Tarry at home – and travel in books!
Bookmarks – a coming of age book-writing and illustration project inspired by the Pollard Collection of children's books at Trinity College Dublin
Every year we do some brainstorming for words to use in our stories. We think of words to do with the three main characters: the hero, the mentor and (my favourite!) the villain, and we also make lists of words to describe the portal into the other world, as well as the new world itself. You’ll find a full list of our brainstormed words typed up here. Meanwhile have a look at some of our brainstorm boards:
She goes on a journey, ignores her mother’s warning and strays from the familiar path into the clutches of a lying stranger. Red Riding Hood’s story begins at home, like many stories do, with a plan to visit her grandmother who’s feeling poorly. But the talking, impersonating wolf she meets on her journey is definitely part of a different world altogether. On our trip to Trinity College Dublin we saw two versions of the Red Riding Hood story. Below are pictures from them.
Double-page spread from Walter Crane’s Red Riding Hood, as above
Red Riding Hood (illustrator unknown), Frederick Warne & Co, London c1870, from the Pollard Collection at Trinity College Dublin (pic CA Cullen)
Crane worked in the golden age of illustration, around the turn of the 19th Century – that’s the end of the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s. Even his wolf is elegant, if you don’t mind a sheepskin coat! The Frederick Warne version underneath has some lovely illustrations too – although I think the wolf looks like a cross between a bear and a dog.
If you’d like to get your teeth into some other versions of this classic fairytale, below are some other fine old book covers from the De Grummond Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi. Click on the cover picture to read the complete book, and see how many ways Red Riding Hood is portrayed. What age is she in each of the books? Does that make a difference to how you might read the story?
Many thanks to editor Michael N. Salda for making these wonderful images and the stories that go with them available online. “The Little Red Riding Hood Project” lives at the de Grummond Children’s Literature Research Collection, University of Southern Mississippi, and the homepage is here. And thanks of course to the Pollard Collection at Trinity College for the other beautiful illustrations.
One of the books librarian Dr Lydia Ferguson showed us from the Pollard collection on the 2019 theme of “Curious Creatures” was The Adventures of the Three Bold Babes (1897). It’s about three sweet-faced but adventurous small children who meet a dragon. This has to be the cutest dragon in Pollard, and maybe the cutest dragon ever, and it was created by an Irishwoman born in Hollywood, County Down in 1867. You can read the whole book here, thanks to the University of Florida which has digitised their copy.
S Rosamond Praeger (the S stands for Sophia) grew up with five brothers. One of them, Robert, became a famous botanist, and from her work you can see that Rosamond was very interested in nature too – she often draws or paints animals and scenes from nature. She studied art from the age of 16, first in Belfast, then in London and Paris, and was especially interested in sculpture.
Praeger went on to illustrate many children’s books, including a fine Aesop’s Fables, and to write and illustrate fourteen of her own books for children. She was also involved in the fight for equality for women, and designed postcards for the campaign for ‘women’s suffrage’, or voting rights for women. The girls in her books are as mischievous and brave as the boys, and it’s clear that Rosamond knew that she was equal to her five brothers in everything, at a time when women were often prevented from doing evreything that men did.
Dublin City Public Libraries also have a fine collection of Praeger’s children’s books, and a few years ago they put together an interesting gallery of her cover illustrations on their website – have a look here.
Bookmarks 2019 opened with busy day in Trinity College Dublin for our three chosen schools – Marist Senior Primary School, Our Lady of Good Counsel BNS and Scoil Cholmcille Senior Primary! Eighty 6th Class children from the schools were given a tour of the Book of Kells exhibition and one of the world’s most beautiful rooms, the Old Library, by Visitor Services Manager Anne-Marie Diffley and her colleague Sinéad Fox. The children had workshops in illustration with Bookmarks artist Angela McDonagh, where they learned simple tricks for giving their creations expressions and making their work ‘pop’. They heard about studying English at Trinity from Dr Jane Carroll, a director of the Masters in Children’s Literature, and learned about Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard’s collection of children’s books at Trinity, which inspires our Bookmarks project. The librarian in charge of Trinity’s oldest books, Dr Lydia Ferguson, showed the children a selection of vintage children’s books from the Pollard Collection that reflected this year’s theme for the project, ‘Curious Creatures’ – helped by a slideshow by myself, Catherine Ann Cullen. Above and below, you can see an illustration from one of the books we looked at, Séimín, a translation into Irish of Enid Blyton’s The Famous Jimmy, about a very curious duckling. Here he is telling all the other curious creatures about his adventures.
Our Bookmarks morning was rounded off by what is always the highlight of Trinity Day – lunch in the old Dining Hall where everyone can feel like Harry Potter or Hermione Granger (if those two ever ate chicken nuggets and chips!) It’s going to be another exciting year for the project, where each child’s book will contain one or more ‘Curious Creatures’ inspired by the Pollard Collection, the Book of Kells with its intricate animal-adorned letters, and their own imaginations. We cannot wait to read the books! Keep an eye on our pages as we update them week by week with stories from the Pollard Collection and the children’s own stories and illustrations.
The boys from St Laurence O’Toole’s have worked up a wonderful collection of stories for us to read. Here’s a favourite line from each book, worked into a ‘composite’ story – but all of their own stories are even better!
It was one dark and stormy night. (Lee Whelan) That day I put on my boxing gloves, but they felt different. Sparks came out of my gloves, it electrocuted me and I became bigger and stronger. (Calvin Hopkins) The carpet of the house was a big long red tongue. (Harley Leeper) Suddenly I could feel my mat vibrating. I was astonished, my whole body began to shake. (Jake Fay) Some people said they saw a door on it, I didn’t see a door. Personally, I think they were all lying. (Tommi O’Connor) I decided to open it. Inside was a shiny mirror with sparkles coming off it. (Lucas O’Brien) Smoke started to flow out of the mirror all of a sudden. (Jack McCann) Whatever it was, it was sparkly and shiny. (Lee Knowd) Boom! Bang! Pow! I passed out and when I woke up everything was so blurry. (Patrick Knowd) I was startled at first but then I went to investigate the suspicious noise. (Daniel Kenna) Suddenly a monster or Titan popped up on the screen. Alex gulped. (Arthur Chololejenko) Suddenly the sky grew dull and a blanket of dread soon covered both of them. (Evan Conroy) When I looked around, I realised I was trapped in the game. (Calvin Byrne) I focussed on the bear as hard as I could until he started to float. (Lewis Ryan) The dinosaur put me down and then I saw a human. I was so delighted to see him, relief washed over me. (Cole Kavanagh) He froze the Lava King and the mentor shouted, “Kill him!” (Airidas Klapatauskas) We were head to beak. (Temi Falegan) I got him down to the ground and finished him off by stabbing him in the heart. (Cian Fuller) I was ecstatic! (Kelvin Oladipo)
Today Angela McDonagh and I had our last visit of Bookmarks 2018 to 5th class in Assumption Senior Primary in Walkinstown. It was wonderful to see the books progressing – stories finished or almost finished, and illustrations well on the way. We had a busy time covering all the books, but here’s a sneak preview of them all. Well done to the girls and their teacher Ms Sweeney, and special thanks to Angela for cutting all the cover shapes with her cunning knife! We look forward to seeing you all again for the launch of the books exhibition in the Long Room at Trinity College Dublin.
All of the children’s books are taking their final shape this week, and we are very impressed with the writing. Here’s a selection of favourite lines from the 5th Class girls at Assumption Walkinstown:
As I zoomed down at high speed, everything started to wobble. (Rwan)
I was stunned into silence. (Alex)
The waterfalls glowed with various colours – light pink, light blue and light purple. (Nellet)
She had landed on a lovely rose bush. That was the dream scene she had painted and it had come true. (Sophie D R)
I woke to the rattling ring of my alarm clock and slowly rolled over to my bedside locker to turn it off. (Zoe)
We both woke up to see a ton of beautiful magical creatures surrounding us. (Alyssa)
Could the cards that we usually played with be alive, like human beings? (Fatima)
A few moment later, my eyes were stung with brightness from the sun. (Aoife)
They moved through the curious place looking left and right and all around. (Robyn)
As I danced gracefully around the garden, I found a bump in the ground. (Sophie P)
It was a piano path that actually made sounds like a piano. (Chloe)
To my amazement, the thing was half wolf, half human. (Lacey)
Then I heard a cute, high-pitched voice giggling. (Roz)
As I walked in, I noticed what seemed to be an unfamiliar door. I opened it cautiously and curiously. (Anna)
I peeked behind the mesmerising, multi-coloured lolly tree. (Alisha)
A strange creature half hopped, half walked towards me and said, “hi – I’ll be your guide and instructor.” (Kavagha)
Once I saw the light, I ran as fast as I could. (Megan)
“You’re the chosen one,” Hearty grinned. (Stephanie)
“I can fly!” Poppy said very happily. “Yes, you can, and you have a horn and a glittery tail. Wait Poppy – you’re a unicorn!” (Emma)
I closed my eyes, not understanding what was happening. When I opened them, I was in a different world. (Bayley)
The shell started sparkling – everything started fading and only the dazzling shell was in sight. (Áine)
“Hi Human, my name is Spike. Nice to meet you!” He spoke nicely, which surprised Natsu. (Shauna)
“You will pull a book and a bookshelf will slide back.” (Roxy)
The second strange thing that caught my attention was my hair, which was multi-coloured, not my beautiful black locks that I loved so much. (Sarah M)
As she turned around, she was nose to nose with an animal. (Lily)
On my desk was a note. I opened it, but as I did the weirdest thing happened – I seemed to be swirling, twirling and floating away from my classroom. (Amber)
The boys from Haddington Road amazed us with their stunning artwork this week. There are more than a few potential artists in the class who will surely go on to make names for themselves in the worlds of illustration and art. Watch this space! If you;re on a laptop, click on a picture to enlarge it and continue clicking to see a slideshow of all the pictures. On a mobile phone, scroll down to see all the pictures. You can enlarge any one by clicking on it. Enjoy!
We’ve got top-class titles for you from this year’s Bookmarks books at St Mary’s Boys School, Haddington Road – take a look at the great variety of intriguing books on this list! The finished books are well on their way and they are looking just as good as they sound!
Robert and the Tree Cutting Quest (Paddy Appendino)
Surrounded by Storm (Jay Aruelo)
Mystical Island (Edmun Bagares)
Ruction Destruction (Jayson Baldemor)
The Cursed Seas (Shane Bridgeman)
Chimes of War (Zac Burke)
Warriors’ Gate (Janjan Cacho)
The Seas of Zbloid (David Chiuariu)
The Punch (Gary Cleary)
The Demons’ Jungle (Callum Cumiskey)
The Dragon and the Evil Robot King (Owen French)
Volcanic Exploration (James Guevarra)
The Adventures of Macklebot (Kian Harrison)
Through His Eyes (Tristan Lester)
Albert and the Wolves (Evan Lynch)
The Cursed Mirror (Jamie Kelly Maguire)
Creation’s Path (Sanjay Menon)
The Old Rusty Bus (Wojtek Mocko)
The Legend of the Dragon King (Donnacha Reilly)
Zaytanian and the Battle of Light (Oisín Reilly)
Tanked! (Gene Paul Retardo)
A Boy’s Destiny (Jader Saliponde)
Crown of Clouds (Cameron Servitillo)
The Curse of the Big Fat King (Matthew Tilson)
The Samurai and the Evil Ninja (Victor Trujillo)
Fly Little Alien (Céilim Westley)
The Lost World (Liam Uzell)
And here’s a great checklist from teacher Mr Moran for the climax scene of the stories:
The boys from St Laurence O’Toole’s CBS in Seville Place have been working on their drawings – here’s a selection from the class copybooks and final books – aren’t they smashing? On a laptop or tablet, click on a picture to enlarge it and you can click through the whole slideshow. On a mobile phone, scroll down to see all the pictures. The illustrator is the caption!
Tarry at home - and travel in books! 