Maybe Wodehouse Ripped Off Lomax for Spode

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read this book many years ago as a teen when I was in my Christie phase.  I remember being annoyed with it because it appeared to be ripping off P.G. Wodehouse.  There were the typical Wodehousian characters in situations where people were actually being killed!  Re-reading it this month, I decided it was more an homage to Wodehouse.  And even though I'd read it before, I guessed wrong.  That's what's so wonderful about having a poor memory; a few months/years later, and it's almost a whole new book! 

If you read this, look for the characters comparable to Jeeves and Wooster and to Lord Emsworth.  If the subtleties don't pop out at you, Lord Coote's secretary, the Efficient Bateman is clearly the Efficient Baxter.  Of course, Baxter would never have the nickname "Pongo," but there is a Pongo Twistleton in Wodehouse.

Christie says she was intending something lighthearted (aside from murder, of course, which is not that frothy) and while she isn't Wodehouse, she does succeed.  There are several charming and humorous scenes, such as George's proposal to Bundle and Lady Coote's demeanor at the bridge table.  If you obsess too much with the Wodehouse connection, as I did in my early read of the book, you might find the murders and genuine danger incongruous.  Taken by itself, though, it's a cracking read.



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The Art of Storytime

Marf and friends at the old library.

You think you've told everyone that there are no storytimes in May at the library.  It has been this way all the 17 years you have worked here. People who have run Head Start for all those years should know that too.  So, you're sitting at the Children's Room desk, minding your own bidness and a woman comes in.  You ask if you may help her because a) you're polite and helpful and b) adults aren't supposed to wander freely in the Children's Room.  No, she doesn't need help because she's just waiting for the Head Start group to arrive for their "field trip."  (Parents often accompany the group to help monitor, but arrive separately.)
You think you know for certain that no group was scheduled for today because, well, it's May and you don't do storytimes in May.  There are exceptions, so you check with your supervisor.  She calls the Head Start office and learns that the bus has already left.

This is a job for SuperStoryteller!

Drat!  I put the books I used last week away.  What was I thinking?  I'm not usually this tidy.  No matter!  I'll just wander in the picture books and pull out a couple I like.  I just made some new flannelboard stories (thanks to Flannel Fridays at Mel's Desk); it would be fun to use a couple of them.  And we top it all off with The Animal Boogie!

I chose Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hong because I just love that story annnnnnnnd, Oooo! Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell because adults can relate to that.  Also, I have some puppets for it, if I can find them in time.  These books have nothing to do with each other.  So much for always having some sort of theme!  I have less than 20 minutes to pull this together.  If I had more, maybe I could have made a theme package.

I looked at the new flannelboards and chose the "Five Bottles of Juice" and "Blue Car, Blue Car."  This may be a colorful storytime!

Our Storytime space

The new library's storytime room is in what we call The Rotunda.  It's a round space, and the acoustics are fairly lively.  I'm a loud person and I have to pull back in here.  The purple thing* stores big books as well as holding them for you.  Mostly I use it to prop up the books I'm going to read.  The dragon rug is from Highsmith.  We bought it after seeing it at the Charlotte ImaginOn Children's Library.  I wanted to set up a creative play space in our children's room.  For storytimes I prefer to sit on a small chair.  We do have that rocking chair that was originally purchased for our Parenting Corner, but I find I can't do what I want in a big chair that moves.  Fortunately, the child chairs are weight rated for someone my substantial size.

The bus arrives, the children file in, and I start with the "If you're happy and you know it" song.  Then I launch into my first book, Two of Everything.  The first book I read gets the special treatment.  I point out the author and illustrator and we sing the songs:
The author writes the book,
The author writes the book,
Hi-ho, librario
The author writes the book.

The illustrator draws,
The illustrator draws,
Hi-ho, librario
The illustrator draws.

Then I read the book.  When old Mrs. Haktak falls in the pot, I stop and ask them what they think will happen.  Afterwards I ask them what they would put in the pot to make another one of.

Next is a flannelboard.  We sing "5 bottles of juice on the wall" and with each color I ask what kind of juice that might be.

I show them the book Can't You Sleep, Little Bear?  Then I tell them how much I really love the story - but it's more fun ... with puppets!   I pull out the big bear puppet and the baby bear puppet (whose Folkmanis tag I'd removed minutes before) and do the whole thing  in my lap.  I have some props I made for a puppet show of this years ago that I adapted for the flannelboard by sticking velcro on them: three lanterns and a big moon with stars attached with floral wire.  There's also a small book I made, The Koala Code by Dan Braun, for Big Bear to be reading.  The favorite part of any story I do seems to be the snoring.  Well, whatever works!

Next is the Blue Car, Blue Car flannelboard.  They shout the names of vehicles and colors out to me.

And it was all finished off by The Animal Boogie.  We get up and dance to the song.  I have this at the end of all my storytimes now.  I like having something that I do every time so that they have that to look forward to.  They're usually good and jazzed up by the end, so we all sit down and I pull out my Goodbye Couplets, pictures of animals on sticks.
See you later, ... alligator (I give them time to give me the rhyme).
In a while, ... crocodile.
In a blizzard, little ... lizard.
In two shakes, garden ... snake.
Time to scoot, warty ... newt.
Let's meander, ... salamander.
and Hit the road, hoppy ... toad!

And I tell them that this is the last, absolutely the last, full stop, storytime until summer starts.  And unless their director says something to them, they will never know they were unscheduled.  I make a policy of this in my private life as well.

* I don't know where the purple thing came from so I can tell you not to buy that model.  The display panel somehow comes off the track (it slides back up to be flat on top) occasionally and the panels inside that are supposed to keep the big books upright ... don't.  They fall out of their slots at the slightest pressure.  Although it was a good idea, it was poorly executed.  That's a shame because I love purple.