Rave Review: It's a Secret! by John Burningham

English author John Burningham returns to whimsical form with this picture book which answers the question, "Where do cats go at night?" Burningham's previous offering, Edwardo: The Horriblest Boy in the Whole Wide World (2007) was rather message-heavy. But It's a Secret! is a straight forward fantasy (if that's not an oxymoran) in the same vein as Come Away From the Water Shirley (1977) and The Magic Bed (2003), stories in which the child protagonists are perfectly in tune with a magic that grown-ups simply can no longer perceive.

Marie Elaine has always wondered what her cat gets up to at night. She finally catches him out when, making a late-night call to the fridge, she discovers him all decked out in fancy clothes. Once she learns that he is going to a party, she demands to be included. The cat and Marie Elaine are joined on their midnight soiree by neighbor Norman Kowalski and head to the roof of a nearby building to participate in a cat party. I can't decide what I liked best about this book--perhaps the similarity to Esther Averill's Jenny's Birthday Book, with its late-night dancing moggies; or the fact that when the cat demands that Marie Elaine must get small to accompany him (how else to fit through the cat flap?) she does just that--gets small; or the sheer silliness of the cat queen, in her regal gown and tiara, checking her common wristwatch at the end of the night. So many details combine in a sophisticated manner to tell a simple but satisfying story of one magical night. The mixed media illustrations bear the hallmark of Burningham's distinctive style--rough and sketchy, but ever fresh on the page. And the slightly oversized format provides an expanded backdrop for the unfolding events, so that the reader is not cheated out of the full impact of the late-night escapade.

This book has imense appeal--may it sell a million copies!

Reading Radar: It's a Secret by John Burningham

It was a happy children's librarian who saw this in her May edition of "Books For Growing Minds." Even better, I found an article in a recent issue of "The Independent", where Burningham talks a bit about his childhood, in promotion of his new autobiography. (Note to self--buy it!) He has some scathing commentary about modern parenting trends. But readers familiar with his disarmingly subversive picture books will not be surprised.

My John Burningham Top Three:

3) The Magic Bed: Georgie has outgrown his crib and is ready for a big boy bed. And he doesn't choose just any old bed as a replacement. Magic and imagination are interchangeable in this story about moving on.

2) Mr. Gumpy's Outing: What could possibly go wrong when a boy, a girl, a cat, a dog, a rabbit, and a cow ask for a ride on the same skiff?

3)John Patrick Norman McHennessy, the Boy Who was Always Late: Now back in print, to my complete and utter joy. You can see what I think of this classic here.

John Patrick Norman McHennessy--not a moment too soon

Hurrah! My prayers have been answered! A Random House Summer Catalog was in my inbox this morning, and on page two was the announcement and brand new ISBN number for a reissued edition of John Burningham's outstanding John Patrick Norman McHennessy--the boy who was always late. This has been on my "Lost Treasures" list since the early days of this blog. I take no credit for it's reissue, only immense pleasure that someone in a position to bring it back did so.

I hope it has been left as originally published and not revised to meet modern day sensibilities. I'm thinking of the bit where the disbelieving teacher threatens to thrash JPNM for telling lies. Children today need not fear corporal punishment, and I suspect that when the book was originally written in 1987 there really wasn't much danger of it then either. But you never know how far the bubble-wrapping of children will go. The revising of books is an ongoing controversy in Children's Literature, from Tintin in the Congo to whether or not editions of Good Night Moon should feature a picture of illustrator Clement Hurd holding a cigarette.

Lost Treasures #3--John Patrck Norman McHennessy-the boy who was always late, By John Burningham

John Burningham is one of those authors that I did not discover until I was an adult. Had I grown up in his native England, it would have been a completely different story. But here in the States he's just another respected import. His classic, Mr. Gumpy's Outing, is listed by Anita Silvey (talk about gurus!) as one of the 100 best books for children, but other than that his droll little windows into a child's psyche seem to come and go. A quick search on Amazon.com shows that of three pages of titles, only half a dozen or so are still in print. Again, it's a different story in the UK, but American fans need to catch his books in the initial print run.

John Patrick Norman McHennessy-the boy who was always late (we'll call it JPNM for short) is a frequent bedtime favorite at our house. It's the simple story of a boy making his way "along the road to learn." Each day he meets seemingly insurmountable hurdles (a crocodile leaping out of a drain, a lion sneaking out of the bushes, a tidal wave washing over a bridge) yet he vanquishes them all, only to come up against a higher hurdle--his teacher's disbelief. The teacher is straight out of the Oxford Don book of fashion, with a log black coat, four-point cap, and a total lack of imagination. Various punishments are meted out to JPNM--standing in the corner, writing out "I must not tell lies" 500 times, solitary confinement, and even the threat of a good thrashing. The teacher not only discredits JPNM's stories, but he gets unreasonably irate about the loss of a glove, torn trousers, and the fact that the boy arrives sopping wet (which is to be expected when you've nearly been washed away by an unexpected tidal wave!) But revenge is sweet, and by the end of the story we see that JPNM has not been traveling along the road to learn for nothing.

I find that children have an amazing capacity for magic while understanding the world in completely literal terms. If JPNM said a lion sprang out of the bushes, well of course it did, even if that's not supposed to happen. John Burningham's books wonderfully capture this dichotomy, and it makes them great fun for the adult reader.

Haven't I read this already?

While preparing for this week's story time(theme: kiddie fun,)I was rereading the books I'll be using tomorrow. And as I read Nicola Smee's Clip-Clop, I couldn't help but notice a certain resemblance to John Burningham's classic Mr. Gumpy's Outing. Each book tells the story of a vessel in motion (in one case a horse, in the other a skiff on a river)and an increasing overloading of passengers. I certainly can't say if Ms. Smee had "Gumpy" in mind when she wrote her book. In any event, both are excellent for read-a-louds (how's that for an endorsement!)