But, when they should transform to newts, are naughty and erratic

[sovay]

Yesterday I felt optimistic enough about this cold to go out and meet ratatosk for lunch at Dave's Fresh Pasta and then hang out until the evening, trying not to cough on anyone too badly and mostly succeeding. (He has two books of Walter Garstang. I got to watch a puppet feed a cat. It was great.) Today I am back to drinking soup and sounding like a TB ward. Rabbit, rabbit. Other less festive noises. Links.

1. I didn't know anyone had written a revamp of Five Children and It. Can someone who isn't me read this first and tell me what on earth it's like?

2. I have tickets next week for Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse at the Boston Lyric Opera. I've never heard the opera, but it's based on the mystery of the Flannan Isles light (and I got a discount for being an ex-Opera Boston subscriber). I am looking forward.

3. I hope people do come to refer to this work, academically, as the Whoopensocker Dictionary.

4. cucumberseed: Cookiethulhu.

5. This documentary really sounds like porn for me.

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'd not heard about Four Children and It either! (To say nothing of the Lamb.) Jacqueline Wilson is huge in the UK, but I remember hearing that she'd never broken the US market, so am unsure whether you'll know her. She specializes in first-person books, narrated by children in difficult circumstances (divorcing parents, in care, bipolar mother, etc.), and she does them very well. A few of her books have a fantasy dimension, but that's not what she's known for. I'm intrigued, but fearful.

I particularly wonder whether she'll keep it in Nesbit's third person, as I've not read a book by Wilson that wasn't first-person, and I've read quite a few. I'd have thought The Treasure Seekers would be much further up her street.

[chomiji]

Wilson's are some of the best "problem books" I've read, but the idea of her re-doing Nesbit makes me feel queasy.

The book does not seem to have been published yet - I was poking around on Wilson's page at Amazon.uk and did not see it.

[sovay]

Wilson's are some of the best "problem books" I've read, but the idea of her re-doing Nesbit makes me feel queasy.

Hence my wish that someone should test it before me. I've never really thought of anything being intertextual with Nesbit except C.S. Lewis.

[sovay]

Jacqueline Wilson is huge in the UK, but I remember hearing that she'd never broken the US market, so am unsure whether you'll know her.

Her name and some of the titles of her earlier books look familiar to me, but not so that I could tell you anything about them. If she was in print in the U.S. in the '90's, I might have read something of hers. I wouldn't swear to it.

I'm intrigued, but fearful.

I nominate you to fall on this particular maybe-grenade. You did write a book on children's literature. Looks like a target on your back to me.

I'd have thought The Treasure Seekers would be much further up her street.

A slightly different question—do you think it would lend itself better to updating/retelling?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

On reflection, I think it might lend itself almost too well - and (taking into account what you say above about Nesbit's intertexts*) this project reveals The Treasure Seekers as the ur-text for much of Wilson's work, in a way that hadn't occurred to me before. (Except that she always uses female narrators.) In fact, she could do it in her sleep - which makes me think that her choice of a Psammead book may be a more interesting one.

I'll certainly read it, anyway. I was impressed by what Hilary McKay did with A Little Princess, so maybe Wilson will come good here.

(On an unrelated note, I have to admit to finding Neil Oliver's accent curiously irritating. Which is a shame, because I like his programmes in almost every other way.)


* Don't forget Edward Eager!

[sovay]

this project reveals The Treasure Seekers as the ur-text for much of Wilson's work, in a way that hadn't occurred to me before. (Except that she always uses female narrators.)

. . . I kind of want to ask you to write an article about that, even though I haven't read the relevant Wilson.

I was impressed by what Hilary McKay did with A Little Princess, so maybe Wilson will come good here.

I did not read Wishing for Tomorrow, although rushthatspeaks did and liked aspects of it. Can I ask you for a very brief review?

Don't forget Edward Eager!

Yes! I haven't read any of his books in years, but I should have remembered. Half Magic and Knight's Castle are practically Nesbit fanfic.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

We talk about Wishing for Tomorrow a bit in the book, actually. Happy to send you the relevant chapter, if you like?

[sovay]

Happy to send you the relevant chapter, if you like?

Absolutely!