Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes.

This month's book was a roaring success amongst all but one of the children. There was great appreciation for the characters, and plot lines, despite it's great length. Those of us who were less impressed found that despite an initially gripping start, we began to switch off as the plot became more fantastical.

There was some debate about the conclusion to the book, and relief that the ending was disclosed, thus eliminating the possibility of a sequel. Have I mentioned before that generally we dislike sequels? That said an idea for a story surrounding Sir Tode and the hag did seem like an interesting spin off adventure...?

Anyhow it seemed ironic that having spent the last session exploring the labyrinth; an exercise in sensory theatre carried out blindfolded, we now had a book about a blind boy-thief from which to launch another creative session.

I felt this called for some more games of the sensory kind. So, we tried listening intensely with our eyes closed, and did some work on creating scenes from the book using sensory techniques.

Noah Barleywater runs away.

Our latest book ‘Noah Barleywater runs away’ by John Boyne, tells the story of a boy coming to terms with his mother’s terminal illness. He runs away and finds himself on a fantastical journey, where trees and dogs talk. He enters a magical toy shop where the owner reveals much about life and love and death, and helps Noah decide to return home.

I completed reading the book at the same time as I was involved in devising a piece of labyrinth theatre at ‘The People’s History Museum’. Fired up by my latest experience, it seemed obvious that this book would make the perfect labyrinth. The challenge was how to make and perform this in our 1 hour session.....
 

To assist with the process I sent each family the following homework.

I would like each child to think about any event or moment in the book that sticks in their imagination. Could they describe that moment to a blindfolded person by simply handing them something to touch, smell, taste, or by making sounds? For example, early on in the story Noah plucks 3 apples from a tree, and takes a bite from one. I might offer the person in the blindfold a juicy apple to smell, and feel, and taste, to illustrate this moment from the story. 
                      

In the session I followed a simple plan. We warmed up by playing some games encouraging us to coordinate our actions, then we played a sort of ‘blind man’s bluff’ where we sampled our sensory ideas brought in from home (these were brilliant and thoughtful), and learnt how to guide someone in a blindfold through a space. We ran out of time here, but the enthusiasm for the game was very exciting, and it helped us ‘write’ the labyrinth. A couple of themes dominated, so we grouped people accordingly, and then we linked the groups with smaller narrative details, and we had our journey.

A quick run through and we were ready to perform.

The journey went like this:

The blindfold person enters the space, led gently.
There is the sound of feet on gravel.
He is brought to rest and given an apple.

The journey continues.

There is the sound of someone reading a newspaper.

He is brought to rest.

There is the sound of birdsong, and a rippling stream.

He is offered tree branches, which appear and disappear as he gropes for them.

He continues his journey and is followed by the musical sounds of a funfair.

The sounds fade away.

An energetic dachshund leaps at him, playfully rubbing against him, while panting and ‘woofing’.

He is brought to rest and seated.

There is the sound of mechanical things whirring and ticking, the ‘clack’ of wood, a smooth wooden toy car to hold and play with.

Mysterious voices, muttering about the ‘unusual stranger’.

A bell interrupts the scene, and he is led away.

Brought to rest, he is given a box. After investigation, he open's the box, and discovers a medal on a ribbon inside.

The box is replaced with an apple, and he is led through a door, returned to home, and the beginning of his journey.

This was a really creative session. The children devised a wonderful journey, and took the responsibility  of caring for the person experiencing the labyrinth really seriously. The parents who took the journey into the labyrinth enjoyed it, and were delightfully cooperative and playful participants.

As a means of exploring a story this technique has loads of potential....

Kai-ro

At the beginning of each meeting I ask the older group to award marks out of 10 for the book under discussion. The highest award for Kai-ro was 7/10, the lowest, 3/10. This was an indication that there were no real passions about this book, one way or the other.

We picked apart those responses a little further, and found disappointment, and a lack of empathy.

The disappointment came from the moment the Egyptian God's were introduced into the storyline. The opening chapters succeeded in creating suspense, in a vividly described post apocalyptic world. We were gripped by the plight of Stretch, searching for his father, in this cruel place, where survival is hard, and danger is real. And then it got a bit weird.

Even for those who were carried along by the plot, there emerged a lack of empathy with the main character which we felt may have been a major factor in the book receiving this lukewarm response. As the character became dominated by the God who inhabited his head, his actions became more those of the God, and he became unlikeable. For all but one of the group this was very problematic.

And once again, as the book headed towards its final chapter it was apparent that the main crisis of the opening pages, the disappearance of Stretch's father, was to remain open, unresolved. Did the group think this was open ended as stories often are, for them to write their own outcome? No. In their view this was an opportunity for a sequel. Groans all round.

Note to Publishers: We don't like sequels.

Goblins

This was a meaty read for our younger group, but was one which was largely appreciated. The humour particularly appealed to them. An excellent review can be read here.

If you follow this blog you will gather that the younger group are not a discussion group, and we try and explore ideas provoked by the book we have read. For this session I wanted to open up the narrative structure, which in many respects follows an archetypal 'hero' journey, through the wannabe hero character 'Henwyn'.

I presented the group with a crime scene. The outline of a body taped to the floor, and scattered around it items to be collected and judged as evidence of the life and fate of the victim. The only certain fact was that the body was that of a hero; he carried an identity card for membership to the 'hero's club'.

The kids gathered and bagged the evidence, scrutinised each item thoroughly, then selected their own narratives for the character, based on these objects.

The Last Wolf.

I was very unsure of how the older group would react to this book when I read it. As a short story it is overwhelmingly about plot. A lot happens in a very few pages. As a result it lacks the texture of descriptive detail and character which I like in a book.

However, the groups feeling ranged so much (from 'dull' to 'brilliant') that a really good discussion was possible, and they helped me to appreciate the books qualities.

The group agreed that the story is very exciting, or at least they agreed that it had the elements of a great plot. There were however doubts about the pre-story, and whether this was necessary.

The book begins with a grandfather recovering from illness, being led to the internet by his granddaughter. Here he begins internet based research into his family history, which produces an unexpected letter from the seventeenth century, and an ancestor he knew nothing about. The letter from the past forms the narrative for the rest of the book.

The ancestors story involves many plot twists and close shaves. It touches on historical fact, but provides very little in the way of historical texture. Even the language of this letter from the past fails to do much for setting the scene.

We made comparison with  'Chains' which was another historical novel read by the group, and was beautiful and rich in descriptive detail. We concluded that the short story form, had imposed some limitations on style in Morpurgo's book. We even wondered whether the story would have been better told by the wolf? Some of the group laughed this off because Morpurgo had used that stylistic device in Warhorse, and of course the wolf only shared part of the boy's story....

I would have suggested that perhaps this book is better suited to a younger audience, but those within the group who enjoyed it demonstrate once again that this reading lark is complex, and that sometimes a good story is just a good story, without need of frills or flourishes, or a massive page count.

The Machine Gunners

Probably the best book we have read since we began. First published in 1975, the book is now a well deserved classic.

Read with the younger group, this book demonstrated the capacity for younger readers to grasp big themes, and to stick with a lengthy narrative.

Set during WWII the book holds nothing back. For example, very soon into the narrative there is a dead body, which is shocking, the children swear and fight till they bleed, and the grown ups are, grown up.

It is no surprise to learn that this book was written by Westall, to account for his own experiences of the war, for his then 12 year old son. Perhaps this accounts for the open and honest approach to characters and events. I wish that more authors of children's books shared Westall's skill in communicating to children with respect for the fact that they too live in the real world, and see and experience far more than we would like to admit.

I didn't dwell on the themes with the group, though we had a very productive discussion. One of the successes of this group is that because these books are shared with parents at home, the children are very well supported in their experiences of the books we read, and this was evident from the enthusiasm of parents aswell as children for this book during the session.

So, I could afford to take a playful approach. I designed a game based upon my youngest son's suggestion, involving identifying aircraft from their silhouettes (using a wartime aircraft identity poster). I would fly a silhouette, and the children would either wave at the aircraft if friendly, or hide under a table if not. We then had a go at identifying 'shrapnel' from photographs.

WarHorse

The teen group had this as their summer read. In anticipation of it's tragic plot, and because she adores horses, one member of the group couldn't open the cover at all.

I admit that I was also wary of WarHorse as my holiday reading, so left it till the last minute to attempt it myself. Perhaps because I have seen and wept during the National Theatre stage production of the book, I was surprised that I was dry eyed for the duration of this read; though I was not unmoved.

The remainder of the group who ventured within the books pages,  were well rewarded. Everyone agreed that this is a stunning book. Told in the first person, the horse narrator 'Joey' was a reliable witness to the horrors of WW1. His story moves between both sides involved in the conflict, and thus enables a unique perspective of this dreadful war. The overwhelming theme is one of humanity. 

The book provided a rich text for discussion, enabling the group to look at narrative style and structure, whilst exploring the big themes. The group were unanimous in their praise; a book which surprised and provoked. Extraordinary.