Books at Bedtime: Queenie and Flame – two special stories by Corinne Fenton
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010Continuing along the lines of our current How Children Play Around the World theme, I have been re-reading two beautiful picture books I was introduced to in Bologna, thanks to Corinne’s meeting with Corinne (Australian author Corinne Fenton) at the SCWBI stand. Both of them, by Corinne, make perfect bedtime stories, though Queenie: One Elephant’s Story (Black Dog Books (Australia), 2006) may need a bit of discussion time afterwards as part of it is very sad.
Queenie tells the true story of Queenie the elephant who, towards the end of the nineteenth century, was trapped as a young calf by hunters in India and shipped to Australia, where she took up residence at Melbourne Zoo. She became one of the main attractions, giving rides tirelessly. Children would leave apples and peanuts for her aroud her circuit and wrote letters to her, telling her how much they loved her. Then, sadly, in 1945, an accident, compounded by food shortages during the Second World War, meant that she was destroyed. The book ends on a positive note, pausing to feel Queenie’s spirit among the elephants now enjoying the Trail of the Elephants at Melbourne Zoo, but a deep sadness nevertheless remains. Corinne’s narrative is unflinching and as gentle as Queenie herself – and Peter Gouldthorpe’s beautiful illustrations evoke the bygone era they depict, echoing early tinted photography.
On Corinne’s website, you can read a bit more about Queenie and see a photograph – and there are also teachers’ notes.
Flame Stands Waiting, illustrated by Sebastian Ciaffaglione (Black Dog Books, 2010) is also set in Melbourne – but this time the focus is on the carousel ride that can still be found at Melbourne Luna Park. While the illustrations have a 1930s feel about them, they are brought right up to date by a bold use of perspective that exactly suits the excitement of a carousel ride: and Corinne’s present tense narrtative does exactly the same.
Flame is one of the horses on the carousel, but he is sad because unlike the other horses, he can’t move up and down – until, that is, he discovers how to fly in his imagination, thanks to one little girl’s whisper in his ear: “We are going to fly into the clouds, over the stars and even beyond the moon! We can go anywhere we please.” I can see this lovely story becoming a firm favorite, asked for again and again before happy listeners head off into their own dreams – maybe even riding a pearly carousel horse…
