Julia Donaldson: The Deep Cuts
When you start reading to your children, you know you’re in for an awful lot of repetition.
That’s obviously very important, it’s a hugely helpful learning tool, but it does place an extra level of pressure on the book.
There are books I’ve read to Blake well over a 100 times. Sometimes, four or five times in a row, just because he’s been enjoying them that much.
When you read a book to someone once or twice, you don’t need to take in the quality of the writing quite as much, especially when you don’t know what’s coming next. But, by the third or fourth or 43rd reading, when you know every syllable with the same clarity as your own postcode, the precision of the language really starts to count.
Now, I’m sure if I had Sebastian Faulks or Marian Keyes sat here with me they’d tell that they put just as much effort into the sentence at the bottom of page 211 as they do to their book’s final paragraph, but you must behave differently if you know fundamentally most people will read your book once, rather than once a day for weeks on end.
Some books really fall apart under that kind of scrutiny. Half-rhymes that were probably fine at a scan suddenly feel excruciating and the rhythm begins to feel off. You come to value precision and concision more than ever. And, nobody, nobody, is better at that than Julia Donaldson.
Her rhymes are so precise, her stories feel like they improve with each read and they’re so widely creative.
These days, I find myself talking about Julia Donaldson in the same way some people talk about The Beatles, about deep cuts and subtle themes. I love reading her books to Blake. He has loved them all at various times.
A lot of her catalogue needs no introduction especially as so much of it has been taken to TV.
A lot of you will know The Gruffalo, Zog, Room On The Broom and many of the big hitters, but I thought this week I’d recommend some of the lesser known stories, each of which I’ve read to Blake over and over again. These are his three current favourites.
Tabby McTat
I was hoping that this might be chosen for the BBC’s Christmas adaptation, but they’ve got with The Smeds and The Smoos, which is a worthy choice and has another great cast.
It follows Tabby McTat, a busker’s cat who gets separated from his busker, only to fall in love with another cat, have kittens and yet long for a return to busking…
The most musical of Julia Donaldson’s books, it’s rhymes are so clever, the story is engaging and its structure is playful too. Blake is a big fan, we read it just last night.
The Detective Dog
This is one outside of Julia Donaldson’s hugely successful partnership with illustrator Axel Scheffler, but it is one of Blake’s absolute favourites, and many a bedtime wouldn’t end without “Detective dog, detective dog!” being repeated over and over again.
This is a bit longer than her books with Scheffler, but it’s got a great rollicking rhythm and Sara Ogilvie’s illustrations are wild and vivid and compliment the words perfectly.
It takes through Detective Dog Nell, who is called to investigate the disappearance of a whole library worth of books, which she does, with help from Peter, her human, though in truth he does very little.
This and its sequel The Hospital Dog are both total delights, especially if you’ve got pet-obsessed toddlers.
Paper Dolls
I picked this up for Blake after watching the BBC’s documentary about Julia Donaldson last Christmas. It is one of the most beautiful children’s books I’ve ever read.
It’s a bit more abstract than some of Donaldson’s others, there’s a girl, whose name we never learn, who makes some paper dolls. She gives them names, plays with them, only to watch them be destroyed and then drift away somewhere different all together.
It’s poetic, heartbreaking, poignant and incredibly evocative, with Rebecca Cobb’s childlike illustrations the perfect accompaniment. Highly, highly recommended, Blake loved it.
Thank you for your time. Next week, the biggest beasts to ever walk the Earth. That’s right, three of the best books about dinosaurs…