Moonface's Story (The Magic Faraway Tree)

Product Information

Slightly averted with the Saucepan Man; his land moves on while he's visiting the Faraway Tree, but he's more than content to move in with Mr. Watizname. Overall I did enjoy the experience of reading The Enchanted Wood aloud to my son as his nightly bedtime story, but I’m not convinced it ranks as an all-time great. I’m pretty sure Millie would like us to work through the whole series, so maybe it will grow on me, I’m certainly happy to give it a chance. So I didn't love this one at all. Part of that's personal, and part of that's critical. Let's do the personal first...

Tree Observations and Journaling: Take the children outside to observe trees. Provide notebooks for them to sketch and write about what they see – the size, shape, colour and any animals or insects they notice living on it. They meet lots of other people, like Silky the Fairy, and The Saucepan Man Who've all made their homes inside the trunk.Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Angry Pixie is a pixie with a Hair-Trigger Temper, Dame Washalot is a woman who enjoys washing clothes to the point that she'll clean the leaves of the Faraway Tree if she has nothing else to wash, and Moon-Face is a man with a round, moon-like face. Apart from breaks to play golf and spend time with her children, Enid's working week was consumed with writing new stories, correcting proofs and answering the hundreds of letters she was, by now, receiving weekly. She explained that her characters evolved organically and her stories seemed to naturally form, she described herself as "merely a sightseer, a reporter, and interpreter." Making the glaze is super simple - combine all ingredients in a stand mixer and whisk till combined, alternatively you can whisk by hand, just be sure to get all lumps out. Once again the children go on five ad

The premise is simple enough: a family from the city with three children (a boy and two girls) move out to the countryside. The children are told of an enchanted wood nearby and in that wood they discover a magic tree. Many magical folk live in the woods and up the tree, but at the very top of the tree is a ladder through the clouds to a magical land. The question is, which magical land will be through the clouds today? For it changes, quite regularly, you see. And you never know if the land through the clouds is nice or nasty – but you’re guaranteed an adventure! It is also noticeable that the family is self sufficient (and mother and father do not have names) but much of that self-sufficience does rely upon the existence of the Enchanted Wood and the Faraway Tree. I mentioned previously about how this could have been a reflection of the Depression in the earlier book, and in this book Dad seems to play a really minor role (Mum is more noticeable) but we do note that everybody tends to work around the house tending to the garden among other things. I also previously questioned whether there was anything that the adults would have seen in the Enchanted Wood, but in both stories we do have characters from the wood coming out to the cottage. Mother even watches the children return home flying on a table. There are charming elements here, for sure: hot-cold goodies, google buns, the Land of Birthdays, the Faraway Tree itself, flying on dandelion seeds in the Land of Giants. But the stories are all a bit dire and repetitive. Naughty visiting child does something silly, perhaps even something as bad as wearing a smart dress to a party. (“You’ve got bad manners, and you don’t do what you’re told, and people don’t like you,” Connie is told.) Ends up trapped or in trouble in a land at the top of the tree. Good children, who like helping their mother in the garden and wearing scruffy clothes, rescue them. Repeat.They were my wife's choice to read as her childhood favourites... but I find them repetitive and boring, with inconsequential action, no character depth and only a thin veneer of 'charming' imagination as their saving grace. Add the 3/4 cup of milk, oil, salt, ground spices, orange and lemon zests, and one cup of flour - mix with a spoon to combine. The lands at the top are sometimes extremely unpleasant – for example, the Land of Dame Slap (altered to Dame Snap in revised editions), an aggressive school teacher; and sometimes fantastically enjoyable - notably the Land of Birthdays, the Land of Goodies, the Land of Take-What-You-Want and the Land of Do-As-You-Please. I still remember all the characters vividly. There was Joe, Bessie and Fannie, the three siblings; and then there were the magic tree dwellers, Mr Watzisname, Moon Face, Sauce-pan man and my favorite character, Silky. What happens in the course of the kids' adventures in the various faraway fairy realms was fun...I ***really*** want to visit the Land of Topsy-Turvy!...but not a patch on the fact that these childrens' mother/aunt, the Responsible Party of Record for their safety, blithely lets them go off for an entire day, no idea where they are, and when they come home and share their adventures, she doesn't reach for the phone to get a shrink STAT but indulgently laughs and allows them to do it again! (After they finish all their chores, of course. Which they do uncomplainingly. Which is how you know this is a novel.)

And then, then!, she allows one of them to SPEND THE NIGHT in parts unknown to her! Now times were different in 1943, but that one's just not on. No responsible adult has *ever* let a kid spend the night somewhere without knowing 1) where and 2) who and 3) when and how Sweetums will be going there and coming home. Roll each piece into a ball and place them together in the pan, they should be somewhat tight and touching. Cover again with a tea towel and leave for another 30 minutes in a warm place to rise again. Preheat your oven to 190C. Entire passages of the original have been rewritten to remove references to fighting. For instance, when the tree is taken over by Goblins in The Enchanted Wood, the Goblins were originally fought off, with descriptions of Mr. Watzisname 'pummelling them as if he were beating carpets' and the Saucepan Man throwing his saucepans at them. These have been replaced with cursory references to 'chasing'. Another repeated (again and again and again and again) 'gag' is where the Old Saucepan Man miss-hears every second thing said to him. "Can I have that?" "A rat you say? Where? I don't see a rat!" And on it goes. How we ... laughed. The initially reluctant DS#1 (age 8) was sold after a chapter or two, stole the book, and immediately read the whole thing - further, he read it at least twice while I was still doling it out a chapter or two at a time to his siblings.Lightly oil a large bowl and place your dough inside. Cover with a clean tea towel and let it sit for about an hour in a warm spot - it should double in size. I have a little boy and love reading to him, so this reading list will cover the classic (and new) children’s stories we’re enjoying together.