FernFolio » England

Andy Stanton’s Author Visit

fernfolio — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:41:00 +0000

On Monday, October 27th, Andy Stanton paid a visit to the school. Author of the Mr. Gum series and resident of London, Andy is in Toronto to take part in Harbourfront’s International Authors Series. We were fortunate to have Scooter Girl, a fun book and toy store for children, approach the school to arrange for Andy’s visit.

Students in Grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 were delighted to meet Andy Stanton, whose five books have caught their imaginations and kept them laughing. If possible, Andy’s reading was more absurd and magical, even, than his books. The children were thrilled by his large-than-life personality, and his dramatic and comedic talents, and awed by his ability to remember the real name of the girl whom most people refer to as Polly.

Thank you to Andy Stanton for creating a magical afternoon for our students, to Scooter Girl, for making his visit possible, and to Andy’s publisher, who came along for the visit!

FernFolio Editor

Woodenface by Gus Grinfell

fernfolio — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:29:43 +0000

The daughter of a Yorkshire weaver, Meg Lumb has learned to wash and dye and spin wool, and help her mother with her younger brother, but from her father she has also learned to carve wood. She creeps away to the churchyard during quiet moments to play with Dilly-Lal and Drum-a-Drum, two peg dolls she has fashioned, undisturbed by the presence of the ghosts that haunt the graves there. In her pocket she also carries Bolly-Bolly, a strange little face that she has carved out of a knot of wood that she found sawn from an ancient hawthorne tree. Bolly-Bolly has the ability to speak to Meg, and to show her visions of the places and people around her.
From Bolly-Bolly, Meg learns that Patience Sutcliffe, the daughter of the village cloth merchant, lies in her bed chamber seemingly possessed by evil spirits. When confronted by Reverend Eastwood, the puritanical minister, Patience names Meg as her tormentor, and the young girl realizes that she is accused of witchcraft.
Afraid for her life, Meg flees her village for Halifax, a nearby town, and the centre of Yorkshire’s woollen trade, hoping to find her father who has travelled there to sell his cloth. Instead, she finds that her father has been falsely accused of theft and thrown in the local jail to await trail. She meets Ned, a travelling puppeteer, and Simon, apprentice to a charlatan apothecary, both of whom are working at the Halifax fair.
Desperate to find a way to help her father, Meg confides her problems to Ned and Simon, and discovers in them two kindred souls, eager to help her save her father and escape the clutches of Mr. Sutcliffe, father to Patience, and of Reverend Eastwood. But matters become increasingly complicated when if becomes clear that Meg’s father is the victim of a conspiracy, and that Meg’s talent for carving wood border dangerously upon magical.
Set during the Interregnum, when Oliver Cromwell’s Puritans ruled England, Woodenface is a wonderful adventure that draws upon the English tradition on the Greenman and celebrates the magic that exists in all living things.
FernFolio Editor

Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay

fernfolio — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:30:10 +0000

At eight years old, after she stood on a kitchen chair to read the names of paint colours off a chart posted on the wall, Saffron Casson discovered that she was adopted. She learned that her sisters, Caddy and Rose, and her brother, Indigo, were, in fact, her cousins, and that, following her mother’s death in a car accident in Italy, she was brought home to England by her grandfather, and had come to live with her aunt, Eve, her uncle, Bill, and their children. This revelation changed something inside of Saffy; somewhere deep inside her, she began to doubt her place in the world.
When her grandfather dies, after ten long years in a nursing home unable to communicate following a massive stroke, he leaves to Saffy, in his will, an angel. Though she has few memories of her life in Siena, Italy, now thirteen year-old Saffy dreams of a sunlit garden and, with the help of her new friend, Sarah, realizes that in that garden stood a stone angel, which her three year-old self adored. Sarah, whose unco-operative back and legs land her in a wheelchair, most of the time, possesses great determination and, when she hears the story of the stone angel, decides that she and Saffy will travel to Siena and find it. Together they set out to locate the sunlit garden, and retrieve Saffy’s angel.
Interlaced with Saffy’s story, are the stories of Caddy, Indigo, Rose, and their parents. Cadmium, at eighteen, has managed to fail every school-leaving exam and is bracing to do so again, is approaching her hundredth driving lesson and has fallen in love with Michael, her driving instructor, who endlessly praises the abilities of his girlfriend, Diane. Indigo, eleven, struggles to overcome his fear of heights by hanging out his bedroom window so that he can realize his dream of becoming a polar explorer, when he’s not cooking for the family or quietly reassuring his mother and his sisters, whom he views as his pack. Five year-old Rose spends her time painting at the kitchen table, sometimes with paint and sometimes with the contents of the fridge, and arguing with her father. Their mother, Eve, teaches art to little old ladies and juvenile delinquents, but lives to escape to her shed at the bottom of the garden where she paints nice little pictures that are snapped up by people who see them in the building society window. Bill, their father, is a serious artist, and lives, during the week, in London where he paints free of the distractions of wife and children, travelling home, on weekends, to the chaos of pet guinea pigs, unwashed dishes and family.
Saffy’s Angel, the second of four books by Hilary McKay about the Casson family children, won the 2002 Whitbread Children’s Book Award. It is a sad and funny celebration of a young girl’s search for herself, and her family’s efforts to help her do so.
FernFolio Editor

Ulysses Moore: The Door to Time

fernfolio — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:58:07 +0000

For eleven-year-old twins, Jason and Julia Covenant, moving into Argo Manor, a rambling old house perched on a cliff over the sea in Cornwall, is the beginning of a strange and wonderful adventure. With their new friend, Rick Banner, they explore the many rooms of the house, particularly the odd tower room filled with model ships of every kind and the stone room with its ancient wooden door. That door fascinates the three kids. Where does it lead? Why does it appear to have been hacked at by an axe and burned? And where are the keys that open its four locks? When Jason, the dreamer, almost falls down the cliff to the sea, he makes a discovery that fires the children’s imagination, and inspires them to unlock, literally, the mysteries of the old wooden door.
Filled with odd references to ships, secret codes and ancient languages, this first book poses more questions than it answers. Who is Nestor, the caretaker, and with whom does he communicate? Why does Oblivia Newton want Argo Manor? Is Ulysses Moore really dead, and, if not, who haunts the old house on the cliff?
Our Boys’ Book Club selected this book for their first novel. So far, it has been a terrific success!
Fern Folio Editor