A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (9y and 7y)

 

General Vibe:

Reading a play aloud is quite difficult because you have to say the character's name--colon--and what they say.  In the beginning, it was awkward to listen to, as well.  Furthermore, I had to stop every so often in the first couple scenes to set the stage.  "Oh that's Egeus, Hermia's father.  You don't need to know about him.  The Duke wants Hermia to marry Demetrius but she loves Lysander.  Nuptial hour draws on apace? Oh it means that Theseus and Hippolyta are going to get married soon.  Hippolyta?  She's the queen of the amazons.  You know who they were? Etc..."  Once the characters are down, and the motivations and plot set, it's really not hard to fall into the story, and the scenes are quite short and manageable.  The language, of course, is so rich, even for Shakespeare. 

Characters and Plot: 

There are no better characters--and especially no better plots--that are both as culturally relevant and as deeply embodied as in these plays.  It was quite fun revisiting this work, and, as always, you notice something new.  This time around I was noting that the entire last act is the performance of Bottom's play for the Duke's wedding--which is quite striking because you've been seeing them rehearse the play all along and you already know the plot of this story and the characters.  However, the performance remains interesting by the live-reactions of the in-play audience, made up of the four lovers and the Duke and Duchess, who are enjoying it as a bad piece of art, similarly to how folks are drawn to seen junk movies together, just for the joy of making fun of it.  When Shakespeare ends the play, and he has Puck come out to ask the audience not to judge the play too harshly "If we shadows have offended..." I think it is a way of reminding the audience to just enjoy the delights present and to not be too critical.  It's an interesting argument for low brow art, in what we assume is a piece of high brow art.  But it's not, really.  And totally suitable for kids. 

Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr (9y and 6y)

 

General Vibe and Plot and Characters:

Adventures with Waffles was a total surprise; a gifted book and strong recommendation led me to reading this book aloud without knowing a thing about it.  The book is told from the perspective of Trille, a boy who has a best friend who lives next door, Lena.  Lena lives and moves recklessly and usually she is the one who instigates the adventures and also the one to end the adventures with an explosion, a crash, or broken limb.  If this book was merely a collection of small adventures, it would be a solid read with interesting characters in an interesting, modern Norwegian town.  However, there are deeper questions that start to inflect the narrative.  Trille really looks to Lena as his best friend, but he cannot tell if Lena thinks of him in the same way.  The book, especially on reflection--because it does not spell these themes out heavily--is really meditating on ideas of what is a family, what is friendship, and what is a community, and what is passed down through the generations.  They explore the nursing home down the road, a mad man on the hill who's best friend is a horse that he has to sell to get slaughtered, Trille's three generation, multi-ethnic household, the small harbor community where they live, and even Lena's family who is being raised by a single mother and the humorous returned-to question, "what is a father for?"  At one point in the narrative, the story turns and becomes shockingly real as one of the characters dies.  There is no build up to this; rather, just like in real life, one day that character is there, and then they are gone.  I've never read a book where the death of the character is such a gut punch.  As I read this chapter, I could barely register what I was reading, and my voice cracked and changed toned, unintentionally. There were some sniffles that night.  But I've also never read a book that has dealt with death and loss so beautifully.  The resolution has so much integrity that I really cannot recommend the book too highly.  That being said, the book has so much humor and goodwill that it's really not a heavy or dark read.    

Recommendations for future reads:

There's a sequel that I will read in a couple of years as it takes place a couple years later called, Lena, the Sea, and Me.  I'm too curious to know if Maria Parr captured lightening in the bottle with the one book or if she is such a gifted novelist that she can reproduce such magic again and again.

Emil and the Detectives (7y, 4y 9m)

General Vibe:

Emil and the Detectives was written by Erich Kastner and published in 1929 in Germany.  This was his first book published and the beginning of a long career as a children's author.  As I read this story, I immediately felt like I was transported to a Germany of another time and age.  Emil lives in a small town and takes a train all by himself to visit his grandmother for a week who lives in Berlin.  He travels in a trolley pulled by a horse through his small town.  He travels in a train in a compartment that he shares with strangers (a woman passenger is described taking off her shoes and stretching out her toes).  A man brags to him that in Berlin you only have to go to a post office and you can be shot through pneumatic tubes to any district in the country.  All these details were transporting for me and interesting at least to my 7 year old.  He wanted to know what a trolley was, for example.

Plot and Characters:

I think the plot is fairly compelling to young children.  Emil is taking seven "pounds" to his grandmother (so my translation must be by an English translator, I suppose) and he puts it in an envelope and pins it into his pocket.  He drifts off to sleep on the train and when he awakes the money is gone.  He realizes who took the money and sees the man slipping off the train at a station before the one he is supposed to meet his grandmother at, and he follows him.  He is alone in Berlin without any money at all, trying to catch a thief that he can't prove to anyone actually stole his money in the first place.  He meets a gang of boys who decide to help him.  They all have interesting names and personalities.  There is Pony his cousin, the Professor, Tuesday, and others who help Emil catch the thief.  The story is a slow build, really.  The children don't seem to have a plan at all for most of the book, but it's very satisfactory when they finally catch him.  The chapters were a little too long for my almost 5 year old who often would go lie down (and immediately sleep) half way through the chapter.

Future Recommendations:

I would absolutely read more of Kastner's books, such as The Flying Classroom or Lottie and Lisa.  The Disney film, "The Parent Trap," is based off of Lottie and Lisa, and they even produced a film of Emil and the Detectives with the same name but with significant changes to the story and cast of characters.  However, both the book and the film have a classic charm to them.