Another post revived from the forgotten past and somehow slipped through the cracks (except for the spambots that always find this post!). So instead I decided to say to myself – found!!! a post about red balloons and answers in wonderful secret gardens for you plus more found delights!

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Found!!! Red Balloons and Answers in Wonderful Secret Gardens

Note: the original post was written for the Deal Me In Challenge I used to join in as well as for ABC Wednesdays (letters Q,R,S). My P post that year (in 2018) featured ‘The Phantom Tollbooth.’ My theme for ABC Wednesday’s Round 22 is children’s books – I will pick one popular (and sometimes the not so popular/the unknown) book – classic/modern/old/new… – and write about it – be it a backstory or facts or something else completely

Q is for ‘The Three Questions’

Q is for ‘The Three Questions’ written and illustrated by Jon Muth – while not really a book starting with Q, it features the letter Q. For another Q book, you can look at ‘The Quiltmaker’s Gift’ featured earlier in my A to Z Challenge where the theme was ‘Within Books’

My Thoughts

I discovered ‘The Three Questions‘ after I read the Tolstoy’s short story which inspired this book. This book is a wonderful adaptation of Tolstoy’s story, rewritten to make the message understood by its intended younger audience; and the beautiful watercolors accompanying the words are just perfect! 

The young protagonist, Nikolai, and his animal friends (the heron, the monkey, and the dog), as well as Leo, the wise turtle, and the panda family Nikolai helps – all work together to make this a book a treasure. This book is ideal for launching philosophical discussions with younguns’ without making it too philosophical.

Discussion Questions

Some possible questions to discuss with kids as you read the book include:

• If you could get answers to three questions from the wise turtle, what would they be?
• Have you asked a question to different people, and they gave you different answers? What was your question and the answers? What was your reaction to those different answers (surprise you/confuse you/amuse you)? Which answer did you like best and why (to your question)?
• Who would you ask your questions to (not the wise turtle but among those you know 🙂 )? Why?
• What is your thinking place (or do you have one)?
• Have you flown a kite before? — this could be a possible activity too – make and fly a kite (and also a puppet show maybe with face masks of the animals)

R is for ‘The Red Balloon’

R is for a beautiful, beloved book – Albert Lamorrise’s ‘The Red Balloon.’ This book came after the movie ‘The Red Balloon,’ and it is impossible not to fall in love with both the book and the movie in this case, equally, and totally in love. I recall seeing the movie years ago during a showing at school and vividly recall the feelings I left with that day.

To this day, the movie and the book give me the same feelings: that of hope, of color restored to a dull, gray world because of that hope, of having a faithful friend true to you, and of general happiness.

Albert Lamorrise made the movie in 1956. Lamorrise was a former auditor at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) aka, the Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies, and IDHEC graduates made up the film crew! The book was first published in 1957 as a tie-in for the movie by Doubleday Books (now Penguin Random House), using black and white and color stills from the film, with added prose.

The book won A New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year, and the movie is an Academy Award winner. You can have a look into the book here. If you have not read the book or seen the movie, go ahead and do them both – it is like you found sweet magic!  

A side note fact: Albert Lamorrise is also the inventor of the board game ‘Risk‘

S is for ‘The Secret Garden’

S is for ‘The Secret Garden‘ by Frances Hodgson Burnett, another childhood favorite. This book appears frequently on my blog in various top ten posts. 

Fun Facts About the Book

Here are a few interesting facts about the book:

From Magazine to Book

As I research books, old and new, for my posts here, I realized that many of the older books were first written for magazines in serial form, and because of their popularity, were later published as books. ‘The Secret Garden’ is also one such book. It was first serialized in The American Magazine, a magazine meant for adults, which raised a confusion on its intended audience.

Then and Now

Although it was not her most popular (almost forgotten) book during her lifetime, it has gained popularity over the years and appears in many top 100 lists of books for children across oceans. Today, like many, I know Burnett as a children’s book author, but I am sure she would be surprised to hear that.

Inspiration for the Book

A couple of events in her life inspired this book –

• The first was the death of her older son in 1890. This turned her to seek strength in Christian Science and those beliefs find their way into the book. One example: positive thoughts lead to healing. Like with other books I read as a child, I did not note any religious/Christian influences at all. And I read the book for the pure joy of it. And I hope I can reread it to discover the same joy again 🙂
• The second was her stay at Maytham Hall. She loved the hall and its walled kitchen garden. Like Mary, she was unable to discover her way into the walled gardens due to overgrown ivy. And like Mary, a robin showed her the way! Oh! Yes to discover a secret walled garden all by myself – that would be totally thrilling, wouldn’t it? Someday, I will make my way on a bookish tour of the world!

What Should I Name Thee?

The original title of the book was ‘Mistress Mary’. The vey same poem that kids sang to Mary to tease her when she first landed in her uncle’s home. But Burnett later changed the title to ‘The Secret Garden’ and I am sure glad of that.

My Thoughts

When I first read the book, I fell in love with it (and still do). Mary impressed me with her transformation! I loved how she transformed into the strong-spirited helpful girl from that mean, snobbish girl at the start. But I think my favorite character in the book is possibly Dickon, from what I can recall of it. 

Have you read the book? Who is your favorite character? 

Found: A Prosery Today!

Write a piece of prosery. So what does that mean? You simply write a piece of flash fiction or other prose up of up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line from the poem Oolong by Adrienne Su, which is – every day unfurls as it must. Then link up to dVerse here.

Found in the Unfurling

At last, I had done it. I had charted every detail, planned our trip down to the very last step on our pedometers even, noted down eateries—from those hole-in-the-wall hidden gems to Insta-worthy delights, and well, that was it! Packed and ready, we embarked on this family road trip—one final adventure before the nest grew empty and another phase of our lives began.

Not even halfway through day one, the kids (always kids to us, though they would not want to be addressed thus) spotted the familiar yet rare sight of a circus tent and begged to stop. I hesitated, my meticulous plans whispering in my mind. But their excitement, the chance to be little again, was irresistible. How could I refuse? After all, every day unfurls as it must.

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, how would you think your ‘every day’ unfurls? Have you read any of the featured books? Which one? if not, which one would you pick first?