When I was younger I remember watching the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks with Angela Lansbury so many times that I could quote it word for word. I had no idea that it was in fact based on a book. I stumbled across that book whilst doing a stock check at the school library and vowed then and there to read it as soon as possible.
Mary Norton's book was originally published as two stories, The Magic Bed Knob (1943) and Bonfires and Broomsticks (1945). They began to be printed together in 1957. This is fairly obvious in the reprint that I read from, but it really wasn't a problem other than the second story took place a few years after the first one which surprised me a little.
The book is very different from the film version and is not about three evacuees from London. This is the story of Carey, Charles and Paul who one day during their visit to their Aunt Beatrice meet a witch. One of the things that struck me straight away was how prominent the character of Carey was. In the film it is her brother Charles who is the one taking charge, but in the book it was very much the big sister Carey who took on that role. I was very pleased at this change because it was nice to see a brave and adventurous female character in a children's book.
It surprised me to find that far from the Eastenders that film version portrayed the children to be, the family in the original novel are really quite posh. It makes perfect sense to me as who else goes to stay with their wealthy aunt other than the offspring of the well-to-do? I still prefer Disney's interpretation though.
That is really where the positive and the plain observations end. There were so many problems with this book that once I'd put it down I only picked it up again out of morbid curiosity. Miss Price was not the lovable witch that I imagined her to be. She comments at the beginning of the first story that she struggles to be wicked and thus showing that she wants to be! That I could cope with, but on top of this she just wasn't funny. In fact the whole book seemed to be devoid of humour.
In addition to this, one of the adventures that the children go on is a trip to the island of Ueepe. This is not the cartoon character inhabited island of the film, it is just a lovely South Pacific island. This I understood as it seemed perfectly reasonable to me that children want to visit the beach. The problems arise when the children and Miss Price are about to leave the island and are captured by cannibals. I found this part of the plot to be unimaginative and racist. Of all the troubles that could be encountered on an island, (and there are many as I discovered from On The Island) violent and barbaric indigenous people were not what I thought was appropriate or entertaining.
To be perfectly honest I was disappointed with the whole of the plot. The second of the stories was actually a better formed story than the first, but I still found the ending to be poor. Miss Price was, however, more likeable in the second of the two stories until she gives up her life to disappear into the 17th century with a man she barely knows. I lost all respect for her at that point, but this didn't matter much as it ended the novel. I suppose we should assume that Carey, Charles and Paul went on to live rather ordinary lives afterwards.
To sum up, I was very disappointed with this book for two main reasons. It had next to nothing in common with the film of my childhood. The second and most important of the reasons is that it was just a very boring book with a few characters that were quite unremarkable. I found it to be a chore to finish and not at all a joy to read.
Rating: ★
That is really where the positive and the plain observations end. There were so many problems with this book that once I'd put it down I only picked it up again out of morbid curiosity. Miss Price was not the lovable witch that I imagined her to be. She comments at the beginning of the first story that she struggles to be wicked and thus showing that she wants to be! That I could cope with, but on top of this she just wasn't funny. In fact the whole book seemed to be devoid of humour.
In addition to this, one of the adventures that the children go on is a trip to the island of Ueepe. This is not the cartoon character inhabited island of the film, it is just a lovely South Pacific island. This I understood as it seemed perfectly reasonable to me that children want to visit the beach. The problems arise when the children and Miss Price are about to leave the island and are captured by cannibals. I found this part of the plot to be unimaginative and racist. Of all the troubles that could be encountered on an island, (and there are many as I discovered from On The Island) violent and barbaric indigenous people were not what I thought was appropriate or entertaining.
To be perfectly honest I was disappointed with the whole of the plot. The second of the stories was actually a better formed story than the first, but I still found the ending to be poor. Miss Price was, however, more likeable in the second of the two stories until she gives up her life to disappear into the 17th century with a man she barely knows. I lost all respect for her at that point, but this didn't matter much as it ended the novel. I suppose we should assume that Carey, Charles and Paul went on to live rather ordinary lives afterwards.
To sum up, I was very disappointed with this book for two main reasons. It had next to nothing in common with the film of my childhood. The second and most important of the reasons is that it was just a very boring book with a few characters that were quite unremarkable. I found it to be a chore to finish and not at all a joy to read.
Rating: ★
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