A few years ago I read The Hobbit to Tabby. A chapter or two at a time at bed time. She liked it and wanted to read the Lord of the Rings, too, so I obliged. Some ways into it I realized, "maybe these are a bit complex for a 6 year old." But then Tabby would surprise me with comments like (after Gandalf told Frodo that he was convinced Gollum was alive for a reason), "I bet Frodo won't be able to destroy the ring, so it will be destroyed after Gollum steals it back." Seriously! Way back in book 1, in Moria, Tabby called the ending. In any case, by the time I thought of maybe reading something else, Tabby was too involved in the story, too invested in the characters ... we had to finish.
Once we did I decided we'd try the Chronicles of Narnia. Good call me. They instantly became Tabby's favorite stories.
So as we were coming to the end of the Chronicles of Narnia, I was trying to figure out what to read next and remembered that our boys really liked the Redwall series by Brian Jacques when they were little. Tabby loves animals ... seems like a good fit. And another good call for me. She has declared that they are her new favorites and we have to read them all. Given that there are well over 20 books, that'll be a task.
We just finished our third book, Salamandastron.
The dreadful Dryditch Fever has struck Redwall Abbey, sickening almost everyone. The otter Thrugg sets off on a quest to find the Icetor flowers required to cure the fever before any more Redwallers die. The sword of Martin the Warrior was also stolen! Samkim the squirrel and his best friend Arula the mole chase after the thieves. Meanwhile, the badger maid Mara, adopted daughter of Urthsripe, Badger Lord of Salamandastron and commander of the Long Patrol, has run away, accompanied by her best friend Pickle the hare. Soon after Mara leaves, the army of Ferhago the Assassin lays siege to Salamandastron.
Each story line is exciting and fun to read. The stories of Samkim, Mara and the siege of Salamandastron all eventually come together in an epic climax. The book is well written. It touches on so many neat points of Redwall legend that it's a must read for anyone who enjoys the series. Just for the pleasure of reading about the Long Patrol, visions granted by Martin the Warrior, Guossom shrews and badger traditions.
However, it is also more complex than the other Redwall books we've read. The characters are likeable and engaging, easy to care about ... but there are just so darn many of them! Four storylines! One of them, saving Redwall from Dryditch Fever, even seems somewhat superflous. I mean, it's a neat story ... but totally unrelated to the others. Like it should have been in its own book. Tabby constantly had me remind her who characters were and where we were going back and forth between story lines.
But I guess the important thing is that we did love the book. We were happy at the end, cheering for the Redwallers, choking back tears of joy as everything turned out.
Hey Jack, :-)
ReplyDeleteI like the "Book Reports"--then again, I'm sort of a book nerd, too, and always interested in what other people are reading.
And, yes, it can be startling when kids have a genius-level perception about plot points in books or movies (it's happened to me a few times, too, with both kids). It makes you wonder how that happened when it is the same kid(s) you just had to remind about some remedial task the day before. The quantum jumps involved make you wonder where that came from... just in time to have everything swing back to normal and question whether it is just the universe messing with you. Which it probably is...
My eldest daughter really liked "Lord of the Rings", too, and was crushed they didn't include Tom Bombadil in the movies.
She was also into the Redwall Series and read almost all of them (well, that was as of about 12-15 years ago when she was into the series). And I'm almost positive she read this one, too.
Just because I seemingly have to tie everything back to comic books, you may wanna check the library for a collected series called "Mouse Guard", by David Petersen. It's a comic book involving anthropomorphic mice (not the cute, Mickey kind, but more like critters out of "Watership Down") and their struggles to stay alive in a medieval-type society. It visually reminded me of Redwall.
Alas, while "Mouse Guard" was on my radar, the kids were pretty much moved out of the house at that time, so I noted its success without actually getting the series myself. It did win an Eisner (the comic book equivalent of an Oscar... or maybe a Pulitzer) for "Best Publication for Kids" about a decade ago.