deep thinking
even at six years
darkness lurked
~
Ronovan has given us DARKNESS and DEEP this week in his weekly Haiku Challenge.
Mixing that with our Photo Prompt – FICTION.
~
My childhood was not always a happy place to be. There is a hint of that in my expression in the photo of me at about 6 years old, that little frown. The photo is in its original 1950s frame.
My Grandad and step-grandmother, Dabbity, provided me with a haven of books, cooking, gardening and needlework, I was always supremely happy when I was with them.
I learnt to read early and loved reading fiction as an escape. Perhaps that is why I hardly ever read fiction nowadays – no need to escape.
These are three favourite books of my childhood: Swiss Family Robinson, Monty Woodpig’s Caravan and Miss Richard’s Mouse
The illustrations in Miss Richard’s Mouse are a bit deep and dark and I remember feeling a bit scared of this book
~
Please leave your link to your work of FICTION in the comments, we’d love to see them.
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Wonderful that you’ve brought your childhood artifacts into the future. I was not so lucky. In various childhood moves, many of my precious items disappeared. Enjoyed reading about your childhood influences, Sandra. We all have a story to tell.
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Indeed we do Olga. I’m sad to hear you you lost some precious items, and hope you have found more with meaning for you, at least you have the memories. So glad to know you enjoyed aspects of this post.
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I did read your post earlier Sandra, but had not had time to comment on it. At the time though I was very much aware of how much could be said in so few words, espcially reading between the lines. This struck a chord even more after reading your email – sometimes I feel there is gentle healing going on in many of our blog posts, whether intentionally or not
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I absolutely agree Cathy. An enriching experience all round.
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An excellent combined challenge Sandra. The haiku certainly gets the reader involved. Its amazing what young children were given to read back into the C20th. We had primary school class readers and there were some horrific stories. One was about mythical creatures called Hobyahs that came in the night and ate bits of an elderly couples little dog. Just the thing to get 8 year old sleeping soundly!! I still remember it vividly.
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Gosh! horrific!!! Not surprised you have vivid memories Denis! I think the same about the films kids watch nowadays.
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Tim Burton popped in my mind too upon seeing the first illustration from Miss Richard’s Mouse! A childhood book I loved so much that I read and reread, again and again, is Miss Hickory, by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. I never owned it, instead continued to borrow it from the library. About seven years ago, I purchased it for myself, read and reread again then eventually read it to the children. All these years later and it still brings me great pleasure!
Your haiku, photos and are all quite moving; an impressive combination to say the least!
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I have just bought a copy of Miss Hickory! It looks delightful and it seems that originally published in 1946 it was republished in 1977. There is a similar quality to the illustrations, maybe they were created in a similar way. I’m very excited! Thank you for the introduction Melissa, i’m going to enjoy reading it to my grandchildren, what a lovely connection across time and continents and childhoods. ❤
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Oh, how wonderful! I think it was even better reading it after all those years. I hope you all love it immensely; do let me know!!
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Certainly will.
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Fiction can be a great escape at any age:-)
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So true.
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That books looks pretty creepy, Daffy.
Your grandparetns sounds wonderful people and it seem they taught you a lot too 🙂
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They were wonderful to me certainly and ……. both teachers! 😉
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Goodness me this is all very dark, time to do some more sunny stitching.
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Yes indeedy! Ronovan led me down a dark alley with his prompt today! Dark and light, dark and light!
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I wonder if adults realise how much their illustrations mark children. What looks like fun to them could terrorise a child. The haiku sets up a whole life story in a few words!
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Jane, I am moved by your comment. It caused me to re-read the haiku and realise that something I dashed off quite quickly, without really thinking too much about, was even so, truthful and yes, could be the opening to my autobiography. Extraordinary, sometimes we have no idea where creativity will take us. It is not appropriate to say too much more here, but enough perhaps to mention that I was always considered a rather ‘strange little thing’ by the adults around me. 😉
Thank you for causing me to look anew.
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I have this idea that what we write quickly, when the words just flow, is what we were meant to write. The analogies might sound odd to begin with, but the link was there, unconscious maybe, but that’s what we really think, not the polished phrase that we produce because it ‘fits’.
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Yes!!
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🙂
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Scary, yes, but also compelling! I’d never heard of Miss Richard’s Mouse, but I know I would have really liked it. The style reminds me a bit of Tim Burton.
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Yes, Tim Burton, I know what you mean. I read it again and again as a child, and now I’m reading it to my grandchildren – precious!
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I’m going to look up the book as soon as I’m done answering my messages.
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Just looked. It wasn’t in our library systerm 😦 But I did find out that Susan Einzig, the woman who illustrated Miss Richard’s Mouse, also illustrated “Tom’s Midnight Garden” by Phillipa Pearce. And I’m happy to report I have my own copy of “Tom’s Midnight Garden.”
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Thank you so much Laurie. I don’t know why I didn’t think to look her up. I’ve just seen on Wiki that she illustrated two books for Norah Pulling. No illustrations from these books appear on Google images as far as I can see, they seem quite different from her other work. Miss Richard’s Mouse was published in 1946. How thrilling! I was born in 1952. She died in 2009, not long ago. I feel like I want to re-publish Miss Richard’s Mouse! I really like its non ‘pretty-pretty’ illustrations. Wouldn’t that be fun!
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Yes! Also, so fun to connect with like-minded people who get a kick out of making connections between children’s books, writers, and illustrators.
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I was just thinking the same!
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Wonderful use of both prompts–that book does look scary!
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Thank you Kerry – it does!
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