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The Useless Donkeys by Lydia Pender and Judith Cowell (1979) Analysis
The Useless Donkeys is a 1979 picture book written by Lydia Pender and illustrated by Judith Cowell. At first I thought The Useless Donkeys was going to be a more realistic, earlier version of Walter The Farting Dog in which an adult threatens to get rid of a family pet, but over the course of…
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The Best Quiet Children’s Films
By ‘quiet’ I mean the anti-DreamWorks of yak-yak. The following films will help a child to feel calm rather than revved up. These quiet movies are set close to nature, feature classical soundtracks relatively little (if any) dialogue. (For some reason the mother is usually absent.) Please bear in mind that by ‘quiet’ I don’t necessarily…
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Writing Activity: Describe A Living Room
As a writing exercise, describe your own living room, or the living room of someone you know. For inspiration, I offer the following examples from literature. EXAMPLE OF A LIVING ROOM DESCRIBED BY DAPHNE DU MAURIER We were all sitting in the long, low room at Farthings, darker than usual because of the rain. The…
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Jack And The Flumflum Tree by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts Analysis
Jack and the Flumflum Tree is a picture book by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by David Roberts. The title suggests this may be a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk but it’s not really — this is an original tale based on mythic structure with elements of Little Red Riding Hood (the sick grandma) and pirate…
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The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko Analysis
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch is another feminist picturebook from the 1980s in which a scruffy princess does not end up marrying the prince. In fact, it must be one of the earliest of its kind. It’s published in 1980 and remains one of Munsch’s most popular books.
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Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole Analysis
Princess Smartypants is an example of a children’s picture book which uses gender reversal to tell a story that would never really happen. What if women of high socio-economic status could choose their own marriage/non-marriage partners? The ending plays into the stereotypically MRA fear — if women were allowed autonomy they may choose not to include men at all.…
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Madeline And The Gypsies by Ludwig Bemelmans Analysis
Madeline and the Gypsies is one of the sequels to Madeline a classic picture book by Ludwig Bemelmans. Ludwig Bemelmans named his fictional little girl after his real-life wife. Although if you know any Madelines, you may find her name is spelt (more traditionally) with an extra ‘e’, as was Madeleine Bemelmans’ name. This series…
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Bossyboots by David Cox Picture Book Analysis
I was very wary picking up a book called Bossyboots to read to my daughter. ‘Bossy’ is a heavily gendered word. There’s no way a book called ‘Bossyboots’ would ever star a boy. So the first thing I checked was the year of publication. 1985, I thought. Well, this could be a good thing. Overtly…
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Lost Pets In Children’s Stories
A child who reads heavily may well be under the impression that the acquisition of pets requires about as much thought as a well-chosen piece of jewellery. Yesterday I rewatched Bridge To Terabithia — a perennial favourite at our house. I can’t remember if this also happens in the book version, but at the end of…
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Girls Who Love Dogs In Children’s Literature
What if you have a canine loving girl and she would like to see herself reflected in literature? Well, girls and dogs have in previous eras and in other cultures been seen together quite often. OLD SCHOOL KIDLIT ABOUT GIRLS AND THEIR LOVE FOR DOGS The 1940s gave us George and Timmy, though Enid Blyton…
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Gender Inversion As Gags In Children’s Stories
There’s this gag in many humorous children’s stories which almost everyone else finds hilarious and I find really troublesome. It’s when a male character dresses as a female character. This gender inversion in itself is meant to be funny. But why?
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More! by Peter Schossow Picture Book Analysis
Peter Schossow’s picture book More! is wordless in the same way Robert Redford’s All Is Lost is wordless: Both contain one spoken word, imbued with huge weight accordingly. Gecko Press brought this book from German to English in 2010, and have also translated another of Schossow’s works: My First Car Was Red. Even a ‘wordless’ picture…
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A Squash And A Squeeze Analysis by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler Analysis
A Squash and a Squeeze is a 1993 picture book written by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Sheffler. The plot is very old. A Squash and a Squeeze was published in 1993, when Donaldson was 44. It was not expected to be a big seller. For one thing, it was in rhyme, which publishers at…
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The Story About Ping Picture Book Study Analysis
Despite the Chinese setting, the author of The Story About Ping (1933) is American, born on Long Island, in fact. I’m reminded of the work of Margaret Wise Brown in that both Wise Brown and Marjorie Flack had the uncanny knack of including the most unlikely details, which they somehow knew would appeal to young children.…