Tag Archives: children’s book

To hurt, to break: the heart beats on

Feeling unsure, the girl thought the best thing was to put her heart in a safe place.
Just for the time being.
So she put it in a bottle and hung it around her neck.
And that seemed to fix things … at first.

The girl thought the best thing was to put her heart in a safe place, for the time being. (image credit: Oliver Jeffers/The Heart and the Bottle)

The girl thought the best thing was to put her heart in a safe place, for the time being. (image credit: Oliver Jeffers/The Heart and the Bottle)

The above passage is from The Heart and the Bottle, written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. The picture book, which looks into how to make sense of death and loss, is now available in iTunes to buy and download as apps. The version is read by actress Helena Bonham Carter.

In the story, the girl, after losing her father. decided to protect her heart from hurting by putting it in a bottle around her neck. Of course, the problem with safeguarding her heart was that the girl no longer resembled her old exuberant, full-off-curiosity self. No more thinking about the stars or “the wonders of the sea,” she feels no pain, but also no happiness.

(Read previous post: “Ice Kachang Puppy Love”)

"She forgot about the stars… and stopped taking notice of the sea. She was no longer filled with all the curiosities of the world and didn’t take much notice of anything…" (image credit: Oliver Jeffers/The Heart and the Bottle)

“She forgot about the stars… and stopped taking notice of the sea.
She was no longer filled with all the curiosities of the world and didn’t take much notice of anything…” (image credit: Oliver Jeffers/The Heart and the Bottle)

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The original Mary Poppins is not so supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Many of us are probably familiar with Disney’s 1964 musical-film starring Julie Andrew as the delightful, simply wonderful nanny, Mary Poppins. While Disney’s Mary Poppins is indeed supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (even more so with her philosophy that “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”), you would be missing out if you have never met the original Mary Poppins.

Written by P.L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard, the original Mary Poppins is actually not all sweet and delightful. Travers describes Mary Poppins as a woman who “never wastes time being nice,” and the children, Jane and Michael, are actually surprised when their nanny is nice. Hence enters Mary Poppins, bringing adventures, enchantments and excitement to the Banks house (and to you)!

Mary Poppins (written by P.L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard)

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