#TheList, No. 431: The Wind in the Willows

Kenneth Grahame's 1908 classic, The Wind in the Willows, tells the tale of four animal friends - Rat, Mole, Badger and Toad.  Toad is the reckless animal of the bunch - always coveting the latest trend whether it be horse drawn carriages or motor cars (note: this was written towards the end of the second industrial revolution).  His three friends worry that he will get himself into trouble with his impulsive behavior and, lo and behold, Toad is caught stealing a car and thrown into jail for 20 years. He escapes and after indulging himself once again with irrational behavior, teams up with his friends to reclaim his old home from the animals who have overtaken it.

If a middle or high school student asked me for a nostalgia-based book they could incorporate into a history/literature project, I would say "you got it dude" and hand them The Wind in the Willows. 

Looking for a riveting read? I would tell them to look elsewhere.


In terms of its historical significance and reflection of people resistant to change, it's a great read. Toad stands for the new and exciting industrial age, while his friends represent the fondness for a simpler time.  While I may find it boring to read through (and some agree and many disagree), I really do appreciate the symbolic aspects of the story.  For me, the analysis of the characters and action is more entertaining than the actual story. Plus, who doesn't love anthropomorpized animals?

#TheList, No. 802: Lord of the Flies

When I was in the ninth grade, almost all of my friends were reading Lord of the Flies in English class as their first reading selection.  Not my class; we were reading A Separate Peace.  At the end of the year, my teacher confessed that we didn't read Lord of the Flies because a) she hated it; and b) she believes that starting with the most boring novel in the world is a good way to let her students know that her class will not be a walk in the park.  She was my favorite teacher for a reason.

After a plane crashes on an uninhabited island, a group of young boys must figure out how to survive without the adult supervision to which they are accustomed. There is an initial attempt to maintain order: electing a chief, establishing conduct rules for meetings, and organizing themselves into hunters and builders. Eventually the structure breaks down as the boys' primitive nature begins to emerge. Their remote existence encourages power struggles, bullying, and deadly violence.

It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but I can understand and appreciate it's significance. The symbolic presence of democracy (the conch and their meetings), the metamorphosis from a civilized to natural state, and the contrast of rational thought versus irrational instincts are all concepts that are explored thoroughly in this tale of survival (and make great essay topics).  The power struggles are foreshadowed almost immediately, which can make for some tense reading when you just know something horrible is about to happen.  The allegorical characters and their actions elicit both sympathy and apathy from the reader, which makes for a rapid emotional changes as the reader moves along with the story. 

Because the YA world is overrun by dystopias, I would align Lord of the Flies with Michael Grant's Gone series due to their similar themes.  In Gone, everyone over the age of 15 disappears simultaneously, leaving the children to fend for themselves. Naturally, there are power struggles and violence as the children try to figure out what is happening. While the series falls more into the sci-fi/supernatural genres, the adventure, survival, and power structure elements are great parallels to the high school English class standard that is Lord of the Flies.

Banned Books Week!

Banned Books Week is one of my favorite weeks in the library world.  Too many people don't realize that the censorship of challenged books is not just a thing of the past. While I obviously don't love how books and other materials are still censored, I do love drawing awareness to this fact and encouraging readers to defend their right to read the books they find interesting.

You can learn more about BBW at the ALA Website.  

#TheList, No. 179: The Jungle Book/ No. 730: The Graveyard Book

I had never read The Jungle Book before last week and I still have yet to see the Disney movie (I do know the "Bare Necessities" though).   Going into the book, I only knew that the two were markedly different, Disney having deemed the book version too dark for the animated movie. Other than that, I was clueless.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it because I do approach the "classics" a bit begrudgingly.  But when you read them on your own and not in the confines of school, they are more enjoyable.  Anyway, I enjoyed it! A collection of stories featuring anthropomorphized animals to spell out morals.  They're entertaining, easy to follow, and can be read apart from each other (although the Mowgli-centric tales rely on each other to an extent).

I was incredibly surprised by "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," the story about a brave mongoose protecting his human family from cobras.  Way back in 2nd and 4th grade, I watched an animated version of this story. Every now and then I would flashback to it and want to know what it was called, but would always get distracted and forget to look it up.  Now I know it's from The Jungle Book and I am in awe.  

The chapters are pretty long for storytelling, but I think a great children's librarian could make it work.  If anything, it could be a great theme for a long-running program complete with an amazing bulletin board that kids could help design.  Maybe the kids could come up with their own modernized versions of the morals.

That being said, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is inspired by Kipling's work.  I knew this ahead of time, which is why I read The Jungle Book first.  It's not necessary to do so, but it is nice to see where the two works connect and it's a great tidbit to tell patrons if they ever check out The Graveyard Book.  Sidenote: a huge part of what I do is making sure that someone has read the beginnings of series or is aware of related materials.  A lot of times children or teens pick up something that looks cool or is on the "New Books" shelve without realizing that there are other parts to read first.

Unlike The Jungle Book, The Graveyard Book doesn't work in pieces.  It has a narrative that runs throughout, with a clear beginning and end. It does, however, explore the same morals of family and protection that are found in Kipling's work.  In this book, a young boy's family is murdered and the ghosts of a nearby graveyard take in the live baby to protect him.  We follow "Nobody's" growth in the graveyard, the lessons he learns from his ghostly protectors, the friendships he acquires, and the help he tries, with various success, to give to both the live and dead.  It has Gaiman's signature dark twists, but the core of the novel is quite similar to The Jungle Book.  

I would highly recommend it to readers/fans of The Jungle Book, provided they were able to handle the darkness, i.e. children having The Jungle Book read aloud to them probably aren't ready for the Gaiman version.  

#TheList, No. 434: The Secret Garden

I've gotten away from #TheList for awhile in order to play some much needed catch-up with more recent titles.  But this past week, I made use of the free books on iBooks and finally read The Secret Garden, by F. Hodgson Burnett.

Old-fashioned racism aside, I enjoyed the tale of the young orphan Mary growing out of her spoiled bratty ways alongside a garden (symbolism!).  After the death of her parents, Mary moves from India to England to live with her emotionally distant uncle (played by Mandy Patinkin in the Broadway musical version!) - a hunchback so heartbroken over the death of his wife, that he forbids anyone to open her garden and also refuses to spend time with his sickly son.  This book really brings out the happiness.  Anyway, Mary of course stumbles upon the garden. With the help of her new-found friends, is able to bring life to the garden, the sickly son, and herself.

The Secret Garden is definitely a novel you have to approach through the eyes of a child, otherwise it just seems kind of bland and full of forced enthusiasm.  But through the eyes of a child, it's obvious how the uncovering of a secret garden and the use of "Magic" to revitalize said garden (and people) is wondrous.

Now about the racism.  Cracked covers it in more detail, though I disagree that the book is "secretly" racist. It was pretty clear from the get go to me.  I think even children (today's children) would pick up on it rather fast, especially with this quote:

 "a lot of blacks there instead of respectable white people."

Yikes!

Now, if you were using this book as a school lesson or library activity (though I think it's best used as a read aloud at home or for a college paper on children's lit), the obvious activity is to make your own secret garden.  Either real or in diorama form.

#TheList, No. 745: Little Women

When I was in the fifth grade, we had an assignment called "Fiction Feedback."  Every term, we were required to read at least three fictional books and fill out a small worksheet.  For some of the...uhhh dorks, to put it gently, this assignment was treated as a competition.

We could choose the books ourselves and our teacher had a fairly sizeable collection in the classroom for us to pick from if we wanted.  I distinctly remember two books in this collection: R.L. Stine's Goodnight Kiss:

and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.  Little Women was by far the largest book on the shelf; you had to get special permission to read it for Fiction Feedback and it counted as two books.  Naturally, all the dorks had to read this book so we could brag about this feat.

Now that I've reread the book without that competitive edge driving me forward, I appreciate it differently.  I actually see it as a great "classic book" for kids to read and enjoy from the way the novel is constructed.  The story definitely flows across the chapters, but every chapter can be read on its own as a mini short story.  Yes, I see that mini short story sounds redundant, but I'm sticking with it.  Anyway, the digestable chunks of story are the perfect size for children readers.  The chapters each have a solid storyline.  Read one or two chapters a day, and pick up the book again tomorrow.  There aren't any of the crazy cliffhangers to compel you to finish the book right then and there, except maybe the storyline about Beth's illness, and the chapter sizes and completeness help to understand the story better.

It's also a really good, simple story.  Four sisters (Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy) grow up in the late 19th century, and here's what happens to them.  Yes, it's schmaltzy here and there, but I didn't mind it as much as I normally do.  Plus, this line exists:

"...better be happy old maids than unhappy wives, or unmaidenly girls, running about to find husbands."

I personally love that.  It's a dose of anti-Disneyfication of the Princess stories focusing on finding Prince Charming (not that I hate those movies, it's just hard to argue that that's not the case in many movies).

There are lots of books available to read after Little Women.  Little Women is actually the first of a series by Lousia May Alcott, so there are four more books you can read once you finish.  There's a "Portraits of Little Women" series written in the 90s that focus on the characters individually.  There's also a movie and a musical out there for your viewing and listening pleasure.  Seriously, Little Women is everywhere.