Here's a very popular book series in our library -- the Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz. They're about a teenage spy and we seldom have so many of them in, so when that happened recently I had to take a photo to get the cool effect of the spine designs. (The picture is still missing volumes 11 and 12, so who knows what they might have added!) I've never read any of them but as I said, they're popular with the kids.
Here's another book that caught my eye the other day:
Yes, we keep "Lassie Come-Home" on the shelf, even though it is a rather petrified copy. The copyright page is missing so I can't even tell when it was printed, but the catalog gives the publication date as 1971. (The original copyright is 1940.)
It was definitely printed before "decimalisation," the streamlining of British currency that occurred in the early '70s. The price on the spine is given as 12 shillings and sixpence. I was prepared to see that "Lassie Come-Home" had fallen out of favor but in fact it has been checked out several times in recent years, most recently in 2020. I guess good old Lassie still has some appeal. I'm tempted to read it!
As I've written before, I used to watch the "Lassie" TV show when I was little, but I never read a real "Lassie" novel -- just children's adaptations and comic books. In middle school I did read my grandfather's old copy of "Lad, a Dog," by Albert Payson Terhune, a 1919 book -- also about a heroic collie -- that was a precursor to the whole Lassie phenomenon. I haven't seen a copy of that book in years. It's probably full of culturally problematic language.
You'll notice that "Lassie Come-Home" contains a hyphen, while the famous movie version didn't. Apparently Lassie is referred to in the book as "Lassie Come-Home," once she does, in fact, come home. I can see some cigar-chomping producer in Hollywood barking, "GET RID OF THAT HYPHEN!"
Not much of note happened yesterday. We had an all-school assembly in the morning to kick off the school year -- even though we're already more than a week into it -- and the library was once again very busy. Which I like! It makes the time fly.
In the evening Dave and I watched "Beautiful Thing," a 1996 movie about two teenage boys who fall in love on a London housing estate. It's one of my favorite films, set in Thamesmead, where I recently walked on the Thames Path. I hadn't seen it in years, and Dave insists he'd never seen it, though I can't believe I didn't show it to him before now. He probably fell asleep. He managed to stay awake last night, but we both had trouble hearing many of the lines -- the sound on our rented version from BFI wasn't great, and there were no subtitles that I could find. The East London accents can be quite impenetrable, at least to our American ears, especially when the lines are spoken quickly. But we got the gist!
26 comments:
I remember loving “Beautiful Thing.” Should see it again.
I watched “Lassie,” but not religiously. Never read a Lassie novel.
Interesting that the price was printed on the spine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.
Looks to me like you might have a couple of new reading projects coming up. Alex Rider and Lassie.
I remember (vaguely) the Lad, A Dog film from the 60s but never read the novel.
The Alex Rider series looks interesting. I'd read those and I'm much older than a schoolkid.
I can't remember the detail but on tv I watched Lassie Come Home and it is my first memory of crying at what I saw on a screen.
I've seen Beautiful Thing but I can't remember any detail. My mind keeps moving to a tv series where the characters lived in Reading.
Solved. I was thinking of Beautiful People.
I don't think you should read "Lassie Come-Home" as I believe you will find it too upsetting. There are sad moments in that book which could easily cause emotional trauma.
Lassie appears to be illustrated. A book with pictures in. My kind of book.
The Lassie novel is great and bares no relation to the Lassie TV series. There was however a very old movie that follows the book. I also read all the Albert Payson Terhune books over and over. So of course I have had five collies in my life. Wonderful books and great dogs.
Cheers
It's amazing that Lassie was checked out as recently as 2020.
I read a couple of those Horowitz books quite recently. They're fun even if you're not the target audience.
I caught a really good physio on YouTube recently, recommended him on my blog, saying I thought he was Australian. Then found he's from Surrey! So much formy expertise with accents..
Do you cull old books from time to time?
My high school library didn't turn over books very often so on more than a handful of occasions, I would go to check out a book only to see one of my parent's names written on the card a few lines above where I added my signature. Sadly, the school didn't last long enough so that my kids might add a third generation to the checkout card. They probably don't even know what those checkout cards in a pocket pasted on the inside cover are as it is all likely digital these days.
I remember watching Lassie on TV, but I don't remember reading a Lassie book. But then again, I don't remember a lot of things these days.
Do the colored dots have something to do with the book's genre? So the students can find the mysteries or adventure books more easily?
There was an era, I think, of novels about animals who were mistreated. I think it had something to do with the founding of animal protective services. I'm pretty sure that Lad: A Dog and Lassie weren't part of that but "Black Beauty" and "Ugly Joe" were. I read those books and cried buckets.
Our teacher read Lassie to us in class. At that time teachers read to kids for about 15 minutes right after lunch. Sometimes when it was a gripping place in the story it was much longer than 15 min.
I had no idea that the Lassie TV show was based on a book.
I read the Lassie book long, long ago. Don't even remember if I liked it. I watched the show when I was little too. It was on for years, with various humans as Lassie's family. The movie you mentioned is available on Prime Video. I'll be sure to watch it.
Love,
Janie
I watch a lot of British television shows and I've found the same thing with the language. There are times I just can't catch what is being said but as you say, I get the idea.
I've never heard of the Alex Rider books. They must be good if they get a lot of use.
So much here -- this post is pushing all my buttons in a good way. I had a collie (Major) and I always got upset watching Lassie because even though in the end it was always all right, I couldn't handle it when Lassie got in danger! AND, I have up here (right in front of me, in fact, because I just pulled it down from the shelf) my own copy of "Sunnydale: Home of Lad" and "The Faith of a Collie," also by Terhune. I used to have "Lad, a Dog" but over the decades, it seems to have disappeared. My copies are c. 1958 or so.
Alex Ryder -- what is the age level for those? I love Horowitz's "grown up" mysteries and these might be a fun series for our grand. Of course, he has to learn to read first. He'll be working on that this year! His parents aren't big readers and my hope is that Rick and I can somehow foster that.
I've not read any Horowitz books, but have had the two "Magpie Murder" mysteries tagged at the library for ages. The first one always seems to require a hold!
We've been binging British TV since May-ish, and if it weren't for sub-titles we would miss half of what's being said. Many of the series are older, so production values are not as good as new crap TV.
Beautiful thing was one of the first of its kind
A positive love story about ordinary boys with a wonderfully drawn mother figure and a mamma cass loving best friend to die for
I loved it
My grandparents had a collie named Lad that I was inexplicably afraid of (I was 2 or 3, so I was probably alarmed by how big it was compared to me). There's a photo of me giving him some serious side eye. Ha!
I love AH and have read his adult mysteries, none of that series though. I'm not familiar with that film but have great difficulty these days if there isn't CC.
Count me as a fan of "Lassie Come-Home" (the book) and "Lad, A Dog" and other Terhune books. (Yes, there probably is problematic language in the latter). As a kid, animals were a whole lot easier to relate to than people.
Chris from Boise
Mitchell: Yeah, apparently there was a movie version of "Lad" in the early '60s. I've never seen it.
River: They're probably pretty fun! I bet you could read one in a day.
Andrew: I don't know "Beautiful People," but I can definitely recommend "Beautiful Thing." My first memory of crying at a movie was probably "Old Yeller."
YP: I am very prone to being traumatized by sad animal stories!
Tasker: Yes! Pictures are never a bad thing! LOL
Peter: Wow, you really took those Terhune books to heart! I never read more of them than "Lad," but I loved that one.
Bob: I agree! I think some teachers encourage students to check out old or "classic" books, so maybe it gets read with that in mind.
Boud: HA! Accents are tricky. I have a terrible time distinguishing them. In college I offended a guy from Northumberland by telling him he sounded Irish!
Colette: Yes, we "weed" books periodically. But we usually keep classics, and I suspect that's why "Lassie Come-Home" has survived all this time.
Ed: We don't use the cards but we DO still stamp due dates inside the back cover of books, which amuses a lot of older library patrons!
Robin: I only read later books that used the Lassie character -- never one of the original novels.
Ellen D: The red dots mean the book is suitable for 5th or 6th grade (our youngest readers).
Ms Moon: Yeah, I suppose many of those books were written at the dawn of awareness about animal rights. I never thought about that.
Red: What a great way to spend part of the school day! But after lunch it better be a good story or everyone will fall asleep.
Ellen: It was indeed! And Lassie, I'm sure, must have been inspired by Terhune's earlier books.
Janie: That's probably the most famous Lassie movie, I think. With Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor when they were child actors!
Sharon: We really depend on subtitles to help us sort out dialogue in some TV shows. (Even American ones!)
Jeanie: We have the Horowitz books marked for 5th and 6th grade, so they're at least suitable for that age. They're not in our Lower School library so I wouldn't think younger than that. Interesting that your Terhune books are from the late '50s. Maybe the one I read actually belonged to my uncle, not my grandfather.
Kelly: I haven't read any of his books either, but he's quite popular!
Allison: Yeah, older shows -- particularly those shot on videotape -- are especially bad about sound.
John: I remember going to see it at the cinema in Florida and it is not an overstatement to say it filled me with joy!
Bug: Ha! He must have been named after the dog in the books?
Margaret: I used to make fun of my dad and stepmother for watching everything with subtitles, and now we do it!
Chris: Yeah, I guess that's why animal books are so popular with kids. Almost everyone can connect to an animal story.
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