January 14, 2012

“I know you’re just fabric and stuffing and plastic,” he said. “But you’ve been a wonderful friend to me”

The quotation above is from TychoBrahe on Twitter who overhead his son having a conversation with one of his toys.

I bought the book ‘The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’ as a Christmas gift for my 8-year old daughter and we have both been enjoying reading it together. Occasionally I read it to her but I much prefer when she reads it to me, and I only need to help her with some of the trickier words.

The writing is ideal for reading aloud and the language is lyrical and beautifully paced. The story tells of the adventures of a selfish and self-obsessed china rabbit after he is separated from his owner during a sea voyage. As he is ‘adopted’ by various different owners he begins to learn the value of being loved, but more importantly of loving too. Despite being aimed at the younger reader, the book doesn’t shirk difficult issues and even features the death of a sickly child. My daughter and I have a favourite character — Ernest Ernest, who is the king of rubbish and therefore king of the world because the world is made of rubbish!

It is one of the best children’s books I have ever read and I thoroughly recommend it.

Writing


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