Valley Mama

Reading The Little Warranty People

Last week we kicked off a new blog series called Mama and Mason Book Reviews, with some thoughts on reading Peter Pan.  This week we're reviewing The Little Warranty People, by Eduard Uspensky.  It's a Russian book, translated to English.  We found this book at the library, and it seemed light and fun, so we checked it out.

Who doesn't love the intriguing world of 'the little people".  The idea of little beings existing in our world, living alongside us but just out of view...is captivating for people of all ages.  This book is about a hidden world of little people called the Warranty People.  They work for factories, keeping all your appliances under a factory warranty running smoothly, only to leave for another assignment when the warranty expires.  Mason was intrigued from the beginning.  There is some mechanical and electrical talk, as the main characters go about their work and repair problems that arise.  While I know he did not completely understand all of this, I think he liked it...it certainly did not keep him from enjoying the story.  

The warranty people in the story travel with the family they live with to a vacation home, where they encounter a group of mice who want them gone and have deal with a clever little girl who is attempting to find them.  There is some war talk, which I was not crazy about, but everything turns out nicely.  The mice declare war on the warranty people, because that is the way it's always been.  The warranty people are not interested in war however, and feed the mice sausages instead.  It's quite humorous at times.  Even with the war talk and military jargon, there is no violence, which I appreciated.

Overall, it was a fun book to read with Mason, which has really fueled his creative play this week.  I've been asked to play 'warranty people' over and over.  Here is what Mason thought...

    

Me: "Mason, what was The Warranty People about?"

Mason: "It was about the warranty people.  They are little, tiny people that live in appliances, and they stay there until the warranty is over.  Like Coldman, Dustboy and News of the Day.  There were also some mice and two of them were really nice.  The others, not so much.  And there was a little girl, Tanya, who knew they were there, and kept trying to find them because she wanted them to be her toys!"

Me: "What was your favorite part of the book?"

Mason: "When the warranty people used suction cups to go up, up, up the wall to...what was that thing called?"

Me: "The chandelier."

Mason: "The chandelier, and then they parachuted down."

Me: "I like that part too.  Were there any parts you didn't like?"

Mason: "I didn't want Tanya to find them...I was worried Tanya would find them."

Me: "Mason, if you were a warranty person, what appliance would you live in?"

Mason: "I would live in a cuckoo clock and have a cuckoo bird for a pet!"

Mason: "Mom, do you know we have warranty people living here?"

Me: "No, I did not know that...where do they live?"

Mason: "Here!"

Me: "I mean, which appliances do they live in?"

Mason: "Mostly the vacuum, washing machine, car and fridge."

Me: "I want to hear more about that...is there anything else you think people might like to know about the book?"

Mason: "It's good [the book], and there just might be warranty people living in your house..."

Mason: "Let's play warranty people!  You be a little girl who is searching for me, and I'll go hide over here.  Then, I'll turn you into a warranty person so you can come inside my house...I can do that you know, make you small like me."

 

We then went on to play Warranty People for quite some time, hiding from big people and climbing walls with suction cups.  

Here's to the love of reading! 

 

Reading Peter Pan

We love reading around here.  Love it.  Mason and I have spent countless hours of his childhood (and my motherhood) curled up with books.  We have about 30 books checked out from the library at any given time.  Even little River loves going to the bookshelf at night to pick out her own books to take upstairs for story time.

We read aloud to Mason, though he will still spend a lot of time pouring over new books, checking out the illustrations before we read them.  Our philosophies on early reading are fairly Waldorf-y, and I will share some thoughts on that in another post soon, but for now, I will say that we strive to foster a love of books, literature, words, stories and reading in our children in these early years.  To see their imaginations captured by this world of reading and storytelling that Aaron and I love so much.    

Sometimes it is challenging to find books to read to Mason these days.  We still love picture books, and read them all the time, but we're also reading more and more chapter books of late.  I'm finding it difficult to find books that have the level of depth and sophistication that he is ready for, while also keeping the content age appropriate.  He can listen to long stories with no pictures, and has a great comprehension of what is read, but he is very sensitive to violence or sadness (as he should be).

I can't imagine that we are the only ones with this issue, so... we're going to start sharing some of the books we're reading these days and what we thought of them.  Mama and Mason book reviews.       

Mason has been enchanted with Peter Pan and Neverland for some time now, and though I've often told him bits and pieces of the story, I chose not to read it to him...until now.  I would always pick it up at the library and look through it, and put it back down.  The original version is really not (in my opinion) appropriate for a five year old without more editing than I am willing to do.  The simplified Disney version is sort of a joke, just hinting at the story, though I suppose nice for introducing little ones to the literary characters.  

This photo is not staged...this is how I found him in his costume on Halloween day!

This year for Halloween Mason decided to be Peter Pan, and I became determined to find a version of the story I could read to Mason.  He's wanted to read this book for a while now, often asking me if he was ready yet, and so, the week before Halloween I ordered a copy of the Classic Starts version of the book, retold from the J.M. Barrie original.  At first I was attracted to the sweet illustration on the cover, but after reading some reviews this seemed like the one.

The boy was thrilled.  He could hardly contain his excitement, jumping up and down saying "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!"  As we opened the book and I began reading it to him he wore a huge grin on his little face, and he could hardly sit still.  We could have easily finished it in one long sitting, though I divided it into a few to make it last a little longer.

I will say, I did edit the book a little as I read, but not much.  The retelling is very true to the original, with much of the original language and still full of excitement, but things are toned down just a little to be more appropriate for little ones.

Mason loved it.  

Here is (an excerpt) of what he had to say about it:

Me: "Mason, what did you like about Peter Pan?"

Mason: "Peter!  He could fly and was so brave!  And neverland, except for Captain Hook.  I would like to go to Neverland if Captain Hook was not there.  The lost boys had a tree stump for a chimney!  And they each had their own tree that only they fit into to get to their home."

Me: "What do you think other people might like to know about the book, if they were thinking of reading it?"

Mason: "Well, there were some scary parts, like when Hook took Wendy and all the lost boys, but Peter was so brave and good to save them.  Also, Tink was a little bit mean to Wendy."

Me: "What did you think about the ending?"

Mason: "A little happy, a little sad.  It felt a little like Neverland was abandoned, because all the lost boys went back with Wendy and her brothers.  Peter might be lonely.  But that new little girl got to go visit him in Neverland (Wendy's daughter), so that was good.  Peter did not want to leave Neverland."

Me: "Do you remember the part that says that Wendy, Michael and John all had their own Neverland (as all children do) and that they all saw Neverland differently?  What does your Neverland look like?

Mason:  "There are magical creatures everywhere, and superheroes.  Lots of superheroes."

Me: "That sounds awesome, what does it look like there?"

Mason: "Well, there's Mermaid Lake, and Fairy Forest, Unicorn Rock, Superhero City and Transformer Town."

Me: "Wow."