In the Night Garden: The Bedtime Book

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Well, a couple of things. My uncle, I have this uncle that I really love, who as a kid, I mean, I was really little, used to send me books from he’d travel. And he’d send me books, um, from different places in the world. And I still have those. They’re still some of my favorite little treasured objects that I have kept. So, I remember, as a kid, just that magic of feeling like something traveled from far away to me and seemed exotic and new and other. And then I just use really; it’s all really rudimentary materials. It’s old ephemera. So, I collect stuff, and I love that they come with these stories built in. So, some of them are really old, from the 18 hundreds, and they’re ledger books from an old grocery store. Some of them are letters. And again, I just love the poignancy of them having this kind of mystery of where they came from. And then some of them are J. Crew catalogs, which, unfortunately, J. Crew has stopped making them, or magazines or something that I find on the street that just has a good number on it. So, if listeners were to take away one thing today from our discussion, what would you want that to be? There are many more of these gorgeous passages to enjoy. My only complaint about the writing itself is that there are dozens of characters in The Orphan's Tales and they ALL talk like that. So, it's not very realistic, but I suppose realism wasn't exactly what Ms Valente, as a poet, was going for.

It didn't take her millennia, and these tales are entirely her own creation, although the stories are so amazing it seems impossible they hatched from one imagination. Each chapter introduces a character, who then tells a story introducing a character, who then tells a story introducing a character, who then tells a story introducing a character, who then tells a story introducing a character...and so on. Each chapter is short.I love that. And just the way you said that, so simply too. It’s beautiful. Well, Carin, it’s been so lovely to chat with you voice-to-voice once again. I thought this was a very clever and unique book. At least, I’ve never read anything like it. It tells a lot of stories, I couldn’t say how many, but definitely more than a dozen. However, this is not an anthology. It’s layer upon layer upon layer of related stories nested inside each other. On 1 October 2019, the "In the Night Garden Igglepiggle Peek-a-boo Clip-on Toy" made by Golden Bear Toys was recalled due to a possible choking hazard to young children. [16] Live theatrical show [ edit ] In the Night Garden is one of the most unique books that I've read in a long time; it's a book that you read for the stories and the prose, a book in which to meander, not a plot-dominated book that keeps you up at night with non-stop action. Valente's writing is flowery and imaginative, but purposeful. She chooses her words carefully and does not write for the sake of putting words down on paper. It takes a while to get used to the flow and rhythm of her prose, but once you do, you lose yourself in her words and stories, just like the little prince who loses himself in the girl's tales.

On an evening, when I was a very small child, an old woman came to the great silver gate, and twisting her hands among the rose roots told me this: I was not born with this mark. A spirit came into my cradle on the seventh day of the seventh month of my life, and while my mother slept in her snow white bed, the spirit touched my face, and left there many tales and spells, like the tattoos of sailors. The verses and songs were so great in number and so closely written that they appeared as one long, unbroken streak of jet on my eyelids. But they are the words of the river and the marsh, the lake and the wind. Together they make a great magic, and when the tales are all read out, and heard end to shining end, to the last syllable, the spirit will return and judge me."" A different company, Golden Bear Toys have also made a range of In The Night Garden... toys, featuring Upsy Daisy and Igglepiggle. These include the "Musical Ninky Nonk Bubble Train" and the "Igglepiggle Wind-up Musical Boat." [15]Yes. Well, I know that you have a great love for gardening, and you just talked about how you enjoy foraging for mushrooms. So, I have to imagine that the gardening part was a massive part of the inspiration for this book. And is that a fair assumption? A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon. I would also argue that the act of giving voice to their experiences through their story-telling is an incredibly important and powerful one: The specials centre on a brand new character called the Zonk, who sends the characters off to the magical world of the ZonkeyZoney so they can relax in peace. The series is fully animated in 3D CGI animation, unlike the original series which was a mix of CGI, 2D animation and live-action.

This is much the kind of book I would expect to be written by someone who changed her name to 'Catherynne', with that spelling—it's all fantastical creatures and quests and magic. It is a much more intelligent book than I expected, with stories nested within stories, and gender tropes are inverted (there are no damsels in distress here) to my great satisfaction. The maiden is the monster is the pirate; women can grow up to be fierce warriors. In the Night Garden... is intended to help children relax and achieve calming relationships with their parents. Producer Anne Wood also states: "We became very aware of the anxiety surrounding the care of young children which manifested itself in all kinds of directions, but the one big subject that came up, again and again, was bedtime. It's the classical time for tension between children who want to stay up and parents who want them to go to bed. So this is a programme about calming things down whereas most children's TV is about getting everything up." [6] My particular favorites were the witches drowning in light, the ones who would not die, the irascible pirate mermaid, and all the selkie stories. The dog monks were a great treat as well. The message of the books is both simple and incredibly complex. The tales themselves are both an intricate symphony, and a simple thread that weaves around to end at a simple resolution. Valente is the Weaver of these tales, closing her eyes, grabbing all that is around her, and remaking it into beautiful gowns, girls, and cities, knowing all the while where the tales will end, whether that end is happy or sad. Yeah, well, I’m glad that you’re asking it again because I think, on the face, it’s a good night book, right? It’s sort of a nighttime night story. So, I guess I just really do hope that the message of facing the unknown isn’t so buried that it doesn’t get noticed. I hope that comes through somehow.If I was disappointed by one thing, it was that I didn’t know this was a duology going in, and I expected more resolution of the frame story than was provided. I think it could have been done, too, and it would have been a fine standalone novel. Triplets occurred once in a generation, when the Snake-Star aligned with the Harpoon-Star, and the light of the Pierced Serpent fell on the yellow grass. -- this is a complete mumbo jumbo and I loved it! Her world may be inspired from different folk tales (I recognized Baba Yaga hut and people turned into birds, and I'm sure there are others) , but it feels original and modern in its self awareness, sometimes ironic treatment and dialogue. Some of the tales are quite dark, others bring a smile or a laugh to the fore - like the tale of the princess in the tower which is both at the same time. Some tales may feel random, but in the end it all makes sense, when the threads of the plot are gathered together, and the reader finds out that every little detail has a part to play in the final outcome. And some stories are carrying over from one major tale to the other - making the overall worldbuilding a coherent project. This book is two series of interwoven, short, personal tales told from the tattoos. Tales that ultimately braid together. Like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales there is a series of people's pilgrimages told in first person. The stories are intermittent and interspersed but linear despite their interrupted telling. Although the stories are being related in first person by various people they are really told that way by one girl to one boy. He is escaping to bright visions of the larger world adults live in. She is seeking acceptance in any world. In the Garden" lives an almost woman abandoned as a toddler when an inky mask appeared across her eyes. Catherynne M. (Why? Are not middle initials customarily to distinguish common names?) Valente writes like a computer programmed to arbitrarily join a list of adjectives with nouns, and randomly extract one role as narrator to generate a new not-story.

They take and take and what does it matter? No one asks the taken; they just forget, they just forget, they disappear and everyone forgets.” Nighttime is the right time for young readers thanks to this perfect amalgamation of soothing text and image. It’s so delightful. Yeah. We’ve known each other for a long time. It was nice that it launched in person, and then it’s so nice. It’s been such a nice connection. Highly recommended for the reader who appreciates beautiful prose, is willing to take notes, and is looking for something original.It’s kind of like asking if you have a favorite child. I mean, each spread kind of has its own resonance for me. So I don’t think I have a favorite spread per se. I think, um, there is one of the houses, and that’s our house, so that’s kind of nice to have. Yeah, exactly. Well, I want to start with a question that is a common one that I ask. And it’s to be a writer. Some people say that you need to be a reader first. So, I would like to know, was there a pivotal moment in which you considered yourself a reader? I think since tiny-hood, I’ve always loved books. I’ve loved them as objects. I’ve loved them as just the form of a book. And even as a really little kid, we’d go to the library once a week, and we each were allowed to, I don’t know, get a little pile of books. So, I’ve always been a reader. I don’t think I’ve always actively thought of I may not even still think of myself as a writer. I don’t think I would introduce myself as a writer. And that’s just because even though I’ve always written, that’s not my training. My training is in design and in art. Wow. Well, to be honest, um, each book becomes its own discrete, um, problem. When I finish a book, I almost can’t imagine starting another one. So, it doesn’t feel like—and when I go to start a book, I can often not remember how to do it because it’s such a crazy long process that I almost feel like I’m starting new each time and don’t necessarily have I don’t know. It’s almost like each book is its own individual design problem or conceptual problem, or psychological knot that I’m trying to untangle.