���s ���The Crucible,��� which opened on Thursday night at the Walter Kerr Theater. And an endlessly revived historical drama from 1953 suddenly feels like the freshest, scariest play in town...One of the miracles of this ���Crucible,��� though, is its success in presenting all those onstage as all too human and all too hungry to see themselves as good people. It���s their self-protecting, self-deluding rationalizations that conjure the devils of distrust that rip a social fabric to shreds..."

 Here's a link to read all of Ben Brantley's insightful review:  ARTHUR MILLER'S THE CRUCIBLE
 

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Opening Doors for Kids and Dogs 

Paulina Turkanova posted on Bored Planet about an excellent program being run by the Missouri Humane Society; here are excerpts: 

" At this Missouri Humane Society, the Shelter Buddies Reading Program  pairs kids age 6 to 15 with fearful dogs to prepare them for life in a forever home. After completing a 10 hour training program, the kids sit in front of a she dog���s kennel and read to them from a book..."

Here are comments from the Missouri Humane Society website:

"The Shelter Buddies Reading Program was designed to help our shelter dogs become more adoptable. Reading to the dogs helps to bring comfort to and reduce the anxiety of shelter pets, and it nurtures empathy in children. Participants sit outside of the dog's kennel and read to them..."

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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 the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

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

 

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Sunbear Squad is a leading source for information and guidance in dog rescue and care. Here is an excerpt from their site about Sunbear --  the original inspiration for all the good work they do...

"Who was Sunbear?...He was a young dog who died tragically of neglect in an empty townhouse in 2002 even though there were neighbors on both sides. Sunbear's highly-publicized case had a huge effect on humane laws in West Virginia, and his story inspires thousands worldwide to help save animals in distress today.Read his true story here."

 
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"I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons"...Will Rogers
 
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April -- Alternate Reality, Books, Kids, Movies, and Dogs

 

     
    

Alternate Reality

���Harry Potter isn���t real? Oh no! Wait, wait, what do you mean by real? Is this video blog real? Am I real if you can see me and hear me, but only through the internet? Are you real if I can read your comment but I don���t know who you are or what your name is or where you���re from or what you look like or how old you are? I know all of those things about Harry Potter. Maybe Harry Potter���s real and you���re not.��� 
���  John Green

The illustration of Hogwarts is by Jim Kay

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Opening the Doors to Wonder

Wonder comes in many forms.

Harry Potter swept the reading world and opened the doors to a greater audience. The success of the Harry Potter series renewed broad-based respect for fairy tales. 

From the first book and beyond, J.K. Rowling created an alternate world that readers could relate to. People young and old are drawn in to these robust stories and their engaging, fully developed characters. As with the classic stories from the past, the characters, imaginative twists and turns of the stories, and the fully realized details, combined to enable readers to believe in the magic of an alternate reality. The seven Harry Potter books created an enormous worldwide audience. And provided the substance for wonderful films. 

Adults have also become fans of the books and movies, creating a record breaking "crossover" market. And the phenomenon continues to grow...

Click the photo for spring wonder.

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Contact With The Lives Of Others

"Rowling's books, by arousing curiosity and establishing contact with the lives of others, even if they exist solely within the confines of a literary work, enable children to develop capacities that readily translate into real-life experience.  J. K. Rowling never shies away from the great existential mysteries: death and loss, cruelty and compassion, desire and depression. Harry is anything but sheltered from the evils of Voldemort...he is destined for greatness even though he also posseses the weaknesses, failings, and vulnerabilities of all humans."

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

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Harry Began On A Train

JK Rowling:  I was going on a train from Manchester to London and I was looking out of the window at some cows, I believe and I just thought: "Boy doesn't know he's a wizard - goes off to wizard school." I have no idea where it came from. I think the idea was floating along the train and looking for someone and my mind was vacant enough so it decided to zoom in there.

Stephen Fry:  And you played with the idea in your head���

JK Rowling:  Exactly! From that moment I thought: "Well why doesn't he realise he's a wizard?" It was as though the story was just there for me to discover and I thought: "Well his parents are dead and he needs to find out they're wizards" and on we went from there. 

From a Stephen Fry Interview with JK Rowling

The illustration, from the Philosophers Stone, is by Jim Kay.

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Hermione...an empowered young woman

"Throughout the Harry Potter Tales, Hermione emerges as the beneficiary of three centuries of girls' book identity. At times the plucky youth, at times the serious student, at times the foolish lover, at times the tomboy, at times the blossoming maiden -- taken together, all these aspects of her personality make her the heir to everyone from Jenny Peace in Sarah Fielding's The Governess, to Jo in Alcott's Little Women, to Alice in Carroll's Wonderland, to all the girl guides, or "new Women" or adventuresome or studious females who fill the range of popular writing well into the twentieth century."

From Seth Lerer writing about Theaters of Girlhood, Domesticity, Desire, and Performance in Female Fiction in his book, Children's Literature, A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter 

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���I wrote a strong female character with brains���

- J.K. Rowling commenting on Hermione in a video conversation with Daniel Radcliff

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Finding the Right Wand -- an adventure in an alternate reality

First, you go to Diagon Alley where Ollivanders is located..."Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C...

A single wand lays on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window."

You will be helped by Mr. Ollivander, a very old man, who remembers every wand he has sold -- and to whom he sold it.

You will be measured in many ways by a tape measure that works own its on while Mr Ollivander explains that, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of powerful magical substance...We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tale feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same..."

You may have to try many wands before you have the right one.

It seems you don't choose the wand, the wand chooses you...

The fully imagined detail in the Harry Potter books plays a major role in their appeal. The fascinating story of Harry finding the right magic wand takes place in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when Hagrid takes Harry shopping on Diagon Alley, and introduces him to the world of wizards.

The illustration of Harry and Hagrid in Diagon Alley is by Jim Kay

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An Alternate Universe

 

..."J. K. Rowling has created a world as fully detailed as L. Frank Baum���s Oz or J. R. R. Tolkien���s Middle Earth, a world so minutely imagined in terms of its history and rituals and rules that it qualifies as an alternate universe, which may be one reason the ���Potter��� books have spawned such a passionate following and such fervent exegesis...."

From the book review by Michiko Kakatani  of Harry potter and the Deathly Hallows in the New York Times

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Stories That Opened My Mind

"There are hundreds upon hundreds of reasons for one to fall in love with the world and characters J.K. Rowling created in the Harry Potter series, the aforementioned being among them. For me, these are the stories that opened my mind to the wonderful world of books, novels and novellas, making them very near and dear to my heart..."

From the BookNerd on her Wonderful World of Writing blog

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An Older Harry Potter 

...Harry is called back into active duty when evil powers return in force... a new book and a play (opening in London) based on the book -  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child -- are on their way, arriving in late July. They are based on a story  by J.K. Rowling. Here are two links for more information: Pottermore and NPR

Wizardry Before Harry

The Wizard World in 1920's USA is the setting for a  new movie,starring Eddie Redmayne... 

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in the UK in November 2016... The book about Fantastic Beasts was used as part of the curriculum for young wizards in the Hogwarts classroom. There will be two sequels...all written by J.K. Rowling. 

Support For Children
 
J.K. Rowling spends time and money on helping people...In 2004 she founded Lumos..."No child should be denied a family life because they are poor, disabled or from an ethnic minority. Lumos works to support the 8 million children in institutions worldwide to regain their right to a family life and to end the institutionalisation of children."

Among the many other charities she supports are: Book Aid International, Catie Hoch Foundation, Children with AIDS, Dyslexia Action, Gingerbread...

Who Is J.K. Rowling ?

For the real J.K. Rowling, or as close as we will probably get, I suggest the Oprah Interview... Engaging, interesting,  and with some excellent documentary scenes woven in...Also, her candid, heartfelt, Harvard speech.


Alternate Reality 

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?��� ��� J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows  

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The N.R.A. Reimagines Classic Fairy Tales, With Guns

Liam Stack wrote this disturbing article. Here are excerpts...

"The world of make-believe can be a scary place, but never fear: Thanks to a series of reimagined fairy tales published online by the National Rifle Association, classic characters like Hansel and Gretel are now packing heat.

The group has published two of the updated tales on its N.R.A. Family website in recent months, entitled ���Little Red Riding Hood (Has a Gun)��� and ���Hansel and Gretel (Have Guns).��� The stories have outraged advocates of gun control, but their author, Amelia Hamilton, a conservative blogger, has called them lessons in gun safety...

In the N.R.A. version, Little Red Riding Hood sets off through the forest to visit her grandmother, just like in the original. But the Big Bad Wolf did not scare her this time, because she ���felt the reassuring weight of the rifle on her shoulder.���

When the wolf approached her, ���she shifted her rifle so that it was in her hands and at the ready.��� He fled in fear...

Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, agreed, calling the stories ���a disgusting, morally depraved marketing campaign.��� He said in a statement that the stories were in poor taste in part because nearly 50 children and teenagers are shot each day in the United States, and suicide by gun is a leading cause of death among children over the age of 9..." 

Here is a link to read all of this disturbing article: FairyTaleGuns

The photo of a boy with a Barrett rifle at a meeting of the National Rifle Association in St. Louis in 2012. is by Daniel Acker for The New York Times

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 Save The Children

Save the Children works in 120 countries, including the United States, and has helped more than 166 million children ��� including more than 55 million children directly. Here are excerpts from the story of one child...

"At 12 years old Omar* suddenly found himself responsible for his family and working to support his mother and younger brother after his father was killed in the conflict...
'I am the man of the house now and they are relying on me'...Recently Omar started working in a fuel market in northern Syria where the work is both difficult and dangerous, and yet it is a job that pays enough to meet his family���s needs. Every day he goes to the market with his bucket and sponge to collect fuel that has spilled onto the ground from the tankers. Using the sponge he soaks up the fuel, squeezes it into his bucket and sells what he has collected at the end of every day.

Omar said, 'We have to be here very early in the morning because the tankers arrive early, so I get here at six in the morning and leave late at night so that I have time to collect as much fuel as possible'..."

Omar was a good student and loved school; he dreamed of becoming an architect. His life is now about survival.

Here is a link to read all of Omar's painful story: Omar

Top photo, courtesy IRF; bottom photo, courtesy Save The Children.

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Importance of Children's Books for Most Adults

"But children's books are extremely important. Most adults don't read many books and if they do it will probably be some form of popular fiction. So a children's classic may be the last, or in some cases, the only, piece of serious literature they have read. As such these books are very influential and so I think it is our responsibility to consider them as seriously and carefully as any other great literature." 

From a Guardian article by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Alison Lurie ,  professor emeritus of literature and writing at Cornell University, and author and editor of a multitude of children's books.

 
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A Classic Video....Harvey the Dog

 

 

 

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The Planet Of The Dogs....An Alternate Reality

Here are excerpts from Chapter One of the book...the story of how dogs came down to Planet Earth to help people...

"Far out in the sky, on the other side of the sun, is the Planet of the Dogs. Dogs have always lived there in peace and happiness.

There are country dogs and city dogs. They live in places like Shepherd Hills, Poodletown, Retriever Meadows, Muttville, Hound Dog Hamlet, Biscuit Town, and Shaggy Corners... 

Dogs talk to each other in many ways. They woof, bark, and howl. They use body movement, face licking, smiling, and tail wagging. Dogs can hear what other dogs are thinking. And they always tell the truth...Dogs are very good at sleeping, taking naps, and waiting for someone they love...

Dogs have no worries on their planet because there are no dangers there. There are no bad dogs, no hungry animals, and no mean people. There is plenty to eat, lots of time to play, and all kinds of schools for the puppies to learn interesting things about their planet and each other. It���s a wonderful place to live.

Here is a link to read Sample Chapters of the Planet Of The Dogs series. 

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 This is the world of Yelodoggie, created by author and dog advocate, C.A. Wulff.

 "All dogs, deep in their heart of hearts, are yellow. Because yellow is the color of light and joy and happiness, and these attributes are the true essence of dogs". Here is a link to Wulff's Etsy shop where you can see more of these delightful original watercolor paintings and prints celebrating dogs. They make a wonderful gift...

     

  

 

 

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Alternate Realities from Finland

Leena Krohn, a highly regarded writer in Europe, wrote one of my favorite books, Tainaron. I was gratified to see that Joshua Rothman, in the New Yorker, wrote that her newly published book of collected fiction was among  " The Books We Loved in 2015". Here is an excerpt:  

"I also found myself hypnotized by Leena Krohn, a Finnish writer whose collected stories and novels, rendered into English by many different translators, have just been published as a single volume, ���Leena Krohn: Collected Fiction.��� Broadly speaking, Krohn is a speculative writer; one of the novels in the collection, for example, consists of thirty letters written from an insect city. (���It is summer and one can look at the flowers face to face.���) Krohn writes like a fantastical Lydia Davis, in short chapters the length of prose poems. Her characters often have a noirish toughness; one, explaining her approach to philosophy, says that when she asks an existential question, ���life answers. It is generally a long and thorough answer...���

Here is the link to read all of Joshua Rothman's New Yorker review.

Photo by Mikael B����k. 

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Movies

Under The Sun...two realities

A compelling 5 minute report on DW tv news about a little girl in North Korea brought me a reminder of the power of film. Vitaly Mansky, the producer/director, has made a very poignant film about the life of Zin Mi (the little girl) in both the real world and the manufactured world of North Korea. 

Here are excerpts  from an informative article by Carmen Gray in the Guardian...

"A new film on life in North Korea has caused a diplomatic row after the director used officially sanctioned shoots to demonstrate how the state manipulates its people.

Authorities are said to have tried to prevent screenings of Under the Sun, a film that follows a North Korean girl as she prepares to celebrate the Day of the Shining Star, the birthday of former supreme leader Kim Jong-il... The film reveals how government representatives seek to construct an image of an ���ideal��� family, capturing the hectoring of officials as they tell the Koreans what to say, how to sit and when to smile.

���I wanted to make a film about the real Korea, but there���s no real life in the way that we consider,��� said Mansky, who spent a year in the country filming. ���There is just the creation of an image of the myth of a real life. So we made a film about fake reality.���  

Here is the link to the trailer for Under The Sun

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Zootopia:  

"Credit the Disney folks with making what could have been a lecture on stereotypes into one of the more amusing animated kidflicks of recent vintage. When you consider that this is the same zip-ah-dee-doo-dah studio that once made Song of the South ... well, let's just say Zootopia suggests we've all come a long way"...Bob Mondello, NPR

Here is a link to the trailer: Zootopia

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The Witch, a low budget (one million dollars), independent production, continues to find an ever-growing audience (over 30 million dollars)...

"The Witch is a scary movie and a serious one, because it lures us into the minds and the earthly domains, of those who are themselves scared, night and day, that they have forfeited the mercies of God. It takes an original movie to remind us of original sin..."  Anthony Lane in his New Yorker review.

Stacy Schiffin wrote an excellent article, relevant to this movie, on The Witches of Salem, also in the New Yorker. Here is an excerpt..."In 1692, the Massachusetts Bay Colony executed fourteen women, five men, and two dogs for witchcraft. The sorcery materialized in January. The first hanging took place in June, the last in September; a stark, stunned silence followed. Although we will never know the exact number of those formally charged..."

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���Both Rowling and Meyer (Twilight series), they���re speaking directly to young people. ��� The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can���t write worth a darn. She���s not very good.��� - Stephen King

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 Circling the Waggins  by C.A. Wulff

What happens when a group of the most irascible, insane, and ridiculously un-adoptable pets known to man end up being permanent residents in an animal rescuer's home? Challenges abound and chaos reigns! 

Here are excerpts from author Tim McHugh���s review���

"Circling the Waggins  is a heart-felt and moving story of two women's quest to heal and nurture a wide variety of animals.   C.A. Wulff poignantly captures the complex personalities of the mice, dogs, and cats that inhabit her wilderness home as well as the humorous chaos that ensues as they all try to coexist.  It is by turns a roller-coaster   ride of animal rescue, as well as a keen reflection on the frailty of all life and the healing power of love and letting go."   

 Tim McHugh, is author of Ivan! A Pound Dog's Views on Life, Love, & Leashes 

  
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Dogs Open the Doors to Healing at Good Dog

Good Dog provides therapy dog services to people in health care, social service, educational and community facilities, and at disaster sites around the country. Its highly-trained and fully-certified volunteer teams each consist of a human handler and therapy dog.  Good Dog focuses on work in the four divisions of Education, Health Care and Wellness, Research, and Disaster Response. For more on the work of these divisions, click here.

As the largest certifying animal-assisted therapy organization on the East Coast of the United States, Good Dog currently operates in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey, and at disaster sites around the country. Good Dog focuses on work in the four divisions of Education, Health Care and Wellness, Research, and Disaster Response."

Here is a link to the Good Dog Foundation Video

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Turning Your Pet Into a Therapy Dog

by Jane E. Brody, Personal Health writer for the New York Times

"It did not take long for me to recognize the therapeutic potential of Max, the hypoallergenic 5-month-old Havanese puppy I adopted in March 2014. He neither barked nor growled and seemed to like everyone, especially the many children that come up and down our block.

When I asked if a crying child passing by would like to pet a puppy, the tears nearly always stopped as fluffy little Max approached, ready to be caressed.

So I signed us up for therapy dog training with the Good Dog Foundation, which met conveniently in my neighborhood. If we passed the six-week course, we would be certified to visit patients in hospitals and nursing homes, children in schools, and people in other venues that recognize the therapeutic potential of well-behaved animals..."

Here is the link to read all of this fascinating and informative article by Jane Brody: Personal Health

The illustration is by Paul Rogers

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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 is also available in digital format at

Barnes and 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 the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

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

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Meeting A Dog

If you see an injured dog or a dog in trouble , from puppy mills to poison, Sunbear Squad can help you. Sunbear Squad is a leading source for information and guidance in dog rescue and care. Here is an excerpt from their site about meeting a new dog(s)...

"In the western world, we are taught at an early age to greet new people by approaching them with upright posture, looking directly into their eyes and offering a hand to shake or squeeze. It becomes second nature to us, so as a result, many of us animal lovers greet every living thing���except bugs���using those same 'good manners'..."

We must UNLEARN that set of social rules to avoid frightening dogs, cats, and other animals, who will perceive full-front posture, staring, and outstretched arm as rude and threatening (unless they were very well-socialized with humans during the crucial developmental period).

In other words, polite human greetings are bad manners for greeting dogs and cats! In fact the two greeting languages are almost all completely opposite...Here is a link to read all of this article: Meeting A Dog.

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���If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.��� ��� Will Rogers  

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March- Reality, Fantasy, books, kids, movies, and dogs

  

          

In A Dark Wood
"In the mid-path of my life, I woke to find myself in a dark wood," wrote Dante in The Divine Comedy, marking the start of a quest that will lead to transformation and redemption. Likewise, a journey through the dark of the woods is a common motif in fairy tales:  young heroes set off through the perilous forest in order to reach their destiny; or they find themselves abandoned there, cast off and left for dead. The road is long and treacherous,  prowled by ghosts, ghouls, wicked witches, wolves, and the more malign sorts of faeries....but helpers also appear on the path: wise crones, good faeries, and animal guides, often cloaked in unlikely disguise. The hero's task is to tell friend from foe, and to keep walking steadily onward..."
 
From Myth and Moor, Terri Windling's Blog. The illustration, from Song of the Sea, is by Tomm Moore

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Lost In the Woods 

We have all been lost in the woods at some time in our life either literally, metaphorically or both.

Being lost in the woods, where there is no clear path to follow, and the light is fading, is a serious and frightening matter.

Wild beasts, dangerous people, and invading armies cannot be seen in the dark forests. But they are there, in the mind of the author, the teller of tales, the animator...and in the mind of the child, until the story or myth finds light, escape and salvation.

So it was in a tale told, in 1805,by 12 year old Henriette Dorathea Wild, to the Brothers Grimm: Hansel and Gretel

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Hansel and Gretel, The Impossible Tale

I have always found this to be a dark and disturbing tale. It deals with war, famine, abandonment, fear, cannibalism, a witch, dark forces and death in a rather overwhelming confluence. And the central characters are children who must experience and deal with these problems.

Moreover, in Hansel and Gretel, the line between reality and fantasy is often blurred.

Fortunately, as is the custom in the tradition of fairy tales, escape from the darkness, salvation, and a happy ending offer relief from the darkness.

Abandonment 

But what about mother? Mother in various versions of this tale tends to be heartless, self-centered and uncaring. The Grimms, in their seventh edition, transformed the cruel mother into a cruel stepmother.

The father, despite having regrets, remorse, sadness, and love for his children, is nevertheless a partner in his wife's dark scheme of abandonment. 

'No, wife,' said the man, 'I will not do that; how can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest?���the wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces.' 'O, you fool!' said she, 'then we must all four die of hunger, you may as well plane the planks for our coffins,' and she left him no peace until he consented. 'But I feel very sorry for the poor children, all the same,' said the man."

Fear and loss of hope...a mirror to the past.  

                                                                                                                                            The top illustration is by Theodor Hosemann; The lower illustration is by Arthur Rackham

Survival 

"Determined to find a way back home, Hansel and Gretel survive what children fear more than anything else: abandonment by parents and exposure to predators..." - Maria Tatar writing in her wonderful book, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales.

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The Return of Hansel and Gretel

 
Over the centuries, the classic story of Hansel and Gretel has been reinterpreted in books, films, TV, ballet, theater, popular song and opera.
 
In 2014, Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti published a stunning new version. The illustrations envelop the story. And Gaimen, in his brilliant retelling, creates a masterful balance between fantasy and reality.
 
Here is an excerpt that sets the background and tone for the story that follows:
 
"War came, and the soldiers came with it -- hungry, angry, bored, scared men who, as they pushed through, stole the cabbages and the chickens and the ducks, The woodcutter's family was never certain who was fighting whom, nor why they were fighting,, nor what they were fighting about. But beyond the forest, fields of crops were burned and barley fields became battlefields, and the farmers were killed, or made into soldiers in their turn and marched away. And soon enough the miller had no grain to mill into flour, the butcher had no animals to kill and hang in the window, and they said you could name your own price for a rabbit." 
 

This is the setting -- famine and the aftermath war --  for this fairy tale of abandoned children. Gaimen's decision to spell out the chaos and hunger that overwhelmed the woodcutter and his family, is the impetus for all that follows.

This is a fairy tale, and therefore has a happy ending. The children return home to a great embrace by their father who had been searching for them every day in the forest. Mother has died for reasons "no one alive can say". However, "the treasures they had brought from the old woman's cottage kept them comfortable, and there were to be no more empty plates in their lives."

 

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The Human Condition
 
"Written with a devastating spareness by Neil Gaiman and fearsomely illustrated in shades of black by Lorenzo Mattotti, the newest version of 'Hansel and Gretel' astonishes from start to finish...Their rendition brings a freshness and even a feeling of majesty to the little tale. Some great, roiling essence of the human condition ��� our fate of shuttling between the darkness and the light ��� seems to inhabit its pages...

 
...It would be a monstrous thing to do, to kill our children,��� the father says. ���Lose them, not kill them,��� the mother replies. In the Grimms��� original version... both parents agree that the children must be sacrificed. Then came later editions in which the mother alone is heartless. By the mid-19th century it was a stepmother who ordered the father to get rid of the children,...  Gaiman���s middle ground strikes just the right note of horror ��� a mother who would kill her children seems infinitely worse than a stepmother who makes the same calculation, yet having both parents plotting to off their offspring pushes the brutality too far toward hopeless despair rather than delicious terror....

The insights above were taken from Maria Russo's review of Hansel and Gretel in the New York Times
 
 
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The Oral Tradition

An insight by Angela Carter reminds us that fairy tales, tales of wonder, connect us to the world of our ancestors...

"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 painting of Finnish country women talking after church is by Albert Edelfelt

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Surviving in a Hard World

"The Grimms are in our blood. The fairy tales of 'Cinderella', 'Hansel and Gretel,' "The Fisherman and His Wife," 'Rumpelstiltskin' and dozens of others have become the common currency of our imagination. The cottage and the castle, or the forest or the mountain, have become the houses for our fears... 

... "We come to realize just how many of the Grimms' 'Tales' were about the family. These are stories of parents challenged by rural poverty, of husbands and wives fighting over who's in charge, of craftsmen who, for all their skill, cannot reshape their worlds. The 'once upon a time' here is a time of fishermen who get no fish, of shoemakers too poor to purchase leather, of unsuccessful millers and subsistence woodsmen. Many of these stories are tales of failed fathers who must make devilish deals to keep their children or, at worst, send them away.

And in those children, we may find true heroes. 'Hansel and Gretel' is really a fable of ingenuity: finding the pebbles or the breadcrumbs to mark the path home, or taking advantage of a witch's vanity to push her into an oven."

Seth Lerer writing about Phillip Pullman's book,  Fairy Tales from the Brother's Grimm,  in the SF Gate. The painting of a peasant family is by Vladimir Makovsky

 
 
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How to Change the World in Thirty Seconds is dedicated to all of the individuals and groups who devote their heads, hands, and hearts to improving the world for companion animals.
You are all, every one of you, my heroes -- C.A. Wulff
 
Amazon Review Excerpt:
"This is probably the best "how-to" book I have ever seen. It is written in a very conversational manner while being extremely educational. Along with giving step-by-step instructions on how to use each advocacy tool, Cayr gives some background on each website, organization, and group... She walks you through the necessary steps and gives tips..." 
 
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 Variations on Hansel and Gretel
 
There have been countless books,an enduring and respected opera by Engelbert Humperdinck, and a plethora of popular manifestations of Hansel and Gretel, Here ar two of the latter...celebrity photography and the world of fashion from Vogue magazine; and a song and video, Out Of The Woods, by the award winning Taylor Swift.
 
The opera is performed by college theater groups as well as National Opera Companies of Holland, Wales,and England as well as the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
 
Vogue Magazine , in anticipation of the Met production, published an extensive Hansel and Gretel photo shoot by Annie Leibovitz. The witch was played by Lady Gaga and Hansel and Gretel by actors Andrew Garfield and Lily Cole.
 
 

 In her video,Taylor Swift, alone in an exotic and rather threatening woods, runs and sings her hit song, Out Of The Woods...the woods are alive, wolves are in pursuit. and the snow covers the world as she  sings  "Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet?..
 
The photo is by Annie Leibowitz for Vogue.. 

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

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KidLitosphere has helped many readers find their way to these pages. Here is an excerpt from their home page...   

"Some of the best books being published today are children���s and young adult titles, well-written and engaging books that capture the imagination. Many of us can enjoy them as adults, but more importantly, can pass along our appreciation for books to the next generation by helping parents, teachers, librarians and others to find wonderful books, promote lifelong reading, and present literacy ideas."  Here is a link to Kidlitosphere. 

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

 

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An Enchanting Tale

Here are excerpts from the review of Planet Of The Dogs by Wayne Walker...

"Did you ever wonder how dogs came to be man���s best friend? I���m sure that there is some historical explanation, although it may be shrouded in the mists of prehistoric times. But in your mind���s eye think back to those times and just imagine for a minute that there is a planet far out in space on the other side of the sun that is inhabited by intelligent dogs that live in peace and happiness. As the book opens, the dogs learn that there is trouble on Earth. Bik, the greedy leader of the warlike Stone tribe of Stone City, is planning to invade and conquer the peaceful people of Lake Village and surrounding Green Valley...

Author Robert J. McCarty has created a charming fantasy-allegory that can be read and understood on at least two different levels. Children will enjoy the story about dogs that come from another planet to help people on earth. But under the surface are the important messages of friendship, love, loyalty, and overcoming evil with good. 

Stella Mustanoja McCarty���s black-and-white shaded drawings are delightful companions to the text. Two sequels are now available, Castle in the Mist and Snow Valley Heroes: A Christmas Tale. Barking Planet Productions supports therapy dog reading programs across the country with book donations. Both old and young, especially dog lovers, will find Planet of the Dogs an enchanting tale."

Wayne Walker reviews for Stories for Children Magazine, Home School Book Reviews, and Home School Buzz,

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Arriving At Truth

"So I believe that we should trust our children. Normal children do not confuse reality and fantasy -- they confuse them much less often than we adults do (as a certain great fantasist pointed out in a story called 'The Emperor's New Clothes'). Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren't real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books. All too often, that's more than Mummy and Daddy know; for, in denying their childhood, the adults have denied half their knowledge, and are left with the sad, sterile little fact: 'Unicorns aren't real.' And that fact is one that never got anyone anywhere (except in the story 'The Unicorn in the Garden,' by another great fantasist, in which it is shown that a devotion to the unreality of unicorns may get you straight into the loony bin.) It is by such statements as, 'Once upon a time there was a dragon,' or 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit' -- it is by such beautiful non-facts that we fantastic human beings may arrive, in our peculiar fashion, at truth." 

Reprinted by Terri Windling in her blog, Myth and Moor -- From The Language of the Night by Ursula K. Le Guin

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Light in the Darkness

The damaged lives and suffering of children and their parents in today's war-torn world affect us all. The International Rescue Committee provides help to children in over 20 countries. Here are excerpts from their website 

"Currently 20 million children and adolescents are uprooted from their homes either as refugees or internally displaced persons. In order to respond to this, the IRC promotes the protection and development of children and youth, from the earliest stages of an emergency, through post-conflict and recovery....
In over 20 countries, the IRC���s community-based, participatory and holistic children and youth programs include:

IRC provides counseling and services to young people who have experienced disease, abuse, exploitation or loss and separation from their families.

IRC ���child-friendly spaces��� provide the youngest victims of war and natural disaster with a safe place to play, participate in structured activities and to heal from trauma and loss while rebuilding a sense of normalcy.

The IRC trains educators, constructs classroom, and supports schools that are attended by hundreds of thousands of children.

We provide skills training to young people who have had their education or careers interrupted by war or natural disaster. More than half of those who receive such training are girls...".

Here is a video about the vital work of the International Rescue Comittee 

Here is very moving video... A Syrian Refugee Mother's Plea

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Till the moon has taken flight...

"Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."

 From The Stolen Child by William Butler Yeats 

In 1988, The Waterboys, an Irish Musical Group set the The Stolen Child to heartfelt music. This was followed by a version with the lilting voice of the Canadian singer, Loreena McKennit

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Trying to Reach Home

The illustration that greets you at the top of this blog is from Tomm Moore's movie folktale, the Song of the Sea, an amalgam of Irish folklore and Moore's imagination. Here are excerpts from the Guardian's 5 Star review: 

"A gorgeous, almost painterly tale of two siblings trying to reach home, but waylaid by witches, owls and faeries...This superb Irish animation from the director of 2009���s The Secret of Kells is a treat; an enchanting and very moving 'family film'. Once again, the story is rooted in Irish folklore, with selkies, giants and faeries slipping in and out of a tale of a vanished mother, a grieving father, and two lost but resourceful children trying to make their way home." 

Link to the Guardian review Song of the Sea. This illustration is also from Song of the Sea by Tomm Moore
 
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Movies
 
THE WITCH
This new film, inspired by events in Salem, has excellent reviews and is off to a very good start. Here are excerpts from the review by Mahola Dargis in the NY Times.  

"A finely calibrated shiver of a movie, ���The Witch��� opens on a scene of religious wrath. On a New England plantation,
around 1630, a true believer, William (Ralph Ineson), and his family are facing a grim assemblage. The setting is a kind of meeting house crowded with men, women and children, a congregation whose silence and unsmiling faces imply disapproval or perhaps fear. Whether they���re standing in judgment doesn���t matter to William, whose arrogant faith in his own notion of Christianity is as deep and darkly unsettling as his sepulchral voice...

Written and directed by Robert Eggers, ���The Witch ��� takes place in an America that in its extremes feels more familiar than its period drag might suggest. It���s set a decade after the Mayflower landed in Plymouth and tracks William���s family as it leaves the plantation to settle down alone at the edge of a forest. There, the family members build a farm, grow corn and commit themselves to God, a contract tested by a series of calamities that turn this story of belief into a freak-out of doubt...

What makes you and the movie jump, is that he stays inside the characters��� worlds and heads, all disastrously close quarters. These are people who fervently believe both in the Devil and in God, and for whom witches are as real as trees; it���s no wonder that their inability to tame the New World blurs with their fears..."
 
Here is the compelling trailer for the Witch
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A Tribute to Hayao Miyazaki
The Essence of Humanity is a 17 minute montage of compelling moments from the wonderful films of Hayao Miyazaki.
Miyazaki said:"Creating animation means creating a fictional world. That world soothes the spirit of those who are disheartened and exhausted from dealing with the sharp edges of reality." Written and narrated by Lewis Bond. Here is a link:The Essence of Humanity  

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Inside Out Wins Both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe...

Apparently, this is a true breakthrough film from Pixar with great reviews and huge audiences of kids and parents...with a worldwide box office of over $850,000 before the awards.

Here is an excerpt from A.O. Scott's rave review in the NY Times: "

"The story takes place mostly in the head of an 11-year-old girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), who has just moved with her parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) from Minnesota to San Francisco. What happens to Riley on the outside is pretty standard: a dinner-table argument with Mom and Dad; a rough day at school; a disappointing hockey tryout. But anyone who has been or known a child Riley���s age will understand that such mundane happenings can be the stuff of major interior drama.

......... The achievement of ���Inside Out��� is at once subtler and more impressive. This is a movie almost entirely populated by abstract concepts moving through theoretical space. This world is both radically new ��� you���ve never seen anything like it ��� and instantly recognizable, as familiar aspects of consciousness are given shape and voice. Remember your imaginary childhood friend? Your earliest phobias? Your strangest dreams? You will, and you will also have a newly inspired understanding of how and why you remember those things..."

Here is the link to the trailer of Inside Out 

 
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I've Never Felt So At Home 




Emma Brockes, writing in the GUARDIAN, wrote an article in praise of libraries..." Libraries today are as fast as and more generous than any online bookshop"... here is an excerpt:

..."It turns out that, during my five-year hiatus, the convenience argument has expired. The New York Public Library system has made it fantastically easy to order any book directly from your computer. There is a phone app, and an app for downloading ebooks. The half-empty shelves are irrelevant given that you can put a hold on any book in the entire New York system and it will be delivered to your branch within days. This week, I went on a half-hysterical borrowing frenzy and ordered ... Then I took my kids to the children���s section upstairs, where there are play mats and huge windows and a librarian who is very cross, all of the time, particularly if you try to feed your child a snack without her seeing. After almost 10 years in New York, I���ve never felt so at home."

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Fairy Tales and the Human Struggle

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...."  Jack Zipes on The Art Of Storytelling Show

 

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 More Children in Crisis

The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos & the Spanish Speaking

" REFORMA, established in 1971 as an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA), has actively sought to promote the development of library collections to include Spanish-language and Latino oriented materials; the recruitment of more bilingual and bicultural library professionals and support staff; the development of library services and programs...

The recent arrival of over 70,000 children crossing the southern border into the United States has created an unprecedented humanitarian refugee crisis that compels REFORMA as an organization to act.The children, mostly Spanish speaking, are coming from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.  While recent news coverage of this event has focused on legal, medical and emergency response to services, there are few if any news stories that demonstrate the social-emotional and information needs of these children and families.  A view of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities shows children waiting in large storage like facilities with no activities to occupy the children���s minds through learning and play while they are being processed.

  With no knowledge of where they are going or if they will reach their families in the United States, REFORMA has implemented a project,Children in Crisis, to solicit donations, purchase and deliver books for these children.  We are soliciting children's books in Spanish to be delivered to the children in the detention centers in and to the shelters and group homes around the country where these children are sent after being processed.  In the second phase of the project we will be coordinating backpacks that will contain books as well as paper, pencils, erasers, crayons and a writing journal for children to use in their journey toward their destination..."  

Here is a link to learn more: Reforma Website. The Reforma photo is of a library visit by Hispanic shelter children.  

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Assistance Dogs of the West, Santa Fe , N.M., has won a $5,000 grant from the Planet Dog Foundation (PDF) for their wonderful work with therapy dogs.

Here are excerpts from their site:

Student Trainers

"Simply put, we teach students to train dogs to help people. Since 1995, more than 2500 student trainers in New Mexico have taken part in the ADW Assistance Dog Student Training program, the largest of its kind in the world. This work strengthens relationships, builds skills and nurtures empathy among young people, the dogs they train and our clients..."

Warrior Canine Connection

Warrior Canine Connection��� (WCC���) teaches warriors with combat injuries how to train service dogs for other veterans with disabilities. The dogs are trained to provide mobility support and to offer constant, non-judgmental, healing companionship to minds and bodies ravaged by war.

  Here is an excerpt from the Planet Dog Foundation Site with a succinct overview:

'Assistance Dogs of the West teaches students of all ages to help train service dogs and provide dogs to people with physical, psychological, and developmental disabilities including assistance dogs, medical alert dogs, autism assistance dogs, classroom and therapy dogs, PTSD relief dogs, and more. The $5,000 PDF grant will specifically support their work with Court House Dogs, who accompany and support victims of crime, primarily children and victims of domestic violence, to foster a safer and more comfortable environment as they provide depositions and give testimony in court."

Learn more about Assistance Dogs of the West here.

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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: Planet Of The Dogs. Castle In The Mist, Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale. 

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

The Planet Of The Dogs series is now available in digital format at

Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino.

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

To read sample chapters of the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

 
The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty
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Below is what happened to the original Sunbear. It is his needless suffering that inspires all Sunbear Squad people..."Transforming animal lovers into animal welfare defenders, with knowledge, tools, and inspiration."

About Sunbear: Sunbear was a young male chocolate Labrador Retriever in a West Virginia town. One summer day in 2002, his owner locked him into a dark townhouse laundry room, and walked away forever. Incredibly, he was alone in the dark without food and water for 6 endless weeks before he was discovered.
 

How Did It Happen? Sunbear's owner intended to give him to a farm family, but communication broke down somehow. Nobody picked up poor Sunbear. Sunbear's owner did not call the family to check on how he was adapting to his new home, a simple act taking 5 minutes that would have uncovered the miscommunication and saved his life. No, Sunbear's owner forgot all about him.
 
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If you can look at a dog and not feel vicarious excitement and affection, you must be a cat. -- Author Unknown
 
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February- The Uses of Enchantment...books, kids, movies, and dogs

         
The photograph of a Belarus bus stop is by Alexandra Soldatova


Enchantment takes many forms in wonder tales.

Metamorphosis and transformation are part of life.

In an instant, a girl, a boy, or even a powerful prince may be transformed into a swan, a frog, a fox, a bird or a bear.  

And then, there is the beast...  

Beauty and the Beast
 
For a young woman to confront a beast is an experience of fear beyond words. In a time when dark spirits, witches and the devil himself acted on humans, both powerful kings and lowly peasants were vulnerable to transformation. Beauty and the Beast, is a rather incredible tale about a prince turned into a beast. And he will remain a beast until he marries. It will take an extraordinary woman to overcome her fear and revulsion and offer herself in marriage to the Beast...
 
Beauty and the Beast is an incredible story and a fascinating read. This story of fearful enchantment is not, however, for young children.
 
It was originally written in 1740 as a book,  La Belle et La Bete , by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.  
 
The version rewritten in 1757 by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, and published in a magazine for proper young women, is the most widely known version today. It is much shorter than the original, and was especially relevant for its readers in its exploration of love and inner beauty.The story has inspired countless books, plays, and films. 
 
 
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Love, Fidelity, and Civilit��
 
The following excerpt, by  Terri Windling , taken from her Journal of Mythic Arts, provides insights into the relevance of Beauty and the Beast to the real life experiences of women. In her fascinating article, Windling also provides in-depth analysis and history of this classic fairy tale as well as the many variations inspired by the original.
 
The Journal of Mythic Arts, "(JoMA) is sponsored by The Endicott Studio , a nonprofit organization dedicated to literary, visual, and performance arts inspired by myth, folklore, fairy tales, and the oral storytelling tradition." 

"De Villeneuve was part of the "second wave" of French fairy tale writers (Madame D'Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, and other salon fairy tale writers comprising the "first wave" fifty years earlier). When she sat down to create Beauty and the Beast (a novella���length tale first published in La jeune ameriquaine, et les contes marins), she was influenced by the work of "first wave" writers, by the story of "Cupid and Psyche" in Apuleius' Golden Ass, and by the various Animal Bridegroom legends of folklore. The story she came up with was uniquely her own, however, and addressed issues of concern to women of her day.  Chief among these was a critique of a marriage system in which women had few legal rights ��� no right to chose their own husband, no right to refuse the marriage bed, no right to control their own property, and no right of divorce. Often the brides were fourteen or fifteen years old, given to men who were decades older. Unsatisfactory wives risked being locked up in mental institutions or distant convents. Women fairy tale writers of the 17th & 18th centuries were often sharply critical of such practices, promoting the ideas of love, fidelity, and civilit�� between the sexes. Their tales reflected the realities they lived with, and their dreams of a better way of life. Their Animal Bridegroom stories, in particularly, embodied the real���life fears of women who could be promised to total strangers in marriage, and who did not know if they'd find a beast or a lover in their marriage bed."

The two illustrations, above, of Beauty and the Beast are by Angela Barrett. 
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Conversations with the Beast

Dinner in the Castle


"Go ahead and eat, Beauty",  said the monster,"And try not to get bored in this house, for everything here is yours, and I would be distressed if you were to become unhappy."
 
"You are very kind", said Beauty. "I swear to you that I am completely pleased with your tender heart. When I think of it, you no longer seem ugly to me."
 
"Oh, of course," Beast replied. "I have a tender heart, but I am still a monster."
 
"There are certainly many men more monstrous than you," said Beauty. " I like you better, even with your looks, than men who hide false, corrupt, and ungrateful hearts behind charming manners."
 
Metamorphosis
 
"Beast opened his eyes and said to beauty...'the thought of having lost you made me decide to starve myself to death. Now I will die happy for I have the pleasure of seeing you one last time.'  

'No, dear Beast, you will not die,' said Beauty. 'You will live and become my husband. From this moment on, I give you my hand in marriage, and I swear that I will belong only to you. Alas, I thought that I felt only friendship for you, but the anguish I am feeling makes me realize that I can't live without you.'
 
Scarcely had Beauty uttered these words when the castle became radiant with light...She turned back to look at her dear Beast, whose perilous condition made her tremble with fear. You can imagine her surprise when she discovered that Beast had disappeared and that a young prince, more handsome than the day was bright, was lying at her feet, thanking her for having broken the magic spell cast on him." 
 

The above excerpts by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, are taken from  Annotated Classic Fairy Tales by Maria Tatar 
 
An annotated anthology of Beauty and the Beast stories is currently being edited by Marie Tatar 
 
The illustrations are by Walter Crane (top) and Mercer Mayer (bottom).
 
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An Ancient Story
 
More validation regarding the ancient origin of wonder tales, including Beauty and the Beast...
 
Sara Gra��a da Silva, New University, Lisbon; and Jamshid J. Tehrani, Durham University; have published a new study exploring the origins of folktales in the Royal Society Open Science Journal. .This is a new open journal publishing high-quality original research across the entire range of science on the basis of objective peer-review."The researchers for this study utilized innovative methodology and computer applications.Here is an excerpt:
 
 
..."For example, two of the best known fairy tales, ATU 425C ���Beauty and the Beast��� and ATU 500 ���The Name of the Supernatural Helper��� Rumplestiltskin���) were first written down in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries [43]. While some researchers claim that both storylines have antecedents in Greek and Roman mythology [44,45], our reconstructions suggest that they originated significantly earlier. Both tales can be securely traced back to the emergence of the major western Indo-European subfamilies as distinct lineages between 2500 and 6000 years ago [2,3], and may have even been present in the last common ancestor of Western Indo-European languages (figure 4).
 
The photos are from Newgrange, a neolithic monument built 5,000 years ago in Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland.
 
Thanks to Heidi Anne Heiner and Sur La Lune where I first read about this study.
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Fairy Tales and the 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. -- Jack Zipes on The Art Of Storytelling Show
 
 
The Frog Queen illustration, by Andrea Dezso, is from Jack Zipe's book, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. 
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 ���If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.��� 
��� Maya Angelou,  Poems  
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World Read Aloud Day is February 24, 2016
 
 LitWorld empowers children worldwide through reading and the power of story.
 
World Read Aloud Day continues to grow and is now celebrated by over one million people world- wide.The following is from the LitWorld website...
 
 "World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words and creates a community of readers taking action to show the world that the right to literacy belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day is celebrated by millions of people in more than 100 countries thanks to people like you who participate and spread the word across the globe!"
 
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Planet Of The Dogs
 

The Planet Of The Dogs  takes place long, ago. There were no dogs on planet earth. Invaders and outlaw tribes were an ongoing threat to farms, villages and towns where ordinary people lived.

Dogs came down to Green Valley from their own peaceful planet to help people. Using their courage, intelligence and their great love of humans, the dogs were able to help good people in myriad ways: rescuing lost children; bringing comfort and healing to the old and the lonely; guarding homes and farm; and finally, overcoming the invading warrior tribes and bringing peace to the land...

Reviewer Wayne Walker in Stories for Children Magazine:..." Author Robert J. McCarty has created a charming fantasy-allegory that can be read and understood on at least two different levels. Children will enjoy the story about dogs that come from another planet to help people on earth. But under the surface are the important messages of friendship, love, loyalty, and overcoming evil with good..."

 Read Sample Chapters of the Planet Of The Dogs series.

The illustrations from Snow Valley Heroes and Planet Of The Dogs are by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty
 
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Action and Compassion...An exciting video posted on Facebook by the Logical Indian...a dog, carried along turbulent waters, is rescued... for compassionate people and f or all dog lovers...a dog rescue video

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Beauty and the Beast and Disney
 
Disney is producing a new live action, 3-D, musical film version of Beauty and the Beast for release in March 2017.
Emma Watson plays beauty. From the trailer, it looks like there are lots of special effects and plot additions. Music from the Disney hit Broadway musical version will be included. The Broadway version was written by Linda Woolverton, the writer also responsible for the very engaging, Maleficent  . However, she is not the writer of this 2017 movie version.
 
We can only hope that Beauty's fearful journey of transition will not become a sugar coated, overwrought romance.
 
Here is the link to the trailer of the version that will open in 2017 .
 
 
Disney's 1991 animated film of Beauty and the Beast
 
I haven't seen this version. Therefore, I have posted excerpts from two recognized authorities.
 
Excerpts from two divergent opinions: One, by the respected Terri Windling, author of highly regarded children's books and recognized as an expert on children's literature (Myth and Moor blog, the JOMA archives...Nonetheless, I found myself disturbed by the film ��� by the broad liberties the Disney Studio took in changing classic elements of the tale. This leads to the question of where precisely should one draw the line between use and abuse of fairy tales in creating art for modern audiences. It is a question that particularly concerns those of us interested in myth, folklore, fairy tales, and the ways they are used in contemporary arts.
 
Here is a divergent opinion by respected film critic, the late  Roger Ebert, ...  "The film is as good as any Disney animated feature ever made - as magical as ���Pinocchio,��� ���Snow White,��� ���The Little Mermaid.��� And it's a reminder that animation is the ideal medium for fantasy, because all of its fears and dreams can be made literal. No Gothic castle in the history of horror films, for example, has ever approached the awesome, frightening towers of the castle where the Beast lives..".
 
Disney Power, Enchantment and Myopia
 
For many years, Jack Zipes has written about, and documented, Disney's usurpation and corruption of fairy tales. Here is an excerpt...
 
"Our contemporary concept and image of a fairy tale have been shaped and standardized by Disney so efficiently through the mechanism of the culture industry that our notions of happiness and utopia are and continue to be filtered through a Disney lens even if it is myopic...myopic has continued to dominate both reality and utopia."
 
 
 
Jack Zipes, The Enchanted Screen, The Unknown History of Fairy Tale Films (2011 ); Zipes has co-edited with Pauline Cahill and Kendra Magnus-Johnston a new book, Fairy-Tale Films Beyond Disney , International Perspectives. 
 
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Room to Read...bringing books to disadvantaged children

Over 9.7 million books were checked out from Room To Read Libraries in 2012. Here are excerpts from their website describing some of the outstanding work they accomplish worldwide:

"We envision a world in which all children can pursue a quality education, reach their full potential and contribute to their community and the world.

To achieve this goal, we focus on two areas where we believe we can have the greatest impact: literacy and gender equality in education.

  We work in collaboration with communities and local governments across Asia and Africa to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the life skills they���ll need to succeed in school and beyond."

Here is a link to the Room to Read Literacy Program

Girls' Education

"Our Girls��� Education Program ensures that girls complete secondary school and have the skills to negotiate key life decisions. Our program reinforces girls��� commitment to their own education, works with girls to develop essential life skills and increases support for girls��� education among their parents, school staff, and communities."

Here is a link to the Room to Read website

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 The Dogs of Circling the Waggins Live Here

This is the home of author, blogger and animal advocate, CA Wulff. This is where she lives with her rescued dogs, writes her books, and helps people and dogs. She recently wrote on her blog, Up On The Woof, about her rescue work through the Community page, Lost & Found Ohio Pets on Facebook. The number of lost dogs, abandoned dogs, and rescued dogs is staggering.

Wulff has written two outstanding, practical, How-To books for dog (and animal) owners -- and for caring people who want to make a difference.

Finding Fido: Practical Steps for Finding Your Lost Pet 

Here is an Amazon Review:

"Would you know what to do if you found a stray pet? You might think that calling animal control would be the best thing for the animal - but you'd be wrong. Lots of food for thought in this book, including what to do if you find a stray pet, how to keep from losing a pet, and what to do if your pet is lost. The authors are donating all of the proceeds to ARME's Beagle Freedom Project, a group that rescues dogs used in laboratories."

 

How To Change the World in 30 Seconds: A Web Warriors Guide to Animal Advocacy 
Online

Here is an Amazon Review:

"This book not only offers a starting point for animal rescue but serves as a comprehensive resource book for animal rights advocates. C.A. Wulff has done the urgent heavy lifting here so that the heart and the hands of the rescuer doesn't have to be burdened or bound with the anxieties of not knowing where to begin...I whole heartedly recommend this book as a necessary tool to bring about change in the world."

Here is a link to Circling the Waggins...a memoir of the canine connection in real life.

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One of the reasons for JK Rowling's success was that she didn't give a fig for what people thought they wanted. They didn't know they wanted Harry Potter till she wrote about him. That's the proper way round.

Phillip Pullman

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Beauty and the Beast -- Variations in Books, Film,Theater and Song
 
The variations on Beauty and the Beast are endless. Countless books, toys and games, Film andTV productions, CD and DVD offerings...and much of it is owned or licensed by Disney. This is, indeed, a manifestation of the culture industry.  

Disney's Broadway musical version, according to Wikipedia, "ran on Broadway for 5,461 performances between 1994 and 2007, becoming Broadway's ninth longest production in history...The musical has grossed more than $1.4 billion worldwide and played in thirteen countries and 115 cities."
 
Here is an excerpt from David Richard's review in the New York Times: "It is hardly a triumph of art, but it'll probably be a whale of a tourist attraction. It is Las Vegas without the sex, Mardi Gras without the booze...You don't watch it, you gape at it, knowing that nothing in Dubuque comes close."
 
Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast
 
Before there were any Disney versions, Jean Cocteau, French author, designer, artist, playwright, and film maker created a film, La Belle et La Bete (1945). It was based on the version by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Filmed in black and white, it was highly stylized and elegant.
 
The film was very well received by the critics -- Roger Ebert added it to his list of the Best 25 Films. Bosley Crowther, in the New York Times , 'called the film a "priceless fabric of subtle images,...a fabric of gorgeous visual metaphors, of undulating movements and rhythmic pace, of hypnotic sounds and music, of casually congealing ideas." '(Wikipedia)

The Cocteau film also directly inspired, among several other versions, an opera by Phillip Glass, a Fairie Tale theater with Susan Sarandon and Klaus Kinski, and an original song by Stevie Nicks.

Here is a link to the song, Beauty and the Beast, sung by Stevie Nicks

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���[I] went from fighting on the battlefield, to laying in a bed and having people take care of [me], back to being independent and doing everything on [my] own������

 Chris Strickland, Age 22, Corporal, U.S. Army, regarding his Service Dog, Ruthie.

 
Mission and Services

"NEADS/Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans provide independence to people who are Deaf or have a disability through the use of canine assistance.

NEADS (National Education for Assistance Dog Services, also known as Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was established in 1976. Our Assistance Dogs become an extension of their handlers and bring freedom, physical autonomy and relief from social isolation to their human partners.Service dogs are provided free to veterans.

The Human Canine Bond- NEADS has trained over 1,500 Assistance Dog teams since 1976. NEADS is accredited by Assistance Dogs International, the internationally recognized governing body that establishes industry standards and practices. NEADS offers a wide spectrum of Assistance Dog services"

Visit their website: NEADS

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 ���When I was a child, adults would tell me not to make things up, warning me of what would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far, it seems to involve lots of foreign travel and not having to get up too early in the morning.���
��� Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors

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The World and Its Wonders

Maria Tatar, in her wonderful book, Enchanted Hunters, describes how reading ignites a child's mind and transports them to worlds of imagination and wonder. In this excerpt from the chapter entitled Theaters for
the Imagination, she discusses how fairy tales -- wonder tales -- opened the doors to new worlds:

"The deep, almost visceral connection between childhood and wonder had what was once perceived to be a dark side. The child's innate curiosity about the world and its wonders was repeatedly demonized and linked with the evils of idle hands...The rise of the fairy tale created a tectonic shift in children's literature and revealed that something had been long off kilter. Fairy tales -- sometimes referred to as "wonder tales" because they traffic in magic -- opened the door to new theaters of action, with casts of characters very different from the scolding schoolmarm, the aggravated bailiff, or the dis approving cleric found in manuals for moral and spiritual improvement. Books were suddenly invaded by fabulous monsters -- bloodthirsty giants, red-eyed witches, savage bluebeards, and sinister child snatchers -- and they produced a giddy sense of disorientation that roused the curiosity of the child reader."

Maria Tatar, Enchanted Hunters, the Power of Stories in Childhood.

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A Message for the Family
This is a message from Churchhill Falls Public Library in Newfoundland, Canada...
Posted  by author Mary Balogh on her FB page.
 
 
 
 
 
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Movies 2016

Alice returns May 27 in Tim Burton's Through the Looking Glass (Disney)...Much the same wonderful cast...Here is the delightful trailer 

Inside Out 2, A Pixar film that has a humorous, Judy Blume approach to the mind of a young teenage girl...Inside Out was a multiple award winner...here is the trailer link: Inside Out 2   

The Angry Birds Movie (Sony)...Inspired by the  computer game...Opens in May...Here is the trailer for The Angry Birds Movie 

The Jungle Book (Disney)...in 3D and Imax 3D...Opens April 15...Here is the fast action trailer for The Jungle Book

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Warners)...written by JK Rowling...a return to the world of wizardry...Opens Nov 18...set in the USA in 1926...here is the announcement trailer

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Elegant and Deep 

"If I am a scholar, I am also a parent. To read to a child is to experience not just the pleasures of instruction or the warmth of entertainment, but the immense importance of quite simply reading...Even the most ordinary prose becomes magical when read aloud at bedtime. And even the simplest seeming of our children's books teaches something elegant and deep.."

Seth Lerer -- Children's Literature: A Readers History from Aesop to Harry Potter

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If you see an injured dog or a dog in trouble , from puppy mills to poison, Sunbear Squad can help you.  Here's an excerpt from a dog rescue story on the Sunbear website:

Saving a Collie

On July 3rd at 10:15 p.m. a woman knocked on the door of our Plymouth MA home and said a dog had been struck by a car and was lying on the side of road in front of our house. We wrapped the dog in blankets to keep it from going into shock and called the local police. The dog appeared to be a collie weighing about 90 lbs. and had lost a lot of blood from apparently being struck in the head. Two women pulled over and together with my fiance, Anthony, helped. I was extremely upset and standing by with my emergency vet book ready to do what I could... Here is a link to read it all: Saving A Collie

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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 your favorite independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's and many more.

Planet Of The Dogs is now available in digital format at

Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino.

Librarians, teachers, bookstores...You can also order Planet Of The Dogs, Castle In The Mist, and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale, 

through Ingram with a full professional discount. 

To read sample chapters of the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs 

 
The illustration from Snow Valley Heroes is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty
 
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"A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down." -- Robert Benchley
 
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January -- Mysteries Have No Limits, Books, Kids, Movies and Dogs

                  

Why do wonder tales endure?

Is the harsh world of the Grimms more than a reflection of the past?

Does children's literature, in books and movies, bring the mysteries of the past into the present?

Can childhood stories open the doors of the mind to the present -- and the future?

The illustration of Little Red Riding Hood is by Hermann Vogel 

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Alone in the Forest 
 

 
Why has Little Red Riding Hood endured? A young girl, alone in the forest, disobeys her mother, strays from the path, talks to a wolf, and proceeds to a disastrous self-created ending...or one of many other endings.
 
This simple story, hundreds of years old, has been told and written in countless variations ranging from a morality tale and warning (as with Perrault in 1697); to the Grimm's version with a positive ending; to Angela Carter's breakthrough, The Company of Wolves;  to a 42 million dollar Hollywood box office failure, Red Riding Hood, that apparently tried to ride the commercial success of the Twilight phenomenon.
 
 
 
 
The illustration is by Warwick Goble
 
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The Spirit of Little Girls
 
 " The characters in familiar fairy tales have a way of sinking deep into our psyches.  Charles Dickens claimed Little Red Riding Hood as his first love, and felt that if only he could have married her, he would have known perfect bliss. Yet Little Red Riding Hood was changed through the years, diminished, punished, literally gobbled up. By knowing and retelling older versions of her story, and by re-imagining her in fiction and poetry today, we reclaim the spirit of girls everywhere who can face down the wolves in their lives, and outwit them."
 
These words come from author, scholar and artist Terri Windling, who wrote a most comprehensive and informative overview of Little Red Riding Hood from early times (before Perrault), to the present. Her article offers many insights into why this simple tale has endured. Entitled The Paths of Needles and Pins , this excellent article was published in her blog, the Journal of Mythic Arts Archives. 
 
Here is a link to read it all:   Journal of Mythic Arts  archives.

 
The illustration of Little Red Riding Hood is by Terri Wilding.
 
 
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Trials and Tribulations  

When Jack Zipes wrote The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood (1993), he used the continued reappearance of the tales to provide a detailed social history of Red Riding Hood and to explore questions regarding the relationship of the tales to western culture, sexism, and politics. 

Zipes included versions of the tale by 35 authors, beginning with Perrault in the 17th century and culminating with Sally Moller Gearhart's "remarkable tale", Roja and Leopold, published in 1990.

Noting the rise in versions of the tale that deal with sexuality, violence, empowerment and gender, he writes, "I believe the issue of rape and violence in our society has taken on immense proportions. It is because rape and violence are at the core of Little Red Riding Hood that it is the most widespread and notorious fairy tale in the Western world if not the entire world...It is not by chance that most new and experimental versions since 1983 have been written by women and are feminist. The confrontations and situations that women experience in our society have compelled them to reflect upon the initial encounter between wolf and girl, that they may have heard, read, or seen as children."

 

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Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked, Sex Morality, And The Evolution Of A Fairy Tale

When Caren Orenstein published her well received book in 2002, it stimulated renewed interest and offered fresh insights into the wonder tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Here is an excerpt from an article, Dances With Wolves, that she wrote for Ms magazine to introduce readers to her book... 

Little Red Riding Hood's Long Walk in the Woods

"Mae West, who mined the rich symbolic terrain of fairy tales, once famously quipped, ���I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.���

These days the social and sexual messages of fairy tales are no secret. Feminists in particular have long recognized that fairy tales socialize boys and especially girls, presenting them with lessons that must be absorbed to reach adulthood.

But what exactly are those lessons? We tend to think of fairy tales as timeless and universal, but in fact they express our collective truths even as those truths shift over time and place.

Take the story of Little Red Riding Hood, for example ��� a tale we all know well, though not as well as we think.

Once upon a time, ���Little Red Riding Hood��� was a seduction tale..."

 The Mother Lode of Mother Goose
 
 "In Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale, women's issues journalist Catherine Orenstein has hit the mother lode of Mother Goose, peeling back layers of literary embroidery to reveal the raw, primal tale within. Judging by the countless pop-culture spinoffs we see in advertising, film, music and cartoons, Red's story still reverberates with sexual danger and the irresistible lure of the forbidden.

It's a feminist writer's dream because it plays around with gender roles...",

The above excerpt is from an excellent review of the book by Margaret Gunning in January Magazine .

The illustration is by Walter Crane.

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Thought Provoking Presentations On Red Riding Hood

Via You Tube                

Here is a link to Catherine Orenstein and Maria Tatar in a spirited presentation/discussion of Orenstien's Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked at the Cambridge/WGBH Forum.

 The Big Bad Wolf Reconsidered...A Girl, A Wolf, An Encounter In The Woods...Here is link to see Maria Tatar at the Chicago Humanities Festival exploring the evolution of the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood. She begins this engaging presentation with a full screen visual: A Girl, A Wolf, An Encounter in the Woods...and then asks, What Does the Story Mean?...


 
The illustration is by Gustav Dore. 

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The Company of Wolves

"An Uncanny, Hypnotic Force" wrote the esteemed critic and author, Roger Ebert  after viewing the film written by Angela Carter, The Company of Wolves. The film was based on stories taken from her book, the Bloody Chamber. 
Here are excerpts from his insightful review...

 

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

The movie begins in the present, but quickly enters the dreams of an adolescent girl. She dreams many variations on the same theme: That men may turn out to be wolves, and that little girls should never, ever, stray from the path through the  woods... 

The movie is based on a novel and a screenplay by Angela Carter, who has taken Red Riding Hood as a starting-place for the stories, which are secretly about the fearsomeness of sexuality. She has shown us what those scary fairy tales are really telling us; she has filled in the line s and visualized the parts that the Brothers Grimm left out (and they did not leave out all that many parts). The movie has an uncanny, hypnotic force; we always know what is happening, but we rarely know why, or how it connects with anything else, or how we can escape from it, or why it seems to correspond so deeply with our guilts and fears. That is, of course, almost a definition of a nightmare."
 
Here is a link to read the entire review by Roger Ebert
 
Here is a You Tube link to the trailer for the film...You Tube also has several segments of the film on their site.

���Is not this world an illusion? And yet it fools everybody.��� ��� Angela Carter
 



 

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Southeastern Guide Dogs offers people with good eyesight a unique opportunity to raise their awareness and understanding. After first receiving background information from a trainer, participants have the experience of walking blindfolded and being led by one of their trained guide dogs. This is one of several programs they run to raise awareness.

Here is a description from their website of their wonderful work:

"Founded in 1982, we employ the latest in canine development and behavior research to create and nurture partnerships between visually impaired individuals and extraordinary guide dogs. We serve more than 400 graduates across the U.S. and continue to place more than 100 dogs each year into careers benefitting people with visual impairments, and veterans...We provide all of our services free of charge and receive no government funding."

Southeastern Guide Dogs Have Received a PDF Grant

A Planet Dog Foundation Grant (PDF) of $5000 was awarded for the Paws for Patriots program conducted by Southeastern Guide Dogs. This program trains dogs specifically to work with veterans with visual impairment and/or PTSD. Approximately 100 dogs are trained and placed each year

Here's a link to their website: Southeastern Guide Dogs

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Hope for Refugees
 
Hands on help and hope...food, shelter, clothing, medicine...help for multitudes of refugee children and their families...2.9 million Syrian children live as refugees in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq..As the conflict continues, desperation and the hope of finding a better future for their children finds many families on perilous journeys to Europe.
 
"The Internation al Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world���s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. At work in over 40 countries and 25 U.S. cities to restore safety, dignity and hope, the IRC leads the way from harm to home... The IRC is providing relief to millions of uprooted people in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Turkey, Jordan, Greece, and in the U.S..."
 
The photo of the Syrian family was taken in a refugee camp in Lebanon.
 
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World Read Aloud Day is February 24, 2016
 
LitWorld empowers children worldwide through reading and the power of story. World Read Aloud Day continues to grow and is now celebrated by over one million people world-wide. The following is from the LitWorld website   

 

"World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words and creates a community of readers taking action to show the world that the right to literacy belongs to all people. By raising our voices together on this day we show the world���s children that we support their futures: that they have the right to read, to write, and to share their stories.

World Read Aloud Day allows members of our year-round programs to invite more people into their literacy community and brings LitWorld���s messages to the rest of the world. World Read Aloud Day is now celebrated by over one million people in more than 100 countries and reaches over 31 million people online.

The growth of our movement can be attributed in large part to our network of partner organizations and ���WRADvocates��� ��� a group of reading advocates and supporters taking action in their communities and on social media and special thanks to Scholastic, our official 2015 World Read Aloud Day sponsor."

The photo was taken in Dhaka Bangladesh on World Read Aloud Day,2015

This link will take you on a wonderful 21/2 minute journey among the LitWorld children.

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Little Red Riding Hood--Variations, Spinoffs, Bifurcations 

Little Red Ride Hood has been a source, an inspiration, for countless variations...from children's illustrated stories, to digital games, and from humor to music..

Whatever Happened to the Big Bad Wolf?...Here are excerpts from Pamela Paul's NY Times article discussing four illustrated books for young children wherein the wolf is no longer dangerous...

"Once upon a time, the Big Bad Wolf was a mighty fearsome fellow. In the folkloric tales of Aesop and the Grimms, he terrorized small children and other helpless critters. He blew down houses in Disney���s ���Three Little Pigs,��� and in ���The Three Little Wolves,��� a somewhat sinister Silly Symphony cartoon from 1936, after the Nazi ascent to power, he is saddled with a German accent... Perhaps he was due for a makeover. Four new picture books this year brush aside his surly past and sweeten him up for warmer and fuzzier tales, while still retaining a bit of bite..."

Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries...From the  world of digital games, we have Woolfe the electronic age version of Little Red Riding Hood created by Wim Wouters. Here is a fearless young woman with great physical prowness, seeking revenge from Woolfe, the cruel and powerful business tycoon. The action takes place amidst exceptional graphics rendering a complex 19th century fantasy European city. 

Here is a link to see Little Red Riding Hood as a beautiful, powerful, strong, young woman: RedHoodDiaries
 
 
The Little Girl and the Wolf - James Thurber, humorist, cartoonist and author wrote a condensed version of the classic story. In Thurber's "The Little Girl and the Wolf,"  Red Riding Hood is not fooled by the wolf pretending to be her granny:

"She had approached no nearer than twenty-five feet from the bed when she saw that it was not her grandmother but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. So the little girl took an automatic out of her basket and shot the wolf dead.

(Moral: It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.)" 

Here is a link to read all of Thurber's bifurcated short story of Little Red Riding Hood -- the same link will also take you to Roald Dahl's saucy, irreverent poem of Little Red Riding Hood from his book, Revolting Rhymes... And here is a delightful reading of his poem by Roald Dahl.
 
 
 
Little Red is an original contemporary song by the talented Irish folk singer Cathy Davis...The lyrics in the song, "Ooh I wouldn't let him him", say it all. Here's a link to Cathy singing Little Red
 
Cathy Davis is a far cry from Sam the Sham (link) and the Pharohs, in their golden oldie song of Little Red Riding Hood.
 
Amanda Seyfried is also a far cry from Sam the Sham 
when she sings his song is a slow ballad...lyrics on the screen: Here's the link: Amanda

The top illustration is by Liz Pichon. The cartoon is by James Thurber. The photo at the bottom is of Cathy Davis.  

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Red Riding Hood in Hollywood

The critics had negative reactions to Hollywoodd's last attempt to reinvent Little Red Riding Hood. Here is an excerpt from the caustic review by  Mary Pols in Time Magazine. She entitled her review, Red Riding Hood: My, What a Ridiculous Plot You Have! "...A sexed-up, dumbed-down cross between the children's fairy tale and 'The Wolfman,' 'Red Riding Hood' is mostly a snack for tweens between meals of 'Twilight'...Was Red Riding Hood masterminded by a cadre of particularly silly eleven year-olds undergoing withdrawal from Twilight? That's the only excuse for a movie this dopey."

Here is another scathing review, this one by Roger Ebert

Red Riding Hood

"Of the classics of world literature crying out to be filmed as a sexual fantasy for teenage girls, surely "Red Riding Hood" is far down on the list. Here's a movie that cross-pollinates the "Twilight" formula with a werewolf and adds a girl who always wears a red hooded cape, although I don't recall her doing any riding. It's easy to imagine a story conference in which they said: Hey! Let's switch the vampires with a werewolf and recycle the theme of a virgin attracted to a handsome but dangerous hunk, only let's get two hunks!... "Red Riding Hood" has the added inconvenience of being dreadfully serious about a plot so preposterous, it demands to be filmed by Monty Python..."

Here is a link to read the entire Ebert review:  Red Riding Hood
 
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No One Had Ever seen a Dog

 Long, long ago...

There was plenty of space for people to settle and grow things. Many of the places where people lived were very beautiful. There were clear lakes and cool streams with lots of fish. There were fields and woods with game to hunt. And there were rolling hills and open plains with plants growing everywhere. Many people settled in these places of abundance and prospered.
 
And then, invaders came. Where once there had been harmony and friendship, there was now fear, anger, and unhappiness. Something had to be done -- but what could anybody do? No one knew it at that time, but help would come from the Planet of the Dogs..
                                       
 Read More: Sample Chapters of the Planet Of The Dogs series.
 
The illustration from Planet Of The Dogs is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty
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Born Without a Tail: the Making of an Animal Advocate 

Here is a heartfelt review of C.A. Wulff's memoir, Born Without A Tail, by Cherry Ophelia, that really gives an excellent sense of the reader's experience when visiting Wullf's world. Bob Tarte wrote a foreward in this revised and updated 2015 version of the book. 

"Normally, if a cat or dog dies in a book or movie, I avoid it. I have enough heartbreak with my real-life pets, I say.

Not so with C.A. Wulff's Born Without A Tail. Wulff tells the story of her real pets and their real lives and deaths for a real reason���to remember her special dog, Dillon (who is still alive in the afterword!), and to introduce readers to the realities of life as a pet rescuer. I was more than happy

to laugh and cry with Wulff and her partner, Dalene, as they learn of dogs and cats they can���t turn away, visit an animal communicator for eerily accurate readings on each animal, and hunker down to keep their multi-species family together through life���s many bumps and turns. I finished Born Without A Tail in two evenings, and I���m sure it will be a rereading favorite for years to come.


... Born Without A Tail is a sincerely funny and heartfelt tale of Wulff���s pack. Wait until you read about how Gypsy helped herd the family cats, how Dillon made his objections clear when his small stature was discussed with a stranger, or how Troll preferred his takeout hamburgers���you���d be barking mad to pass up this book!"
 
Zoey, the dog in the photo, is one of Wulff's pack 


 

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Winter Fun With Dogs...Many smiles for dog lovers in this compilation montage of dogs in the snow: SnowFrolic

The illustration is from Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale, is by Stella McCarty

 

 

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Extending the Limits 

Alexandra Alter, in the NY Times, wrote a recent article entitled :Bedtime Reading, Written by a Robot Just for You. Here are excerpts from her article regarding an innovative use of technology that provides customized books for young readers and those learning to read. The links provide examples an more information
 
"What if you could use technology to fashion a story for each young reader and create a more sophisticated children���s book? Mr. Sharabi consulted two friends, a writer and a technologist, and they decided to try it themselves.

They came up with a story about a child who has forgotten his or her name and goes on a journey to find it, encountering creatures and characters that provide clues. A boy named Sam, for example, will meet a squid, an aardvark and a mermaid, who each present him with a letter of the alphabet....

They tested the name Andrew first. It worked. Nearly four years later, their company, Lost My Name, has created illustrated books based on more than 150,000 names. More than a million copies of ���The Little Boy/Girl Who Lost His/Her Name��� have sold in 160 countries this year, including around 370,000 in the United States. ���It���s an old-fashioned book, but with a lot of technology behind it,��� said Mr. Sharabi, a 42-year-old former marketing consultant."

If you click on the image it will become clear. If you follow the links you will find information about a second book, based on similar technology, "The Incredible Intergalactic Journey Home." It sounds intriguing.

Here is a link to a you tube video, about a little boy, that explains Lost My Name books in a clear fashion: I Lost My Name 

Here is you tube video about a little girl that also explains it all: Amber lost her name

Here is a link to read all of this article: NY Times

Here is a link to the Lost My Name website:

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The Mysterious Human Canine Bond

A former teacher, Susan Purser, and her Australian Cattle Dog, Rose, have been very active as a therapy dog team for thirteen years in Sarasota, Florida. Here is an excerpt from a letter she sent me.

���I consider myself a facilitator���if my dog could drive, she would not need me. Rose seems to enjoy seeing people multiple times and developing a relationship with the people��� She is a working dog by nature and she just loves these jobs.  I am constantly amazed at the doors that Rose opens���she goes to places I could never get without her���reaches beyond my reach, touches a person deeper than my touch.  The restless or agitated patient who is calmed by Rose���s touch...the child in the classroom who won���t settle down and get to work but when Rose sits by them, they quiet right down and the hyperactivity seems to dissipate.  The child getting excited about reading to Rose every week; they wouldn���t do that for me, but they do it for Rose.  Lying with a dying patient who will smile, close their eyes and stroke her with a peacefulness that is so precious���I know I could not enter that person���s space without Rose���it really is all about occupying part of someone else���s space for just a short time be it in a school, home or hospital...���

 ���No matter who you are or why you do pet therapy, it is the dog that opens the door���doors that would otherwise be closed to a well meaning human���doors that are sometimes closed to family, friends, care givers and staff of facilities.  There is something very special about these canine creatures and they have been saving and comforting humans for thousands of years.  It is their touch or look that gives people that inner peace when their world is shrinking or spinning so fast they have lost control.  When doors begin the final closing, there is that one last smile, nod, a hand that reaches for a dog that allows some of them to say good bye and close their eyes in peace.���  

 
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Sunbear Squad is a leading source for information and guidance in dog rescue and care. Here is an excerpt from their site about Sunbear --  the original inspiration for all the good work they do...

Who was Sunbear?...He was a young dog who died tragically of neglect in an empty townhouse in 2002 even though there were neighbors on both sides. Sunbear's highly-publicized case had a huge effect on humane laws in West Virginia, and his story inspires thousands worldwide to help save animals in distress today. Read his true story here.

 

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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 your favorite independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's and many more.

Planet Of The Dogs is now available in digital format at

Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo, Oyster, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino.

Librarians, teachers, bookstores...You can also order Planet Of The Dogs, Castle In The Mist, and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale, through Ingram with a full professional discount. 

To read sample chapters of the series, visit Planet Of The Dogs.

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Ever wonder where you'd end up if you took your dog for a walk and never once pulled back on the leash? -- Robert Brault 

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