Category Archives: Bedtime Stories
Bedtime Stories: A Boy and His Tiger
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson.
I’m sure those who grew up in a different era would say theirs was a golden age of comic strips, but I really think growing up in the 1980’s and 1990’s was an unspeakably wonderful time for daily comics. The Far Side treated us to a daily dose of nerdy single-panel comedy, while the recently (yay!) revived Bloom County tackled politics and penguins. But for me, the nearest and dearest, as a young boy and now, will always be Calvin and Hobbes. Made all the more enticing and yearned-for because of Watterson’s refusal to license the characters for toys, much less posters and cards, and for his abrupt and total removing of himself from the public eye, these strips were the beloved of kids and adults alike.
My son is about the same age as Calvin now. And there is hardly a waking moment that he isn’t buried one of the many Calvin and Hobbes books strewn about the house. It’s been great for me, as I haven’t visited these comics for a long time so I’m getting the chance to see them again while also enjoying them through his eyes, seeing them for the first time. Like Calvin, my son is a very imaginative only child. Unlike Calvin, he’s not a holy terror and, thankfully, he’s not getting any big ideas from Calvin.
The balance of wry humor, philosophy, cynicism about the human race, and the unconditional love of his best friend the tiger makes this easily the greatest comic ever. If you haven’t picked up a collection in a while, now is a great time to do so. Curl up in bed with a volume tonight.
Bedtime Stories: The Universe of Douglas Adams
Post by Mark T. Locker.
When I was a nerdy 12-year-old boy, my single greatest discovery was the four books that comprised the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. By the time I was fourteen, that trilogy had grown to five books, arguably the longest trilogy ever written. I have been revisiting the series for the first time in many years; so long, in fact, that I had forgotten the entire plots of the final two novels.
If you are unfamiliar with the series, the quick and dirty summary is this: Arthur Dent, earthling, awakes one day to discover bulldozers in his yard, preparing to raze his home to make space for a new highway. But before they can get going on demolishing his home, the planet is suddenly surrounded by a fleet of alien ships, Vogons, to be precise, who are preparing to demolish the planet to make space for a new hyperspatial express route. Luckily for but unbeknownst to Arthur, his best friend Ford Prefect happens to be an alien from Betelgeuse researching the Earth for the reference guide The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He hitches a ride for himself and Arthur on one of the Vogon ships and into relative safety.
The five books follow Ford, Arthur, Ford’s friend Zaphod Beeblebrox, two-headed ex-president of the galaxy, earthling Trillion, and the hopelessly depressed Marvin the android. We learn who really first populated the Earth, what the true purpose of the planet was, and who our secret overlords were all along.
If you or a loved one love absurd yet engaging stories, I cannot recommend this enough. Even if science fiction isn’t your bag, you are likely to enjoy these stories. They are much more than a space drama. Recommended for nerdy adolescents.
Bedtime Stories: Happy Birthday, Brian Selznick!
Post by Mark T. Locker.
A great event for American children’s literature occurred on this day in 1966. Illustrator and author Brian Selznick was born! Perhaps you have read one of his remarkable picture book-meets-novels, Wonderstruck or The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Hugo Cabret is an amazing novel all about magic and early filmmakers, automata and a boy who lives in the walls of a Paris train station. It has huge segments that read like a silent film. It was made into a pretty good movie by Martin Scorsese. He has also illustration literally zillions of books for other authors. Okay, maybe not zillions, but a number of books. My favorites is The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins which tells the story of the British gentleman who assembled the first dinosaur bones into what he believed them to have looked like. Famously (well, famously if you were a dinsoaur nerd as a kid) he thought the iguanadon walked on fours and had a horn on its nose, like a giant iguana/rhinoceros mashup. We now know it actually has spikes on its thumbs, goodness knows why.
Another great book he illustrated was When Marian Sang about the amazing African American singer Marian Anderson who was forbidden from performing places due to her color. It is a wonderful story and beautifully illustrated.
There are more books that he has illustrated and/or written than I can list here but I encourage you to fill your child’s or nephew’s or your own head with the fantastic drawings and stories of David Selznick.
Happy reading!
Bedtime Stories: The Graveyard Book, the graphic novel
Post by Mark T. Locker.
The Graveyard Book, vols. 1&2 by Neil Gaiman. Illustrated by P. Craig Russel. The Graveyard Book is a fantastic, if creepy, children’s book by world-renowned author Neil Gaiman, known for such cult classics as The Sandman comics and Coraline. His stories are so full of fun images and notions that it’s only natural they be reimagined as graphic novels. The Graveyard Book translates beautifully into a visual genre, illustrated by P. Craig Russell who has done graphic versions on Neil Gaiman’s work in the past. The beginning of the story is awfully dark, but don’t let it put you off; the premise leads to a wonderful, magical story. A killer on the loose takes the lives of a family but misses the baby who has escaped his crib and is exploring. The baby ends up in an old abandoned graveyard. The ghosts who inhabit the graveyard convene and decide to care for the boy and raise him. He is granted “freedom of the graveyard” which allows him to pass through solid objects in the cemetary. Mr. and Mrs. Owens adopt him and name him Nobody Owens. The only non-ghost entity in the graveyard is Silas, who agrees to be his guardian. As the only one who can leave the premises, he is the only one who can fetch food and supplies for Nobody.
So that is how this story begins. Nobody Owens is a human, living child who is raised by kindly ghosts and Silas, who may or may not be a vampire. It’s technically a young adult book but it will appeal to older readers as well. And, alluring as it is to younger readers, the visuals on the opening pages of what happens to Nobody’s family are disturbing. But after that grim premise, a truly fun, creepy and lovely story emerges in a way that only Neil Gaiman could pull off. It’s divided into two volumes to keep you from reading it all in one go.
Bedtime Stories: Kraken!
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Kraken by China Miéville
Happy Cephalopod Week! Let us celebrate the wise and mysterious octopus, squid, and cuttlefish with some tales of my favorite tentacled monster: the giant squid.
As an avid audiobook listener, sometimes I’ll branch out and try out a book based solely on the narrator. One of my favorites is a rich-voiced Englishman named John Lee. He’s got a fantastic repertoire of voices and does gritty crime novels and humor with equal adeptness. I’ll listen to just about anything he reads. I’m pretty sure I never would have happened upon this book had it not been read by John Lee. I’d seen the name China Miéville in bookstores but never picked one up. I was surprised to discover that China is a burly bald British dude. Not that makes a difference.
Kraken is a bizarre story of a man named Billy Harrow, who works for the Darwin Centre at the British Museum of Natural History. His particular specialty is the giant squid, Architeuthis dux, which he lovingly preserved himself. When the squid goes inexplicably missing, Billy is drawn into a strange underground world of a squid-worshipping cult known as the Church of Kraken Almighty. In their literature, the body of their god going missing is a harbinger of dark times, possibly the end of the world. Riddled with strange gods and magical creatures, weird unearthly villains and cops with special extra senses, this novel is super weird but oddly tantalizing. If you have a taste for the strange, or are, like me, a fan of the giant squid, give this book a whirl. Better yet, listen to John Lee’s reading and let his rich voice lull you into dreams of squid gods.
