Once you start it, you won't be able to switch it off!
Advantages:
Highly entertaining and great fun - - - kids might even like it too
Disadvantages:
None
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
It's approaching that time of year again, the season of Goodwill and Peace on Earth. Or as I prefer to think of it, the period of excessive consumerism and blatant greed that sends the old bank balance into a nosedive.
Still, you've got to humour the little monst...children, haven't you?
I first encountered Dick King-Smith when I noticed my son was thoroughly engrossed in a book and wouldn't put it down until he was finished. "Wonderful." I thought, "He's showing some interest in literature. This'll be good for his intellectual development." Unfortunately, he was 25 at the time.
Just kidding. My wee boy was an avid reader of DKS as a child and I rather enjoyed his books myself. Now that there are no tiny proxams creeping around the house, I don't get the chance to read books like this too often. However, all is not lost. This year I have decided to buy some DKS books for various little sprogs in the extended proxam clan. And being the conscientious gift-giver that I am, it's only right and proper that I have a quick delve through them - just to make sure they're suitable, you understand.
The first one I had a look through was THE SCHOOLMOUSE.
In an old Schoolhouse in the country, Hyacinth gave birth to a mouse-daughter called Flora, one of ten children from her first batch. At the time, Hyacinth and Flora's dad, Robin, lived in a hole in one of the classrooms. Later, Hyacinth decides to move out of the classroom and into the field, but Flora remains so she can continue learning to read. Robin and Hyacinth didn't understand, they were dismayed, and indeed, they disapproved. Mices learning to read - the very idea!
This 'tail' follows the adventures of Flora - sometimes funny - sometimes serious - sometimes sad, but always entertaining.
This is the story of a child growing up to be different, to stand out from the crowd. A child who is gifted and knows it and because of this, she doesn't quite fit in. Flora is not at all like her parents. Her mother is a no-nonsense homemaker with a slightly domineering streak, while her father is 'under the thumb' and a bit of a scatterbrain. And while she dearly loves her parents, and her siblings, she yearns for something more and gradually grows into a serious-minded little mouse with an almost all-consuming thirst for knowledge who forever has her snout in a book. A book-mouse, if you will.
Essentially, this story is about Flora and her never-ending search for knowledge. It's about her coming of age and her growth into adulthood. She doesn't know what her future holds, but she's confident there is some purpose to it. Constantly, she learns new words believing that they will be useful to her...sometime - how wise this turns out to be! She does all this quietly, under her own steam and with no encouragement from anyone.
These characters are not written as pretend humans as such, but as a real family in their own real, little world. A world where their horizons don't stretch much further than the school grounds and the fields outside. There are fun and games, hazards and pitfalls, and all the mundane little situations that make up everyday life. But through it all, Flora stands out as slightly superior - an intellectual - when no more is expected of her than to fulfill her role as a future wife and mother. She therefore encounters conflict when events conspire in forcing her to stand-up to her parents and over-rule their decisions and take charge of situations.
DICK KING-SMITH is a rare talent. A writer who can weave a story that young children will love and can easily understand, but still keeping the prose intelligent enough that adults don't find it patronizing. (Well this adult at least)
This book does exactly that. There's no great moral, no lesson for life, it's just a nice story about animals that has some loose parallels with the human world. Well, that's not strictly true. If anything, the importance of education in general, and reading in particular, is brought home to the reader, but you'll have to find out exactly how by reading it yourself.
It's aimed at 6-9 year olds, but I think kids these days get far too much as it is so I'm recommending it for us big kids....let them read Harry Potter and we'll keep the good stuff for the grown-ups!
Seriously though, DKS writes marvellous books for kids, and I've yet to come across one that didn't deliver. As with other DKS books, this one is illustrated with cute little pictures which reinforce the salient points. Published by Hyperion Books ISBN: 0786811560 • THE AUTHOR •
Dick King-Smith was born and bred in Gloucestershire, England. After twenty years or so working as a farmer, he took up teaching and then, began writing books for children. His books mostly concern animals - often farm animals, and especially pigs. Among his best-known books is The Sheep-pig, which most people will be aware of as the film, Babe.
