An Interview with Author Rachelle Delaney!

I am a big fan of Canadian middle grade author Rachelle Delaney. Her books are breezy, delightful, and a great example of classic children’s literature with a modern narrative voice. Click here to check out my review on her latest treat, The Metro Dogs of Moscow. I decided she would be the perfect subject for my first author interview ever!

VV: First, the obvious question. Are you a dog person?

RD: Through and through. My family always had dogs while I was growing up, and for a while I was totally obsessed with learning about all the different breeds. When I was 10, I had almost as many posters of Great Danes and Weimaraners on my bedroom walls as there were posters of horses. I have particular a soft spot for really big dogs.

VV: I have this great image of you observing dogs in their natural habitat, aka the dog park. What sort of dog research did you do for the book?

RD: I guess I’m always observing dogs, even when I don’t realize it. I’m the kind of person who will always take note of a dog but rarely the human holding its leash. So yes, I continued my usual dog observations while preparing to write the book, but I also read some really interesting books on animal behavior to help me get inside a dog’s head and understand its motives. My favourite was the aptly named Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz.

VV: Tell me a bit about your inspiration for this book.

RD: The inspiration came from an article I read three or four years ago in the Globe and Mail. It was just a tiny article, basically stating that in Moscow, there are about 35,000 stray dogs. And some of them have started to take the metro to get around the city.

Obviously, I was intrigued. So I hopped online to do more research, and sure enough, there were entire websites dedicated to these Russian metro dogs. They know where to get on and where to get off to get the best food, and they navigate around the city by listening to the announcer’s voice (which, I discovered on my trip to Moscow, is actually quite helpful. When you’re headed toward the centre of the city, the announcer is male; when you’re headed out, it’s female).

Growing up I was a huge fan of 101 Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp, so I immediately saw the potential to create that kind of a charming adventure inspired by this great premise.

VV: Tell me about your trip to Russia, and how that affected your writing.

RD: I traveled to Russia after the novel had already been accepted for publication. The setting I’d written was lacking in good, sensory details that can only come through experiencing a place firsthand. And I love travelling more than practically anything, and I was so curious to explore Russia.

It was an eye-opening trip. I’d originally described Moscow and kind of a jolly place, where people stopped to pet the stray dogs in the street. I have to laugh at that now. Moscow is huge and chaotic, very polluted and colder than I ever thought possible (and I grew up in Edmonton!). I got a taste of the crazy traffic, the crush of the metro, and distinctly un-Canadian cultural rules like never, ever smiling at strangers. Details like these changed the tone of the story, and also made it richer and more authentic.

VV: Did you have a favourite character to write about in the book?

RD: I love my main character JR. He’s a Jack Russell terrier (hence the name) who is driven by energy, curiosity, and a need to explore. He tries hard to be good, but sometimes his human George is just so maddening that JR—being a terrier—just has to destroy something. I’ve really enjoyed giving him a voice and trying to put his canine sentiments into words. I also love Pie, the submissive and innocent Australian shepherd JR befriends.

VV: What were your favourite books as a child? Do you think you’ve been inspired in any way by these books in your own writing?

RD: My favourite books were usually about animals, so yes, they’ve definitely inspired me. I loved Black Beauty, Where the Red Fern Grows, Charlotte’s Web, and Bunnicula. I was also drawn to large casts, like in The Story Girl and Little Women, which might explain why I can’t seem to write a novel with fewer than 15 or so characters. And I loved feisty, funny female characters, like Pippi Longstocking and Alanna in Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness books.

VV: Like many Canadian writers, you have a day job. How do you find time to write?

RD: Right now I’m lucky enough to work four-day work-weeks, so that certainly helps. I basically dedicate about three hours a day, Friday through Sunday, to writing. If I’m on a tight deadline, I’ll also sneak in an hour of writing before work (usually without actually leaving my bed), but that gets exhausting after a few weeks. It takes a lot of self-discipline, but I’ve been doing it for years, so my writing patterns are very much ingrained now.

Thanks very much to Rachelle for being my first-ever author interview! If you are a Canadian resident and would like to receive a copy of Rachelle’s wonderful book The Metro Dogs of Moscow, please say so in the comment section! The winner will be selected at random next week.

The Secret Lives of Dogs: Metro Dogs of Moscow Review

As a child who could not get enough of ‘the secret lives of animals’ narrative- think 101 Dalmations, The Rescuers, The Aristocats- I very much appreciated this fun romp which seems tailor made for an animated film adaptation from Canadian author Rachelle Delaney.

JR is the dog of George, who works for the Canadian embassy. George travels a lot, which means JR doesn’t get what he most wants in the world: a home. When they arrive in Moscow, JR decides not to get too attached to the city, since they’ll probably be leaving sooner or later. But then he has a chance encounter with a group of savvy stray dogs who introduce him to history, delicious Russian food, and most importantly, adventure.

The premise is like catnip (pardon the cat reference in a post about dogs) to kids. The secret lives of dogs in a foreign city is not only a genius concept, it’s one based on  reality! Check out this savvy stray on the metro system in Russia:

Delaney folds in bits of history and Russian culture throughout the narrative in a manner that is natural and not overwhelming. I particularly enjoyed the parts about ‘dog’ history, perfectly in keeping with the canine characters’ interests but also fun for readers.

Rachelle Delaney has a very classic take on the middle grade narrative. Her stories are gentle, well-paced, full of light humour, imagination, and carefully delivered character growth. I hesitate to use the term old-fashioned, because there is nothing stuffy or out-of-date about her writing. It is timeless rather than trendy. Her books would be comfortable alongside the work of Enid Blyton or Mary Norton. Younger readers  (grade 2-4) who can handle novels but perhaps not older subject matter will be right at home with the Metro Dogs of Moscow,  along with fans of the animal narrative, humour, and a unique concept.

The Metro Dogs of Moscow is available now from Penguin Canada.

Stay tuned for a Q&A with Rachelle sometime this month!

Vancouver folk! Rachelle will be holding a book launch at Kidsbooks  (West Broadway location) on February 7th at 7pm. Click here for more info!

A Gothic Masterpiece: Splendors & Glooms review

Be prepared- this review contains spoilers and incessant gushing.

A Drowned Maiden’s Hair remains one of my favourite contemporary middle grade books and I could not wait to read Schlitz’s next book Splendors and Glooms, which seemed perfectly Victorian and gothic and creepy. The wait was worthwhile, and this book has vaulted into my best books read in 2012 list (post coming soon!)

Clara Wintermute is lonely. After a cholera outbreak takes the lives of her four brothers and sisters, she is the sole child left in a sad, mourning household. But Clara is determined to have a good birthday, and so she begs her father to allow Gaspare Grisini to put on a puppet show for her guests. Clara is enchanted by the puppets, but also by the two children who work with the puppeteer, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall. She hopes to befriend them. Little do the three children know that Grisini has a dark past steeped in magic and horrors involving a curse and a series of kidnappings.

Set in London and Northern England in the 1860s, this is a masterful gothic fairytale from one of my favourite contemporary writers. Something about the tone and structure of this novel reminded me of  old-school fairytales, particularly The Snow Queen. It is dark in the same way fairytales are dark, which is to say there is an element of fantasy or disbelief employed that keeps the reader from crying throughout the whole book. We believe we are reading a fable and therefore we are affected but not traumatized by the story. There are many people who disagree with me, especially on Goodreads, where I made the mistake of browsing some of the reviews and came across a number of angry adult readers who found the book too disturbing for children.

Schlitz and I share a love of prickly protagonists. Maude (from A Drowned Maiden’s Hair) and Flory (from The Night Fairy) have a lot in common with Parsefall the pickpocket-turned-puppeteer. Orphans and fairies tend to be sympathetic, hard-done by, sweet characters, but not so in Schlitz’s work. All three of these characters are independent, selfish, conflicted, and damaged, but not so far-gone that they can’t experience transformation.I have a friend in social work who finds a lot of children’s literature frustrating because the protagonists seem untouched by the horrible and often traumatic situations they have to deal with (Harry Potter comes to mind. There is a kid who in the real world would need some serious therapy). I think she would appreciate Schlitz’ s work, which is more realistic in terms of the psychology of her troubled characters.

Parsefall, for example, is impulsive, selfish, and slow to trust others,  but his loyalty to Lizzie Rose and especially to Clara, when she is turned into a puppet, is touching. Lizzie Rose’s desire to be good no matter what is heartbreaking and inspiring.  The combination of complicated characters and truly striking prose is what makes Schlitz stand apart from the crowd.

This book has an interesting denouement, which is bit longer than most middle grade or even YA novels. It’s very spiritual and cleansing in a way, and Schlitz takes great pains to explain the actions of her villains, if not exonerate their guilt completely. The children’s goodness and forgiveness lightens the heavier aspects of the book and I finished the book with a sense of catharsis that happens to rare these days. A true masterpiece.

Splendors and Glooms is available now in hardcover from Candlewick Press, distributed by RandomHouse in Canada.

Lois Lowry Keeps On Giving: Son Review

Warning- this review contains spoilers, not just for Son, but also for The Giver. If you have not read The Giver, get thee to a bookstore or library NOW!

The Giver lives in my permanent top ten. It is a little slice of literary perfection. The ending, which may be too ambigious or open-ended for some, is an excellent example of how the end of a book should blow the world open for the characters, not tie everything together neatly. So I wasn’t craving a sequel (or ‘conclusion’ according to the book copy*). That being said, I think Lois Lowry is a master at her craft and will read anything she writes.

Son opens with a captivating scene of a girl, referred to by her watchers as a Vessel, being blindfolded before ‘the process’ begins. The process is birth and the girl is Claire, a first-time Birthmother. She has been told little about ‘the process,’ but becomes even more confused as things get complicated and ‘the product’ (the baby) has to be surgically removed. After the process Claire is reassigned, but she can’t stop thinking about her baby. She finds a way into the Nurturing Centre, where all the babies are kept until ready to be assigned to family units. Claire finds her child and from that moment forward her live changes.

Her child, of course, is Gabe, the baby who comes to live with Jonas’ family in The Giver.

The book is divided into three distinct parts. Part one happens simultaneously as The Giver, only we are experiencing the story through the very limited and unaware perspective of Gabe’s mother, Claire. Part two takes place in another community, where Claire struggles to regain both memory and strength before she is able to continue to search for her son. Part three takes place some years later in a third community that has achieved relative peace, with the exception of a dark force known as The Tradesman who stands between Claire and her son.

Each section felt like a complete novella. The middle section reminded me of classic historical fiction that takes place in fishing villages or small hunter-gather communities. It is here we meet my favourite character, Einar. He is the strong, silent type, crippled from a meeting with The Tradesman (a truly horrific and frightening creature). Einar is a gentle soul who trains Claire for her dangerous climb out of the village. Their love story is unusual and unrequited and beautifully rendered.

Like many other final books in series, Son dips into philosophical waters and Lowry makes eloquent statements about desire versus love, service versus sacrifice, and destiny. This often divides readers. Some people get caught up in the concept, story, and world-building of the first book in a series and are unsettled when the final book rocks the boat in terms of spirituality or social commentary. (Think of The Amber Spyglass, Mockingjay, and to some extent, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows). Fortunately, Lowry’s great strength is her subtlety. The book is simultaneously sophisticated and accessible. Like a well-written fable, it appeals to all readers, regardless of age, though I do think some of the themes will resonate more deeply with readers who have read the previous books in the series and are in that 11+ range. The whole book is a great display of craftsmanship, but some paragraphs (the final one in particular) moved me to tears. Her language is full-bodied: rounded, sharp, salty. I would love to have this book read aloud to me.

Son will be available in hard cover from Thomas Allen publishers in Canada on October 2nd 2012.

*Though it is not necessary to read these books in order (The Giver, Gathering Blue, The Messenger, Son), I do strongly recommend it. When characters like Kira and Matty pop up, knowing their histories add so much more depth to the novel. Those moments are little gifts to the reader, something you don’t want to miss out on.

Camp Read-aloud Classic: Kneeknock Rise Review

After the most beautiful long weekend ever, I am kicking my summer reading into high gear. Summer reading makes me think of camp and how I would spend hours carefully choosing the right book to read aloud to my girls in the cabin at night. Some books were made to be read aloud.  Natalie Babbitt is an expert at crafting memorable, rich read-alouds. Tuck Everlasting and The Search for Delicious are two of my all-time favourites, but I had yet to read Kneeknock Rise until I found it while happily browsing the shelves at McNally Robinson Saskatoon.

The people of Instep have the misfortune (or perhaps good fortune) of living near Kneenkock Rise, a mountain that is home to a mysterious creature called the Megrimum that no one has seen, but everyone has heard. When it rains the can be heard wailing as if in pain or in terrible anger. A great carnival happens once  a year, attracting people from all over who come to enjoy the sites , sounds, and of course, hope for a glimpse of the creature. Young Egan is one of these people. When he is dared by his cousin to climb up and discover the mystery for himself he is confronted with the surprising truth.

The heart of this story is about faith. Is knowing the absolute truth more important than holding onto a legend and everything that comes with the legend (imagination, industry, something to rally around, etc)? Babbitt asks these questions and more. She is careful never to be too moralistic, but instead presents various sides of a question and allows the reader to make his or her own conclusion.Throw in a missing person, a loyal dog, and one excellent stormy night scene* and you have a perfect camp read aloud.

How do you pick a great summer read aloud? First of all, pick a book YOU love. The kids will pick up on your enthusiasm and you will all look forward to storytime. I’ve always found that books with an element of mystery (but not too scary, lest homesickness rear it’s ugly head) are popular, and you can ask them what they think will happen after each chapter. Sometimes more philosophical questions and themes work for older campers. Tailor your choices to the group. Going on a canoe trip? Consider something outdoorsy, like Jack London or Gary Paulsen. At an all girls camp? Consider Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares) to inspire camaraderie or Matilda (Roald Dahl) for leadership. Short chapters are convenient for limited camp sessions, as are short story collections.

If you’re a camp counselor or parent looking for a great read aloud this summer,  or perhaps you just want some solid old-fashioned storytelling, be sure to check out Kneeknock Rise. While you’re at it, check out all of Babbitt’s backlist.

There are a number of editions of Kneeknock Rise, but the one I read is published in paperback by Squarefish.

*Ms. Babbitt clearly has a thing for thunderstorms. You may recall the thunderstorm/jailbreak scene in Tuck Everlasting, which is one of my favourite scenes in all of children’s literature.

Porcupines are the New Penguins: Picture Book Trend

A few years ago it seemed like every other picture book featured penguins, and why not? Penguins can be cute, funny, resourceful, family-oriented, quirky, survivors, or figures of environmental tragedy. Think of Tacky the Penguin, Oliver Jeffer’s Lost and Found, Karma Wilson’s Don’t Be Afraid, Little Pip and many other books featuring penguin protagonists. Thanks to movies like Happy Feet and March of the Penguins, you couldn’t help but see them everywhere.

Lately I feel like I’ve been seeing less penguins and more porcupines. I get it- porcupines, at least when rendered in children’s book illustration- are adorable. I mean look at that image of Pearl! So cute, so joyous! So perfect for picture books!  There is much fun to be had with the prickly/difficult to love aspect of the porcupine, and not being able to give or receive hugs is especially tragic to the under 6 set.

From Paul Schmid we have the adorable Hugs from Pearl, the protagonist featured above, soon to be followed by Percy’s Big Idea:

A sketch from the up-coming Percy's Big Idea

New Canadian Christmas classic A Porcupine in a Pine Tree by Helaine Becker replaces the stuffy old partridge of 12 Days of Christmas Lore with an almost cuddly looking porcupine, as rendered by Werner Zimmerman:

Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story (Kara LeReau and Scott Magoon) is the story of two porcupines who find love despite trials and tribulations (in the form of some mean-spirited woodland creatures) along the way:

All of these recent books owe much to the 1989 classic A Porcupine Named Fluffy, interestingly enough brought to you by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger, the same team who created the Tacky the Penguin books. Clearly this duo has a magical ability to create picture book trends:

Fluffy is rocking some rad hair in this cover

And just in case you were concerned that the cute factor of porcupines was being misrepresented, here is a video of a young porcupine with the hiccups that will put your fears to rest. Why are animals infinitely more adorable when they have the hiccups?

At the Top of my Christmas Book List: Zoe’s Christmas List Review

Christmas book lovers are a divided bunch. On one side, you have the people who actively seek out a new Christmas picture book for their collection every year. This is a particularly lovely tradition and one that I partake in with my 28 year old roommate (you’re never too old for picture books). Then you have those staunch traditionalists who prefer the tried and true classics and think new Christmas books are just a savvy marketing ploy to get people to buy more books (is this really such a bad thing? Can you have TOO many books?) To both groups I present Zoe’s Christmas List, a lovely book sure to please both camps.

You may know Zoe and Beans from the delightful series of the same name by Mick and Chloe Inkpen (yes, THAT Mick Inkpen of Kipper and Wibbly Pig fame. Chloe is his uber-talented daughter) Zoe is an imaginative toddler with Oliver-Jeffers-esque stick legs and Beans is her scruffy dog. In Zoe’s Christmas List, the pair head off to the North Pole to ensure that Father Christmas (British for Santa) gets her Christmas list which has only one entry: a Kylie Kurlz doll. Along the way they run into perhaps the cutest polar bear in children’s illustration. Because he seems lost, Zoe invites him along on the journey. They make it to the North Pole, but a storm blows up and the intrepid trio has a near disaster on the way home.

As with all of the Zoe and Beans books, Zoe’s Christmas List is about friendship. Kylie Kurlz, the doll of Zoe’s dreams and the only thing on her list, is forgotten when Little Bear is in danger. Finding a new friend is the best gift of all, though Father Christmas comes through in the end with a surprise for Zoe.  The design of this book is exquisite, starting off fairly sparse and then becoming busier and busier as the snow storm gets worse. I especially love the pages on which Zoe, Beans and Little Bear are reflected in the water. There is a delightful three page fold-out featuring Little Bear’s marathon swim

How can you not love Zoe and Beans?

The Inkpens do some fun things with language while keeping the story simple and straight forward. The narrator imparts important lessons without seeming condescending, such as “Did you know that when sticky tape gets wet it loses all it’s stick?” This is the kind of practical lesson a young child appreciates. I also enjoyed the moment of internal rhyme when Zoe offers Little Bear a sandwich: “Ham? Or jam?” You can read this to a very young child (2 or 3), but older children (5 or 6) will find the story just as comforting and charming. Zoe’s Christmas List is a  much welcome addition to my Christmas collection, and it will be to yours, too.

Looking for other great contemporary Christmas books? Try one of these, from my 2010 Twelve Books of Christmas Round-up:

The Christmas Giant

Wombat Divine

Elijah’s Angel

Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree

The Christmas Magic

Summer Fun in Key West: Turtle in Paradise

A pretty cover that captures the summer aspect of the book, but not its rascally spirit

Ah, summer reading! The things I want to get out of a summer read are as follows: a summery setting, preferably with water nearby; a coming of age story; a bit of a mystery, and at least one moment that brings a lump to my throat or a tear to my eye. I want a good story, but I don’t want to work too hard-it is summer, afterall. Please keep in mind that I hold every summer book up to the Gold Standard of summer books, Looking at the Moon by Kit Pearson.*

I have been meaning to read Jennifer L. Holm’s Newbury honor winning Turtle in Paradise for some time, and I am glad to have finally got to it. All of my summer reading must-haves are present in this book, and much more besides. During the heigh of the Depression, eleven year old Turtle arrives at Curry Lane, a ramshackle street in Key West, to stay with her aunt while her mother tries to make money as a housekeeper for a lady who hates children. Turtle arrives in a world completley different from her own, with exotic fruit trees, oddly named people (Beans, Slow Poke, Pork Chop, Killie the Horse), scorpions, and rumoured pirate treasure. Just about the only thing she recognizes is the abject poverty that has infected the nation. Pretty soon she has ensconsed herself in daily life, taking care of babies and their diaper rash as part of her cousins’ business venture, The Diaper Gang; engaging in a sort of wild potluck called a cut-up; trying to keep her cat out of her harried aunt’s way; and charming her mean old grandmother and a sea captain named Slow Poke. Turtle is a smart, if somewhat hard-boiled kid. She knows that life isn’t like a Shirley Temple movie or Little Orphan Annie, but when she stumbles upon a potential treasure map, she starts to think that maybe Hollywood endings CAN happen.

It is rare to find a a book with a female narrator that I can hand to a boy and say with full confidence, ”you will like this,” but despite what its fairly feminine cover suggests, this book has lots of appeal for both boys and girls. Turtle is plucky and smart and holds her own with the boys. In fact, she is the only female character (other than some moms and grandmothers) of any consequence in the book; all of the major supporting players are rascally boys. Holm references the funny papers that were so popular in the 1930s and she has managed to capture their spirit in the comraderie and hijinx that the Diaper Gang get up to. Think Little Rascals or Newsies.

I love when a realistic setting is so unique and unusual that it almost feels as though you have stumbled into a fantasty novel. Holm’s rendering of Key West in the depression is a fascinating world that is very much rooted in history and authenticity, but is so quirky it feels otherwordly at times. The reader gets to experience Key West through the eyes of an equally bewildered narrator, who is also new to the setting. I loved the afterward, which gave more info on what facts were true and where the author got her inspiration.

My only complaint is that after a fairly big reveal with major consequences, the book wraps up very quickly. I would have liked to spend a bit more time with Turtle after this life-changing incident, just to see how she digests the information and deals with the fall-out. Instead, Holm hints that things will be fine and ends before the reader can ask any questions. I could have used one more chapter to tie things up, but this is in no way deterred from my enjoyment of the book overall. This is a fairly fast-paced story and would make a really fun read aloud for someone who enjoys doing voices. You can read it aloud to children as young as 6, but I think it will be most enjoyed by independent readers, aged 8-12.

Turtle in Paradise is available in paperback from Random House.

*Who has a new book out this fall. I have read it, it is fabulous, review coming soon!

Double the Tails, Double the Fun:The Melancholic Mermaid

I am so excited to introduce you to this marvelous new picture book written by a dear and talented friend of mine. At it’s heart, The Melancholic Mermaid is about two children who feel outcast due to physical abnormalities coming to terms with themselves through an unlikely and touching friendship. It is also funny, magical, and marks the arrival of an exciting new voice in Canadian picturebooks, Kallie George.

Maude is a merbaby born with two tails. Even though her parents insist this is a blessing, she feels quite the opposite. Tony is a boy with webbed hands. Fate brings them together at a cruel circus, where Tony is forced to clean Maude’s tank and realizes that those bubbles rising from her face are tears. Together, the two of them make a brave dash for the ocean, in search of their own personal brand of happily ever after.

It is clear that George is a student of fairytale masters such as Hans Christian Anderson and Oscar Wilde. The narrative style and structure of her story, which is divided into sections with such lovely titles as “The Tears of Bubbles and How They Began,” are very traditional.  What makes this tale contemporary is the inclusion of loving adults, in the form of Maude’s devoted parents. Generally good parenting is hard to come by in fairytales, a fact which is brilliantly parodied in the title of a recent collection of fairytales for adults, My Mother She Ate me, My Father He Killed Me. There is also a happy ending  for both Maude and Tony, though not a romantic one, and the absense of a horrible bloody death, something that can not be said about the Grimm’s or Anderson’s fairytales.

George’s gift is her imagination, which is evidenced not only by her concepts and storytelling, but by her language. It is fresh and charming, though never cutesy. She has the ability to surprise and delight the reader with unexpected turns of phrase. This makes it an excellent read aloud. Lucky for George, Abigail Halpin’s illustration are well suited to her story; both dreamy and understated, which allows the text to shine.

There has been a lot of debate lately regarding whether or not picture books are dying out. According to articles like this one, parents are pushing their children to read novels at a younger age, therefore shrinking the already small window of time that children enjoy picture books. This saddens me. Picture books are lovingly crafted and mutli-layered works of art that celebrate story, language, art, and design. Sharing a picture book with a child is one of the things an e-reader will never be able to simulate. I don’t understand why learning to read at an earlier age and books with pictures are suddenly mutually exclusive, but perhaps the stop-gap will be filled by well-crafted longer format picturebooks like The Melancholic Mermaid.

Having known and worked with Kallie for a number of years I could not be more proud. This is truly a book to treasure, and I know many young people (and their parents!) who will not only enjoy The Melancholic Mermaid, but beg for multiple readings.

The Melancholic Mermaid is available now from Simply Read Books.

A Dutch Treat for a Cold Winter’s Day

Today we have a double-bill of delightful Dutch books by celebrated poet Toon Tellegen. The first, The Squirrel’s Birthday and Other Parties, is a collection of nine animal tales that all centre around parties. In the second volume, Letters to Anyone and Everyone, the stories revolve around letters, both giving and receiving.

In Tellegen’s world, happiness is measured in birthday parties, dancing, cake, and receiving a letter. I think this is an excellent outlook on life. The logic in these stories is the off-kilter, child-like kind, where whales dance with seaguls, elephants climb trees, snails build cottages or apartment buildings on top of their shells. They have the same spirit as A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh books, but with a more European sensibility. Squirrel, with all his anxieties, is the Dutch equivalent of Rabbit. There is even a Bear, who much like Pooh, spends most of the book in search of cakes, preferably honey cakes, although this bear is described as distinguised rather than all stuffed with fluff.

Charm is a tricky thing, very hard to force and disastrous if applied too thickly. These stories avoid being too sweet or too philosophical. They are subtly and expertly crafted, and then paired with Jessica Ahlberg’s* sublime spot illustrations, culminating in the absolute gold standard of book creation. Everything works, the format, the design, the font, everything! I love both of these books from the story titles to the delicate spot illustrations right down to the spidery silver tree on the endpages. The Squirrel’s Party and Letters to Anyone and Everyone are books to snuggle up with and share, or perhaps read a story to yourself before bed and drift off to sleep pondering what it means to write a letter to a table or throw a party for an ant. I know I did. Sweet dreams ensued.

The Squirrel’s Birthday and Other Parties and Letters to Anyone and Everyone are available now from Boxer Books.

*Yes, Jessica Ahlberg is related to THE Ahlbergs, Janet and Allan- who are her parents. Now is that pedigree or what?!