Peace at Last - Jill Murphy

Jill Murphy's 'Peace at Last' is the story of Mr Bear's quest for a quiet night's sleep. The book appears to feature the three bears of Goldilocks fame: Mr Bear, Mrs Bear and Baby Bear, who are first seen at the end of the day, very sleepy, then making their way up the stairs to bed.

Mrs Bear falls asleep straight away, but she begins to snore heavily and sleep therefore eludes Mr Bear. He decides to go and spend the night in his son's room, but finds Baby Bear still wide awake, playing aeroplanes and making 'NYAAOW' noises. So it's back downstairs for Mr Bear, where he goes from the living-room to the kitchen to the garden, but each place has its annoying noises that foil his attempts to go to sleep. He eventually tries the car, finds it cold and uncomfortable but begins to drift off. Almost immediately, the sound of the birds and the strong sunshine disturb him. He goes back to his own bed where he does find 'Peace at Last' as Mrs Bear has stopped snoring. But how much time is left before the alarm clock rings?

Mrs Bear brings her husband a 'nice cup of tea', unaware of his sleepless night. Baby Bear is of course full of beans first thing in the morning, and jumps on his parents' bed, brandishing the post. Poor Mr Bear is not amused.

Although sleepless nights are perhaps a problem that affects adults more than children, this is a good book to enjoy reading aloud together, and young children find the idea of trying to sleep in the garden or the kitchen amusing enough. I've recently read this story to a small group of four-year-olds and asked them afterwards to try to remember all the different places where Mr Bear tried to go to sleep and what noise disturbed him in each of those places. I was impressed that they remembered the snoring, the aeroplane noises, the cuckoo clock, the drip of a leaky tap, the hum of the fridge, the sound of the animals and birds in the garden, everything in fact except for the alarm clock.

Jill Murphy's illustrations for her picture books are always of the highest standard and have obviously had a great deal of time, thought and care devoted to them. My only comment on the illustrations in 'Peace at Last' is that they are of necessity all in rather gloomy colours because the story takes place during the night. They do not lack in quality in any way, but they may not appeal to young children quite as much as more brightly coloured pictures would.

The full-page illustrations are in each case on the right-hand-side of a double page, with a small amount of text and one or two miniature black-and-white drawings adding information on the facing left-hand page. One or two of the left-hand pages actually feature white text on a black background to emphasise the idea that the story takes place at night.

'Peace at Last' is primarily a story to be read aloud to children aged from around two-and-a-half to five-years-old. As the amount of text on each page is not too daunting and the facing illustrations give obvious clues as to what is happening, this might make a suitable book for a young reader aged five to seven who is gaining in confidence. I have recently said that it is hard to go wrong with David Melling, and I would certainly say the same about Jill Murphy.

Peace at Last

by Jill Murphy

Macmillan Children's Books, 2007

Paperback, 36 pages

ISBN 0230015484

Price £5.99 (Amazon £3.59)

Slobbages and wampfish roes, courtesy of Dahl

If I compare my sons' childhood with my own, I don't think there is much that I envy them, but one thing that I would pick out would be their access to Roald Dahl's books. Reading them aloud when they were very young, I think I got as much enjoyment from them as they did, but very soon they were devouring them by themselves. I was surprised to discover that 'James and the Giant Peach' was first published in 1961, as I was not aware of it until at least twenty years later. I thought we had gone through the whole range of Dahl's novels, poetry books and autobiographies, so I was pleasantly surprised to come across a collection of his 'Songs and Verse', which does contain some previously unpublished material.

Having recognised Quentin Blake's delightful style of drawing on the front cover, I was initially disappointed to find that he has not illustrated the whole book. I needn't have been, as there is a fantastic variety of styles from the twenty-six artists who have contributed, including Babette Cole and Gerald Scarfe. Blake has written the foreword and has provided drawings for the opening of each section.

The anthology is divided into seven sections, the first of which is 'There are things to see and do'. This opens with 'The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me', a familiar one to most Dahl fans. Then comes 'The Centipede's Song' from 'James and the Giant Peach', where Dahl lets his imagination run riot over the centipede's diet:

'I often eat boiled slobbages. They're grand when served beside

Minced doodlebugs and curried slugs. And have you ever tried

Mosquitoes' toes and wampfish roes

Most delicately fried?'

It might be quite surprising that the second section is entitled 'Best behaviour', as not many of Dahl's characters behave particularly well. Examples are the Queen in 'Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs' and Goldilocks in 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', both taken from 'Revolting Rhymes'. Then comes 'Concerning Augustus Gloop', whom we all know from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory': well, he isn't exactly a paragon of virtue. I love the double page from 'Concerning Mike Teavee' where Posy Simmonds' depictions of a purple dragon, an orange elephant, Mr Toad and Squirrel Nutkin amongst others are interspersed with each four lines of verse.

The section ends with a previously unpublished poem, 'The Shark':

'He lay there gnawing, nibbling, munching,

Chewing, burping, grinning, crunching,

Until the whole of little Jim

Was pretty much inside of him.'

Be careful, dear parent, this is a bedtime story that might lead to nightmares.....

Section three deals with 'Unlikely creatures' and begins with 'The Grobes' from 'Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator', shown descending into the 'quelchy quaggy sogmire'. 'The Ant-Eater' from 'Dirty Beasts' looks quite cuddly but beware, looks are deceiving. 'The Tummy Beast', also from 'Dirty Beasts', describes a young boy who is convinced that there is someone in his tummy:

' “It's true!” I cried. “I swear it, mummy!

There is a person in my tummy!

He talks to me at night in bed,

He's always asking to be fed,” '

After quite a few more creatures, we reach the fourth section, 'Poisonous possibilities'. You will probably guess that 'George's Marvellous Medicine' features here, along with Goldie Pinklesweet from 'Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator', who lives to regret experimenting with Granny's laxatives:

'We're sure you do not wish to hear

About the hospital and where

They did a lot of horrid things

With stomach pumps and rubber rings.'

There is a lesson to be learned in that one.

In part five, 'Look who's here', we meet the Grand High Witch from 'The Witches', decreeing a punishment for a witch who dared to answer back:

'An idiotic vitch like you

Must rrroast upon the barbecue!'

Other delightful females included here are Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker from 'James and the Giant Peach', the former trying to hide her fat tummy, the latter the pimple on her nose.

Part six entitled 'All together now' brings us songs from the Giraffe, the Pelican, and the Oompa-Loompas amongst others. There is a rather menacing start in 'Crocodile Rhymes' from 'The Enormous Crocodile':

'The sort of things that I 'm going to eat

Have fingers, toe-nails, arms and legs and feet!'

This is another one that might scare the youngest members of the family.

The seventh and final section is 'And a few surprises' and contains five previously unpublished pieces, two of which take us right back to Dahl's school days. He obviously developed a hatred of umpires whilst playing cricket:

'Out on the shining square there stands a man -

A mope-eyed sot, a gutless leprechaun,

White-coated, black at heart, Hell's sacristan!

I think all umpires should be shot at dawn!'

Equally hated was Mister Unsworth, who twisted boys' ears until they came right off and littered the floor.

I haven't mentioned every song or verse here, as there are forty-one in total, eleven of which have not been published before. The index lists the verses according to the novel or poetry book that they come from, ending with the unpublished pieces.

The illustrations are so diverse that it is difficult to decide which work best, and everyone will have a personal favourite. I love the Roly-Poly Bird in his jagged yellow tree by Emma Chichester Clark, and the craziness of Neal Layton's drawing for 'I'm Going Going Going'. Some will prefer the softer touch Alexis Deacon uses for 'The Nicest Creatures in the World' featuring James of Giant Peach fame. Then I'm attracted again by Emma Chichester Clark's double page spread for 'There's No Knowing What We Shall See' with its Pink-Spotted Scrunch and Biddy-Bright Hen. Babette Cole charms me in 'Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs' and Satoshi Kitamura brings a delightful oriental slant to the dentist's surgery in 'The Porcupine'. Gerald Scarfe's caricature of 'A Nobleman Visiting Coutts' is a masterpiece.

The poetry is zany, delightful, grotesque, fantastic in the true sense, and yes, sometimes a little scary. But there is nothing else quite like it – I don't think the world will ever have another Roald Dahl.

This is a beautiful book to read, to look at and to handle. The illustrations are all in colour, the font is a comfortable size, and the quality of the paper is excellent. It would make a wonderful present for any Roald Dahl lover who wants a book to treasure. I shall use it for reading practice with pupils having private tuition: they love the humour of Dahl, and this superior quality of book with delightful pictures should whet any child's appetite. We can occasionally offer something better than a paperback!

Songs and Verse by Roald Dahl

Published by Jonathan Cape, London

192 pages ISBN 0 224 07038 X

Price £14.99 Hardback (Amazon £9.89)