I recently treated myself to the collection of Winnie the Witch books, (by the fabulous Valerie Thomas, illustrated by Korky Paul, published by Oxford University Press) because I deserve nice things and there was a sale on. The 10-book collection included At the Seaside, The Flying Carpet, and The Amazing Pumpkin.
I remember reading these books as a child, and when I was thinking about books I used to love, Winnie appeared in my memory, with Wilbur, her black cat, by her side, mixed in a purple and green haze, and her iconic mansion, which she lived in all by herself. But revisiting these books as an adult shed a new light on Winnie for me.
She was living life according to her own damn rules. This woman barely brushed her hair (young me's dream), barely shaved, (current me's dream) and just abracadabra'd herself out of situations she didn't want to be in. Very relatable all round.
(Please tilt your head until I figure out how to turn this round). See hairy legs and pits. She's got it all figured out.
It got me thinking about witches in general, and the fact that, let's say they aren't real (another time, another debate), the conversations surrounding witches ties very closely into attitudes towards forward-thinking women. Making them unfeminine for not conforming, that whole shi-bang. Without getting too far into the whole Salem Witch Trials and going all Scarlet Letter on you poor people (person), I think it is very interesting that witches are exempt, somehow, from a lot of damaging "female" stereotypes. Maybe as a witch, Winnie is meant to be unattractive and messy on purpose, but that does not retract from her femininity, I don't think. In the Harry Potter series, Hermione Granger does not sacrifice her intelligence and strength to please Ron, or any other boy for that matter. Children don't know the ins-and-outs of gender politics, so they probably don't know that it is widely considered that Winnie would have been considered a pariah in the past, and, to a certain degree, now as well. They just love her because she has a broom, a cat, and a house with no parents or guardians telling them to eat their greens. To them, she is simply Winnie the Witch, and they will learnt to appreciate her more later. (Too much? Have I gone too far?)
In the background of these books, there are references to Ancient Greek, with some examples of letters/words in books, or pictures lying about in Winnie's house. These details aren't necessarily important to children reading them, but to this 22 year old with too much time on her hands, I'd be damned if I didn't Google these references, curse my past self for not taking that Classics module in first year seriously, and spiral into over-analysis, searching for hidden meanings.
The interactive parts at the start of my copies include questions such as "You can take the Winnie and Wilbur challenge: how many lightbulbs can you find?" in The Big Bad Robot. This encourages children to really look at what their reading, soak in the illustrations and also keep count, which I, as an adult, obviously completed in a normal amount of time...
And that concludes another episode of Alice-overthinking-children's-books. Thank you for coming, see you in, like, five years time.
Bye x
No comments:
Post a Comment