humorous illustrations of animals which reminded me of the pictures in books I read as a young child.  Consequently, this got me thinking about the type of books I read that children probably don’t read these days and how these and the household goods we had would be completely foreign to children now so we should be including these in anything we write about our past.
Therefore, I’m going to indulge myself and here are some of the books I read (4-7 years)–some you may know but I hope it reminds you of some of your favourite books from childhood. 
Books by Willy Schermelé. In fact, a search on the internet shows that I had several books by this author–Teddy Tar in Fairyland, Tubby and Tootsie, Winkie and Brownie Bright Eyes, Winkie and Wolly Wopsie.  Turns out that these are now all collectible so must check the condition of my copies.


I also enjoyed the Angus series about a Scottish terrier
Another favourite about a dog was Harry who destroyed a jersey with roses on it in one book and turned from a white dog with black spots to a black dog with white spots in Harry the Dirty Dog. I also enjoyed the Orlando series. Several French books I loved were the Jeanne-Marie series, the Happy Lion, series and who could forget Madeline?

Finally, a couple of stories set in China that I enjoyed were -


I hope this may have triggered memories of books read to you, or by you, as a young child.

Marie
Central Research Centre

Ah, winter. Lovely, lovely winter.

It's almost at an end which is such a shame, because how perfect is winter and a book? Some would say the beach and a book but there is so much potential for disaster there. What if you get wet, and then get covered in sand, and get all this sandy, gritty mess all over the pages, or drop the book in the water-filled moat the kids have made in the sand, or even worse, what if you drop the Kindle? And then the sun glares off the pages, causing huge blind spots in your vision, or you have to wear non-prescription sunglasses and can't see, or you've got sunscreen all over your hands and you touch the pages, and its a library book! Or you spill your vanilla milkshake all over it... No. Too much can go wrong at the beach, way too much. But winter? Winter is perfect for reading on the couch or in bed, on the bus ride home, or at a café with a coffee. Fictional bliss!

On to the family history fiction.

You would not be wrong in assuming from the title "Kissing Mr Wrong" that this is one for those who like romantic comedy in the chick-lit vein. It is indeed. Yet besides the romantic angst and confusion, there is a lovely family history thread running through it with associated mystery to solve.

Set in England, Lu is a 30-something children's book illustrator whose beloved grandmother, Delia, has asked her to find out who her birth parents are. Delia knows she was adopted, she has her father's name and some documentation, and figures all Lu has to do is go on the internet, like they do on the TV shows.

Lu has never been interested in her family history, but as she embarks on a mission to find out who her real great-grandparents are, she finds herself becoming hooked on the research, and the war becomes more and more real to her.

If you're a long-time family historian and know a lot about the First World War, the information may be a bit basic for you, with scenes like the "Mr Wrong" of the story, Nick, teaching Lu how to find the information, and Lu learning details about the war, when she hasn't been all that interested before. But it's such a fun read, as you would expect a romantic-comedy to be. Like the scene where worried grandma Delia, concerned over having to be put under for dental surgery, says to Lu: "It'll be like Death Row, the lethal injection. I'm ninety-two, you know, no good to anyone, I've had my time. They'll want to put me down, save me being a drain on resources." She sighed. "It's probably for the best."

The story is of course all about the budding romance with the confusion, conflict, why Nick is the wrong one for Lu, domestic dramas and happy-ever-after, but the family history thread running through it is most enjoyable. I loved this story.

There are large-print versions floating around the library system, as well as an audio book version.

Recommended read

Backwater by Joan Bauer (1999)

I have to say I am completely loving reading these YA (young adult) novels as part of our Summer Reads series. These are seriously smart books, great for kids and for adults and like the previous Greyhound of a Girl and Holes, Backwater is a true delight of a story. It’s funny, smart, emotional, with a great protagonist in Ivy Breedlove. In fact, I loved it so much, I ended up reading it all over again.

Told in first person, sixteen-year-old Ivy Breedlove is the youngest in a family of lawyers and of course is expected to study the law, even though she doesn’t want to. History is her love – and her Breedlove family history is what her brilliant legal father calls an obsession she is “totally enslaved” by.

She tells him:

“I could be on drugs, Dad. I could be smoking three packs of cigarettes a day. I could be-“
“Getting ready to study the law.” I could almost mouth the words. “When I was sixteen, Ivy, I had read every piece of literature there was to read concerning America’s great law institutions where fine men and women learned to love the law, learned to defend it to the death, learned to not take no for an answer.”
“Learned to bill by the hour,” I added, and Dad said that as God was his witness, a law education was the cornerstone of a successful, fulfilled life.
“You know, Dad, there are important people in this family other than lawyers.”
He coughed.
“What about Mercy Breedlove who lived in the time of the Woman’s Suffrage Movement and believed so strongly that women should have the right to vote that at seventeen she embroidered the front and back of a dress with Susan B. Anthony’s words of freedom: Men, their rights, and nothing more. Women their rights and nothing less. And she wore that dress day in and day out with everyone pointing at her, screaming at her to stop. That was long before anti-perspirant, too.”
“Embroidery,” Dad sputtered, “is not a proper Breedlove career.”

Ivy is writing a family history she hopes to have completed for her Great Aunt Tib’s birthday, yet the more she researches, the more she becomes fascinated by her family, from her late mother whom is barely talked about, to her mysterious Aunt Jo who has disappeared off the face of the planet. The story is about Ivy’s search for her missing relative, who like herself, eschewed the law to follow her own “unacceptable” passion. Yet it is also about learning more of her late mother.

Here Ivy asks her aunt if she remembers her own mother’s funeral:

“Do you remember your mother’s funeral?”
“Some parts.”
“I don’t remember anything,” I said. “I had this dream right after she died that I was on a mountain and birds were flying over me and I was standing in the tall grass that was wafting in the breeze.”
“You remember that?”
“I dreamt it.”
“No, you didn’t.”

And of course like any good teen novel, we have romance, and naturally all good boyfriends are called Jack. Says Ivy of her Jack, a hopeless mountain ranger (it’s set in New York’s Adirondack mountains), “Jack Louden might not be major ranger material, but in the boyfriend department, he redefined the genus.” Goes without saying, this book has a most wonderful ending.

Go here if you are interested in borrowing Auckland Libraries' copy.

Joanne

Recommended read

Holes by Louis Sachar (1998)

In this second post on young peoples’ fiction with a family history theme, I read the award winning novel, Holes  by Louis Sachar.

I’m not sure how it is I never really knew about this book before, when it’s been around for a while and has something of a cult following. This is seriously good fiction, with baddies, delinquent kids, a mystery, a curse, and a backstory to keep you guessing – the family history part of it. Whatever your age, child or adult, boy or girl, you should read this story. There’s a good chance you won’t be able to put it down.

Stanley Yelnats is our protagonist -  the loser kid we’ve probably all felt like at some time or another but poor Stan really does have bad luck, attributable to a family curse. He’s sent to a juvie camp out in the desert:

“A sign in front said, “You are entering Camp Green Lake Juvenile Correctional Facility.” Next to it was another sign which declared that it was a violation of the Texas Penal Code to bring guns, explosives, weapons, drugs or alcohol on to the premises. As Stanley read the sign, he couldn’t help but think, Well, duh!

Each day the boys must dig a massive hole - something to do with building character although if they find anything, they are given a day off. Hmmm. I won’t give anything away but a reviewer said that Holes is the kind of book that improves with each reading, showing you just how complicated it really is although as a read, this is simply a darned fine story that ties up at the end.  And there are nice bits, such as this at the end of a chapter after Stanley has taken the rap for stealing a bag of sunflower seeds:

He went over to his hole and to his surprise it was nearly finished. He stared at it, amazed. It didn't make sense. Or perhaps it did. He smiled. Since he had taken the blame for the sunflower seeds, he realized, the other boys had dug his hole for him.
“Hey, thanks,” he said.“Don’t look at me,” said X-Ray.Confused, Stanley looked around – from Magnet, to Armpit, to Zigzag, to Squid. None of them took credit for it.Then he turned to Zero who had been quietly digging in his hole since Stanley’s return. Zero’s hole was smaller than all the others.

Click here to grab a library copy though you might need to place a hold.

There are also formats from eBook to audio CD, and if the weather falls apart over the holidays, there’s the 2004 movie on DVD with young Shia LaBouef as Stanley.

Here’s the trailer. But go and read the book first!!

Joanne