Henry Williamson on Curlews: From “Tarka the Otter”
From Tarka the Otter Within the moor is the Forest, a region high and treeless, where sedge grasses grow on the slopes to the sky. In early summer the wild…
Category: childrens books
John Ayliff – “Is Thomas the Tank Engine hard science fiction?”
A 2015 blog post by John Ayliff observes: The early Railway stories were based on real railway incidents, and the characters were based on real models of locomotive (Thomas is…
Do we have the right to help others who don’t want our help? with Barnacles and Harry R Truman – Blogging the Octonauts, Season 4 Episode 9, “The Convict Fish”
It’s a while since I posted a Blogging the Octonauts post (here is another one). To recap, the Octonauts is a children’s TV show based on the rather more whimsical…
Orcs and Oulipo – TLS piece by Peter Hoskin on Fighting Fantasy
There’s an affectionate piece on Fighting Fantasy books on the TLS website by Peter Hoskin (I am not sure if “TLS Online” means it will not appear in the print…
Montmorillon, Musée Robert Tatin, and the blindness of the Anglophone internet
Recently in France I visited two highly recommended tourist sites (I have no issue describing myself by the word “tourist”). One, Montmorillon, is described by English language wikipedia (more of which…
The Berenstain Bears and the Moral Minefield – The Dabbler, Jan 2015
This piece arose from reading about two very heated responses to the Berenstain Bears series of children’s books and cartoons. The posthumous “Good riddance” to Mrs Berenstain in particular struck me…
LEGO DC Comics Superheroes: Justice League – Gotham City Breakout
. I was somewhat surprised and confused in late 2013 to discover that a “Lego Movie” was imminent. This was because there were, already, more than a few…
Review of “The Terrible Two”, Mac Barnett and Jory John, Childrens Books Ireland December 2015
This review was to a large degree dictated by my seven year old daughter. I have always thought that grown up reviewers (especially film reviewers who evidently would be preferred to…
Séamus Sweeney 