A Little Limerick-y Nonsense for St. Patrick's Day

My daughter snapped this cute photo of my grandson with a fun Roald Dahl quote last week in San Diego - the quote is perfect for my St. Patrick's Day post today...

So how about this "Little Nonsense":  90 degree weather in Southern California. In March!  

Today is thankfully a bit cooler, but we really haven't had much of a winter this year. We're relishing the sun, but praying for rain as we enter a fourth year of drought.

Roald Dahl wasn't the only one who appreciated nonsense. Edward Lear was a master at it, especially with limericks - witty poems of five lines that have a specific and distinctive rhythm. 

When I think of limericks, I think of Ireland - maybe because the word sounds so Irish.  I discovered there are both a city and county of Limerick in Ireland, and that is where the limerick poem gets its name from.  But whether the poems actually originated there has long been up for debate.  

How about a limerick for St. Patrick's Day:

In Ireland you won’t find a snake 

In a field, a forest or lake. 

If you’re happy with that 

 Give thanks to St. Pat, 

He did it for everyone’s sake.


[source - Nothing But Limericks blog]

Luke Dingman icon 

Here's a silly limerick from Edward Lear:

There once were two cats of Kilkenny. 

Each thought that was one cat too many, 

So they started to fight 
And to scratch and to bite– 

Now, instead of two cats, there aren’t any.

And don't forget Mother Goose:

Hickory dickory dock, 

the mouse ran up the clock; 

the clock struck one 
the mouse ran down; 

hickory dickory dock!

Try writing your own limerick, following these rules...

1- The five lines have a specific pattern: the first, second and fifth lines (the longer lines) rhyme; and the third and fourth (shorter) lines rhyme. (AABBA) 

2 - This five line poetry also follows a syllable count. 
Line 1: 7-10 syllables 
Line 2: 7-10 syllables 
Line 3: 5-7 syllables 
Line 4: 5-7 syllables 
Line 5: 7-10 syllables

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Do you have a favorite limerick?

A CHILDREN'S BOOK AUTHOR AND WAR VETERAN: ROALD DAHL

Dahl in his flying gear (source here)

This Veteran's Day, consider hunting down two obscure books by much-loved British author Roald Dahl, who served his country during World War II...

Dahl was 23 years old when WWII broke out in 1939.  He joined the Royal Air Force and became a fighter pilot. He flew missions in Libya, Greece, and Syria, and was shot down in the Libyan desert, suffering serious injuries..  He was sent home as an invalid, after "surviving a direct hit at the Battle of Athens".

Eventually he was sent to Washington, D.C., where he was enlisted to help publicize the British war effort by writing a piece for THE SATURDAY EVENING POST.  His writing career was underway.  This account is from the Roald Dahl Official WEBSITE:

Roald Dahl's first book for children was not, as many suppose, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, but THE GREMLINS, a picture book published in 1943 and adapted from a script written for Disney. Walt Disney had invited the 25 year-old Roald to Hollywood, given him the use of a car and put him up at the Beverly Hills Hotel.  

The story of THE GREMLINS  focused on the mischievous spirits that, according to RAF legend, cause aircraft-engine failures.  In the end, the project to make a movie version was abandoned but the book was published.  Roald was never very keen on THE GREMLINS and didn't really think of it as a children's book.  Nevertheless, it caught Eleanor Roosevelt's eye and Roald became a not infrequent guest at the White House and at FDR's weekend retreat, Hyde Park.

“A life is made up of a great number of small incidents and a small number of great ones. An autobiography must therefore, unless it is to become tedious, be extremely selective, discarding all the inconsequential incidents in one’s life and concentrating upon those that have remained vivid in the memory.” – R.D.

GOING SOLO is Dahl's fascinating autobiography, told with the quirky, humorous style only Roald Dahl can deliver. Beginning with his travels in 1938, at the age of 22, to east Africa, he describes his experiences while working for the Shell Oil Company.  There he encounters lions and battles snakes. His descriptive memoir continues with his war exploits during World War II as an RAF pilot, when he took part in some unbelievable aeriel combat "dogfights".

Altogether, Dahl flew missions from April 1941, to June 1941, sometimes as often as five times a day. He was sent back to England when he began to experience terrible headaches from his old crash injuries that caused him to blackout while flying.

GOING SOLO (for ages 7th grade and up) is the sequel and continuation of his autobiography, BOY: Tales of Childhood.

The Shop Around the Corner: What was the "Storybook Lady" Reading?

You've Got Mail is one of those cozy movies my daughter and I can watch again and again!  How about you?

For us, the setting (a children's bookshop in New York City) and the music (Nora Ephron's movies always have brilliant soundtracks of oldies and forgotten treasures), play as much of a starring role as the actors.  

And who better to make you feel good than Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks?

When watching the movie, I'd never taken the time to figure out which book Meg Ryan's character, Kathleen Kelly, is reading as the "Storybook Lady".  But this time I quickly paused the dvd to see the book's cover...

And saw the word B-O-Y.  And I listened carefully to the passage she was reading aloud to the children...

I must tell you, therefore, that it was I and I alone who had the idea for the great and daring Mouse Plot. We all have our moments of brilliance and glory, and this was mine.

“Why don't we,” I said, “slip it into one of Mrs. Pratchett’s jars of sweets? Then when she puts her dirty hand in to grab a handful, she'll grab a stinky dead mouse instead.”

The other four stared at me in wonder. Then, as the sheer genius of the plot began to sink in, they all started grinning. They slapped me on the back. They cheered me and danced around the classroom.

“We'll do it today!” they cried. “We’ll do it on the way home! You had the idea, so you can be the one to put the mouse in the jar.”

Boy by Roald Dahl

The passage that we see Kathleen Kelly reading during her book shop's story time to the group of kids is from Boy: Tales of Childhood, an autobiographical children's novel written by Roald Dahl.

Kathleen Kelly's bookstore in the film was based largely on Manhattan's  Books of Wonder.  Meg Ryan worked the counter at Books of Wonder for a day as part of her preparation. Decorative props from the film can still be seen at the store.

The children's book store scenes in the film were actually filmed at Maya Schaper's Cheese and Antique Shop on 103 West 69th Street (which has since closed - life imitating art?). 

Did you know that You've Got Mail (1998) is based on a classic movie starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan?  The title?  The Shop Around the Corner (1940), of course! (Another film we watch again and again!)

Jame's Stewart's Alfred Kralik and Margaret Sullavan's Klara Novak.

[Source, and more fun You've Got Mail movie trivia here.]

Spending "Roald Dahl Day" with Some of His Best Quotes...

“The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.”  - Roald Dahl, Matilda

Today would have been Roald Dahl's 97th Birthday, and September 13th is "Roald Dahl Day"! Here are some quotes to help you celebrate.  Which one is your favorite?  (I especially like the last one.)

Etsy

Etsy

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IT'S ROALD DAHL'S BIRTHDAY

September 13 is "Roald Dahl Day", celebrated every year on what would have been the author's birthday. This year also marks 50 years since Dahl's classic tale James and the Giant Peach was first published.  Your child can celebrate by sending a Peach-gram to a friend!

illustration by Jed Alexander

From THE GUARDIAN:
According to his biographer Donald Sturrock, in Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl (2010), Dahl was "a conundrum". Certainly, by any standards, he led a strange and complex life. Born to Norwegian parents, brought up in Wales and in England, he crashed in a plane in the desert in the second world war, and then became a spy in America, befriending the great and the good, before eventually settling back down in England, where he overcame three great tragedies: an accident that caused his baby son, Theo, brain damage, in 1960; the death of his daughter, Olivia, aged only seven, in 1962; and his wife's stroke in 1965. (A fourth tragedy occurred in 1990 when his stepdaughter, Lorina, died of a brain tumour.)


Dahl's daily retreat from the world was his famous writing hut. "I go down to my little hut, where it's tight and dark and warm, and within minutes I can go back to being six or seven or eight again," he said. In the hut, snuggled up in a sleeping bag, with his famous green baize writing board across his armchair, his lined yellow legal pads and his Dixon Ticonderoga pencils, he wrote, pausing only for lunch, The World at One, and then dinner, drinks and a game of snooker.

Click here to explore Dahl's writing hut, 
"Gipsy House", Buckinghamshire, England.
Photo: Eamonn McCabe

The interior has been left unchanged, since Dahl's death
from Leukemia in 1990.
Photo: Eamonn McCabe 

To read my 2010 birthday post for Roald Dahl, click HERE.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ROALD DAHL

Yesterday was Roald Dahl's birthday, so in honor of that, I've decided to dedicate this post to him and some of his children's books.  He was born in 1916 in Wales, to Norwegian parents.  Dahl's father and elder sister died when he was only three, so he and his siblings were raised by their mother.  She used to tell them tales of Norwegian folklore - about trolls and other mythical creatures.

Roald Dahl didn't enjoy his schooldays and his unhappy memories greatly influenced his writing.  He did, however, enjoy trips to the sweetshops as a young boy.  And when he was older, his boarding school was close to Cadbury's  factory...sound familiar? At boarding school, he got in the habit of writing to his mother once every week (a habit that continued for over thirty years, until her death).

Dahl was 23 years old when WWII broke out and he joined the Royal Air Force.  He was sent home as an invalid, after "surviving a direct hit at the Battle of Athens". Eventually he was sent to Washington, where he was enlisted to help publicize the British war effort by writing a piece for THE SATURDAY EVENING POST.  His writing career was underway.  This account is from the Roald Dahl Official WEBSITE:

Roald Dahl's first book for children was not, as many suppose, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH but THE GREMLINS, a picture book published in 1943 and adapted from a script written for Disney. Walt Disney had invited the 25 year-old Roald to Hollywood, given him the use of a car and put him up at the Beverly Hills Hotel.  The story of THE GREMLINS focused on the mischievous spirits that, according to RAF legend, cause aircraft-engine failures.  In the end, the project to make a movie version was abandoned but the book was published.  Roald was never very keen on THE GREMLINS and didn't really think of it as a children's book.  Nevertheless, it caught Eleanor Roosevelt's eye and Roald became a not infrequent guest at the White House and FDR's weekend retreat, Hyde Park.

Dahl first became interested in writing children's books by inventing bedtime stories for his own two daughters.  His stories are especially good for reading aloud.  Here are some of our favorites (many with illustrations by Quentin Blake)...

JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH - From a past post Chapter Books My Sons Loved. 

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, CHARLIE AND THE GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR - Also from the post mentioned above.

THE BFG - "Big Friendly Giant" - Sophie, an eight-year-old orphan, is kidnapped by the BFG and taken to Giantland, where her friendly alliance with the BFG and the queen of England results in the capture of the nine evil giants.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX - Mr. Fox has to continually keep one step ahead of the three farmers whose cruel obsession is the extermination of the Fox family.  I also highly recommend the recent stop-motion animated feature of Fantastic Mr. Fox!

MATILDA - From Publisher's Weekly: "Adults may cringe at Dahl's excesses in describing the cruel Miss Trunchbull, as well as his reliance on overextended characterization at the expense of plot development. Children, however, with their keenly developed sense of justice, will relish the absolutes of stupidity, greed, evil and might versus intelligence, courage and goodness." (Sadly, Miss Trunchbull is based on one of Dahl's own teachers at a boarding school he attended from ages 9-13).

Roald Dahl had many passions and interests outside of his writing.  He also suffered many family tragedies in his lifetime, but they did not make him bitter.  He continually tried to overcome them with positive action.  One example of this is when his four-month-old son Theo became brain damaged after a car accident.  Dahl, along with two friends - one a neurosurgeon, the other an engineer - spent months developing a valve that would drain fluid from the brain to allow his son to live free of machines.  (It was used for years, until being finally surpassed by new developments in technology; and Theo made a spectacular recovery!)

Roald Dahl died November 23, 1990, at the age of 74 from a rare blood disorder.  For more books, information, and fun facts about Roald Dahl, don't miss his website, http://www.roalddahl.com/.