Even the Trunchbull

Episode 30 - The Fairytale Multiverse (Each Peach Pear Plum and Rumaysa)

This week we’re joined by special guest Robert Valentine, to talk about one of his favourite kidlit picture books, Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg – a much loved classic which sees several fairytale characters combine in one world.

That is followed by our chapter book, Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza, which retells three traditional fairytales in which the main characters are young Muslim girls, bringing representation and fresh new perspectives to old stories.

 

Links:

The blog by Radiya Hafiza on writing Rumaysa referenced in the episode is here, and is well worth a read - https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/books-for-children/radiya-hafiza-rewriting-fairytales-muslim-heroine

Waterstones currently have signed copies of Rumaysa on sale for £1 less than original price - https://www.waterstones.com/book/rumaysa-ever-after/radiya-hafiza/rhaida-el-touny/2928377082116

The Ancient Roman sitcom that Rob is guest-writing for is called Cry Havoc! and will be out soon from Rusty Quill: Announcement here - https://www.davidkbarnes.com/news/cry-havoc-a-brand-new-podcast-series

Rusty Quill’s website here – https://rustyquill.com/show/

 

See more of Robert Valentine’s work at his website, here - https://robertvalentine.net/

Find out more about Radiya Hafiza on the blog at her website, here - https://radiyabooks.wordpress.com/blog/

 

Previous Episodes Referenced:

You can listen to our episode including Howl’s Moving Castle in Ep#17 Shooting Stars here - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-17-shooting-stars-look-up-and-howls-moving-castle/

 

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

 

 

Episode 29 - TEETH! (Dave and the Tooth Fairy and Perez the Mouse)

CN: very mild gore about losing baby teeth, and some dicussion that might spoil some tooth fairy magic

 

It's another episode about a chilhood milestone: losing your baby teeth! Matt and Nina chat a bit about their personal experiences, explore some of the history of cultural practices associated with milk teeth, and dig into the history of tooth fairies. The nonfiction picture book Nina mentions is Throw Your Tooth on the Roof.

 

Our picture book is the classic Dave and the Tooth Fairy, by Verna Wilkins and Paul Hunt, from Tamarind Books. You can find out more about Tamarind Books here and see Verna Wilkins talking about Tamarind here. The new edition of Dave and the Tooth Fairy, with updated art by Carl Pearce, can be bought here.

 

For our chapter book we go reeeeally retro with Perez the Mouse, or El Ratoncito Perez, by Luis Coloma (via Lady Moreton). This story has spread all around the Spanish-speaking world since it was comissioned in 1894 by the Spanish royal family for the boy king Alfonso XIII. Nina and Matt try to read this cute monarchist fable as a revolutionary text. We also update the scary-o-meter. Your local library might have a copy of Lady Moreton's retelling of the story, but if it doesn't, you can read the whole thing online here.

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

Episode 28 - Mermaids! (The Little Mermaid and The Secret of Haven Point)

Welcome, listener, to this, our longest ever episode!

 

EDITORS NOTE: the original version of this episode had a big editing mistake in it, which had Matt saying "able-bodied people can't write disabled characters" when what they actually said was "I don't think able-bodied people can't write disabled characters". A pretty big mistake since it reverses the meaning! The currently available episode has been corrected. Apologies to Matt for making them say the opposite of what they mean.

 

First we talked about Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. For more biographical info on him, we recommend Amanda LeDuc's excellent book Disfigured, Rictor Norton's My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters Through the Centuries, which you can read here. Also see this article on Bookriot.

 

We went on to talk about the ways Jerry Pinkney adapted the story. Here's a lovely obit of him from Jason Reynolds in Time, and here he is doing an author event over lockdown and talking about The Little Mermaid, and his process.

 

Our chapter book is The Secret of Haven Point by Lisette Auton. Mermaids with pointy teeth who make appointments by leaving still-bleeding shark teeth on your pillow! Lisette can be found @lisette_auton on twitter and her website is https://lisetteauton.co.uk/

If you're interested in doing a virtual author visit with Lisette for your school, she's doing one in conjunction with 7 Stories in April.

 

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

Episode 27 - Time (Clocks and More Clocks and Momo)

 

This month on Even the Trunchbull, we have a listener recommendation! Namely, Momo by Michael Ende (well known as the author of The Never Ending Story) as our chapter book, on a theme of ‘Time’ – so that’s what we’ve gone with!

 

Momo is part celebration of community and part prescient cautionary tale about the dangers of the busy modern world. Momo and a magic tortoise called Cassiopeia must rescue the city from the faceless men in grey, who are determined to steal everyone’s time.

 

That’s paired with picture book Clocks and More Clocks by Pat Hutchins (well known beloved picture book writer and one time narrator of Rosie and Jim). This one is both educational and wonderfully daft – essentially a gorgeously structured joke about the passage of time, in which one gentlemen fills his house with rather a lot of clocks.

 

Articles/Links/Videos etc:

 

Momo:

For a map that shows the most popular children's book from each country that has a book that's reviewed on Goodreads, featuring Momo, see here - https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/01-Most-Popular-Childrens-Book-World-Map.png.webp

 

The film adaptation of Momo, featuring a cameo from Michael Ende, can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q_JYYcBP2Q

 

The Essay referred to in the episode, ‘Momo, Dogen, and the Commodification of Time’ by Linda Goodhew and David Loy, can be read here - http://www.jonathantan.org/handouts/buddhism/Loy-Momo.pdf

 

Clocks and More Clocks:

Pat Hutchins’ gorgeous, interactive website can be found here - http://pathutchins.com/

 

And here’s an episode of Rosie and Jim with Pat as narrator - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKJOMOBS4GA

 

And an obituary of Pat Hutchins from the Guardian can be found here - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/15/pat-hutchins-obituary

 

Previous episodes referenced in this episode are:

The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon, by David Almond, in Ep#4 – Loneliness - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-4-loneliness-the-boy-who-climbed-into-the-moon-and-beegu/

 

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

Episode 26 - Winter Wheelies (I Love My Bike and Bicycling to the Moon)

Winter Wheelies Shownotes:

 

Happy New Year! Just after Christmas, there’ll be lots of us out on new bikes, so this episode is celebrating bicycles!

Our picture book is I Love My Bike by Simon Mole, illustrated by Sam Usher - a rip-roaring fast-paced adventure, beating out a bouncy rhythm and capturing the excitement of riding a bike for the first time

And our chapter book is Bicycling to the Moon by Timo Parvela, illustrated by Virpi Talvitie - a classic of Finnish kidlit which introduces us to Purdy and Barker - a dog and a cat with a dysfunctional but ultimately inseparable friendship.

 

Articles of Note:

 

I Love My Bike:

 

Information on Simon Mole’s other projects can be found at his website, here – https://www.simonmole.com

 

including sign-ups for fortnightly online poetry workshops for 5-12 year olds, here –https://www.simonmole.com/participate

 

Simon’s Youtube channel has loads of great tutorial videos for young poets and schools, here - https://www.youtube.com/c/SimonMole

 

More of Sam Usher’s work can be found at his website, here - https://www.samusher.com/

 

Nina mentions and reads from poem Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat by T. S. Eliot, which can be read here - https://monologues.co.uk/Childrens_Favourites/Skimbleshanks.htm

 

Bicycling to the Moon:

 

There’s a nice review from World Kid Lit which includes Bicycling to the Moon here - https://worldkidlit.wordpress.com/2021/02/17/more-animal-tales/

 

In the episode, Nina mentions Hector’s House, an episode of which can be seen here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_tVxvnEJko

 

More of Timo Parvela’s work can be found at his website, here - https://timoparvela.fi/en/

 

Previous episodes referenced in this episode are:

 

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame in Ep#7, I Am A Mole And I Live In A Hole: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-7-i-am-a-mole-and-i-live-in-a-hole-the-story-of-the-little-mole-who-knew-it-was-none-of-his-business-and-the-wind-in-the-willows/

 

Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson in Ep#12, Dementia: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-12-dementia-moominvalley-in-november-and-the-remember-balloons/

 

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

Episode 25 - Chrimbo Kitties and Festive Familiars (The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street and Mog‘s Christmas)

Our books for this final episode of Even The Trunchbull for 2021 are loosely linked around pets at Christmas!

 

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser features Paganini the rabbit, Franz the dog and George Washington the cat. But it's mainly about the five human Vanderbeeker children and their quest to convince their Scrooge-like landlord to allow their family to stay in their lovely apartment. Their tactics run the range from naughty to nice, as is seasonally appropriate. This is a warm and lovely read, sweet but not cloying.

 

Mog's Christmas, by Judith Kerr, is all about Mog the cat! We talk in general about the enduring appeal of the Mog formula, Kerr's very funny writing and iconic illustration style.

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

 

Concerning Carrots... A Christmas bonus episode!

The festive season is in full swing, the Christmas TV ads have all aired, and by far the most popular this year is A Christmas Carrot, from Aldi! And they even brought out a picture book. In classic Even The Trunchbull style, we have taken it upon ourselves to review this new take on Charles Dickens's classic, and let us tell you, if nothing else, this book is good fun if you enjoy a pun.

 

A Christmas Carrot is written by Stephanie Moss and illustrated by Hannah Wood. You won't be able to find it in traditional bookshops, but it's probably still in Aldi. Check out our social media for photos of the book and a picture of Matt drinking from their Kevin mug :-)

 

If this episode has whetted you appetite for more Christmas Carol chat, we've a whole episode about its myriad adaptations: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/series-4-finale-a-christmas-carol-retold-for-children/

 

We'll be back on Thursday with a full length episode, until then wrap up warm!

 

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 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