The Journey Home

Author and Illustrator: Frann Preston-Gannon
Ages: 3+ years

The author of this story happens to be the only person from UK who has won the prestigious "Sendak Fellowship" and worked on this book while staying with the author himself during the fellowship program. The book is so neatly written and illustrated so splendidly that it is hard to believe that this is the author's first picture book, although she has illustrated for Walker books, Burt's Bees etc before.

The world as we knew it has since deteriorated. The world as we know it is being devastated by us even as I am writing this. I sometimes wonder if all this pollution and deforestation could ever do anything at all to Earth which has borne testimony to life and endurance since its genesis. One giant wave, one rapid solar flare, one meteor blaze and all the plastics in the world would vanish into thin air. And before long, life forms would start establishing themselves afresh. To quote one of my most favourite lines by Dr Malcolm from Jurassic Park, " Life will find a way".

But that does not in any way justify what Man is doing to his co-inhabitants- how he is unethically, unlawfully, inhumanely destroying their homes, their food and the creatures themselves. It is nothing but pure horror story. If this is what is the survival of the fittest, then I am ashamed to survive.

In this wonderfully penetrating book, the author handles just this very issue, but in such a simple way that children could understand. It certainly is a book that parents should read out to kids or read with them, because it opens up so many avenues for discussions and would hopefully linger inside the children long enough for them to decide on acting upon issues in any way they could ( walk more and use car less, reduce plastic bags, plant trees, recycle properly and be sensitive to nature. After all, as my DS2 said, we are 100% natural, but 100% acting against nature!).

The story opens with the Polar bear sitting on a tiny iceberg wondering where the ice had all gone, because its food had also disappeared with the ice. So he is forced to swim away, and finds a lone boat and climbs into it. Soon, he swims by a city of machines and sky scrapers and finds a lone Panda there. He is certainly the odd thing out in a concrete jungle with no bamboo shoots to eat, so he joins the polar bear.

As they float on into what was once a jungle before deforestation but now just tree stubs, they spot an Orang-utan looking so lost as there aren't any more trees to climb on. They invite his to join the boat and they all sail along. Very soon they spot an elephant who is hiding behind a boulder from poachers trying to steal his tusks. He joins the boat gang as well.

Then the boat sails into a storm and drifts very far away form their homes. The animals think of their homes and miss them so terribly. They feel completely lost until they sight a Dodo in a tiny tropical island. They tell the Dodo that they want to go back home. The wise Dodo says that that is very much possible "when the trees grow back and when the ice returns and when the cities stop getting bigger and bigger and hunting stops".

And when the Polar bear questions when that would be, Dodo just says " I don't know, let's see what tomorrow brings".

And there is the beautiful picture of those animals huddled together and looking at a lovely sunset.

All through the story, the animals never stop to admire nature - the gulls, the fish, the clouds and the sunset. It gives  you a feeling that they are really connected and completely blend into nature, unlike Man.

The illustrations have a hint of Eric Carle's tissue paper creatures. They are simple, but emote remarkably, a bit disturbingly as they seem to question our conscience so much. In all, this is a perfect bed-time cuddle book with a strong message.

The journey home. Perilous but Possible. If only...

Where the Wild Things are

Author: Maurice Sendak
Ages: 3+

After my last post about the graphic and scary illustrations and demons in stories being like similes and metaphors for man's negative qualities, I was somehow reminded of this wonderful book that we used to enjoy reading a lot - Where the Wild Things are. I somehow forgot the author and asked my elder son if he knew. He went, "Oh! That's the book President Obama read to kids, it is by Maurice Sendak. Did you know he died last year? Did you know he was Jewish? And he wrote the book in 1963?".

That was information overloading for me. I quietly went to wiki to check out the facts, and they were bang on. It turns out that they had a special assembly about Maurice Sendak in school and listened to President Obama reading the book out to kids. Nice gesture by the school, I thought.

Imagine this situation. You get angry over a silly thing and then you keep on sticking to the angry mode, mainly because you've rather started revelling in it. You do and say things that you would regret later. You want to stop it, but you are enjoying the vent and rampage. And you continue brooding and sulking until the point where you realize it doesn't make sense any more. You actually long for the other person's attention, you want to be laughing with them and be normal again. That last bit of letting go isn't quite easy, as your indignant ego tries to pull you back into the anger. Finally, when you snap out of it, you find that a mega cuddle and smile puts everything back on track and you're back to normal.

Children go through this, too. They act wild sometimes and when they get told off , they sulk and stamp around for a bit too long, until they realize their mistake and quietly come behind you, eyes begging for a hug. A cuddle and a kiss and they are instantly transformed into tame puppies waiting to be pampered :o).

Max, the boy in this story, is like that. One day he exceeds his naughtiness levels and his annoyed mother calls him a wild thing. Max shouts at her that he would eat her up. So he gets grounded with a " No food go to bed" order in his bedroom. I guess he either sleeps off and dreams, or perhaps does an angry role play with his toys and the play tent that he sets up in his room. The room transforms into a forest and he sets sail in a boat to a land where the wild things are.

Now these things, they are wild, they have gnashing teeth and claws and look monstrous, but there is something really timid about them. Some pages have just illustrations and no text, but the pictures tell the story even better. Max tames all of them by looking into their eyes and then he becomes their king. They go on a rampage and create a great ruckus, until Max gets bored and sends them off to bed without food. Then his anger fizzles out and he feels really lonely and longs for home. But the wild things don't want to let him go. He finally somehow manages to come home to the smell of food ( of course mums seldom mean what they say!) in his table and he happily eats away.

When this came out as a movie, I was very much looking forward to seeing it. But somehow it was never meant to be. Not yet, at least. I read in reviews that the movie is on the mellow side and plays to the melancholic emotions. One of the reviews said "This movie portrays how children can lose their fear only by losing their innocence". Heavy, but eerily true sometimes.  I wonder if this ended up as one of those Disney movies which look like it is designed for the kids, but has all adult emotions tied inside. There's a child inside all of us, but alas! there ain't no grown ups inside kids! The good thing is that the children usually don't make the adult link, they just enjoy the movie as it is.

Max is wild. He is playful and has a vivid imagination. He has fear, anger, pride. He shouts at loved ones and then repents. He longs for love, forgiveness and acceptance. He is like us. He is us. (check your simile and metaphor!).

Here's an animated version in Youtube. And an audio book.

Some of the parents might object to the illustrations and the bad qualities exhibited by Max, and some children may not probably like seeing hideous creatures ( only as hideous as the illustration in the cover, maybe with some extra toothy grins and claws)

Where the Wild Things are. Right within us!