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juushikaTitle: Hexwood
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Published: Greenwillow Books, 1994
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 375
Total Page Count: 310,865
Text Number: 1062
Read Because: recommended byminutia_r, borrowed from Open Library
Review: An experimental time paradox on backwater earth draws in intergalatic rulers and their uniquely powerful servant, or: a disgruntled wizard and a mundane teenage girl raise a little boy in a magical forest. This has an incredible amount of doubling, tripling, quadrupling of identity: the larger plot, its smaller manifestation, the parallels to Arthurian mythos, and theprotagonist's mental "voices" . There's a playfulness in that density, engaging and rejecting mythic parallels, mixing science fiction with fantasy trappings, building and rebuilding the cast. It culminates in one of those distinctively DWJ-style endings, grandiose and strange but intuitively logical; this one is more explicated than her usual but the final reveals are so convoluted that it still feels confusing. Of all her books that I've read thusfar, this feels most like Fire and Hemlock in the way it engages and exceeds its inspirations, but the comparison makes me wish this had a smaller cast or that the ending had a tighter focus on the central characters, because some of the immediacy and emotional engagement is lost in the cleverness. But it's interesting, and I imagine holds up beautifully to rereads.
Title: My World
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Clement Hurd
Published: Harper Collins, 2001 (1949)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 310,895
Text Number: 1063
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: It's strange to return to such a familiar world without the veil of nostalgia, but it's telling that this doesn't feel like a cheap follow-up to Goodnight Moon. I struggle with repetition in picture books as an adult reader, but the use of it here is surprisingly dense: simple sentences evoking expansive feelings; inverting the order of objects in the art and text to encourage active reading. It's hardly the only picture book where a child's mimicry of the adult world serves as a teaching tool, but it's a solid take on the premise, simultaneously unique and generalized. The art was recolored in 2001 and I wish I could compare it with original (and I wonder, as always, why there isn't more robust documentation of or even study of children's literature!), but if I had to guess I'd say it was to make a perfect color match to Goodnight Moon, because this successfully expands that iconic room into an entire house. It's is lovely and engaging, but not necessary; Goodnight Moon still stands strongest alone.
Title: The Runaway Bunny
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Clement Hurd
Published: HarperTrophy, 1977 (1942)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 50
Total Page Count: 311,075
Text Number: 1065
Read Because: reading the author/reread, paperback from my personal library (appropriately damaged in the "I've had this my entire life" way)
Review: This is one of those children's books which could be spun as creepy in hindsight, but it avoids that. The game of hide and seek is playful and reassuring rather than controlling—like the "tree that you come home to" (such perfect pages!), the mother's love conforms to her child, to his choices and needs; within context, it's a beautiful and proactive depiction of unconditional love. This also makes superb use of the alternating black and white sketches and full color panels to set up fully-realized, evocative scenes. I so appreciate these childhood classics which still hold up!
Title: The Gashlycrumb Tinies
Author: Edward Gorey
Published: Harcourt Brace, 1998 (1963)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 65
Total Page Count: 311,025
Text Number: 1064
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: It's surprising that such a simple, small book could hold up so well, but it's only deceptively simple. The diversity of each panel—some delighting in the tension just before disaster, some shockingly gory; some with unsettling creativity and implied body horror, some snidely mundane or existential; some unexpectedly haunting—combined with Gorey's charming sketchy-but-dense ink illustrations is persistently engaging and lingers in the imagination. (I also love the diminutive horizontal imprint, which is pleasure in the hand.) I've seen these panels out of context and was familiar with the work via cultural osmosis, but reading the thing entire still exceeded my expectations—what a perfect little book.
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Published: Greenwillow Books, 1994
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 375
Total Page Count: 310,865
Text Number: 1062
Read Because: recommended by
minutia_r, borrowed from Open LibraryReview: An experimental time paradox on backwater earth draws in intergalatic rulers and their uniquely powerful servant, or: a disgruntled wizard and a mundane teenage girl raise a little boy in a magical forest. This has an incredible amount of doubling, tripling, quadrupling of identity: the larger plot, its smaller manifestation, the parallels to Arthurian mythos, and the
Title: My World
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Clement Hurd
Published: Harper Collins, 2001 (1949)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 310,895
Text Number: 1063
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: It's strange to return to such a familiar world without the veil of nostalgia, but it's telling that this doesn't feel like a cheap follow-up to Goodnight Moon. I struggle with repetition in picture books as an adult reader, but the use of it here is surprisingly dense: simple sentences evoking expansive feelings; inverting the order of objects in the art and text to encourage active reading. It's hardly the only picture book where a child's mimicry of the adult world serves as a teaching tool, but it's a solid take on the premise, simultaneously unique and generalized. The art was recolored in 2001 and I wish I could compare it with original (and I wonder, as always, why there isn't more robust documentation of or even study of children's literature!), but if I had to guess I'd say it was to make a perfect color match to Goodnight Moon, because this successfully expands that iconic room into an entire house. It's is lovely and engaging, but not necessary; Goodnight Moon still stands strongest alone.
Title: The Runaway Bunny
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Clement Hurd
Published: HarperTrophy, 1977 (1942)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 50
Total Page Count: 311,075
Text Number: 1065
Read Because: reading the author/reread, paperback from my personal library (appropriately damaged in the "I've had this my entire life" way)
Review: This is one of those children's books which could be spun as creepy in hindsight, but it avoids that. The game of hide and seek is playful and reassuring rather than controlling—like the "tree that you come home to" (such perfect pages!), the mother's love conforms to her child, to his choices and needs; within context, it's a beautiful and proactive depiction of unconditional love. This also makes superb use of the alternating black and white sketches and full color panels to set up fully-realized, evocative scenes. I so appreciate these childhood classics which still hold up!
Title: The Gashlycrumb Tinies
Author: Edward Gorey
Published: Harcourt Brace, 1998 (1963)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 65
Total Page Count: 311,025
Text Number: 1064
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: It's surprising that such a simple, small book could hold up so well, but it's only deceptively simple. The diversity of each panel—some delighting in the tension just before disaster, some shockingly gory; some with unsettling creativity and implied body horror, some snidely mundane or existential; some unexpectedly haunting—combined with Gorey's charming sketchy-but-dense ink illustrations is persistently engaging and lingers in the imagination. (I also love the diminutive horizontal imprint, which is pleasure in the hand.) I've seen these panels out of context and was familiar with the work via cultural osmosis, but reading the thing entire still exceeded my expectations—what a perfect little book.
