It's nothing grotesque, mind, but the sheer number of corpses that pile up in the course of the story sort of blew me away. The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill drew my attention in a similar manner. Interestingly, this isn’t the only book this year with oblique Peter Pan references spotted throughout the text. Whether it’s the notion of a boy named Peter fending for himself from babyhood onwards, villains that complain about “bad form”, children who fight over the a mother, or a character who receives a hook for a hand, the details are there. I doubt that many kids would notice the elements in this book that call upon Barrie, but they’re there. Auxier, however, manages to reference the Barrie classic of yore without drawing attention to what he is doing. Not The Little White Bird odd, but odd just the same. Now I’ll confess to you right here and now that I am not a Peter Pan fan. And remarkably enough, not in a creepy way. He leaves most of the characters and situations up to child imaginations, though. So it is that Auxier uses his art to give readers just a hint of the story. For example, the kitten/horse/knight that is his companion Sir Tode is never fully seen in any of the pictures in this book except for the odd rear view. It is interesting to see what Auxier chooses to show and not to show. The book is also dotted with small pen-and-ink illustrations throughout the text (created by the author himself, no less) that serve to show a bit of what is described to Peter. Yet the third person narration is the key here. So is it fair that the text should show such a visual world when that is not Peter’s experience? I don’t find it much of a problem myself, though I can see how some folks would deem it strange. We’re still with Peter every step of the way, after all. Auxier sets his tale in the third, leaving the reader to decide whether or not the book should be this deftly described. Or rather, you would be if the book was first person. Next thing he knows, Peter has pilfered a box containing three pairs of magical eyes and in accepting them he allows himself to take part in a marvelous, epic adventure.Ī difficulty with writing a story from the perspective of a blind protagonist is that you’re limited to that person’s senses. All seems bleak until the day Peter stops to listen to a crazy haberdasher who has come to town. This talent is swiftly exploited by the nasty Mr. On his own he manages to use his talents to become the world's greatest thief. Found floating in the sea, his eyes pecked out (presumably by the raven perched there), Peter is abandoned to the wilds of the world. ![]() They get adopted by pharaohs' daughters and the like, right? Well, that may be the case for some babies, but Peter Nimble isn’t exactly the lucky sort. That Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes succeeds in this endeavor is a testament not only to its author but to a publishing world that’s willing to put out something that doesn’t slot into the usual five categories of books for youth.īabies found floating in baskets usually turn out quite well. It is incredibly difficult to write a book for the youth of today that is interesting to them and yet manages to feel “timeless” without covering itself in must and dust. Of course there are as many bad books for kids that try to reach that golden goal as there are good ones. What do they answer? Would they even know where to begin? I wonder since the memorable children’s books of the past, the ones that we hold in our hearts and pass along from generation to generation have a quality that most children’s books today don’t bother to cultivate: timelessness. ![]() Pose the question to a room full of kids now. They’re smarter, hipper, less didactic, and so on and such. What is the most telling difference between those works of children’s literature written long ago and those written today? Pose this question to a room full of children’s librarians and I suspect that the answers would be myriad.
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