Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: cows

  • Night Train to Varanasi

    Night Train to Varanasi

    Biography, travelogue and downright good story just about sums up Night Train to Varanasi from Sean Doyle, a man who is passionate about his beloved India, his family and the fine art of travel, not necessarily in that order.

    He made the monumental decision to travel with his daughter Anna to the kaleidoscopic world of India, a place he lost this heart to as an impressionable young man, to encourage her to experience life in another world, a life he had once enjoyed and returned to on every possible occasion.

    Anna had undergone recent trauma that had left her unsure, fragile with a huge giving heart that was very easily hurt. Once she finished high school and in that time between worlds, they set off to India for two months: two months that was to change their relationship, give them a deeper understanding of each other and age Sean considerably, as he was torn between keeping his beloved first born safe, but letting her unfurl her wings while remaining safe in a culture that is and was, as complex as it appeared.

    Sean Doyle paints the tapestry that is the real India in words that are carefully sought, offering his love affair with India as the backdrop to so much. Traveling by trains did not always go as planned, neither did travelling by bus. The accommodation was reasonable, the generosity of the Indian people legendary when a fellow traveller was in need.

    Their story is but a single thread in the rich tapestry being woven, as they make their way slowly along the pathway he travelled so  many years before, both he and Anna learning so much, not just about each other but about life, letting go and growing up.

    A bit like slow travel, Night Train to Varanasi is a work that takes time to read, to enjoy, to imagine the bustle of the streets, the pollution, the divide between rich and poor, cast restrictions, danger , the ever present traffic and deeply ingrained culture that makes up the very heartbeat that is India.

    Night Train to Varanasi is a love affair, a love story for and with India; simple, complex, pure and eternally challenging.

  • Marge and the Great Train Rescue

    Marge and the Great Train Rescue

    Marge is once again on duty and in charge of Jakey and Jemina in her latest series of adventures, which could only happen with Marge as your babysitter and an entire world in which to have adventures. This time though she is somehow involved with a train rescue, yep, that’s right, a train rescue, when a train sort, of somehow, gets confused and has to stop on the track to make way for a cow.

    Marge and the children are given tickets to take the train on an outing to the Zoo. Marge makes a promise to Jakey, who is mad about trains, that he can certainly drive the train. Things go wrong almost immediately when they try to enter the driver’s cabin. The conductor gets very cross indeed and so they try a disguise, which somehow is not too good. It looks like Marge cannot make good on her promise that is until the train has to stop for cow on the track, and once again Marge, with her amazing magic, comes to the rescue.

    But that was after the terrible tale of the missing tooth and before they reached the Zoo, which was when things really got to be funny and zany and so much fun!

    Isla Fisher with her zany sense of the ridiculous and Eglantine Ceulemans, with her wonderfully cartoon-like portraits of Marge and the children,  a have once again bought her flamboyantly to life in another series of outlandish adventures which are perfectly designed to appeal ,not just to children, but to the child in us all.

    Well scripted for early readers and young readers discovering their first serious chapter book, there will be smiles all around as the children in your life relate to Marge in charge once again, with chaos all around, wild adventure and a good dose of hilarity ruling the day.

  • Moo and Moo and the Little Calf too

    Moo and Moo and the Little Calf too

    What a delightful way to read a fun story and introduce realistic concepts along the way. The author has cleverly devised this rhyming text to elaborate on an actual incident which happened in New Zealand in November 2016. Many of us saw on TV, or in the newspapers, the three cows left stranded after an earthquake and landslide which occurred in the middle of the night.

     The story is as gentle as the illustrations and the rhyming text. ”Moo and Moo and the little calf too” were all asleep with the moon high in the sky and the stars twinkling. Suddenly the Clarence Valley began to move under the influence of an earthquake.

     The core of land that the cows were on was separated from the rest of the land, and slid down the valley with the surprised cows standing up until the core came to rest in the valley. However, as daylight made their predicament visible, the cows realized that they were trapped on their platform of earth, and could not get off.

     Later, a helicopter passed by and realized their predicament. The dairy farmer and his friends came with shovels and picks, and made a track that the cows could use to get off the platform. They walked down and followed the men back home to their herd.

     As a picture book this story stands alone with double page spreads of softly drawn illustrations, and blocks of text on each page. What makes it remarkable is the inclusion of information, and the opportunity for discussion.

     Earthquakes, New Zealand and the Richter scale are all referred to at the back of the book, as well as the date and time of the earthquake that stranded the cows. For curious children, this book is a mine of information and many concepts and ideas are presented.

     Even in the illustrations of the mountainous region, and the bay, we see that unstable areas are quite different to old flat land not on the edge of tectonic plates. Congratulations to the author and illustrator, whose work is so complimentary to the story.