Even the Trunchbull

Our books for this final episode of Even The Trunchbull for 2021 are loosely linked around pets at Christmas!

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser features Paganini the rabbit, Franz the dog and George Washington the cat. But it's mainly about the five human Vanderbeeker children and their quest to convince their Scrooge-like landlord to allow their family to stay in their lovely apartment. Their tactics run the range from naughty to nice, as is seasonally appropriate. This is a warm and lovely read, sweet but not cloying.

Mog's Christmas, by Judith Kerr, is all about Mog the cat! We talk in general about the enduring appeal of the Mog formula, Kerr's very funny writing and iconic illustration style.

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Episode Transcript will follow, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

The festive season is in full swing, the Christmas TV ads have all aired, and by far the most popular this year is A Christmas Carrot, from Aldi! And they even brought out a picture book. In classic Even The Trunchbull style, we have taken it upon ourselves to review this new take on Charles Dickens's classic, and let us tell you, if nothing else, this book is good fun if you enjoy a pun.

A Christmas Carrot is written by Stephanie Moss and illustrated by Hannah Wood. You won't be able to find it in traditional bookshops, but it's probably still in Aldi. Check out our social media for photos of the book and a picture of Matt drinking from their Kevin mug :-)

If this episode has whetted you appetite for more Christmas Carol chat, we've a whole episode about its myriad adaptations: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/series-4-finale-a-christmas-carol-retold-for-children/

We'll be back on Thursday with a full length episode, until then wrap up warm!

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Episode Transcript will follow, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

This week our picture book is Yokki and the Parno Gry by Katharine Quarmby and Ricard O’Neill – a story about a young boy in a Romani Traveller family, and the power of stories themselves

And our chapter book this week is The Famine Secret by Cora Harrison. Part of the Drumshee Timeline series, this story takes us via four young siblings into the hardships of the Irish Famine of 1845

Links:

For Yokki and the Parno Gry:

There’s a lovely video of Richard O’Neill reading Yokki and the Parno Gry here - https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/ytt/features/listen-yokki-and-parno-gry-richard-oneill

Travellers Times also has a short documentary narrated by Richard, ‘Roads From The Past: A Short History of Britain’s Gypsies, Roma and Travellers’ here - https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/heritage/roads-past-short-history-Britains-Gypsies-Roma-and-Travellers#

‘The Goose and the Common’, the folk poem that Nina reads during the episode about the Inclosure Acts, can be read here - https://unionsong.com/u765.html

The podcast ‘99% Invisible’ have an episode about the Inclosure Acts, which can be heard here - https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/right-to-roam/

More info on Richard O’Neill can be found at his website, here - https://richardthestoryteller.weebly.com/about-richard.html

More info on Katharine Quarmby can be found at her website, here - https://katharinequarmby.com/

For The Famine Secret:

This link has some info on the ‘Yellow Fever’ and ‘Black Fever’ suffered in Ireland during the 1840’s, reference in The Famine Secret https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/workdisease.htm

More info on Cora Harrison’s Drumshee Timeline can be found at her website, here - http://www.coraharrison.com/drumshee/index.html

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Episode Transcript will follow, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

This week we’re joined by special guest Pádraig Kenny, to talk about one of his favourite kidlit chapter books, Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson.

That is followed by our picture book, Along The River by Vanina Starkoff, with English translation by Jane Springer

Articles of Note:

There is an interesting article about the representation of Indigenous people in Peter Pan and more broadly in children's lit here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/racist-history-peter-pan-indian-tribe-180953500/

The Guardian has an obituary of Eva Ibbotson here, that mentions her partner Alan, also mentioned in the episode: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/24/eva-ibbotson-obituary

Reading Suggestions:

The First Blade of Sweetgrass by Suzanne Greenlaw, Gabriel Frey and Nancy Baker came out in the same year as Journey to the River Sea and offers an own-voices story of Indigenous people: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-First-Blade-of-Sweetgrass-by-Suzanne-Greenlaw-author-Gabriel-Frey-author-Nancy-Baker-artist/9780884487609

Sisters of the Neversea by Cynthia Leitich Smith offers a retelling of Peter Pan: https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/kidbooks/kids_index/sisters-of-the-neversea/

Pádraig’s new book The Shadows of Rookhaven is out now in all the places, and is excellent:

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Shadows-of-Rookhaven-by-Pdraig-Kenny-author-Edward-Bettison-illustrator/9781529031713

Previous episodes referenced in this episode are:

Pog by Pádraig Kenny in Ep#2, Grief: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-2-grief-the-sad-book-and-pog/

Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis in Ep#3, Made Up Languages: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-3-made-up-languages-du-iz-tak-and-the-giants-and-the-joneses/

Pattan’s Pumpkin by Chitra Soundar in Ep#14, Fairytale Retellings: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-14-fairytale-retellings-pattans-pumpkin-and-the-amazing-maurice-and-his-educated-rodents/

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson in Ep#18, Mystical Cows: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-18-mystical-cows-the-beasts-of-clawstone-castle-and-maharani-the-cow/

The Monsters of Rookhaven by Padraig Kenny in Ep#22, Haunted Houses: https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-22-haunted-houses-ghosts-in-the-house-and-the-monsters-of-rookhaven/

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

Just a note to let you know that due to life and work stuff going on, this month's episode about rivers in Brazil is going to be delayed by a week. We hope it'll be worth the wait, and thank you for bearing with us!

Nina and Matt

This week our picture book is ‘Ghosts in the House!’ by Kazuno Kohara and our chapter book is ‘The Monsters of Rookhaven’ by Padraig Kenny

Articles referenced by Nina with Halloween craft activities for kids to go alongside Ghosts in the House can be found:

Here - https://hannahsartclub.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/spooky-haunted-houses-inspired-by-kazuno-kohara-october-2011/

And here - http://www.prayingforparker.com/ghosts-in-the-house-by-kazuno-kohara-and-an-extension-activity/

The photographic project Matt was mentioning can be seen on our social media accounts: @TrunchbullPod on twitter and @eventhetrunchbull on Instagram

The interview with Padraig Kenny, referenced by Matt, was conducted by Dave O’Callaghan for easons.com and can be viewed here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOgsAWK_mV0

An article detailing the buying of film and TV rights for ‘The Monsters of Rookhaven’ is here - https://www.thebookseller.com/news/dream-logic-snaps-rights-kennys-monsters-rookhaven-1274987

We also reference various of our own past episodes in this one, which can be found at the following links:

Ep 17: Howl’s Moving Castle - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-17-shooting-stars-look-up-and-howls-moving-castle/

Ep1: Not Now Bernard - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-1-monsters-young-werewolf-and-not-now-bernard/

Ep 2: Pog - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/episode-2-grief-the-sad-book-and-pog/

Halloween Special #1: The Jumbies - https://eventhetrunchbull.podbean.com/e/halloween-special-1-ghosts-for-breakfast-and-the-jumbies/

We also mentioned A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicholl and The Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman.

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Happy back to school times listeners!

This month we're reading lovely autobiographical picture book The Year I Didn't Go to School by Giselle Potter. Italian nuns and pasta with eggs abound!

And for our chapter book we're doing an old favourite of both of ours, the Wind Singer, by William Nicholson. It's fantastically critical of the exams system and more relevant now even than when it was written (in our humble opinions).

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

Hello lovely listeners, Nina and Matt here to announce brand new Even the Trunchbull episodes coming in the autumn. Our first episode back will be about WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION and it'll come out on the 2nd of September. We'll be reading The Year I Didn't Go to School by Giselle Potter and The Wind Singer by William Nicholson.

From here on out ETTB is going to be a monthly show, publishing on the first Thursday of every month.

As always, you can email us your book suggestions at [email protected], or catch us on twitter and facebook @trunchbullPod, or on instagram @eventhetrunchbull. Episode transcripts can be found on our website https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/ and if you like our recommendations, you can shop for them at our storefront https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

To wrap up series five, we're doffing our hats to audiobook narrators. First Nina and Matt meander down memory lane, reminiscing about books on tape we listened to in the 1990s. Then we move on to recommend a clutch of excellent narrators:

Cecelia Ramsdale, who performed Pog by Padraig Kenny

Ben Onwukwe, who we enjoyed reading Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor

Aoife MacMahon, who amongst others has performed Begone the Raggedy Witches by Celine Kiernan

David Tennant, with The Wizards of Once series by Cressida Cowell, and others

And Malcolm Hamilton, David Almond’s regular audiobook performer it seems, who reads The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon and The Tale of Angelino Brown

We crowdsourced this one a little bit - thank you to all who submitted your favourite audiobook narrators! Here are the other recommendations that we got:

Huw Parmenter, reading Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones 

Alex Jennings, reading The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper

Miriam Margolyes, reading Matilda by Roald Dahl and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by CS Lewis

Carl Prekopp, reading the Half Bad series by Sally Green (fyi, this is YA, not kidlit)

Simon Russell Beale, reading Children of the Red King, by Jenny Nimmo

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

This week we’re reading around the theme of ‘Not Quite Nuclear’ . . . we’re reading books about found family and unusual family set-ups

Our picture book is Burglar Bill by Janet and Allan Ahlberg (one of Matt’s childhood favourites)

And our chapter book is Wilde, by Eloise Williams, which is a new favourite for both of us

Wilde is published by Firefly Press, which is an independent children’s and Young Adult publisher based in Wales. You can get a copy from Wilde from them here - https://fireflypress.co.uk/books/wilde/

We strongly encourage supporting independent presses!

Episode Transcript will follow later this week, and will be available here - https://eventhetrunchbull.wordpress.com/home/transcripts/

And as always you can check out our bookshop dot org shop front here - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/trunchbullpod

What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com