Up, Up, and Away

(blogging about another old favorite, as I’m still in the middle of reading Silverlock and am majorly swamped, hay…)

When I was in 4th grade, my dad usually picked me up after work so I had a few hours to kill while waiting. I usually read books if I didn’t have any homework to work on, or if I didn’t feel like doing it, which was more often the case.

Now in those days, we decorated the room with special corners for each subject — Christian Doctrine, Science, Math, Social Studies, etc. Of course, my favorite corner was the Reading Corner, where everyone brought a book or two to share with the class and we would have a mini-library to escape to in between classes or during DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time, so we wouldn’t get listed down as “noisy girls”. Haha, magically by the end of the school year the books would have dwindled to a couple mo.tley ones; I lost a lot of books to the Reading Corner, although I gained some other kids’ books too, wink, wink.

One of the books I discovered in our 4th grade reading corner is the 1947 Newbery Award winner The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois, which I first read while waiting to get picked up from school one rainy afternoon at Gate 1.

The Twenty-One Balloons one of the best escapist stories I have ever had the pleasure of reading, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read it and how many copies I’ve worn out and lost (e.g. loaned and never returned to me! grr).

I really love the premise: Professor William Waterman Sherman decides to retire from teaching arithmetic to grubby kids, and decides to fly off on a grand vacation — drifting aimlessly on a hot-air balloon! I loved the detailed description of how The Globe (Prof. Sherman’s hot air balloon) was constructed — a small wicker house with an observation deck, and everything made from the lightest materials — even a small library of paper-bound books in tiny print!

Professor Sherman left San Francisco intending to fly across the Pacific Ocean, and three weeks later, he mysteriously turns up floating in the Atlantic Ocean, in a wooden wreckage with 21 balloons!

Where exactly has he been? On the island of Krakatoa (he flies over the Philippines!), which turns out to be an extremely wealthy island-nation of eccentric citizens!

The Diamond Mines

I love the idea of Krakatoa in The Twenty-One Balloons, and this book has made me daydream about living there, and given the choice, I’d drop everything and go. The island has an expansive diamond mine right under the volcano Krakatoa. According to Krakatoan history (as narrated by Mr. F), a sailor got shipwrecked on the island and discovered its treasures. As soon as he was able to return to America, he handpicked 20 families of diverse talents and interests. Each family was renamed with a letter of the alphabet, e.g. Mr. A, Mr. B, A-1, and A-2 and so on until the Ts, and the small nation lives a leisurely life financed by discreetly selling a small load of diamonds each year.

The Coat of Arms of Krakatoa: “Not New Things, but New Ways”

What’s most interesting about Krakatoa is its “Gourmet Government.” Each day of their 20-day calendar (A through T) is assigned to a specific family, who is tasked to serve meals at their house, which functions as a restaurant specializing in a particular cuisine — A for American, B for British, C for Chinese, D for Dutch, etc. It’s a lot of fun, as each house resembles the architecture of the country too — from an Egyptian pyramid to a Russian tea house to an Italian Bistro and a miniature Versailles! — and the families are very competitive in coming up with great dining experiences for one another, and they have theme months too, like “Month of Lamb,” depending on their surplus stock. I imagine every day to be a gastronomic adventure!

There are also a lot of imaginative Krakatoan inventions in the book, including a bed that automatically changes sheets, a collapsible dining room, living room bumpcars, sky beds, and flying merry-go-rounds. William Pene du Bois is not only a gifted writer, he illustrated the book as well, and the illustrations are great fuel for the imagination.

M-1 and M-2’s Sky beds

Of course, you will have to read the book to find out how Professor Sherman ends up in the wrong ocean with 21 balloons. It’s a great book for all ages; kids and adults alike will appreciate the rich experience that Pene du Bois lays out for the reader.

Interesting factoid: the story came out around the same time as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “A Diamond as Big as the Ritz” in 1947, which has a similar plot although very different ideas. William Pene du Bois writes a horrified note as an introduction and quips,”The fact that F. Scott Fitzgerald and I apparently would spend our billions in like ways right down to being dumped from bed into a bathtub is altogether, quite frankly, beyond my explanation.”

***
My copy: trade paperback. Looking for a hardcover copy!

My rating: 5/5 stars

Taking fan art to the next level

In May last year, the Flippers’ first book discussion was on the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

Before the discussion, I’d seen the book around but never felt the urge to pick it up. I rarely pick up books with spiritual/ inspirational themes because they trigger an involuntary gag reflex in me, so I was dreading reading this book.

Surprisingly, the gagging never came because I actually liked the book. Not in a love-it-to-bits sense, but I appreciated it, and was glad the book discussion required me to read it.

Life of Pi is the story of Piscine “Pi” Molitor Patel, a boy of multiple religions, who is a shipwreck survivor floating adrift in the ocean on a lifeboat with a circus tiger named Richard Parker.

I like the book because it questions perception, and because it reminds us that sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.

To my surprise, I also enjoyed the book’s humor. I really appreciate good humor in a book, and I did not expect this book to make me laugh, but it did, especially the part when Pi was practicing the three religions and the family runs into all three religious leaders and his multi-belief system is revealed; the Pi Patel Indo-Canadian, Trans-Pacific, Floating Circus; the encounter with the Frenchman (whom Pi mistook to be Richard Parker at first); and the interrogation scene at the end of the book.

But this review isn’t about the story of Life of Pi, it’s about a particular edition of the book: the deluxe illustrated edition, featuring the paintings of Croatian Tomislav Torjanac.

In 2005, an international competition was launched to find an illustrator for the novel. Thousands of entries were sent in from all over the world, and Torjanac was selected to illustrate the deluxe edition.

From Amazon Outtakes:

The book includes over 40 illustrations in oil, taken from Pi’s perspective (Pi is never seen in the illustrations, just his hands and feet), documenting his bizarre journey in vibrant color.

Here are some illustrations, from http://www.torjanac.com/lifeofpi.html and http://lifeofpi.co.uk (copyright Tomislav Torjanac)

Lord, avert their eyes from me, I whispered in my soul.
I threw the mako towards the stern.
“There goes our lunch.”

I think it’s great, how Yann Martel and the publishers thought of involving readers this way. I can imagine the feeling, if for instance, JK Rowling did it for one of the Harry Potter books (or if a local publisher comes up with a Filipino translation and mounted a similar contest — hahaha, my fantasy), or if any of my other favorite books were up for illustration.

I would think it’s exciting and scary at the same time, to be given a chance to illustrate a a new edition of a book you’ve loved for a long time, with the knowledge that hundreds of people around the world have loved it too and are eagerly awaiting your illustrations.

I remember a discussion about illustrated novels posted at Flips Flipping Pages last year. Someone commented that a lot of bestsellers are getting illustrated, and he wasn’t quite sure if it was a marketing ploy, or if readers had such short attention spans that they needed to have books with pictures. b

Those reasons probably hold true, and I say, if it gets more people to read, so much the better.

But speaking as an illustrator, I see the illustrations as an extension of the reading experience, not mere accompaniments to the text. Illustrations translate one art form (literature) into another (visual art), much like a book made into a movie, and can convey a meaning beyond the text, as the illustrator adds his or her own nuances in interpreting the text.

And speaking as a big fan (and obsessive bargain-hunting collector) of illustrated novels, I say there is nothing wrong with enjoying an illustrated book; it doesn’t mean you lack imagination or need a visual aid. It’s about appreciating it for what it is – art!

***
My copy: hardbound US (Harcourt) with dustjacket, a birthday gift from Triccie
(Back story: I lent my brother my trade paperback, he took it to his dorm and it was devoured by termites — he now grovels if he wants to borrow a book)

My rating: Life of Pi Illustrated Edition 5/5 stars; Life of Pi trade paperback 3.5/5 stars