Two Books

I tend to get my books in chunks, here and there, as they come in to the shops I frequent. That means that my blogging here tends to go in fits and starts for a few reasons: a) blogging comes and goes as my work dictates; b) it also comes and goes as my book acquisition dictates. Today I have two books for you both because I got them at the same time and because, once I read them together, I saw a link between them: they share a madcap, frenetic energy– an impulse towards adventure which I hope you’ll all enjoy.

Let’s start with Captain’s Log: Snowbound, by Erin Dionne, illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbeler.

The story of how this book came into being is almost as great as the book itself: During the legendary snowstorms of 2015, author Erin Dionne entertained herself by writing on Facebook of her life as a marooned captain sequestered with her two mutinous children. Charlesbridge editor extraordinaire, Karen Boss, spotted these posts and the two of them made a book happen!

And, heading into another winter, am I ever glad they did. Right now, the Changeling is at the stage where she’s looking forward to snow. But I’m a seasoned explorer of the ice and snow (that is, I grew up in the Canadian Maritimes and I know winter) and I fully expect to see that excitement turn to misery mid-February, which is when I’ll pull out this book and turn the winter blues into warm chuckles.

I don’t want to undersell this book by saying it’s just a funny book about being cooped up indoors during a harsh winter. That’s all true, and parents and children can both relate to the feelings involved in an upset schedule and gloomy weather. On that account alone, this book is a winner.

But there’s more going on or I wouldn’t be writing about it here: Erin Dionne invokes the great name of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his ship Endurance. We’ve talked about Shackleton before: Shackleton’s Journey. Well, in this book, the young protagonist (our Captain) has a presentation to give on Ernest Shackleton and is wildly excited to do so… until the storm hits…

Soon, the young Captain is embroiled in adventure after adventure as the scallywag (the Captain’s younger sibling) causes trouble, the Captain’s belongings start to go missing, and the supply of hardtack begins to dwindle. Mutiny rears its ugly head and morale is low– until the sun comes out, the snowstorm abates, and a Captain with a renewed store of experience (and endurance!) prepares once more to deliver a presentation on the thrilling life of Shackleton.

The double layers to the story, interweaving bits about Shackleton’s life and adventures with the Captain’s, is a brilliant touch. It takes a funny story and gives it added depth and flavour, and gives motivation to the Captain’s zeal for adventure. The earnest Captain is always looking for the next opportunity to do the right thing, take the necessary next step, while the reader, looking on, sees madcap energy boiling all around him. The contrast between the honorable Sir Ernest Shackleton, our protagonist’s hero, and the craziness of being trapped indoors for several days running is consistently, and hilariously, in the reader’s mind.

Let me put it this way: if you’re a parent in a soon-to-be-snowy area, you definitely need this book. Get yourself a store of hardtack, grog, and this book, and feel smug about the impending snow.

Our next adventure is far, far removed from Antarctica– let’s journey to France, instead, where at the dawning of the age of film we meet Alice Guy-Blaché. In Lights! Camera! Alice!, author Mara Rockliff and illustrator Simona Ciraolo introduce us to one of the first filmmakers, period, and the very first woman filmmaker.

Alice Guy-Blaché, they teach us, was, first and foremost, a storyteller. She started out life in comfort with a loving family and a great store of books. Disaster struck, her beloved father died, and Alice had to go to work. She learned to type and went to work at a camera company– where she was introduced to a new type of camera, and to moving pictures. Her mind was filled with the potential of these new cameras, and soon she was combining her love of narrative with her work, demonstrating the capabilities of the cameras with moving stories. Soon her films took off: she wasn’t just selling the cameras, she was selling the stories! She made film after film… until she fell in love with a young cameraman and they headed off to America. In America, she was stunned to find that movie-making was far behind what she had known in France, but, nevertheless, she got to work and carried on doing what she did: making films, telling stories. Sadly, once again fate took a turn: both her business and her husband left her for Hollywood, and she was left to return to France with her children. There, once again, she turned to storytelling– this time in the form of her own memoirs.

It’s a breathtaking story, and fills a very necessary hole in our understanding of how history works. This isn’t just the history of cinema or women’s history: it is our history, in a global sense, and Alice Guy-Blaché has been left out of it. It’s outrageous to think that so many of us grew up on film as The Story of Edison, when, in point of fact, Alice was the teller of so many tales, and in such a dramatic fashion, before he entered the scene. How has she been forgotten? Indeed, how was she neglected in her own day?

I was going to answer those questions, but I think we all know the answers already, so I’ll leave it unspoken.

The point is: Alice Guy-Blaché was a truly remarkable, innovative, unstoppable innovator and filmmaker. She was one great adventure after the next, she had boundless energy, and a remarkable spirit of endurance (to bring us back to Shackleton). As my own daughter begins to explore the world of storytelling (no, seriously, she wrote a very cute little storybook!) it thrills me to think that she has someone so brilliant and feisty, so accomplished and innovative, so full of madcap energy, behind her. If we stand on the shoulders of giants, Alice Guy-Blaché can lift the next generation to the stars.

So there you have it: two wonderful, utterly different stories. We have fiction and nonfiction, yes, but we also have two zany, adventurous, energetic tales which bring us, I think, closer to where we need to be as humans. They teach us persistence, innovation, and endurance, and they never, ever let us lose our sense of humour.