Beneath the Sugar Sky is a 2019 Hugo Awards finalist in the Best Novella category.
This will always be the Wayward Children Road Trip book to me. As soon as this disparate bunch of kids piled into the school minivan and set off on their journey I rejoiced, and their adventure just kept getting better and better, venturing through different worlds on their quest to help Rini, who fell from the sky near the beginning of the book.
This book took me an embarrassingly loooong time to read and I take full responsibility because I loved it! It unfortunately became one of those reads where life happened in between. I only wanted to read it whenever I could fully appreciate the brilliance that is Seanan McGuire, and let’s just say that 2018 sucked for me.
Recharged by the impending release of In an Absent Dream 💜 I knew I had to finish this one and, even after months of not having read a single page, I slipped straight back into the story. I hope to do a review that does some sort of justice to this book after a reread but for now please enjoy a sample of my favourite quotes:
“It’s never a good idea to eat the ground,” she said blithely, cake between her teeth and frosting on her lips. “People walk on it.”
Chandeliers of sugar crystals hung from the vaulted, painted chocolate ceiling. Stained sugar glass windows filtered and shattered the light, turning everything into an explosion of rainbows.
“It’s going to be okay. You’ll see. Just hang on. This would be a stupid way to die.”
“Sometimes that’s all you can do. Just keep getting through until you don’t have to do it anymore, however much time that takes, however difficult it is.”
“Every world gets to make its own rules. Sometimes those rules are going to be impossible. That doesn’t make them any less enforceable.”
Everyone who wound up at Eleanor West’s School – everyone who found a door – understood what it was to spend a lifetime waiting for something that other people wouldn’t necessarily understand. Not because they were better than other people and not because they were worse, but because they had a need trapped somewhere in their bones, gnawing constantly, trying to get out.
There is kindness in the world, if we know how to look for it. If we never start denying it the door.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.)
If she can’t find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests …
I’ve read it twice so far and I picked up so much more the second time around. I began to suspect something was up when I began to find random Stephen King references in the illustrations early on during my first read. I started specifically looking for them and found more of those and plenty of other beauties. I won’t tell you all of the references I found because that would take all the fun out of finding them yourself but some of the standouts for me were:
Pennywise
237
Slimer
Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
Jason’s mask
Freddy Krueger’s shirt
Audrey II
A cat clock that looked suspiciously like it was borrowed from Doc Brown.
And my absolute favourite? The Proton Vac!
That’s nowhere near all of the ones I’ve found and I’m under no illusion that I’ve found them all – yet!
Oh, and the story’s a lot of fun as well. Sir Simon Spookington has haunted a lot of things in his career but this is his first time haunting a house. He’s excited to be haunting grandparents as old people are on top of The Pyramid of Haunting. With his free time (because, as we all know, old people sleep all the time! 😜) Sir Simon is looking forward to working on his novel, but things don’t exactly go to plan.
SO. MUCH. FUN. 👻
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
A delightful, funny story of friendship, ghost chores, a spooky house and a professional haunter.
Meet Sir Simon, Super Scarer. He’s a professional ghost who has been transferred to his first house. And just in time! He was getting tired of haunting bus stops and forests and potatoes. And to top it off, this house is occupied by an old lady – they’re the easiest to haunt!
But things don’t go as planned when it turns out a KID comes with this old lady. Chester spots Simon immediately and peppers him with questions. Simon is exasperated … until he realises he can trick Chester into doing his ghost chores. Spooky sounds, footsteps in the attic, creaks on the stairs – these things don’t happen on their own, you know!
After a long night of haunting, it seems that maybe Chester isn’t cut out to be a ghost, so Simon decides to help with Chester’s human chores. Turns out Simon isn’t cut out for human chores either.
The author considers the difficulty of categorising this book and I agree; it’s a blend of personal experience, other peoples’ experiences and insights. What kept popping into my head as I was reading was that it’s a conversation. I loved Sohaila’s down to earth tone and how she makes this multifaceted and too often silenced experience approachable. Her writing is considered and empathetic. She doesn’t shy away from the gravity of the trauma associated with rape, yet at the same time I came away feeling hopeful and validated.
Discussions about rape are so often irrational, and sometimes outright bizarre. It’s the only crime to which people respond by wanting to lock up the victims. It’s the only crime that is so bad that victims are supposed to be destroyed beyond repair by it, but simultaneously not so bad that the men who do it should be treated like other criminals.
Although titled What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape this book is also about what we don’t talk about when we talk about rape, like how
it’s the weirdest things that can get you. Like dentophobia.
When I was two thirds of the way through this book I’d already recommended it to a counsellor who works for my state’s rape crisis hotline and would recommend it to anyone who has experienced sexual assault, knows someone who has experienced sexual assault, works with people who have experienced sexual assault or want to read an intelligent, thoughtful book about this truly global issue. While there are stories of people from America in this book there are also those from all of those other places that aren’t America, like India, Australia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. There’s also a wonderful cross section of peoples’ experiences, from the poorest and most marginalised to well known cases and celebrities.
Although I’ve read a lot, both fiction and non-fiction, about sexual assault and experienced more than my fair share, I still came across a lot in this book that made me pause and reevaluate my own preconceived ideas. I also found some lightbulb moments which have helped me make some sense out of nonsense.
The whole notion of institutional consent, which holds to account both men and women, was surprisingly new to me;
you know you can get away with it because the whole system is set up to help you get away with it.
My favourite lightbulb moment during my first read of this book (I expect it will be the first of many reads) came when I encountered an acronym that has validated my experience so much. Jennifer Freyd, writing about betrayal trauma theory in the nineties,
proposed that abusers frequently respond to accusations with “DARVO” – Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.
This has helped me understand why a rapist overtly threatened me with legal action twice (so far) for reporting him and covertly attacked my credibility. While he had a serious amount of institutional consent behind him and is currently the owner of a Rape Free Card, this new knowledge has helped me in the best possible way … I know I’m not alone and there’s even an acronym to prove it.
There were a few sections that seemed a bit disjointed to me and details of some stories were repeated in a couple of chapters, although the repetition did serve to remind me which person’s experience I was reading about. Absent from this book was any mention of women who rape; while uncommon, it does happen, and I would be interested to hear what this author has to say about it.
This book is sociological, political, personal and contradictory. Now, contradictory may sound like a criticism but it’s not and as Sohaila expresses, rape and the way we talk about it is contradictory, so to highlight these contradictions is vital to an honest discussion. I loved/hated the “Lose-Lose Rape Conundrum”; it is so infuriatingly accurate:
If you talk about it, you’re a helpless victim angling for sympathy. If you’re not a helpless victim, then it wasn’t such a big deal, so why are you talking about it? If you’re surviving and living your life, why are you ruining some poor man’s life? Either it’s a big deal, so you’re ruined, or it’s not a big deal and you should be quiet.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and The New Press for the opportunity to read this book. My current activism level is set to: Need to do something positive immediately!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Thoughtful, provocative and intelligent, this game-changing book looks at sexual assault and the global discourse on rape from the viewpoint of a survivor, writer, counsellor and activist.
Sohaila Abdulali was the first Indian rape survivor to speak out about her experience. Gang-raped as a teenager in Mumbai and indignant at the deafening silence on the issue in India, she wrote an article for a women’s magazine questioning how we perceive rape and rape victims. Thirty years later she saw the story go viral in the wake of the fatal 2012 Delhi rape and the global outcry that followed.
Drawing on three decades of grappling with the issue personally and professionally, and on her work with hundreds of other survivors, she explores what we think about rape and what we say. She also explores what we don’t say, and asks pertinent questions about who gets raped and who rapes, about consent and desire, about redemption and revenge, and about how we raise our sons. Most importantly, she asks: does rape always have to be a life-defining event, or is it possible to recover joy?
Once upon a time, many moons ago, I balanced precariously upon the cliffhanger of book one. Now I’ve devoured book two and am perched above another cliff.
‘But that’s a story for another day.’
Nooooo!
I hate the waiting game!
Me too, Ninja Kid! It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to read this book (March was forever ago, right?) and it didn’t disappoint. I think we’ve already established that I’m obsessed with all of Anh Do’s kid’s books and after only two books I think the Ninja Kid series is going to be my favourite.
They’re such feel-good books; they always make me smile and I come away from the experience feeling better about the world. In this instalment, Ninja Kid (Nelson) is up against all of the machines in Duck Creek, which are mysteriously coming to life each time it rains. There’s also a class excursion to the zoo that includes a stampede of zoo animals.
Once again Ninja Kid is teamed up with H-Dude (his best friend and cousin, Kenny) and awesome inventor Grandma Pat, who will always be my favourite character in the series. His mother is also there, but not in a starring role. In this book we find out just who that evil guy in the helicopter from the first book is and a little of his dastardly plan but the scene is set for Ninja Kid and helicopter guy to do battle another day.
Because Ninja Kid is sort of a superhero in the making his disguise of a sock fashioned into a mask is more than enough to deem him unrecognisable to everyone who knows him, even when he’s wearing the exact same clothes in Ninja mode and Nelson mode. However unbelievable this may seem, the precedence has already been established by many superheroes before him.
Both Nelson and Kenny face their fears in this book and the writing is often so corny it’s funny.
‘I hate vacuum cleaners!’ said Kenny. ‘They suck!’
It was hard to argue with him!
Jeremy Ley’s illustrations are magic! Some pages had two illustrations and there was only one page in the entire book that only had text. While Anh is one of my favourite kid’s authors, Jeremy has easily become one of my favourite illustrators. There’s humour in the pictures that matches that of the text, the expressions on the peoples’ faces are easy to ‘read’ and what’s happening in the book matches what’s happening in the pictures. I can’t believe how many kid’s books I’ve read where the illustrations have huge details that don’t line up with the description in the text, so finding illustrators that get it all right is a huge plus for me. Jeremy ticks every box and makes me wish he’d teach me how to draw.
I need the third book now please! ‘Coming soon’ is way too long to wait!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Nelson is a ninja. He’s not the coolest. Or the bravest. But he is the world’s nerdiest ninja! And now he has to stop an animal rampage and machines going crazy all over town! For that, he’ll need his new jetpack … and some serious ninja skills! How will Nelson learn to fly when he’s scared of heights?!
“It is a long and tragic story full of dark alleys and twists and turns and many unexpected happenings,” I said. “And also curses. There are curses in the story.”
When Louisiana’s Granny wakes her at 3am, bundles her in the car and starts driving, Louisiana assumes this is just another one of Granny’s “middle-of-the-night ideas”. But this time Granny keeps driving and Louisiana wonders if she’ll ever see Raymie and Beverly (her two best friends), Archie the King of the Cats or one eyed dog Buddy again.
Louisiana’s story should be devastating and believe me when I tell you that parts of it are (have tissues on hand), but Louisiana’s perseverance, determination and courage transforms her story into one of hope. My main niggle was that while Louisiana did express sadness, anger and confusion about her circumstances, the extent of those very understandable feelings appeared to be glossed over on occasion in the rush to find the positive.
This is Louisiana’s second appearance in a Kate DiCamillo book but the first of Kate’s books I’ve read. After falling in love with Louisiana I’ve ordered Raymie Nightingale from the library (I love my library!). While I could easily jump straight into reading Louisiana’s Way Home without having already read Raymie Nightingale I want to get to know Raymie and Beverly. I‘m keen to find out what Louisiana was up to two years ago and am very interested in learning more about Louisiana’s relationship with her Granny.
Louisiana is simply adorable and I was equally fond of many of the people she meets along the way. I also appreciated the roles the cantankerous characters played and I loved that the author was able to bring all of the characters to life, even those we only meet briefly. I want to tell you all about the different characters that I fell in love with but I don’t want to spoil anything for you so instead will encourage you to discover them all for yourself.
In some ways, this is a story of woe and confusion, but it is also a story of joy and kindness and free peanuts.
Louisiana’s story is ultimately one of family, friendship and deciding who you want to be. This young girl is going to find her way into the hearts of so many readers, children and adults alike. I already know that I’m going to want to reread this book once I’ve read Raymie Nightingale and I expect that I’m going to need to read more of this author’s books as soon as possible.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Reread 12 June 2019
I am absolutely in love with this book! I didn’t think I could love Louisiana more than I did when I first read her story but I was so wrong. I want to hug her and make her feel safe and wanted and loved, and never let her go. This story is about deciding who you are, something we all need to do. Louisiana just has to make that decision earlier than most people. It’s a heartbreaking and heartwarming story and it’s gorgeous!
I appreciated the Allen family more with this reread too. All of the Burke Allen’s and the sole Betty Allen are my new favourite people; I want to bake with Betty and hang out with every Burke. I want to meet Clarence and let him know he can trust me.
I finally read Raymie Nightingale and jumped straight into this reread. I realise now that there are spoilers in this book for Raymie so I’d recommend reading the Three Rancheros books in publication order. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to read Beverly’s story early and will be starting Beverly, Right Here right now!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
From two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo comes a story of discovering who you are – and deciding who you want to be.
When Louisiana Elefante’s granny wakes her up in the middle of the night to tell her that the day of reckoning has arrived and they have to leave home immediately, Louisiana isn’t overly worried. After all, Granny has many middle-of-the-night ideas. But this time, things are different. This time, Granny intends for them never to return.
Separated from her best friends, Raymie and Beverly, Louisiana struggles to oppose the winds of fate (and Granny) and find a way home. But as Louisiana’s life becomes entwined with the lives of the people of a small Georgia town – including a surly motel owner, a walrus-like minister, and a mysterious boy with a crow on his shoulder – she starts to worry that she is destined only for good-byes. (Which could be due to the curse on Louisiana’s and Granny’s heads. But that is a story for another time.)
Book nerds rejoice! Debbie Tung doesn’t just understand us; she’s one of us! Debbie first drew scenes from my life in her debut Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert’s Story and now she’s gained access to the bookish part of me which, let’s face it, is pretty much all that’s left once you take away the introvert part.
This is my second (but not final) read of this graphic novel and once again Debbie’s nailed it. Her illustrations perfectly capture the bliss of escaping into a book, the allure of a book sale, the horror of finishing a book and knowing you have to wait a whole year before you can dive into the sequel, and the special kind of magic you experience when your book order arrives. Debbie explores the bookish nightmare of a favourite book being massacred by its film, the horror of price sticker residue and the devastation you feel when someone ruins the end of the book you’re reading.
Debbie talks about how we read, where we read, why we read, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so understood.
Every turn of the page resulted in validation of my bookish experiences.
There was only one page I was glad I couldn’t relate to – when you have to choose between books because you’ve reached the maximum amount you can have on loan at any one time from the library. Thankfully my wonderful librarians consider the loan limit a suggestion, not a strict rule, where I’m involved; just one more reason why my library is the best in the world!
I cannot get enough of this book and only wish it had been several hundred pages longer.
I wonder what part of my life Debbie is going to tackle next … Whatever it is, I need to read it immediately!
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for introducing me to Debbie with Quiet Girl and giving me the opportunity to remember why I need every book she ever publishes.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Bookworms rejoice! These charming comics capture exactly what it feels like to be head-over-heels for hardcovers. And paperbacks! And ebooks! And bookstores! And libraries!
Book Love is a gift book of comics tailor-made for tea-sipping, spine-sniffing, book-hoarding bibliophiles. Debbie Tung’s comics are humorous and instantly recognisable – making readers laugh while precisely conveying the thoughts and habits of book nerds. Book Love is the ideal gift to let a book lover know they’re understood and appreciated.
One thing you should probably know about me is that I absolutely adore abandoned photography so this review was never going to be unbiased. Most of the photos I’ve seen until now have been of abandoned America so I was really excited to see how amazing abandoned Japan looked. This is the coffee table book of my dreams!
From the snowy mountains of Hokkaido down to the southern tropics of Okinawa, these modern ruins or, ‘haikyo’, provide a paused and romantically silent contrast to a country known for the brightness, sound and movement that swells in so many of its thriving metropolises.
Shane Thoms took me on a journey through hospitals that looked like they belong in a horror movie,
resorts, hotels and restaurants whose still intact chandeliers tell a luxurious tale of days past, mines and industry that once employed thousands, theme parks and leisure with rides that still look like fun despite the rust, and schools where what looked like a gigantic stuffed walrus remains in perpetual time out, facing the wall in shame.
Besides enjoying the overall haunting beauty of this type of photography I also like to look closely, searching for telltale signs of the people who have lived within the walls; their stories whispering through the faded portraits gathering dust on the floor or calendars on the wall frozen in time during a specific month many years ago. While most of the photos have muted colours there are pockets of green where plants are growing through the floors or finding their way through broken windows.
I always wonder about the story behind each abandonment, how a building that has housed or entertained so many can be seemingly forgotten and left behind for nature to reclaim.
There’s an inherent sadness wandering through the shadowy halls; even the sunlight appears subdued as it fights its way through grime and mould.
I was surprised by the lack of graffiti in these photos but particularly liked the pink UFO captured mid flight. I loved the abandoned bathhouse with the cute sculpture of a person made from water containers that’s standing in the middle of the room.
I wanted to visit Nara Dreamland, an entire abandoned theme park, with its rusted rollercoasters
and demonic looking witch with fangs who overlooked the entrance to the haunted house.
Sadly this particular haikyo was purchased and its dismantling began in 2016.
I really need to buy this book so someone else has the opportunity to appreciate this library book instead of borrowing it time and time again.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Stepping away from the lights and into the shadows, one adventurous photographer embarks on an underground voyeuristic journey, documenting a curious collection of images that provide a rare and intimate glimpse into a secret, mysterious and sometimes bizarre world. Miniature jungles sprout and thrive in the rooms of a discarded beachside resort. Filled with curiosities and eccentric furniture, a long forgotten love hotel crumbles away on the outskirts of a small country town. Inside a large snow covered building, a giant taxidermy walrus sits wedged in the corner of a darkened, dust filled room.
After years of abandonment, vines and foliage take over from past crowds to engulf roller coasters, carousels and water slides in a swampy amusement park. Rows of stools await more customers as the years pass by in a dilapidated strip club filled with retro treasures. Each with its own unique story to tell, the end result is the presentation of a fascinating realm where one can contemplate Japan’s hidden journey from permanence to disposability, composition to decomposition and construction to deconstruction.
Sometimes I don’t know what I miss more: everything I’ve lost or everything I never had.
I don’t usually say this but for this book I will. Please don’t read too many reviews prior to reading this book, but please, read this book! I finished reading only a few minutes ago and the tears that haven’t been soaked up by several tissues are currently drying on my face, which I expect looks like a mess!
It’s not about finding peace. There will never be peace.
This was my first, but certainly not my last Courtney Summers book and I didn’t know what to expect other than knowing there was a mystery. I know Sadie, the book and the character, will haunt me. Before I’d finished the first 50 pages I was already searching my library catalogue for more of Courtney’s books. This surprised me because I often struggle with books that switch between formats; in this case some chapters are told from Sadie’s perspective in first person and others are transcripts of podcasts. In this book I loved the different voices that contributed to the story and never felt the jarring that can happen during transitions from one to the other.
Ever since Mattie died, it’s been like this, this surfacing of ugly things, forcing me to witness them because living through it all wasn’t enough. When Mattie was alive, I could push it down inside me because I had things to do, I had to look after her. And now … I still have things to do.
In the beginning the podcast is well behind Sadie as she searches for her sister’s killer. I both longed for and feared the podcast catching up to her in its timeline. This book tackles so many painful topics but for the most part I didn’t feel weighed down; instead I was bouyed by Sadie’s sarcasm, along with her perseverance and resilience. I will definitely remember “Becki with an i” and hold a place in my heart for Javi with the silent J, Cat, Nell, May Beth and even Claire.
I wish his darkness lived outside of him, because you have to know it’s there to see it. Like all real monsters, he hides in plain sight.
One of my favourite bookish things happened in this book; another much loved book was referenced in this one. I may have gotten a teensy bit excited when a character was seen reading The Baby-Sitters Club and I’m not ashamed to tell you that I knew the exact one they were reading from the description of the cover image alone.
I did start to think I may have fallen into some plot holes but every one was filled in along the way. All of my questions were answered; all except for the most important one, but I was strangely satisfied with the ‘fill in the blanks yourself’ component. In the hands of a less capable writer I would have been really frustrated by this but with Sadie it only feels right that my heart should be conflicting with my mind.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial-like podcast following the clues she’s left behind. And an ending you won’t be able to stop talking about.
Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.
But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.
When West McCray – a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America – overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.
Weir is dreading his school’s swimming carnival and I know exactly how he feels. After attempting to fake his way out of having to attend [“COUGH! COUGH!”] Weir relents, deciding he will attend but not participate in any events. After all, if he’s too ‘sick’ for the swimming carnival then he won’t be able to attend the first family dinner with the Do’s new next door neighbours.
When he accidentally wins a race at the carnival Weir not only has to worry about his family embarrassing him in front of Bella and her family at dinner the next evening, he also has to face almost certain humiliation at the Regional Swimming Finals! Weir’s classmates, who have featured earlier in the series, make appearances in this book; naturally Han Some is as brilliant at swimming as you’d expect.
After reading the previous ten books I feel like I know Weir, his family and his friends. Anh Do’s books are always funny but I’m finding them funnier as the series progresses as I’m getting to know everyone better.
The illustrations always add to the humour of Anh’s books. My favourite image this time was the family pets playing a game of limbo. While I definitely enjoy chuckling my way through them Anh’s books always make me wish I had a kid to read them with.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
The school swimming carnival is on and Weir isn’t looking forward to ANY of it! Not the TINY cozzies! Or getting water UP HIS NOSE! And especially not the RACING! Can Weir win for his team? It won’t be easy … but it will be FUNNY!
Matilda is 30! How is that even possible?! Matilda and I became friends 29 years ago and her story remains one of my all time favourites. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve read it over the years but I can say that it gave me hope that circumstances can always improve, taught me that girls can be powerful and resilient, and that it is perfectly okay to be a book nerd, and proven if you’re really lucky you’ll find your very own Mrs Phelps and Miss Honey. I spent my childhood on the lookout for my Miss Honey.
I never had friends that enjoyed reading when I was growing up so Matilda became that for me. We even had a shared favourite book, The Secret Garden. I loved this story so much that the year after I first read it I wrote a multi page poem about the infamous chocolate cake incident for school. Not many things survived my childhood but I still have my treasured 1989 paperback copy of Matilda and that poem.
I found an amazing article by Mara Wilson about Matilda at 30. I love that there are multiple 30th anniversary editions of Matilda, each showing her thriving in a different way. Naturally this means that I have to buy one of each because, you know, marketing and obsessive book love and I have to have them all!!!
I need to press pause for a bit and tell you how much I adore all of Quentin Blake’s illustrations in Matilda and the rest of Roald Dahl’s books. As a kid I read about a bazillion books and while I always remembered the names of the titles and authors, the only illustrator whose name I knew was Quentin’s. Roald and Quentin made a perfect team, with Quentin highlighting all the phizz-whizzing quirkiness of Roald’s imagination. Even now I compare every illustrator I come across to Quentin; I can’t help it.
I don’t think you can truly put into words the impact a book has had on you like Matilda had on me but I know I wouldn’t be who I am today without it. While reading it this time I wondered where its characters would be today. I expect I’ll change my mind each time I reread this book from now on but here’s what I came up with this time:
The Wormwoods
Michael Wormwood eventually reconnected with his brilliant sister and they stay in regular contact. After some turbulent times as a teenager where he made some choices he’d prefer to forget including stealing cars, Michael turned his life around and now mentors troubled teens.
Mrs Wormwood is now a frumpet in an aged care facility where she cheats at Bingo and watches her programmes. She did try to sell Avon for a while but potential customers took one look at her caked on makeup and shut the door in her face. She never made a single sale. She bleached her hair one too many times so she’s now bald and her face has a look of perpetual surprise due to botched plastic surgery.
Mr Wormwood remains a grunion. The Wormwoods lived in Spain for a few years until his schemes were discovered and they were run out of the country. After trying and failing to implement new scams in numerous other countries Mr Wormwood eventually found work at a sawdust mill. His boss is a woman. He has a phobia of hats.
The Kids
Fred, Matilda’s friend who owned Chopper the parrot, became a veterinarian.
Lavender remains adventurous and now spends her days touring the world, conquering one extreme sport after another. She has lucrative sponsorship deals and whenever she’s photographed you can be sure her hair is a different colour, but never lavender. She has a pet newt and remains in contact with Matilda.
Hortensia now owns a pub and is known to regale her customers with wild, detailed yarns about her formative years under the watchful glare of the Trunchbull and her experiences in The Chokey. No one knows whether to believe her or not but she’s a born storyteller so they always come back for more.
Ollie Bogswhistle double crossed the wrong people and wound up serving time. He’s currently a prison snitch and after being on the receiving end of one too many punches he now sports a full set of dentures.
Julius Rottwinkle has a fear of heights and flying, among many other phobias. He attends therapy frequently. He hasn’t eaten liquorice since he was a child.
Nigel Hicks has extraordinary balance. He wrote a book espousing the health benefits of not showering very frequently but for some reason remains single.
Prudence, emboldened by being able to spell a ‘difficult’ word in Miss Trunchbull’s presence, went on to become a spelling bee champion.
Amanda Thripp never cut her hair again, an achievement that has made her the Guinness World Record holder for having the longest hair. She only ever wears her hair in pigtails.
Rupert Entwistle works at the Natural History Museum but his passion is cryptozoology. He had a secret crush on his next door neighbour Lavender for many years and follows her adventures on social media.
The other Rupert, Matilda’s classmate with the golden tresses, became an accountant and carries a calculator wherever he goes.
Eric Ink has a most unusual party trick; he can waggle his ears at will. He loves cosplay and due to his large pixie shaped ears he never needs to worry about adding prosthetic ears to his costumes.
Wilfred overcame his fear of being upside down when he went bungee jumping.
Bruce Bogtrotter became a competitive eater during high school and is now a well known food critic. His favourite food is chocolate cake and travels the world in search of a more delicious cake than the one Cook baked for him. He’s yet to find one.
The Crunchem Staff
Cook, may she rest in peace, quit her job shortly after selling her prized chocolate cake recipe to the highest bidder and then proceeded to lose every cent betting on the horses.
After Mr Trilby became the Head Teacher of Crunchem Hall Primary School the students and teachers breathed a collective sigh of relief. He became the most loved Head Teacher that ever ran the school. Sure, that’s not saying much, but he was wonderful. Honest!
Miss Plimsoll remained a teacher until she retired. She never had another student as brilliant as Matilda.
The Trunchbull was never heard from again. A school without children was established several years after she disappeared. While record numbers of applications were received for the school’s teaching positions, the school itself surprisingly went bankrupt within its first year and was forced to close. There is an old lady in Arkham Asylum that constantly mutters about chalk but no one knows who she is.
The Heroes
Mrs Phelps went on to inspire countless young minds to adore reading. A number of her patrons became well known authors and you’ll find her name in the dedications and acknowledgement sections of several bestsellers. Mrs Phelps has since retired and now travels the world, Kindle in hand. She spends each Christmas with Matilda and Miss Honey.
Miss Honey found her relatives in Australia and has visited them a few times during school holidays. She adopted Matilda but only because she needed offical paperwork to prove what they already knew; they were family. Miss Honey went on to become many students’ favourite teacher and won numerous awards for her pioneering method of using music in her classroom. Her home is full of books. She loves nothing more than pottering around in the garden at The Red House and lives a peaceful, quiet life.
Matilda has led a full life. She couldn’t decide which university course to study so she completed them all and was able to study for free because of the scholarships she was awarded. She has travelled extensively, following in the footsteps of the characters in the books of her childhood. She has worked as a librarian, lovingly sharing her passion for books with a new generation. She has also published a number of books, both fiction and nonfiction. She gets excited when she finds a book she hasn’t read. After consulting with Matilda behind the scenes many leaders have implemented her ideas to solve worldwide problems. Matilda is a wonderful mother and a loving partner, and Miss Honey remains one of her favourite people. Above all, Matilda is happy.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Puffin, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK, for the excuse to read this book yet again. As soon as I saw the 30th anniversary edition on NetGalley I got so excited about Quentin Blake’s amazing covers I had to see them immediately!
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Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Matilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half she’s knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she’s a super-nerd and the teacher’s pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda’s world.
For starters she has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Then there’s the large, busty nightmare of a school principal, Miss (“The”) Trunchbull, a former hammer-throwing champion who flings children at will and is approximately as sympathetic as a bulldozer. Fortunately for Matilda, she has the inner resources to deal with such annoyances: astonishing intelligence, saintly patience, and an innate predilection for revenge.
She warms up with some practical jokes aimed at her hapless parents, but the true test comes when she rallies in defense of her teacher, the sweet Miss Honey, against the diabolical Trunchbull. There is never any doubt that Matilda will carry the day. Even so, this wonderful story is far from predictable.
Roald Dahl, while keeping the plot moving imaginatively, also has an unerring ear for emotional truth. The reader cares about Matilda because in addition to all her other gifts, she has real feelings.
Schizanthus Nerd 