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Storytime
What was it exactly? Wonder, rapture, delight, surprised recognition, laughter – but also darker feelings that made my heart beat fast and my stomach turn over, and sometimes a frantic urge to close the book before whatever it was sucked me in and destroyed me. But always, I read on.
In Storytime, author and literary journalist Jane Sullivan takes us from Wonderland to Narnia; is enchanted by Winnie-the-Pooh and the Magic Pudding, amazed by Enid Blyton and frightened by the Tales of Terror. Then there is the one book Jane truly hated – Little Women. Why had she despised Jo March, a seemingly perfect role model for a young, aspiring writer?
This intimate, intense and emotional adventure is a surprising and sometimes disturbing journey of self-discovery. As Jane relives old joys and faces old fears, she finds that the books were not what she thought they were, and she was not the child she thought she was.
Interwoven with experiences from prominent Australian writers, including Melina Marchetta and Trent Dalton, about their favourite childhood stories, Storytime is a bibliomemoir that lures us deep into the literary world. Through Jane’s explorations we understand how it is that the enchantment of books we read as children can shape the people we are today. Because we didn’t just want to read them – we needed to read them.
In Storytime, author and literary journalist Jane Sullivan takes us from Wonderland to Narnia; is enchanted by Winnie-the-Pooh and the Magic Pudding, amazed by Enid Blyton and frightened by the Tales of Terror. Then there is the one book Jane truly hated – Little Women. Why had she despised Jo March, a seemingly perfect role model for a young, aspiring writer?
This intimate, intense and emotional adventure is a surprising and sometimes disturbing journey of self-discovery. As Jane relives old joys and faces old fears, she finds that the books were not what she thought they were, and she was not the child she thought she was.
Interwoven with experiences from prominent Australian writers, including Melina Marchetta and Trent Dalton, about their favourite childhood stories, Storytime is a bibliomemoir that lures us deep into the literary world. Through Jane’s explorations we understand how it is that the enchantment of books we read as children can shape the people we are today. Because we didn’t just want to read them – we needed to read them.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
2 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
Jane Sullivan
4 books5 followersJane was born in England to Australian parents, came to live in Melbourne in 1979 and worked at The Age as a reporter, feature writer and editor of various sections, including the books pages. She won the inaugural Australian Human Rights award for journalism.
At present she contributes to The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, writing features and a Saturday column, ‘Turning Pages’, about books and writing.
She has also written for Griffith Review, Meanjin and Australian Book Review and has reviewed books for ABC Radio National’s Books and Arts program.
Murder in Punch Lane is Jane’s fourth book. She has previously published two novels – The White Star (Penguin Australia, 2000) and Little People (Scribe, 2011) – and the nonfiction work Storytime (Ventura Press, 2019).
At present she contributes to The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, writing features and a Saturday column, ‘Turning Pages’, about books and writing.
She has also written for Griffith Review, Meanjin and Australian Book Review and has reviewed books for ABC Radio National’s Books and Arts program.
Murder in Punch Lane is Jane’s fourth book. She has previously published two novels – The White Star (Penguin Australia, 2000) and Little People (Scribe, 2011) – and the nonfiction work Storytime (Ventura Press, 2019).
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 25, 2020
‘I am a compulsive reader.’
In this book, Jane Sullivan revisits about a dozen books which she had read in her childhood. Her objective was to recall her memories of those books, then re-read them and record her new reactions. I picked up this book because I love reading about the reading experiences of others.
‘This will not be a book about books. It will be a book about my experience of reading those books.’
Jane Sullivan is only a few years older than me, and many of the books in her list are books that I have also read: ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’; ‘Alice in Wonderland’; ‘The Wind in the Willows’; ‘Little Women’; ‘What Katy Did’, ‘Heidi’ and lots of Enid Blyton. Other books such as the Narnia series, I read as an adult. Some I’d never heard of.
‘It’s ten o’clock at night and there’s still enough light to read by.’
I can’t imagine growing up without books. They were a source of learning as well as a source of escape. Robert Louis Stevenson was my favourite author before I was ten, but once I moved into the adult section of the library (with special permission at around that age) my horizons widened.
I was interested in which books Jane Sullivan chose to reread and why and interested in her reactions. Should I confess that I’ve never felt like rereading most of the books that were part of my childhood? I’m afraid that the magic would be lost, that the child who so enjoyed the adventures of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ would be pushed aside by the more critical adult.
I enjoyed this book, especially reading Ms Sullivan’s differing reactions to the books she chose. I am tempted to dip into the world of Moonmin, and perhaps Edith Nesbit. But I am not tempted to reread the books I already know from this list.
‘I needed different things at different times from different books.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In this book, Jane Sullivan revisits about a dozen books which she had read in her childhood. Her objective was to recall her memories of those books, then re-read them and record her new reactions. I picked up this book because I love reading about the reading experiences of others.
‘This will not be a book about books. It will be a book about my experience of reading those books.’
Jane Sullivan is only a few years older than me, and many of the books in her list are books that I have also read: ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’; ‘Alice in Wonderland’; ‘The Wind in the Willows’; ‘Little Women’; ‘What Katy Did’, ‘Heidi’ and lots of Enid Blyton. Other books such as the Narnia series, I read as an adult. Some I’d never heard of.
‘It’s ten o’clock at night and there’s still enough light to read by.’
I can’t imagine growing up without books. They were a source of learning as well as a source of escape. Robert Louis Stevenson was my favourite author before I was ten, but once I moved into the adult section of the library (with special permission at around that age) my horizons widened.
I was interested in which books Jane Sullivan chose to reread and why and interested in her reactions. Should I confess that I’ve never felt like rereading most of the books that were part of my childhood? I’m afraid that the magic would be lost, that the child who so enjoyed the adventures of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ would be pushed aside by the more critical adult.
I enjoyed this book, especially reading Ms Sullivan’s differing reactions to the books she chose. I am tempted to dip into the world of Moonmin, and perhaps Edith Nesbit. But I am not tempted to reread the books I already know from this list.
‘I needed different things at different times from different books.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
August 15, 2019
This was a very pleasant piece of nostalgia.
It caught my eye because not only am I drawn to books about books but also being just younger than the author, I've found myself considering the same sorts of questions. Even having gone as far, in the past couple of years, of buying my first copy of Wind in The Willows in a folio society edition and buying an early edition of The Magic Pudding and some May Gibbs.
As a child, books seemed to be very expensive purchases. I had nowhere near as many children's books as my children did when they were young. I still have the small bookshelf, made by my Granddad that I used as a bedside table and contained all my books. I was limited to the school library and occasional trips to The Public Library when my busy Parents or Grandparents could spare the time. If I was lucky, my Grandfather, also a voracious reader, would take me on his weekly trip to his local library and I could scout the children's shelves there. There we go, I'm already back to getting lost in my childhood memories.
A really fun read for anyone who wants to reminisce mainly on old classic British childrens' authors. I was delighted that there is also a chapter on Australian Children's authors, centred mainly on Norman Lindsey and his Magic Pudding. American and European authors don't get a mention except for a Chapter each of Louisa May Alcott and Tove Jansson.
It caught my eye because not only am I drawn to books about books but also being just younger than the author, I've found myself considering the same sorts of questions. Even having gone as far, in the past couple of years, of buying my first copy of Wind in The Willows in a folio society edition and buying an early edition of The Magic Pudding and some May Gibbs.
As a child, books seemed to be very expensive purchases. I had nowhere near as many children's books as my children did when they were young. I still have the small bookshelf, made by my Granddad that I used as a bedside table and contained all my books. I was limited to the school library and occasional trips to The Public Library when my busy Parents or Grandparents could spare the time. If I was lucky, my Grandfather, also a voracious reader, would take me on his weekly trip to his local library and I could scout the children's shelves there. There we go, I'm already back to getting lost in my childhood memories.
A really fun read for anyone who wants to reminisce mainly on old classic British childrens' authors. I was delighted that there is also a chapter on Australian Children's authors, centred mainly on Norman Lindsey and his Magic Pudding. American and European authors don't get a mention except for a Chapter each of Louisa May Alcott and Tove Jansson.
February 15, 2020
It’s wonderful to see inside the mind of Jane the child and Jane the adult revisiting old favourite books (and some she didn’t like!) to find out why- why they affected her the way they did. And to discover how she affected them. I loved getting to explore some of my favourites with Jane too. Why be the Snork Maiden when you can be Moomintroll! ❤️
Only tiny gripe are the margin notes and insets from other writers. The margin notes didn’t really add and at times they felt like rude interruptions from a well meaning smarter friend - here’s the important sound bite (no thanks). And the other writers’ thoughts were interesting but oddly positioned in the middle of things, again interrupting the flow for me. So I skipped them and went back after I’d read each chapter.
Thanks Mum for the gift. And for the reading...
Only tiny gripe are the margin notes and insets from other writers. The margin notes didn’t really add and at times they felt like rude interruptions from a well meaning smarter friend - here’s the important sound bite (no thanks). And the other writers’ thoughts were interesting but oddly positioned in the middle of things, again interrupting the flow for me. So I skipped them and went back after I’d read each chapter.
Thanks Mum for the gift. And for the reading...
August 19, 2019
Actual rating 3.5
Literary Journalist Jane Sullivan (who you may know from the Turning Pages column in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald,) spent much her childhood immersed in books. Now, many years later, she has decided to revisit those years and the many books that she read in Storytime, and take a look at how they shaped her to become the adult--and reader--that she is today.
One part memoir and one part literary criticism, this one was an enjoyable read. Full of nostalgia, the volume includes short essays from prominent Australian writers on their favourite books. The author holds nothing back as she admits to the many misconceptions that she made about the books that she read during her formative years. On a more personal level, I was very keen to see how many of the same books I had read as the author. The answer to that question, as it turned out, was not many, though much could be owed to the fact that I grew up in a different era, in an entirely different country.
Although this one is an enjoyable read and offers a good dose of literary criticism, along with some interesting tidbits (I knew nothing of Lewis Carroll's uh, reputation,) this volume does feel a little self-indulgent in places and the author isn't necessarily kind to all of the books and authors she revisits. However, that particular failing is easy to overlook when examining this unique and honest book as a whole.
Recommended.
Thank you to Ventura Press for my review copy.
This review also appears on my blog, Kathryn's Inbox.
Literary Journalist Jane Sullivan (who you may know from the Turning Pages column in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald,) spent much her childhood immersed in books. Now, many years later, she has decided to revisit those years and the many books that she read in Storytime, and take a look at how they shaped her to become the adult--and reader--that she is today.
One part memoir and one part literary criticism, this one was an enjoyable read. Full of nostalgia, the volume includes short essays from prominent Australian writers on their favourite books. The author holds nothing back as she admits to the many misconceptions that she made about the books that she read during her formative years. On a more personal level, I was very keen to see how many of the same books I had read as the author. The answer to that question, as it turned out, was not many, though much could be owed to the fact that I grew up in a different era, in an entirely different country.
Although this one is an enjoyable read and offers a good dose of literary criticism, along with some interesting tidbits (I knew nothing of Lewis Carroll's uh, reputation,) this volume does feel a little self-indulgent in places and the author isn't necessarily kind to all of the books and authors she revisits. However, that particular failing is easy to overlook when examining this unique and honest book as a whole.
Recommended.
Thank you to Ventura Press for my review copy.
This review also appears on my blog, Kathryn's Inbox.
March 2, 2020
This warm, gentle and insightful book is such a pleasant trip down the memory lane... I love Sullivan's choices of books that shaped her childhood and her insights into them as an adult are illuminating and occasionally humourous too. My very favorite was the chapter on Moomins, particularly as I'm now revisiting these beautiful books as I'm reading them to my boys.
July 29, 2019
This was such a fun book. I loved revisiting some of my favourite childhood stories through Jane Sullivan's eyes. Despite our age gap, she addresses quite a few stories that I grew up on, which just shows the timelessness/popularity of some kids books. I loved Sullivan's reflections on her original reading experience as a child and then as an adult and the journey as she tried to work out what exactly she needed in a book in her younger years.
Sullivan has also researched all the authors she reads and provides a variety of interesting facts on all of them.
I loved the personal voice Sullivan writes with and this certainly made me nostalgic for some of the books I read and loved in my childhood.
Sullivan has also researched all the authors she reads and provides a variety of interesting facts on all of them.
I loved the personal voice Sullivan writes with and this certainly made me nostalgic for some of the books I read and loved in my childhood.
February 11, 2020
Mehhhhh. I like the premise, and I think I would’ve overall enjoyed this more of more of the books discussed were ones I read - those were my favorite to read about.
July 29, 2019
Storytime is a delightful, honest dive into the books that shaped journalist Jane Sullivan's childhood, and is a pure pleasure to read. I rarely read non-fiction, but when I do this is exactly the sort of book I adore. Friends, you will be getting copies for Christmas!
Structured as a series of interconnected essays, each chapter in Storytime explores one title from Sullivan's childhood, giving a summary of what she remembers from reading it as a girl, how the story has shaped her, and then chronicling her reactions as she re-reads the book. This is peppered with facts about the author and memories of Sullivan's childhood - the combination is irresistible. While you would think this repetitive structure would wear thin over time (14 books are discussed), it instead provides tension and anticipation, particularly to hear her thoughts on childhood favourites of my own (e.g. the Narnia chapter is towards the end).
Sullivan's writing has just the right balance between reflection, fact and exploration to be utterly compelling. She poses numerous hypotheses throughout, but typically discards them the following chapter, to show how fluid and amorphous our reading needs are in youth. She does ultimately draw some overarching conclusions that will resonate with bookworms everywhere, and leave you longing to pick up an old childhood favourite.
I worried that I wouldn't enjoy the chapters about books I hadn't read, or at least hadn't heard of, but the opposite was true - those chapters paired Sullivan's nostalgia with my own sense of discovery and curiosity, which made them just as enjoyable. While at times sentimental, Sullivan never becomes saccharine, also covering a book that she detested as a girl, and writing particularly eloquently on the thrill of terror and fear aroused by stories.
Sullivan's narrative is broken up with short comments from prominent Australian writers who were asked to contribute thoughts on one or two books that influenced them at a young age. We hear about the beloved literary influences of idols like Charlotte Wood, Trent Dalton and Toni Jordan, which are delightful additions and provide variety of tone and titles.
I finished Storytime with an itch to pick up my childhood favourite book - The Secret Garden - and a feeling of nostalgia and longing for the possibilities and terrors of childhood imagination. Which title would this book call into your hands? I recommend picking it up to help you remember.
I received a copy of Storytime from Ventura Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Structured as a series of interconnected essays, each chapter in Storytime explores one title from Sullivan's childhood, giving a summary of what she remembers from reading it as a girl, how the story has shaped her, and then chronicling her reactions as she re-reads the book. This is peppered with facts about the author and memories of Sullivan's childhood - the combination is irresistible. While you would think this repetitive structure would wear thin over time (14 books are discussed), it instead provides tension and anticipation, particularly to hear her thoughts on childhood favourites of my own (e.g. the Narnia chapter is towards the end).
Sullivan's writing has just the right balance between reflection, fact and exploration to be utterly compelling. She poses numerous hypotheses throughout, but typically discards them the following chapter, to show how fluid and amorphous our reading needs are in youth. She does ultimately draw some overarching conclusions that will resonate with bookworms everywhere, and leave you longing to pick up an old childhood favourite.
I worried that I wouldn't enjoy the chapters about books I hadn't read, or at least hadn't heard of, but the opposite was true - those chapters paired Sullivan's nostalgia with my own sense of discovery and curiosity, which made them just as enjoyable. While at times sentimental, Sullivan never becomes saccharine, also covering a book that she detested as a girl, and writing particularly eloquently on the thrill of terror and fear aroused by stories.
Sullivan's narrative is broken up with short comments from prominent Australian writers who were asked to contribute thoughts on one or two books that influenced them at a young age. We hear about the beloved literary influences of idols like Charlotte Wood, Trent Dalton and Toni Jordan, which are delightful additions and provide variety of tone and titles.
I finished Storytime with an itch to pick up my childhood favourite book - The Secret Garden - and a feeling of nostalgia and longing for the possibilities and terrors of childhood imagination. Which title would this book call into your hands? I recommend picking it up to help you remember.
I received a copy of Storytime from Ventura Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Want to read
October 26, 2019Thank you Simon and Schuster Australia and Netgalley for this ARC.
I was hooked to read this book from the introduction when Jane describes her love of all things bookish. I fondly smiled at the anticipation of getting a book as a gift (and still do) as well as the regular trips to the library.
Some of the books I hadn’t heard of but if the ones I too have read as a child I enjoyed reading Jane’s literary thoughts and critiques on them. I especially loved how she described the Magic Pudding as an English reader with Australian dreams. I could smell and feel the Eucalypts as I read this chapter.
A great book for readers who love reading about books.
Thank you for this ARC in return of my honest review.
I was hooked to read this book from the introduction when Jane describes her love of all things bookish. I fondly smiled at the anticipation of getting a book as a gift (and still do) as well as the regular trips to the library.
Some of the books I hadn’t heard of but if the ones I too have read as a child I enjoyed reading Jane’s literary thoughts and critiques on them. I especially loved how she described the Magic Pudding as an English reader with Australian dreams. I could smell and feel the Eucalypts as I read this chapter.
A great book for readers who love reading about books.
Thank you for this ARC in return of my honest review.
November 5, 2019
Storytime is literary journalist Jane Sullivan's answer to a slew of nostalgic memoirs of childhood reading, but it transcends the genre that began for me with Frances Spufford's The Child that Books Built, a Life in Reading (2003). I wrote pages and pages about that one in my journal, pleased by his analysis of the books he'd read but disappointed by his account of the way his reading diverged in adulthood. It was more of a memoir about coming of age than about the books.
Sullivan takes a different tack, a little like David Denby's Great Books in concept (though he tackled the Western canon via enrolling at Columbia University as a mature student)). Sullivan revisits the books she had read, sharing her nostalgic memories and analysing why she liked them — and then reading them again as a mature adult with a lifetime of reading and life experience behind her. It's an interesting approach and, pleasingly, it includes an Australian children's book, though only one...
Sullivan is a littleyounger older than me, but we read many of the same childhood books, and they were mostly British because that was the era. So though she read Edith Nesbit and I didn't (until
The Railway Children
in 2009), we both read (toned-down) British versions of Greek and Roman myths, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie-the-Pooh, Enid Blyton and The Wind in the Willows. Sullivan diverged a little into Europe with Finn Family Moomintroll while I read Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates and Heidi. From America, we both read Little Women and What Katy Did but she disliked them and I didn't. Sullivan also read books I didn't discover until I went to Teachers' College and studied Children's Lit: the Narnia series by C S Lewis and Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, and I never got round to reading The Magic Pudding until late in my career when I was a teacher-librarian so I don't have childhood memories of these. There were a few others that I had never heard of (The Silent Three by Horace Boyton and Stewart Pride; The Warden's Niece by Gillian Avery; and Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural edited by Wagner & Wise) so I shamelessly skipped those chapters.
The nostalgia component, that is, Sullivan's memory of the book, is both intoxicating and illuminating. Sullivan's evocation of the feelings we shared as child readers enables us to rediscover our long-ago reading selves. It's a journey into those magical days beneath the bed covers or under the desk-lid at school. But—and this is what I liked in the case of Blyton and (yes, perversely) disliked in the case of Alice—there can be a darker side when she revisits these books in adulthood. I know there are questions about Lewis Carroll's relationship with Alice Liddell but I didn't want them to spoil my love of his book. OTOH I enjoyed reading Sullivan's masterful analysis of everything that's wrong with Blyton...
Like Sullivan, I read countless Blytons as a child and was quite taken aback by the criticism I learned about at Teachers' College. Sullivan feels the same confusion. When she reads the books with an adult sensibility she is appalled, just as I was. Disconcertingly, it turns out that neither of us was the 'fondly imagined' child of impeccable literary taste. Blyton's writing itself is terrible, the characters are stereotypes, the plots are predictable and the implicit values of sexism and racism are awful. Why did we like these books so much that we spent months or years of our childhood lives reading this dross?
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/11/05/s...
Sullivan takes a different tack, a little like David Denby's Great Books in concept (though he tackled the Western canon via enrolling at Columbia University as a mature student)). Sullivan revisits the books she had read, sharing her nostalgic memories and analysing why she liked them — and then reading them again as a mature adult with a lifetime of reading and life experience behind her. It's an interesting approach and, pleasingly, it includes an Australian children's book, though only one...
Sullivan is a little
The nostalgia component, that is, Sullivan's memory of the book, is both intoxicating and illuminating. Sullivan's evocation of the feelings we shared as child readers enables us to rediscover our long-ago reading selves. It's a journey into those magical days beneath the bed covers or under the desk-lid at school. But—and this is what I liked in the case of Blyton and (yes, perversely) disliked in the case of Alice—there can be a darker side when she revisits these books in adulthood. I know there are questions about Lewis Carroll's relationship with Alice Liddell but I didn't want them to spoil my love of his book. OTOH I enjoyed reading Sullivan's masterful analysis of everything that's wrong with Blyton...
Like Sullivan, I read countless Blytons as a child and was quite taken aback by the criticism I learned about at Teachers' College. Sullivan feels the same confusion. When she reads the books with an adult sensibility she is appalled, just as I was. Disconcertingly, it turns out that neither of us was the 'fondly imagined' child of impeccable literary taste. Blyton's writing itself is terrible, the characters are stereotypes, the plots are predictable and the implicit values of sexism and racism are awful. Why did we like these books so much that we spent months or years of our childhood lives reading this dross?
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/11/05/s...
June 6, 2019
I feel terribly anxious to leave a negative review when it comes to a writer's efforts; and yet the irony is that a large percentage of this book was filled with negativity for other author's creations. A great deal of research has gone into this piece of non-fiction which contrasts the writer's recollection of her favourite childhood stories, with her current reactions to a reread of the same tales. I enjoyed learning facts such as how Winnie the Pooh's name was decided, and that Enid Blyton wrote more than 700 books during her career. I also didn't mind the autobiographical aspects of the authors reflections on her own childhood in relation to these books and characters. I couldn't however get on board with her accusing Milne of being a "negligent father", or Lewis Carrol a possible pedophile. She refers to best-selling authors writing as "expository clumsiness", "terrible", "uniformly flat, vague and cliched". I found that instead of the nostalgia I expected to catch a glimpse of in this book, I was delivered a long-winded synopsis of each cherished story, along with a handful of author facts, and a splash of rude opinion. It wasn't my cup of tea, but I am grateful to the publishers at Simon and Schuster, and Net Galley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest (and apologetic) review.
February 18, 2020
Mixing memoir with the stories she read as a child. Jane Sullivan rereads her childhood favourites to see if she can work out why she needed to read them, and why they were important to her at the time. Fascinating.
March 13, 2020
I really enjoyed this as the author was really truthful about why she did or didn't like books. I know it can be seen to be twee to read books about reading but this is definitely one of my favourites.
September 23, 2020
I loved being tucked up with this lovely book about books. I’m a big fan of Jane Sullivan’s writing - I’ve done a few of her courses over the years. She’s a superb writer with a terrific turn of phrase and we also love similar childhood reads. This was a delicious nostalgic revisit.
October 9, 2019
A beautifully written and nostalgic book. It was lovely to revisit favourite books from childhood.
December 23, 2019
Skimmed through the chapters that I hadn’t read the books of, overall, a nice nostalgic read. The side quotes were a bit off putting, felt like something out of New Idea...
aus authors I know mentionned: Ceridwen Dovey (review on back cover), Toni Jordan, Cate Kennedy, Alice Pung, John Marsden, Fiona Wood, & Andy Griffiths.
aus authors I know mentionned: Ceridwen Dovey (review on back cover), Toni Jordan, Cate Kennedy, Alice Pung, John Marsden, Fiona Wood, & Andy Griffiths.
March 19, 2021
'[Books] were both the temptation and the cure. They tempted me to escape from the problem of myself, but they also helped me to visualise myself as a different, more confident person'.
I adore books about books, but they can vary quite considerably in quality and sometimes amount to nothing more than needless navel-gazing. Two things really won me over in this case: Sullivan focuses on children's books, many of them ones I had read in my own childhood (despite that being thirty years later!), and she grew up in the UK and now lives in my hometown, Melbourne. Oh, and I used to read her book columns in The Age regularly. Plus she writes beautifully and personably, though a bit formulaically when it comes to this project, discussing in each chapter her childhood memories of a beloved book, then her rereading experience, then a summary of the author's life before hypothesising about what she needed from her childhood reading. Happily, all those hypotheses are summarised at the very end, and they lined up very well with my own ideas. I also regularly return to my childhood favourites for comfort, and so it was nice to see the value of this nostalgic journey acknowledged. There's a lot of warmth and love and good humour in this book, and I know Sullivan would heartily approve of the bookmark I paired with it: a picture of a girl reading on a flying carpet accompanied by the caption 'A book is a present you can open again and again'. Truer words were never spoken, particularly in reference to children's books.
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2021 prompt: A book about a subject you are passionate about
I adore books about books, but they can vary quite considerably in quality and sometimes amount to nothing more than needless navel-gazing. Two things really won me over in this case: Sullivan focuses on children's books, many of them ones I had read in my own childhood (despite that being thirty years later!), and she grew up in the UK and now lives in my hometown, Melbourne. Oh, and I used to read her book columns in The Age regularly. Plus she writes beautifully and personably, though a bit formulaically when it comes to this project, discussing in each chapter her childhood memories of a beloved book, then her rereading experience, then a summary of the author's life before hypothesising about what she needed from her childhood reading. Happily, all those hypotheses are summarised at the very end, and they lined up very well with my own ideas. I also regularly return to my childhood favourites for comfort, and so it was nice to see the value of this nostalgic journey acknowledged. There's a lot of warmth and love and good humour in this book, and I know Sullivan would heartily approve of the bookmark I paired with it: a picture of a girl reading on a flying carpet accompanied by the caption 'A book is a present you can open again and again'. Truer words were never spoken, particularly in reference to children's books.
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2021 prompt: A book about a subject you are passionate about
November 4, 2019
I listened to this author being interviewed on an ABC podcast (The Book Show) and it intrigued me because, like the author, as a child, I loved books. I always had my head in a book escaping into other worlds and adventures. I had the nickname "dreamy Annie" (Anne being my middle name) because I read so much.
I liked the idea of this author re-reading her childhood favourites to see if they had the same impact and sense of wonder. I enjoyed this book (especially the author's sense of humour) even though I only related to some of the books (the classical children's literature) as I was a child of 70's and 80's and not the 50's and 60's, she has inspired to re-read my own childhood favourites to see if I also remember them the way they made me feel as a child.
I liked the idea of this author re-reading her childhood favourites to see if they had the same impact and sense of wonder. I enjoyed this book (especially the author's sense of humour) even though I only related to some of the books (the classical children's literature) as I was a child of 70's and 80's and not the 50's and 60's, she has inspired to re-read my own childhood favourites to see if I also remember them the way they made me feel as a child.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews