Book Review: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl

Earlier this year I picked up The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl to read with my daughter (who is now 8), having been under the mistaken impression that it is a children’s book. Eek – it is NOT. It’s a good book, and I’m glad I read it, but I’m equally glad that she lost interest after a couple of stories.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More

The book is an interesting mix of stories, including several fictional stories as well as an autobiographical story and one true narrative. Overall, though, my feeling about the book is that it’s pretty dark. One story in particular follows young boys as they strap another child to a train track and watch as the train passes over him (!) – this story prompted my daughter to ask, “Mom, why would someone write that story?” My response was something along the lines of how there are bad people in the world, like those mean characters, and sometimes writers will write those stories to help them understand the bad things in the world. I told her that all stories present some truth from the world and have something to teach us, but that we don’t have to read those stories if we don’t like them. That was the last story we read together in the book, but I went on to finish it myself.

I give the book three stars, because it was well-written, engaging, and interesting…but not amazing and slightly disturbing. The autobiographical story is illuminating as to the author’s life though repetitive if you’ve read part of his autobiography (as I have). I do think it should be clearly advertised as NOT A CHILDREN’S BOOK, though!

Big Steps

As many of you know, I just moved with my family across the country. There have been big changes for our family, and as a result I’ve been quiet as a blogger and as an editor. I had to turn down a few really great projects earlier this year because there just wasn’t time – I needed to focus on my family and our move. We’ve been here a little over two months now, and we’re busier than ever but we’re also making more time for me to return to editing and blogging. SO here are a few things I’m up to:

1 – Today is the first day I have a babysitter here with the little two while the big two are at school so I can get some dedicated work time during the day. It’s a big thing for me to have someone watch my kids, even if I am just upstairs…

2 – I joined the Editorial Freelancers Association! I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, and finally just did it. I now have access to their courses at a discounted rate, I’m listed in their freelancer database for potential clients to find me, and I have access to their job board. ALSO I now have access to many, many colleagues from whom I can learn a ton. I’m excited!

3 – I’m working with an indie author on his book, copy editing to help prepare for submission to agents. I have been doing smaller projects recently (and still am!) and I’m SO excited to be working on a book again.

I have a lot of ideas of where I want to go with this — too many to fit into the time I have, of course, so I have to talk myself down every once in a while before I get myself committed to more than I can reasonably accomplish. For now, though, I’m going to have two dedicated mornings a week to edit — and time to do things like figure out how on earth to fix that EFA Member badge you see there on the sidebar all the wrong size (except I’ll probably just call in my IT department, aka my husband!).

Thanks for reading and supporting me. And if you know anyone in need of an editor, send them my way!

Picture Book Review: I Smile for Grandpa

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I Smile for Grandpa, written by Jaclyn Guenette and illustrated by Kathryn Harrison, is the sad but powerful story of Buddy and Grandpa, and how their relationship changes as Grandpa succumbs to dementia. The highest praise I can give this book is that I passed it on to a friend whose mother was recently diagnosed with Alzheimers because I thought it could be helpful for her to read with her children. I read it with my children, who don’t know anyone with dementia, and it led us to have some great conversations. The illustrator’s decision on dressing Buddy is genius – it’s never mentioned in the story whether Buddy is male or female, and the clothing could go either way. To my daughters, Buddy was “clearly” a girl because “she” wears purple; truly, though, I think a young boy could just as easily say Buddy is “obviously” a boy. The simple but powerful language combined with the illustrations that allow all children to see themselves as Buddy make this book a great tool for talking to kids about dementia. I highly recommend this book, and thank illustrator Kathryn Harrison for gifting me a copy in exchange for a (very, very, very overdue) review. 

Find more information about the book and how it supports the Alzheimer Society of Canada, visit ismileforgrandpa.com.

Four stars!