Story Time Sentiments

Narrative is the method by which people have communicated for millennia. It is how tradition is passed on from generation to generation; it is the way culture has developed in our societies.

I was thinking today about the books we have read together as a family and how these stories have become part of our family culture and traditions. I for one can definitely see this influence, as the stories I have read to the children and have spilled over the pages into our communications and traditions over the years.

One example is the story of Little Nut Brown Hare in ‘Guess How Much I love you this much’ by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram. It tells of a little rabbit who keeps asking his dad how much he loves him. It’s at the end of the book when the father tells Little Nut Brown Hare that ‘he loves him all the way to the moon and back’; that has had a lasting effect on my eldest daughter. I have read it many times over time and we still use it as a form of affection years later. She was the first one to have that book read to her over and over again and she has listened to me reading it to her siblings too. She knows what I mean when I say ‘I love her all the way to the moon and back.’ The words from this book have been adopted into our expressions towards each other with fondness. These words have become apart of our family traditions.

There are books that we have read where the phrases have transferred themselves into our child’s vocabulary. Charlie and Lola by Laura Child has heavily influenced my two youngest to the point that one of them talks in the same way that Lola does. ‘I absolutely will not not ever eat that…I am not slightly sleepy’.

Stories like Harry Potter have heavily influenced my children. Whenever we hold a stick in our hands one of us will say ‘Expelliarmus’ We then make wands out of sticks and play wizards and I will try and cast spells on the children to clean up their bedrooms ‘Tidyup-ius’

As we pass each other on the stairs you will often hear the words ‘You shall not pass’ uttered from Gandalf the Grey as he battles with the fiery demon in the Fellowship Of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien.  I just want to say at this point that I am really grateful for those film producers who turn classic tales into movies because the people like me who have trouble reading would never have known the story through reading alone. Saying that I have read a quote that said ‘Don’t judge a book by its movie’…nevertheless, I’m still grateful.

The Twits by Roald Dahl is a book that has made our family giggle for years. The amount of times I have informed the kids that they have ‘the shrinks’ when they are ill is unreal.

I have long believed that parents greatly influence what their children read, after all they are the ones who buy the books. As children grow they make their own choice about what they read. As a parent, I’m personally always drawn to the illustrations, but if the story isn’t as good then I just cant buy it.

I know there are many versions of the Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde but Lisbeth Zwerge illustrated the one that I bought. It is a beautifully illustrated book that made me cry as I read it to the children. The story is so beautiful and the kids could see how I felt about the words I was reading. The illustrations really helped in my purchase, as the other illustrated versions didn’t make me buy it. The Lizbeth Zwerge version did help me make that choice.

The Empty Pot by Demi is another amazing story that has supported me in influencing my children. This is a beautiful tale about honesty with simple illustrations that support the narrative and don’t distract in any way.

As a child my mother read me the story of The Little Red Hen. She used to use the Little Red Hen as a form of chastisement when I was lazy. ‘Don’t be like characters in the Little Red Hen’. I knew exactly what she meant because the story she had read me. Aesops Fables is another book where fables became apart of my life.

Becoming a book illustrator has always interested me, but I am a long way off ever accomplishing such a task. But if I ever do get that opportunity I will always remember the power and long lasting effects of narrative.

My notebook fetish

What can I say? I can’t help myself. When I go into a shop and see a notebook I like, I have to buy it. I have at least twelve and that doesn’t include my sketchbook collection.

I go through a serious rationalization routine before I buy them. I start by saying ‘Oooh a notebook…I like that.’ I then open it to check the paper quality. I then say to myself ‘Yes but I already have lots of note pads and I don’t even use them all. Do you realize how irrational this is?’

I then start to have a conversation between me and myself about how I like the notebook but buying another one makes no sense. ‘I’ then ignore the conversation between ‘me and myself’ and pick up the notebook and stick it in the trolley.

When I get home I put it on my bookshelf and hope no one notices.

I don’t think it would be so strange if I used them, but I don’t. They are all filled with empty blank pages. Buying the notebooks isn’t really the issue; it’s the reason why I struggle to fill them that is.

I so want to fill the pages and I know that whatever I write or draw will be a documentation of my life and learning. I think about the diaries and journals handed down form generation to generation. I think about how history is evidenced by events written down by peoples of the past. I have books written about the sketchbooks of great designers and illustrators and I sit and look at their books over and over wishing I had such amazing sketchbooks like them.

I may never know the real reason for my notebook inclination, to be honest it may just be that I simply like note books, in the same way some people like stamps (I like stamps too by the way). But when I went to the Miro exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park there was a section of a letter he had written to a friend. It read:

I was a very poor student. Had little to do with my classmates who called me ‘egghead’…Quiet, rather taciturn and a dreamer. I took drawing lessons at the same school after the regular school day was over. That class was like a religious ceremony for me; I washed my hands carefully before touching the paper and pencils. The implements were like sacred objects and I worked as though I were performing a religious rite. This state of mind has persisted, even more pronounced.

This letter tells me a lot. It tells me that Miro had within in him a need to create and with that need came respect. A respect for the tools that would help him fulfill that need.

I have a respect for the sketchbook and notebooks I buy. But I shouldn’t be so respectful that I don’t use them. They are tool’s, they do hold all my ramblings and investigations. They contain my experiments and learning. They hold moments of expression. I have a sketchbook for mark making and it has become a book that I love to look through, even though I’m the one who made the marks in it, I turn the pages with respectful joy at the process I have gone through to make those marks. I really enjoy exhibitions when sketchbooks and notebooks are on show; they help me see what processes other artists are going through.  They inspire me to write in mine… oh and they also help me justify buying more books!