Episodit
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This month, our (belated - sorry!) show is all about MONEY. It's a bit of a different one. Our chapter book is non-fiction, and it's called Cash: How to earn it, save it, spend it, grow it, give it, by Rashmi Sirdeshpande. This book was chosen by our very special guest, the wonderful author Lisette Auton. The theme took us on a more freewheeling discussion than usual, about our own educations around money growing up, things we saved our pocket money for, and what Lisette did to make a little extra with her cassette player as a kid! We also had a chat about creative method and writing, and learning how to learn.
You can find Lisette's website here and make sure to check out our episode about her debut, The Secret of Haven Point.
Lisette also recommends #WriteMentor, who she does some mentoring for.
Our picture book is Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts and Noah Z Jones. This story is a perfect encapsulation of some of the themes covered in the chapter book. It's about wanting something very very much, not being able to afford it, coping with the feelings that arise and finding solidarity for others. It's a really, really great story about Jeremy, who wants Those Shoes he sees advertised on every billboard. The art by Noah Z Jones is stunning.
Reminder that we will be taking a break for a few months! In the meantime, Nina's other podcast, the Podgoblin's Hat, has a whole season out ready for your listening pleasure.
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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This month we're reading Knock Three Times, by Cressida Cowell, and Wishes, by Muon Thi Van and Victo Ngai.
Knock Three Times is the third book of a four part series, but anytime is a good time to jump on board thanks to Cressida Cowell's chatty and unnamed narrator. We praise David Tennant's performance of the audiobook very highly, but you'll want the paper book too, so you can look at the pictures. It's a silly adventure story, it's also surprisingly poignant about the difficult relationship between children and their parents.
Wishes is a fabulously sparse illustrated poem about migration. Inspired by the author's own experience as a little girl in the 1980s, it's also a much broader, more universal story. We both just loved this one. The illustrations are stunning. No notes.
The play Matt mentions is The Beekeeper of Aleppo.
And we talked more about Pook's Hill, or the Learning Place for Spectacularly Gifted Wizards, on our schools special back in September. And if you want to hear more audiobook chat, we recommended specific books and narrators at the end of series 5.
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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Puuttuva jakso?
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It's finally here, it's our Greek myth episode! We kick it all off with Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a titan of early 2000s kids' fantasy that we were a smidge too old for at the time that it came out. We referred to it too when we did our School Stories special if you want to hear more about that kind of stuff. We also compare it to City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda which we talked about on an episode of Fantasy Book Swap with Ali Baker.
Then, we get to read a few poems from Echo Echo by Marilyn Singer and Josee Masse and hear Matt do the speediest backpedalling to date on the podcast!
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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To kick off this cold and dreary month we're reading detective fiction! First up is Inspector Brunswick: The Case of the Missing Eyebrow by Chris Lam Sam and Angela Keoghan. Brunswick and his faithful sidekick Nelson thought they were just going to the art gallery for a nice afternoon out, but crime is afoot!
We talked about a few different pieces of performance art and protests in relation to the Missing Eyebrow:
the toppling of the Colston statue
the Banksy self-destruct painting
the Just Stop Oil protest of the Van Gogh painting
Doctor Willard Wigan's tiny dinosaur
And our chapter book is the wonderful The Secret Detectives by Ella Risbridger. On a mail ship from India to England in 1892, Isobel and her first ever friends Sameer and Lettie see someone pushed overboard. But when they go to raise the alarm the next day, nobody will listen because it seems nobody is missing. Will they solve the crime before the ship docks and the murderer gets away?
We talk a lot about Agatha Christie and the golden age tropes with this one, so we can't help but recommend Shedunnit and All About Agatha if you'd like to learn more about those.
We also compare Risbridger's writing to Eva Ibbotson's. You can hear our episode about Journey to the River Sea here.
Nina's new podcast The Podgoblin's Hat is live now and you can listen here.
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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It's our annual very serious episode doing a close read and serious criticism of the Kevin the Carrot Christmas picture book from Aldi. This year, the book is called, Kevin the Carrot: No Carrot Left Behind! It is an adaptation of the classic film (which Nina has never seen) Home Alone. We are absolutely delighted with this one. What a great, silly thing.
Here's an article about the rush to buy Kevin memorabilia on the day it was released: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/17/festive-rush-for-aldis-kevin-the-carrot-as-70000-queue-online-for-ad-toys
Here's the tv advert: https://www.google.com/search?q=kevin+the+carrot+advert&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB855GB856&sxsrf=ALiCzsbhxmmEgp25UQSDm5wWrOibzdPKXw:1671725161288&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQ7pnDzY38AhW0gVwKHZUmCjYQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1920&bih=912&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:36335433,vid:gnELFxI2OfU
Matt recommends this rendition of Twas The Night Before Christmas: https://soundcloud.com/ross-sutherland/5-twas-the-nightmare-before-crom
Our episode from last year reviewing A Christmas Carrot: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/concerning-carrots-a-christmas-bonus-episode/
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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Our stories this month are frosty and icy! Our picture book is The Glowing Snowman by Helen Goodbarton and Sophie Johnson-Hill. A snowman feels lonely and not special, until he accidentally swallows a firefly and becomes rather bright and interesting. But should he keep the firefly captive in his tummy? Or let it go? It's a great collaboration featuring drawings by lots of different children.
For our chapter book, we've got rather a short, bite-sized time travel story: A Night at the Frost Fair, by Emma Carroll and illustrated by Sam Usher. Sitting in the back of a taxi, feeling grumpy and kind of sad, Maya slips back in time to 1788: the Thames has frozen over and the Frost Fair is being held. A small boy named Eddie grabs her arm and they're off for a day of adventure on the ice.
In this episode we mention a few other books we've covered:
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, in our episode about Shooting Stars
The Year I Didn't Go to School by Giselle Potter, in We Don't Need No Education
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in our episode all about retellings of it
Sojo and Mouse, the publishers of The Glowing Snowman, are selling a special 3 book bundle for £15 at the moment!
Nina also mentions The Snowmama by Jeanette Winterson, which you can read here.
Matt mentions the Whitley Bay shuggy boats, pictured here in the 1920s!
Doctor Who also had an episode set at the frost fair, see a clip here
And here's a video from the CQL about the concept of dignity of risk.
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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content note: This episode features two books about experiences of war. The first is about a family of Polish refugees trying to reunify at the end of WW2, and the second is about a young Navajo boy sent to residential school and later drafted to create a code for the US Marines.
Our books this month are both about experiences of people who lived through World War II, and the theme that connects them is Trauma. Our chapter book is a classic and favourite from Matt's childhood, The Silver Sword, by Ian Serraillier. It's the story of a journey of three children, plus one adopted pickpocketing jack-the-lad, wending their way through post-war Europe in 1946, trying to reunite with their parents in Switzerland. There are always soldiers, be they German, Russian, British or American, and sometimes they help, and sometimes they don't. It's a book that really breaks down the simplistic Goodies vs Baddies narrative about WW2 and we highly recommend it.
Our picture book is Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code-Talker's Story, by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes. It's a non fiction account of the life of Betoli, or Chester, as he comes to be called, being sent away from his people and parents, to residential school at Fort Defiance. At school he is taught that the Navajo way is wrong, Navajo language is wrong, and is taught English and how to pray the Catholic way. In spite of this, Chester holds on to his home culture and spirituality. Years later, when the US join WW2, they need an unbreakable code, and enlist Chester and a few other young Navajo men to use Navajo to create an unbreakable code. It works, and helps the US to win the war. Chester returns from the front, traumatised, but the Navajo people take care of him using a ceremony called the Enemy Way, which sets him back on the right path, the way of beauty. This is a part of history neither of us knew about until we read this book, and it's incredibly clear and beautiful. We recommend seeking it out.
Here's an episode of the Stuff You Should Know podcast all about the Navajo code talkers: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-the-navajo-code-talkers-worked/id278981407?i=1000424660224
Chester Nez's autobiography: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780425247853?gC=5a105e8b&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk5ibBhDqARIsACzmgLSeIeqicyJQAe5Z7rQzRMqivUQY3s148nwsX-CjS2mTbv6CzFst0B8aAjQHEALw_wcB
Here's an article about Ian Serraillier's experience as a conscientious objector in Quaker magazine The Friend: https://thefriend.org/article/once-upon-a-war-time
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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It's spooky season and we're reading about witches with our special guest and Matt's sister, Ruby! Ruby chose both our books this month:
Winnie the Witch, by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul
The Doomspell, by Cliff McNish
Winnie and Ragwena represent opposite ends of the witch spectrum in terms of badness, but also in their attitude to colours. Nina, Matt and Ruby imagine a backstory for Winnie involving the Black Bull pub in Gateshead, discuss the differences (and similarities) between scifi and fantasy and have a pop at the cover art for The Doomspell.
We discussed a few books we've covered in other episodes, including:
Rumaysa, in episode 30
Coraline, in episode 32
And there's a lot of chat about JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis too. Here's an article about their weird, competitive friendship.
There's a 35 year anniversary celebration for Winnie the Witch happening at 7 Stories this coming November.
You can read about how The Doomspell came about and see lots of cool covers of the book in translation on the author's own website https://www.cliffmcnish.com/
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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As promised, we've got even more school chat for you!
This was cut from our last episode which was all about boarding schools in kidlit. Matt decided to interview Nina about the book that she's writing, which features a school aboard an airship. This is that conversation, plus two little excerpts of Nina reading from her work in progress. It's a little bit different! If you're here for the book recommendations, not to worry, we'll be back with our regular programming on the first Thursday of October.
To hear the full length episode all about schools, click here
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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This week we’re doing something a little different for our back to school episode, and digging in to a run down of the ins and outs of boarding schools in kidlit.
Nina and Matt have each brought a few books featuring boarding school set ups along to discuss. They are:
The Worst Witch series by Jill Murphy
The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Boy by Roald Dahl
Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones
Knock Three Times by Cressida Cowell
The audiobook Matt remembers listening to when they were little (on cassette!) is (most probably) this version, recorded in 1984 by Miriam Margolyes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH6WQxx4W9I
Here's a personal essay about Dartington Hall (the real inspiration behind Delderton Hall in the Dragonfly Pool) and its appearances in kidlit by someone who studied there
https://didyoueverstoptothink.com/2012/01/19/a-most-unusual-place-dartington-hall-and-its-role-in-childrens-literature/
Here’s an interview with Jill Murphy about the creation of The Worst Witch and the chance circumstance that led to its eventual publication - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/11198259/An-oral-history-of-The-Worst-Witch.html
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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This week we’re reading books about 19th century whaling. Our picture book is ‘Peggony-Po’ by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney, and our chapter book is ‘Nightbirds on Nantucket’ by Joan Aiken
We have a guest this episode! Ali Baker is the founder and host of Fantasty Book Swap podcast, which you can check out here - https://alibaker68.podbean.com/
. . . Look out for us on an episode fairly soon!
The podcast ‘Research Hole’ has an excellent episode on the real story behind Moby Dick, which gives a good insight into whaling, here - https://www.researchholepodcast.com/episodes/wikipedia-special-the-whaleship-essex-with-joey-howlett-episode-18
The Tik Tok mash-up of Soon May the Wellerman Come can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgsurPg9Ckw
Here's a good piece on why whaling was such a big industry in the 19th century https://www.livescience.com/why-whaling-nineteeth-century.html
Here's a lovely article where Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney interview each other https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/84293-in-conversation-andrea-davis-pinkney-and-brian-pinkney.html
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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This month our chapter book is Coraline by Neil Gaiman and our picture book is Alfie Gets in First by Shirley Hughes, which both involve being stuck on the wrong side of a door.
We have a special guest this month too! Simon Mole is an award-winning poet, theatre maker and children’s author. Simon joins us to talk about Alfie Gets in First, as well as his new book, I Love My Cat, which we love (illustrated by Sam Usher). You can get it here from Quarto Books - https://www.quarto.com/books/9780711276512/i-love-my-cat
Or, for a limited time, get a discounted signed copy from Next Page Books, here - https://nextpagebooks.co.uk/product/9780711276512/
I Love My Cat is Simon’s excellent follow on to I Love My Bike, which we read and loved on this podcast in Episode 26, Winter Wheelies here – https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-26-winter-wheelies-i-love-my-bike-and-bicycling-to-the-moon/
You can find links to buy I Love My Cat, and Simon’s previous books I Love My Bike and Kites on his website, here - https://www.simonmole.com/books
You can also find details of Simon’s upcoming library reading tour on his website, here - https://www.simonmole.com/events
And check out Simon’s Youtube channel, which has loads of poetry writing and performing resources for young people and teachers! https://www.simonmole.com/youtube
Links and Articles:
You can read The Guardian’s obituary of Shirley Hughes, referenced in the episode, here - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/02/shirley-hughes-obituary
A 2016 Guardian interview with Shirley Hughes, referenced and quoted in the episode, can be found here - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/21/shirley-hughes-interview-alfie-very-best-friend-childrens-books
You can listen to Neil Gaiman and film director Henry Selick talk about Coraline on a 2008 podcast episode from ‘The Sound of Young America’ here - https://maximumfun.org/episodes/bullseye-with-jesse-thorn/neil-gaiman-and-henry-selick-on/
The poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci can be read in full here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44475/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-a-ballad
Here's an interesting and accessible article on breeching: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/breeching-party-first-pants-regency-trousers-boys
Previous Even the Trunchbull episodes referenced in this episode can be found here:
Wilde in Episode 20, Not Quite Nuclear, here - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-20-not-quite-nuclear-burglar-bill-and-wilde/
The Magicians of Caprona in Episode 19, Don’t Mess With the Pasta Magic, here - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-19-dont-mess-with-the-pasta-magic-strega-nona-and-the-magicians-of-caprona/
Not Now Bernard in Episode 1, Monsters, here - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-1-monsters-young-werewolf-and-not-now-bernard/
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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Content note: our chapter book touches on bullying, mortality and euthanasia. In discussing it, we also talk about dementia, and how Terry Pratchett dealt with it in his books for children.
This is an episode all about magical, virtual, invisible hats as worn by a pair of powerful girls. And for the first time, we have a guest host! Many thanks to Dave Pickering for stepping into Matt's wonderful shoes.
Our chapter book is A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett. It is the second of the Tiffany books, and it's the one where she leaves home and starts to learn witching. We talk about coming of age stories, mean girls, self-respect and how bad thoughts don't make you a bad person.
Our picture book is Satoshi Kitamura's Millie's Marvellous Hat! It's a charming story about imagination and self-expression, and our discussion of it contains a large portion of bickering about what makes a hat a hat. Brim or brimless? Ribbon or no ribbon? Dave brings their experience as an early years library outreach worker as well as their past as a hat-wearer to bear, and shares some ideas about how you could bring this story to life for a group of under-5s.
See all of Laura Ellen Anderson's new covers for the Tiffany sequence here: http://www.pickledink.com/blog/terry-pratchett-covers-laura-ellen-anderson
You can watch Pratchett's documentary about living with Alzheimer's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmejLjxFmCQ&ab_channel=TheDocumentaryChannel112
And watch Satoshi Kitamura tell a kamishibai version of his book Hat Tricks here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtPm7B9_Ri0&ab_channel=BookTrust
Dave and their work can be found here: http://davepickeringstoryteller.co.uk/
We especially recommend their podcast Down to a Sunless Sea here: http://downtoasunlesspod.com/
And if you want to argue with them about hats, you can catch them on twitter @goosefat101
If you enjoyed this Pratt-chat, we also talked about The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents in our episode about Fairytale Retellings: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-14-fairytale-retellings-pattans-pumpkin-and-the-amazing-maurice-and-his-educated-rodents/
And you can hear Dave's first appearance on the show in our episode about dementia: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-12-dementia-moominvalley-in-november-and-the-remember-balloons/
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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This week we’re joined by special guest Robert Valentine, to talk about one of his favourite kidlit picture books, Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg – a much loved classic which sees several fairytale characters combine in one world.
That is followed by our chapter book, Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza, which retells three traditional fairytales in which the main characters are young Muslim girls, bringing representation and fresh new perspectives to old stories.
Links:
The blog by Radiya Hafiza on writing Rumaysa referenced in the episode is here, and is well worth a read - https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/books-for-children/radiya-hafiza-rewriting-fairytales-muslim-heroine
Waterstones currently have signed copies of Rumaysa on sale for £1 less than original price - https://www.waterstones.com/book/rumaysa-ever-after/radiya-hafiza/rhaida-el-touny/2928377082116
The Ancient Roman sitcom that Rob is guest-writing for is called Cry Havoc! and will be out soon from Rusty Quill: Announcement here - https://www.davidkbarnes.com/news/cry-havoc-a-brand-new-podcast-series
Rusty Quill’s website here – https://rustyquill.com/show/
See more of Robert Valentine’s work at his website, here - https://robertvalentine.net/
Find out more about Radiya Hafiza on the blog at her website, here - https://radiyabooks.wordpress.com/blog/
Previous Episodes Referenced:
You can listen to our episode including Howl’s Moving Castle in Ep#17 Shooting Stars here - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-17-shooting-stars-look-up-and-howls-moving-castle/
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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CN: very mild gore about losing baby teeth, and some dicussion that might spoil some tooth fairy magic
It's another episode about a chilhood milestone: losing your baby teeth! Matt and Nina chat a bit about their personal experiences, explore some of the history of cultural practices associated with milk teeth, and dig into the history of tooth fairies. The nonfiction picture book Nina mentions is Throw Your Tooth on the Roof.
Our picture book is the classic Dave and the Tooth Fairy, by Verna Wilkins and Paul Hunt, from Tamarind Books. You can find out more about Tamarind Books here and see Verna Wilkins talking about Tamarind here. The new edition of Dave and the Tooth Fairy, with updated art by Carl Pearce, can be bought here.
For our chapter book we go reeeeally retro with Perez the Mouse, or El Ratoncito Perez, by Luis Coloma (via Lady Moreton). This story has spread all around the Spanish-speaking world since it was comissioned in 1894 by the Spanish royal family for the boy king Alfonso XIII. Nina and Matt try to read this cute monarchist fable as a revolutionary text. We also update the scary-o-meter. Your local library might have a copy of Lady Moreton's retelling of the story, but if it doesn't, you can read the whole thing online here.
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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Welcome, listener, to this, our longest ever episode!
EDITORS NOTE: the original version of this episode had a big editing mistake in it, which had Matt saying "able-bodied people can't write disabled characters" when what they actually said was "I don't think able-bodied people can't write disabled characters". A pretty big mistake since it reverses the meaning! The currently available episode has been corrected. Apologies to Matt for making them say the opposite of what they mean.
First we talked about Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. For more biographical info on him, we recommend Amanda LeDuc's excellent book Disfigured, Rictor Norton's My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters Through the Centuries, which you can read here. Also see this article on Bookriot.
We went on to talk about the ways Jerry Pinkney adapted the story. Here's a lovely obit of him from Jason Reynolds in Time, and here he is doing an author event over lockdown and talking about The Little Mermaid, and his process.
Our chapter book is The Secret of Haven Point by Lisette Auton. Mermaids with pointy teeth who make appointments by leaving still-bleeding shark teeth on your pillow! Lisette can be found @lisette_auton on twitter and her website is https://lisetteauton.co.uk/
If you're interested in doing a virtual author visit with Lisette for your school, she's doing one in conjunction with 7 Stories in April.
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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This month on Even the Trunchbull, we have a listener recommendation! Namely, Momo by Michael Ende (well known as the author of The Never Ending Story) as our chapter book, on a theme of ‘Time’ – so that’s what we’ve gone with!
Momo is part celebration of community and part prescient cautionary tale about the dangers of the busy modern world. Momo and a magic tortoise called Cassiopeia must rescue the city from the faceless men in grey, who are determined to steal everyone’s time.
That’s paired with picture book Clocks and More Clocks by Pat Hutchins (well known beloved picture book writer and one time narrator of Rosie and Jim). This one is both educational and wonderfully daft – essentially a gorgeously structured joke about the passage of time, in which one gentlemen fills his house with rather a lot of clocks.
Articles/Links/Videos etc:
Momo:
For a map that shows the most popular children's book from each country that has a book that's reviewed on Goodreads, featuring Momo, see here - https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/01-Most-Popular-Childrens-Book-World-Map.png.webp
The film adaptation of Momo, featuring a cameo from Michael Ende, can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q_JYYcBP2Q
The Essay referred to in the episode, ‘Momo, Dogen, and the Commodification of Time’ by Linda Goodhew and David Loy, can be read here - http://www.jonathantan.org/handouts/buddhism/Loy-Momo.pdf
Clocks and More Clocks:
Pat Hutchins’ gorgeous, interactive website can be found here - http://pathutchins.com/
And here’s an episode of Rosie and Jim with Pat as narrator - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKJOMOBS4GA
And an obituary of Pat Hutchins from the Guardian can be found here - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/15/pat-hutchins-obituary
Previous episodes referenced in this episode are:
The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon, by David Almond, in Ep#4 – Loneliness - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-4-loneliness-the-boy-who-climbed-into-the-moon-and-beegu/
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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Winter Wheelies Shownotes:
Happy New Year! Just after Christmas, there’ll be lots of us out on new bikes, so this episode is celebrating bicycles!
Our picture book is I Love My Bike by Simon Mole, illustrated by Sam Usher - a rip-roaring fast-paced adventure, beating out a bouncy rhythm and capturing the excitement of riding a bike for the first time
And our chapter book is Bicycling to the Moon by Timo Parvela, illustrated by Virpi Talvitie - a classic of Finnish kidlit which introduces us to Purdy and Barker - a dog and a cat with a dysfunctional but ultimately inseparable friendship.
Articles of Note:
I Love My Bike:
Information on Simon Mole’s other projects can be found at his website, here – https://www.simonmole.com
including sign-ups for fortnightly online poetry workshops for 5-12 year olds, here –https://www.simonmole.com/participate
Simon’s Youtube channel has loads of great tutorial videos for young poets and schools, here - https://www.youtube.com/c/SimonMole
More of Sam Usher’s work can be found at his website, here - https://www.samusher.com/
Nina mentions and reads from poem Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat by T. S. Eliot, which can be read here - https://monologues.co.uk/Childrens_Favourites/Skimbleshanks.htm
Bicycling to the Moon:
There’s a nice review from World Kid Lit which includes Bicycling to the Moon here - https://worldkidlit.wordpress.com/2021/02/17/more-animal-tales/
In the episode, Nina mentions Hector’s House, an episode of which can be seen here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_tVxvnEJko
More of Timo Parvela’s work can be found at his website, here - https://timoparvela.fi/en/
Previous episodes referenced in this episode are:
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame in Ep#7, I Am A Mole And I Live In A Hole: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-7-i-am-a-mole-and-i-live-in-a-hole-the-story-of-the-little-mole-who-knew-it-was-none-of-his-business-and-the-wind-in-the-willows/
Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson in Ep#12, Dementia: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-12-dementia-moominvalley-in-november-and-the-remember-balloons/
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
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Our books for this final episode of Even The Trunchbull for 2021 are loosely linked around pets at Christmas!
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser features Paganini the rabbit, Franz the dog and George Washington the cat. But it's mainly about the five human Vanderbeeker children and their quest to convince their Scrooge-like landlord to allow their family to stay in their lovely apartment. Their tactics run the range from naughty to nice, as is seasonally appropriate. This is a warm and lovely read, sweet but not cloying.
Mog's Christmas, by Judith Kerr, is all about Mog the cat! We talk in general about the enduring appeal of the Mog formula, Kerr's very funny writing and iconic illustration style.
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
Episode Transcript will follow, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/
And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod
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The festive season is in full swing, the Christmas TV ads have all aired, and by far the most popular this year is A Christmas Carrot, from Aldi! And they even brought out a picture book. In classic Even The Trunchbull style, we have taken it upon ourselves to review this new take on Charles Dickens's classic, and let us tell you, if nothing else, this book is good fun if you enjoy a pun.
A Christmas Carrot is written by Stephanie Moss and illustrated by Hannah Wood. You won't be able to find it in traditional bookshops, but it's probably still in Aldi. Check out our social media for photos of the book and a picture of Matt drinking from their Kevin mug :-)
If this episode has whetted you appetite for more Christmas Carol chat, we've a whole episode about its myriad adaptations: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/series-4-finale-a-christmas-carol-retold-for-children/
We'll be back on Thursday with a full length episode, until then wrap up warm!
What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com
Episode Transcript will follow, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/
And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod
- Näytä enemmän
