Even the Trunchbull

Episode 24 - Hard Hungry Winters (Yokki and the Parno Gry and The Famine Secret)

 

This week our picture book is Yokki and the Parno Gry by Katharine Quarmby and Ricard O’Neill – a story about a young boy in a Romani Traveller family, and the power of stories themselves

 

And our chapter book this week is The Famine Secret by Cora Harrison. Part of the Drumshee Timeline series, this story takes us via four young siblings into the hardships of the Irish Famine of 1845

 

Links:

 

For Yokki and the Parno Gry:

 

There’s a lovely video of Richard O’Neill reading Yokki and the Parno Gry here - https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/ytt/features/listen-yokki-and-parno-gry-richard-oneill

 

Travellers Times also has a short documentary narrated by Richard, ‘Roads From The Past: A Short History of Britain’s Gypsies, Roma and Travellers’ here - https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/heritage/roads-past-short-history-Britains-Gypsies-Roma-and-Travellers#

 

‘The Goose and the Common’, the folk poem that Nina reads during the episode about the Inclosure Acts, can be read here - https://unionsong.com/u765.html

 

The podcast ‘99% Invisible’ have an episode about the Inclosure Acts, which can be heard here - https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/right-to-roam/

 

More info on Richard O’Neill can be found at his website, here - https://richardthestoryteller.weebly.com/about-richard.html

 

More info on Katharine Quarmby can be found at her website, here - https://katharinequarmby.com/

 

 

For The Famine Secret:

 

This link has some info on the ‘Yellow Fever’ and ‘Black Fever’ suffered in Ireland during the 1840’s, reference in The Famine Secret https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/workdisease.htm

 

 

More info on Cora Harrison’s Drumshee Timeline can be found at her website, here - http://www.coraharrison.com/drumshee/index.html

 

 

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

 

Episode Transcript will follow, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

 

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

Episode 23 - Rivers in Brazil with Pádraig Kenny (Journey to the River Sea and Along the River)

This week we’re joined by special guest Pádraig Kenny, to talk about one of his favourite kidlit chapter books, Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson.

That is followed by our picture book, Along The River by Vanina Starkoff, with English translation by Jane Springer

 

Articles of Note:

There is an interesting article about the representation of Indigenous people in Peter Pan and more broadly in children's lit here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/racist-history-peter-pan-indian-tribe-180953500/

The Guardian has an obituary of Eva Ibbotson here, that mentions her partner Alan, also mentioned in the episode: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/24/eva-ibbotson-obituary

 

Reading Suggestions:

The First Blade of Sweetgrass by Suzanne Greenlaw, Gabriel Frey and Nancy Baker came out in the same year as Journey to the River Sea and offers an own-voices story of Indigenous people: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-First-Blade-of-Sweetgrass-by-Suzanne-Greenlaw-author-Gabriel-Frey-author-Nancy-Baker-artist/9780884487609

Sisters of the Neversea by Cynthia Leitich Smith offers a retelling of Peter Pan: https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/kidbooks/kids_index/sisters-of-the-neversea/

Pádraig’s new book The Shadows of Rookhaven is out now in all the places, and is excellent:

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Shadows-of-Rookhaven-by-Pdraig-Kenny-author-Edward-Bettison-illustrator/9781529031713

 

Previous episodes referenced in this episode are:

Pog by Pádraig Kenny in Ep#2, Grief: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-2-grief-the-sad-book-and-pog/

Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis in Ep#3, Made Up Languages: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-3-made-up-languages-du-iz-tak-and-the-giants-and-the-joneses/

Pattan’s Pumpkin by Chitra Soundar in Ep#14, Fairytale Retellings: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-14-fairytale-retellings-pattans-pumpkin-and-the-amazing-maurice-and-his-educated-rodents/

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson in Ep#18, Mystical Cows: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-18-mystical-cows-the-beasts-of-clawstone-castle-and-maharani-the-cow/

The Monsters of Rookhaven by Padraig Kenny in Ep#22, Haunted Houses: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-22-haunted-houses-ghosts-in-the-house-and-the-monsters-of-rookhaven/

 

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

 

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

 

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

A little delay... See you back here next week!

Just a note to let you know that due to life and work stuff going on, this month's episode about rivers in Brazil is going to be delayed by a week. We hope it'll be worth the wait, and thank you for bearing with us!

 

Nina and Matt

Episode 22 - Haunted Houses (Ghosts in the House! and The Monsters of Rookhaven)

This week our picture book is ‘Ghosts in the House!’ by Kazuno Kohara and our chapter book is ‘The Monsters of Rookhaven’ by Padraig Kenny

Articles referenced by Nina with Halloween craft activities for kids to go alongside Ghosts in the House can be found:

Here - https://hannahsartclub.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/spooky-haunted-houses-inspired-by-kazuno-kohara-october-2011/

 

And here - http://www.prayingforparker.com/ghosts-in-the-house-by-kazuno-kohara-and-an-extension-activity/

 

The photographic project Matt was mentioning can be seen on our social media accounts: @TrunchbullPod on twitter and @eventhetrunchbull on Instagram

 

The interview with Padraig Kenny, referenced by Matt, was conducted by Dave O’Callaghan for easons.com and can be viewed here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOgsAWK_mV0

 

An article detailing the buying of film and TV rights for ‘The Monsters of Rookhaven’ is here - https://www.thebookseller.com/news/dream-logic-snaps-rights-kennys-monsters-rookhaven-1274987

 

We also reference various of our own past episodes in this one, which can be found at the following links:

Ep 17: Howl’s Moving Castle - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-17-shooting-stars-look-up-and-howls-moving-castle/

Ep1: Not Now Bernard - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-1-monsters-young-werewolf-and-not-now-bernard/

Ep 2: Pog - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-2-grief-the-sad-book-and-pog/

Halloween Special #1: The Jumbies - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/halloween-special-1-ghosts-for-breakfast-and-the-jumbies/

 

We also mentioned A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicholl and The Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman.

 

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

 

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

 

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Episode 21 - We Don‘t Need No Education (The Year I Didn‘t Go to School and the Wind Singer)

Happy back to school times listeners!

 

This month we're reading lovely autobiographical picture book The Year I Didn't Go to School by Giselle Potter. Italian nuns and pasta with eggs abound!

 

And for our chapter book we're doing an old favourite of both of ours, the Wind Singer, by William Nicholson. It's fantastically critical of the exams system and more relevant now even than when it was written (in our humble opinions).

 

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

 

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

 

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

 

Series 6 and beyond! A little announcement

Hello lovely listeners, Nina and Matt here to announce brand new Even the Trunchbull episodes coming in the autumn. Our first episode back will be about WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION and it'll come out on the 2nd of September. We'll be reading The Year I Didn't Go to School by Giselle Potter and The Wind Singer by William Nicholson.

 

From here on out ETTB is going to be a monthly show, publishing on the first Thursday of every month.

 

As always, you can email us your book suggestions at eventhetrunchbull@gmail.com, or catch us on twitter and facebook @trunchbullPod, or on instagram @eventhetrunchbull. Episode transcripts can be found on our website https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/ and if you like our recommendations, you can shop for them at our storefront https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Series 5 Finale - Audiobooks Special

To wrap up series five, we're doffing our hats to audiobook narrators. First Nina and Matt meander down memory lane, reminiscing about books on tape we listened to in the 1990s. Then we move on to recommend a clutch of excellent narrators:

 

Cecelia Ramsdale, who performed Pog by Padraig Kenny

 

Ben Onwukwe, who we enjoyed reading Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor

 

Aoife MacMahon, who amongst others has performed Begone the Raggedy Witches by Celine Kiernan

 

David Tennant, with The Wizards of Once series by Cressida Cowell, and others

 

And Malcolm Hamilton, David Almond’s regular audiobook performer it seems, who reads The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon and The Tale of Angelino Brown

 

We crowdsourced this one a little bit - thank you to all who submitted your favourite audiobook narrators! Here are the other recommendations that we got:

Huw Parmenter, reading Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones 

 

Alex Jennings, reading The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper

 

Miriam Margolyes, reading Matilda by Roald Dahl and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by CS Lewis

 

Carl Prekopp, reading the Half Bad series by Sally Green (fyi, this is YA, not kidlit)

 

Simon Russell Beale, reading Children of the Red King, by Jenny Nimmo

 

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

 

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

 

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Episode 20 - Not Quite Nuclear (Burglar Bill and Wilde)

This week we’re reading around the theme of ‘Not Quite Nuclear’ . . . we’re reading books about found family and unusual family set-ups

 

Our picture book is Burglar Bill by Janet and Allan Ahlberg (one of Matt’s childhood favourites)

 

And our chapter book is Wilde, by Eloise Williams, which is a new favourite for both of us

 

Wilde is published by Firefly Press, which is an independent children’s and Young Adult publisher based in Wales. You can get a copy from Wilde from them here - https://fireflypress.co.uk/books/wilde/

We strongly encourage supporting independent presses!

 

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

 

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

 

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

 

Episode 19 - Don't Mess With The Pasta Magic! (Strega Nona and The Magicians of Caprona)

Spaghetti, magic and Italian cities abound in this episode! We kick off the discussion with the treasure that is Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola. Lovely, naive, almost tapestry-like illustrations and a simple folk tale.

 

And then we indulge in another Diana Wynne Jones: The Magicians of Caprona! In this second book of the Chrestomanci series we visit a world where song is magic, and magic is song. Romeo and Juliet influences are thick in the air; there is, as usual with Diana Wynne Jones, a war just over the horizon. And, if you weren't sold yet, some brilliant cat characters the likes of which we haven't seen since The Amazing Maurice.

 

We reference our Shooting Stars episode about Howl's Moving Castle too, which you can find here.

 

You can see and purchase all the books we've ever discussed at our bookshop dot org shopfront here.

 

Transcripts are available on our website here.

 

Our intro music, What A Wonderful Day, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Episode 18 - Mystical Cows (The Beasts of Clawstone Castle and Maharani the Cow)

This week we’re reading around the theme of Mystical Cows!

 

Our picture book is Maharani the Cow, written by Christy Shoba Sudhir and illustrated by Nancy Raj – a bustling slice of life in India is interrupted by a cow in the road.

 

And our chapter book is The Beasts Of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson, in which there may well be ghosts but it is, in fact, all about the cows.

 

justonemorebook.com have a lovely audio interview with Eva Ibbotson from 2008 here in which she talks about her life and writing process here - http://justonemorebook.com/2008/01/21/interview-with-eva-ibbotson/

 

And here’s some great fan art from Clawstone! - https://www.deviantart.com/scarletcortez/art/Sunita-537823380

 

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

 

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

 

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com