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English title: Poo-Poo and the Dragons; originally published in 1942.
My copy in Swedish translation was printed in 1952.
Available for Kindle for about USD 1.05
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This month of July, with the weather shifting between too hot and too wet, and my bad knee still limiting me a bit as well, I seem to have reverted to a "second childhood" in my reading. On a whim, I started checking if some old childhood favourites of mine in Swedish (which I still also have in print) were also available in audio format from one of my library services - and as they were, I have been re-reading some of those "the lazy way" - i.e. by listening while resting, when too tired to do anything more productive...
Alas the series that I dived into first (about "Kulla-Gulla") does not seem to be available in English: Only one or two of the books were ever translated to English at all, and none seem to have been turned into e-books. So the only chance of finding even the first two seems to be second-hand. (The series does seem to have been translated to German, but probably the same thing there - not likely to have been more recently re-published.)
So really not much point in reviewing them here... But I'll give you a brief summary anyway - hopefully you might understand why I still feel inspired to do so, before I get to the end.
I read these books more than once in my childhood/early teens, when visiting my maternal grandfather. Originally they belonged to my mum and my aunt - and later on, when that house was sold, they were among a few books that I decided to keep from there.
Published in the 1940s, the story in these books takes place a few decades earlier (early 1900s). The main character is a girl (Gulla) who grew up in an orphanage, and then had to go into service very early on (still really just a child herself) to help in the household of a poor crofter with many children. (The croft called Kulla, and thus the girl came to be known as Kulla-Gulla.) Back in those days, orphanage children were "auctioned" out as servants to whoever demanded the least money from the village authorities to keep them. As things turn out for Gulla, though, it is discovered after some time, that she's really the illegitimate grand-daughter of the lord of the manor in the village. So in the later books, we find her having moved to live with her grandfather at the manor, and struggling to balance between having grown up extremely poor but then suddenly being expected to become a "lady".
It's been several decades since I last read these books, but to my surprise I found I still liked them better than I expected. In some ways I can probably relate to them even more now, because of in later years also having learned more about my other grandfather's childhood: He was born the only child of an unmarried mother, and grew up in poor circumstances in a small croft cottage, too. After only a few years in the village school he became a shoemaker's apprentice - but then managed to change his career and became a journalist instead; and wrote a book about crofts in the village where he grew up (which was published after his death, by my parents).
...
Another of my old childhood books that I recently managed to find to listen to in Swedish is the book at the top of this post: Poo-Poo and the Dragons, originally written in English - and available cheap for Kindle if anyone should feel tempted...
It seems that this author, C.G. Forester, wrote many novels - and this one is not among the those he's best known for. (You can look him up in Wikipedia if you want to know more.) Personally I can only recall having read this one, though. Poo-Poo and the Dragons (1942) was created as a series of stories told to his son George to encourage him to finish his meals. (The boy had mild food allergies and needed encouragement to eat.) It is a totally whimsical story (involving dragons kind of "taken for granted"), but I found myself still enjoying it!
Now I'm curious to know if others among my blogging friends who have reached "senior" years also still have kept some of your old childhood favourites - and perhaps even re-read them now and then... ? (In my own case, as I don't have grandchildren, I can't "hide" my re-reading of children's books behind such excuses!)
How wonderful that you could find them! Sadly, I cannot think of any childhood books that I still have.
ReplyDeleteGinny, I've always been something of a book collector... I dare not think what my home would look like if the digital revolution in later decades had not gradually taken over!
DeleteWhat a delightful reflection on the enduring magic of childhood books! How they can transport us back through memory while revealing new meanings and connections when we return to them later in life.
ReplyDeleteRo, I grew up with not only reading, but also re-reading a lot... And that habit has stuck!! ;)
DeleteI did keep a few childhood books: Heidi, Pollyanna, Black Beauty (about a horse) but after re-reading them last year I donated them to the nearest charity shop.
ReplyDeleteRiver, I don't think I ever owned any of those three. I do think I read them back in my childhood (I also used to borrow a lot of books from the library) but they are not among those that I've re-read as a grown-up.
DeleteOh yes, I have re-bought some childhood favourites of mine that didn‘t make the move with me more than 29 years ago to my current flat, and I have reviewed them on my blog. Look for „Das Alte Haus“ and „Das grüne Reich“, for example.
ReplyDeleteThe Kulla-Gulla books sound like something I would have loved as a child/young girl, too. I have a series following a girl‘s life from early childhood to when she has grown-up children of her own; the girl‘s childhoof nickname Pucki gives the series its name.
When I have re-read the series as an adult, I cringed at some of the role model aspects of men and women, girls and boys, but generally still enjoyed the books written in the 1930s by Magda Trott, a prolific writer of children‘s books.
Meike, I can't recall ever having heard of Magda Trott or Pucki - and checking online, it seems these books were never translated to Swedish. The only German children's book that I recall having read are Michael Ende's books 'Momo' and 'Die Unendliche Gesichte'. My printed copy of Momo is in Swedish, but Die Unendliche Gesichte I have in German, with the original text and illustrations printed in green and red. I also have both of those in my Audible library in German.
DeleteSome of the best stories ever told are children's stories. I still have my copy of Heidi, given to me by my parents for my ninth birthday. I loved that book, cried, over it, reached the end and reread it immediately. It was the same with Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, What Katy Did, The Water Babies - that pleasure of losing oneself in a well-written story has never failed. A childhood revisited is a valuable experience and to be treasured, Monica.
ReplyDeleteJanice, Anne of Green Gables is one of my childhood favourites that I have returned to many times. I only ever owned the first book in print, but I have also read the rest of the series. (I wrote a review after having /re/listened to them all as audio books a couple of years ago: https://dawntreader-island2.blogspot.com/2024/03/from-green-gables-to-ingleside.html)
DeleteI think I read Heidi and Black Beauty back in my childhood (and seem to recall also having seen at least one TV or film version of Heidi). Never heard of the last two you mentioned - but out of curiosity just downloaded 'The Water Babies' for Kindle. Whether I'll also get round to reading it remains to be seen... (Only cost me a dollar...)
Poo Poo is a funny name but your books look like what I would've read as a child, I was a HUGE bookworm, my nana volunteered in a 2nd hand shop so she would bring me home books all the time, my favourite was the famous 5 series.
ReplyDelete