Category: kids classics

Edith & Mr Bear

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

***Don’t be scared…okay…it’s The Lonely Doll, so BE SCARED May 2011 post backlog***

It’s The Lonely Doll Time!

Or as Blacklight calls it “Creepy Doll and The Bears Time!”.

Creepy Doll Edith and Little Bear are waiting for Mr Bear to get home from a trip.

(Blacklight: “Mr Bear? A trip where? San Francisco?”).

Mr Bear comes home with presents, GO MR BEAR GO! Little Brat Little Bear gets a sailboat. Creepy Doll Edith gets a purty long party dress! Mr Bear gets a clock

(Blacklight: “What?!?!?” Me: “C-L-O-C-K” Blacklight (disappointed): “Ohhh”).

Now will Mr Bear’s clock get busted?  Duh.  Will Creepy Doll Edith lie about breaking the clock? (It was an accident, but still!). Yup.

Creepy Doll  Edith runs away and almost decides to sneak on a ship and go away for ever and a day. Sadly she changes her mind, goes back home, confesses to Mr Bear and promises to be good.

Yeah right and Blacklight never never ever sneaks out to Dunkee Cup when I’m at work and chugs down an extra large iced coffee with a veggie flatbread sandwich. I must hallucinate the Dunkee Cup bag in the trash at least three times a week! Or I REALLY REALLY REALLY need new glasses ASAP!

There are good points about Edith & Mr Bear.

(Blacklight: “No way! Hey’s there’s a cute little kitty…awwww…kitty kitty kitty”).

If you know about Dare Wright (pick up Jean Nathan’s The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll), you’ll know she shot the bulk of the photos in her own apartment and stitched every inch of Edith’s clothes herself. Dare also has a certain way with light, shadows and scale that make Edith seem almost human in some shots.

(Blacklight (rocking back and forth): “Creepy Doll! Creepy Doll!”).

All in all, Edith learns a lesson, there IS a cute little kitty and I can tell myself “Edith and the Bears are probably locked in a box somewhere right?”.

Eloise In Paris

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

***You can’t escape it…May 2011 Eloise series backlog post…not even hanging with the Big C in R’lyeh**

Things must be getting hot at The Plaza because everyone’s favorite hell child thing that should not exist in a world hotel dweller Eloise is on her way to Paris!

Or Kay Thompson wanted a reason to write off a trip to Europe.

Or someone had worse pictures than Eloise’s mother, the owner of The Plaza and a farm animal.

Whatever the reason, that happy sigh you heard is everyone at The Plaza knowing they can breathe free, have no guest complaints about a certain so called six year old thing that pretends to be human. The horrid wail you hear is everyone in Paris, me and Blacklight because he is trapped in the apartment by a monster cold while I write this.

Blacklight has second hand Eloise damage. Can we file a lawsuit against the estate of Kay Thompson?

No?

DAMNNNNNNN!!!!

So off to Paris go Eloise, her animals and Nannie. But darn it! They’ve just missed Eloise’s mother.

Am beginning to think Eloise’s mother is a mastermind of pure evil so tricksy that Machiavelli and Lord Vetinari take notes. Instead of the long suffering Plaza Hotel, the Relais Bisson (a real place) becomes the home base of the Eloise party.

And then the name dropping begins in earnest.

Git paid Kay Thompson Git paid!

Very few culture spots in Paris are lucky enough to evade Eloise. Even the House of Dior doesn’t manage that! And they’re the ones who popularized the New Look and the Sack dress!

One of the Dior vendeuses is all “merci NON!” and thisclose to doing a Teen Baby eyeroll at the thought of turning hellchild Eloise into a Dior clad little lady. I love that Dior vendeuse so hard and so bad.

Ain’t gonna happen, so just bill (Eloise: CHARGE IT DUMMY! CHARRRRGE IT!) Mama Eloise and git paid.

But eventually the citizens of Paris must rebel or an act of government is passed because our demon seed Eloise returns to America and her beloved Plaza Hotel (still not connecting with the clever as Mr Fox Mama Eloise).

I wonder if you wander The Plaza today, do the ghosts of the depressed and tormented Plaza staff of yore from Eloise’s reign of terror still haunt the hallowed halls?

Blast from the Past: The Westing Game

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

There are some books as a kid you have as assigned reading. Then there’s the books that everyone seems to be reading. Back in the ancient times when Duran Duran was just trying to break the American market, Ronald Reagan was our lord and master and Dallas ruled the airwaves (aka the early 1980s or Damn I’m Getting OLD) the book jammed in the backpacks of the Thornapple Elementary School fifth grader was Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game.

Sixteen people, all living in or having connections to the luxury Sunset Towers on the shores of Lake Michigan, find out they are heirs to the fabulous Westing Paper Products fortune. But there’s a twist. The sixteen heirs are split up into eight teams each trying to solve the puzzle of who killed the late Sam Westing. Winner gets the $200 million Westing fortune.  Each team has four clues written on pieces of Westing paper towels.

Right away the adventure starts. The teams seem to be made up of people who have little in common with each other. Only one team was sensible enough to take notes about the will. The other seven teams want those notes. And a peek at the other clues. But as the teams try to puzzle out the clues, Sunset Towers becomes rocked by a blizzard that leaves the residents snowbound. And to make matters worse, there is a thief AND a bomber prowling around.

For the youngster (and the adult) Raksin’s sharp writing keeps you on your toes. (One character gives her position/profession as none but another heir thinks she wrote down nun). Things aren’t all Mary Sue and sweet. Heck (SPOILER ALERT!!! ALARM ALARM ALARM SPOILER ALERT) Angela being the bomber comes as a shock even when re-reading The Westing Game as an adult. Another writer would have made the bomber more obvious. The Angela that emerges at the end of The Westing Game has a lot more in common with a Fay Weldon character than your typical children’s book.

Back in my day (cue wavery old lady voice with the implied “Git Off Mah Lawn You Rowdy Youngins’!”) The Westing Game wasn’t required reading. Now it’s bound to be on your average elementary/middle school summer reading list. But remember just because a book is required reading doesn’t mean it isn’t a gem!