Picture Book - Charlie Cook's Favourite Book

"About Sir Percy Pilkington,
A bold and fearless knight,
who told the dragon...
Wait, I'm not quite ready to fight.

You must hear this one first!
And then his armour clanked and shook
As he read aloud a joke he'd found
(Inside his favourite book)...

This is a clever and entertaining picture book that should delight parents and children alike. The illustrations, by Alex Scheffler, are intricately detailed and well worth a second --or third or fourth or fifth-- look. The plot resembles a picture within a picture within a picture, ad nauseum. Beginning with Charlie in his armchair, each character reads about a character reading about a character who then reads about a character. As the journey unfolds, we are taken through every conceivable genre of book and even learn about the library and encyclopedias. Recommended for encouraging literacy and for everyone who has a child who is in love with reading.


Rating: 5 stars/5 stars

Recommended for ages 4 and up.

The details:
Donaldon, J. (2006). Charlie Cook's Favourite Book. London: Macmillan Children's Books.

Revised Fairy Tale 2

Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted is a retelling of the story of Cinderella, complete with a handsome prince (Char, short for Charmont), two ugly* (*because of their mean spritedness and greed) stepsisters (Hattie and Olive) and a fairy godmother (Mandy).

I picked this book up based on the recommendation of a friend and it's a testament to Carson Levine's writing that I didn't even realize it was related to the Cinderella fable until I was a few chapters on in the book. The premise of the novel is that Ella is born with a fairy blessing that is actually a curse; she must always be an obedient girl. Ella despises these limitations and devises clever ways to avoid following orders by taking each command at its most literal meaning. It's this quick wit that makes Ella's character so charming and she will appeal to every girl who's ever danced around the edges of improper behaviour with a gleam of mischief in her eye.

Of course, the dilemma with the Cinderella story is how to make it relevant to young women who know that happily ever after involves so much more than merely finding a husband. Carson Levine makes Ella's choice to marry more about declining the proposal than accepting it. But you'll have to read the book to find out more.

Like all fairy tales, Ella Enchanted will be exciting for the young and the young at heart. Recommended for all ages.

The details: Carson Levine, Gail. Ella Enchanted. New York : Avon Books, 2003.

Revised Fairy Tale

Zel turns her hands palms down, runs her fingers across the floor. She finds the sharp stone. It took her twelve days to work that stone from the wall. Her fingernails broke. Her fingertips went raw. She opens her eyes and pushes the mattress aside. She scratches a line on the floor beside the other lines, each one marking a day. Zel pulls the mattress back in place. No one who enters the room sees the scratches. Zel laughs. No one enters the room.

Donna Jo Napoli's Zel is a re-telling of the Rapunzel fable from three points of view: Mother, Zel and Konrad (Zel's prince, who is a Count in this version). Napoli weaves in threads of weightier topics such as religion and social class divides but the book is primarily a love story. Make that a love triangle. It is the story of Zel's two soul mates, her Mother and her lover, and the dangers that arise when someone wants something so passionately they are willing to give anything to obain it.

But it is also a book about madness. I was reminded over and over again of Charlotte Perkin Gilman's short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, because of the way Zel endlessly circles the space where she is held captive and scrawls upon the walls. Only Zel is not the only mad woman in the story. Mother, a character given no other name because she is so overwhelmingly consumed with this one function in life, plumbs incredible depths in order to realize her deepest desires.

Zel begins slowly and the stilted, somewhat Victorian-type language took some getting used to, so readers will have to decide whether reaching the book's finale is worth the effort. I felt it was because the agony of the characters was very intimately portrayed and reminded me of another favourite book, Wuthering Heights. This kind of work will not appeal to everyone; it's the sort of book that you will want to explore only if you are interested in taking a closer look at the depths of human depravity but also the power of human forgiveness. Recommended for teens who are reading at a mature level.

The details: Napoli, Donna Jo. Zel. Toronto: Puffin, 1996.