The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Tales from Watership Down Richard Adams, 1996 Premise: Stories in the world of Watership Down . Includes additional rabbit myths and legends as well as some continuing adventures. I was sure this wasn't going to be good.  How could it be? The author returns to his most famous book two decades later to write some spin-off material. When is that ever worthwhile? This time it is. To be fair, this book doesn't really stand alone. I think the stories would make little sense to anyone who hasn't read Watership Down . It doesn't have anything with very high stakes or long-term danger. It just gently extends the world a little bit around the edges.  I loved reading this. I found the stories that were probably Adams' attempt to make up for severely sidelining the does in the original book to be a bit obvious, but it was still enjoyable to get some of the female rabbits' own adventures.  This was another book I read because it's been on my bookshelf forever, but this...

The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling, 1894, 1895 Disney’s The Jungle Book , 2016 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 – Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better Okay, I may have done the challenge slightly backward, in that I saw the new live-action movie and then wanted to re-read the book. I have read the book before, but it’s been a few years. Of course, years before I read the books the first time, I saw the Disney animated movie, and the Chuck Jones specials (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, The White Seal). But I read the Just So Stories before that ... does that count? I guess the timeline is sort of a wash. Anyhow, none of that is the point. The point is that I adore these books, nearly unreservedly. I say nearly, because a few of the short stories contain slightly awkward, outdated phrasing or attitudes, but VERY few, considering when these were written. I don’t know what to cover. I guess f...

Blacksad Juan Díaz Canales (writer), Juanjo Guarnido (artist) English Translation published 2010 Premise: This volume collects the first three Blacksad albums, each one a self-contained story. They follow the adventures of private investigator John Blacksad as he stumbles through surviving in the darker parts of the 1950's, trying to get to the truth behind murder, abduction and corruption along the way. He's also a six-foot cat, and the world is entirely populated with anthropomorphic animals. I absolutely loved this book. I'm not sure that it's for everyone, though, so let me try to explain what I loved about it. (Please Note: this is a graphic novel for mature readers . The mostly naked corpse on page one should be a tip-off.) I love noir. When someone really nails the sweet spot balanced between melodrama, cynicism, honor, the chance of sweetness and a sense of fatalism, I am a happy camper. Blacksad takes its inspiration directly from the French inter...

As you probably noticed, I like books. I also like lists.  So, for your reading amusement (and not just because I'm super-busy this week), I'm wrapping up the Animal Society Theme with a quick statistical-ish comparison of the six books I read. Reviews, in case you missed 'em: Wind in the Willows The Rescuers Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Redwall Mouse Guard Watership Down Stats Away! Continuum of Anthropomorphism: Extremely human-like society Wind in the Willows Redwall The Rescuers Mouse Guard Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Watership Down   Slightly human-like Positions on various species: Weasels are jerks, along with all their kin Wind in the Willows , Redwall , Mouse Guard Cats are bastards The Rescuers , Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH , Watership Down Rats are evil Redwall , Watership Down Rats are great! Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH , Wind in the Willows Birds?  They're okay Redwall , Mrs. Frisby and the Ra...

Watership Down Richard Adams, 1972 I first read Watership Down in tenth grade, I think.  We had to read one extra book per term that had some scholarly merit, and everyone seemed surprised that I was jumping at the chance to lug around the giant hard cover edition of this book.  At the time, it was one of the longer books I'd read (hadn't started in on Tad Williams at the time). It has some of the most wonderful world-building I've ever read.  As a society of non-humans, it is clear and complete.  The adventures of Hazel and the others seem plausible, their behavior not too out of line for real rabbits.  Both the greatness, and the weaknesses, come from how rooted in reality the story feels. The trouble I had on this read-through was with occasional bits of the narrative voice.  Adams presents his book as if it were translated from the rabbit language, and so, especially at the beginning, there are needless asides explaining this and that from a...

Mouse Guard Fall 1152 Mouse Guard Winter 1152 David Petersen, 2005-2009 (Spoilers for events of the first issue.) If you were ever a fan of Redwall, you owe it to yourself to check out Mouse Guard .  Petersen's comic tale of mice with swords doesn't always have inspired text, (the poetry in particular is weak), but so what?  The illustrations are what you're here for.  You have to pay attention to keep up, because with only 6 issues of 20-24pgs to tell a story arc, there is very little wasted space. Now, these are swordsmice.  Trained, disciplined, ruthless in the defense of their fellows.  The Guardsmice are an organization charged to uphold peace and the common good, but during the time we follow them the tiny swords are often bloodied.   The first arc describes a betrayal of the organization, the second, the aftermath.  There is a lot of mouse vs. mouse internal strife, but the really striking images are the tiny mice going up agai...

Redwall Brian Jacques, 1986 I loved the Redwall books when I read them, mostly in middle school and early high school as I recall.  This one doesn't hold up quite as well as I may have hoped.  There are definitely things to enjoy here; the story clips along at a good pace, the characters are amusing and often adorable. The thing I expected to criticize, the stereotyping of species, didn't bother me as much as I anticipated.  In this world, rats, stoats, ferrets, etc. are bad, untrustworthy creatures.  Mice, badgers, squirrels, rabbits, etc. are good, kind, etc.  It's a little odd, especially given how anthropomorphic they are.  They are fully sentient, society based creatures, and it's not just predator animals vs. prey animals, although that seems to underlie much of it.  (I know that Jacques changes it up a bit in some of the later books, but I'm only looking at the first today.)  Add to that that many of the species are typed by broad...

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Robert C. O'Brien, 1971 A few months back I re-watched the animated movie adapted from this book, and it lead to a strong desire to reread the book.  The movie, Secret of NIMH , is fine for what it is, but the book is far more subtle. And there's no magic. And the plot is much less melodramatic. The things I found most striking re-reading this book was how even-handed it was.  The scientists who turn the rats into super-rats are perhaps unthinking, but well-meaning, and they care for their lab animals.  The farmers only want to drive out the rats because they steal.  The owl makes Mrs. Frisby understandably nervous, but is generally courteous to her.  The only openly cruel character is Dragon the cat. Mrs. Frisby is a widowed mouse caring alone for her kids.  She is naturally timid, as a mouse is, but when needed becomes brave and strong, running risks that go against her instincts, for the sake of her family....

The Rescuers Margery Sharp, 1959 I reread the first four books in this series, though I'll mainly talk about the first one ( The Rescuers itself) here. They are adorable.  Garth Williams' illustrations in my edition only make them even more adorable. I love Margery Sharp's writing.  She has a way with gently ironic turns of phrase, or bits of description which completely capture the whimsy of her world of mice.  pg 6- “There is nothing like breeding to give one confidence: [Madam Chairwoman] was descended in direct line from the senior of the Three Blind Mice.” It's interesting to me that it was clearly not intended to be a series when the first one was written.   The Rescuers sums up each character's probable future at the end.  There is no explanation at the top of book two as to why they're all back together.  Also between books one and two the relationship between Bernard and Bianca changes from open flirtation with the st...

The Wind in the Willows 1908, Kenneth Grahame The above is what people often remember from The Wind in the Willows.  I blame Disney.  For a book that everyone seems to vaguely remember, there's very little in the way of plot.  Toad's story is a plot, misadventure piling on misadventure, thrown in jail, escape, battle, the final defeat of vanity.  The other chapters, which I find much more interesting, are almost a series of sketches exploring the significance of place: Dwelling Places, Wild Places, Play Places, Holy Places, Exotic Places. The lyrical descriptions leave no doubt in my mind of the affection Grahame held for the countryside where he lived.  In the first chapter, Mole meets the River: The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chatt...

In searching through Children's sections on the hunt for Girl's Books , I discovered another genre I'd been meaning to re-read a bunch of. For each of these books I plan to chat both about the book itself and the structure of the animal society. Planned Subjects: Wind in the Willows The Rescuers (and sequels) Watership Down Redwall Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Mouse Guard (Graphic Novel)