Don’t cry, my dears, I’ll be back. Did you really think I’d come up with a URL as good as Harlot’s Web and then not use it to its full extent?

It’s like you don’t even know me at all.

I’m sorry, was that harsh? I’m sure you’ve got to know me over these last two months.

Which is why it should come as no surprise to you that I’m going to use this last post as yet another outlet for my scandophilia.

Did I mention that I’m moving to Sweden? I’m not sure that I did.

On July 27 (a mere 8 weeks away), I’ll be on a jet plane, going to a little old university town called Lund.

Lund

Lund University

___________________________

Blogging is kind of a big deal in Sweden. All the cool kids have blogs and it’s not uncommon to hear of people who have become famous and made a career out of their humble beginnings in the blogosphere.

So I imagine that I will continue to blog from Sweden. I mean, I always intended to start a blog. My professors have always told me that you have to write a million words before you can be a writer and hey, I’ve already knocked off a good few thousand of those here!

I’ve enjoyed blogging. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I love to talk about children’s books and I don’t often find appropriate opportunities to do that in my everyday life.

Blogging has also helped me to understand more about the blogosphere and net communication more generally. I’ve always been someone who learns out loud (aka does everything out loud) so writing posts about issues like copyright laws or comment cultures involved a big learning curve for me.

The process of finding a way to explain the concepts and surrounding issues in an accessible way revealed the aspects that I didn’t quite understand myself. So by the time I finished a blog post on any topic, I genuinely understood the concept, rather than just knowing the academic definition of it.

WordPress has worked for me too. I’m pretty technologically illiterate so WordPress has offered me everything I’ve needed. I particularly like the little traffic graph in my Dashboard- what an ego boost to see that I had at least a couple views every day (even if it was just Berlin).

Getting your feedback has been fun, too. Even though my URL did attract a few too many dirty spam comments…

But the hard part of it all has been making time to write consistently and prolifically. I’ve been taking a more than full time load at uni this semester and working a lot in the lead up to my big move so it hasn’t always been easy to find time to engage with net communication topics, understand them and then write about them here.

But I’ve been a good girl. I’ve blogged.

And I hope you’ve liked it.

But don’t be sad, this is not the end. We’ll see each other again soon.

So in true Harlot’s Web style, I’m leaving you here with a link to a story I wrote for my friend’s birthday. It includes all the things I like to rant about here – Alexander Skarsgård, positive messages about being and expressing yourself and of course, Sweden.

But best of all, it’s actually in Swedish. So please, have a look and see if you don’t feel the same way you did as a child, before you could read. Let the pictures tell you the story – use your imagination.

Lagom är inte bäst!

So until next time my friends, hejdå!

Not a title I would have given to a children’s book… a backpacker’s guide to Australian drinking habits, maybe!

‘Dear Zoo’, writes the child in this book, ‘Send me a pet’.

So the Zoo sends the child a frog. But he’s too jumpy, so they send him back.

So the Zoo sends the child a snake. But he’s too slimy, so they send him back.

A giraffe? Too tall. A lion? Too fierce. But a puppy? Just right.

Lesson #1 to be learnt from the Zoo: Make a fuss until you get exactly what you want.

Lesson #2: If you are tall, jumpy or in anyway uncuddly or uncute, you better watch that you’re not about to be sent back.

2. But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton

But Not the Hippopotamus is a board book with tight rhymes which makes it an ideal selection if you’re looking for a book for a younger child. Provided, that is, that you’re looking for ’Baby’s First Guide to Bullying’.

Poor Mr Hippopotamus is left out of everything. All his friends are having fun – the moose and the goose are drinking juice but not the hippopotamus.

The book goes on like this, detailing all the ways the hippopotamus is excluded until the other animals finally invite him to join in on the fun and juice-drinking action.

But not the armadillo!

Huh? Pardon? What is a child supposed to learn from that?

The moral of the story: Invite others to play with you so they don’t feel lonely. But just make sure there’s always someone left on the out.

3. The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems

As most pigeons do, The Pigeon wants a puppy.

I mean, it really wants a puppy. To the point where it is having a full blown tantrum, kicking and screaming, ‘I WANT A PUPPY!’.

I’m not even joking here. This stuff really happens. But even worse, the Pigeon gets the puppy.

After all the fuss it caused, the Pigeon is rewarded with what it wanted all along. But what does it say when it finally gets the puppy?

It decides that it’s really more drawn to walruses and it discards its newborn puppy.

But it gets even worse. There’s a sequel, The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog.

OK, if the Pigeon wants to eat meat, that’s one thing. But when Pigeon and Duckling start to discuss whether the hotdog tastes like chicken, I can’t help but wonder… does that count as cannibalism?

4. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

Don’t shoot! Settle down. Let me explain.

I know that We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is a classic, but have you actually ever thought about it?

Yes, it’s fun to sing and make the silly squishing noises when they have to go through the mud but have you ever actually considered the story?

Two parents lead their three young children – including an infant – on a bear hunt. As in, a hunt for real, wild, killer bears.

The journey is treacherous and to their credit, they make it through.

Until they meet the bear.

The bear isn’t exactly chillin in the woods. He’s angry, grrring and all that, as bears do. So he chases them and they run, scared out of their minds until they’re home, where they cuddle up in bed.

So not only were they dumb enough to actively seek out danger, but once they found it they were too chicken to face it.

Cool story, Hansel.

5. My Beautiful Mommy by Michael Salzhauer

A book about a Mommy who doesn’t feel good so she gets a tummy tuck, nose job and breast implants.

“You see, as I got older, my body stretched and I couldn’t fit into my clothes anymore. Dr. Michael is going to help fix that and make me feel better.”

I’m going to go ahead and assume I don’t need to explain the levels of wrong here.

AVOID!

He asks, Are Picture Books Leading our Children Astray?, reviewing five classic children’s books like Caps for Sale and Curious George.

His take on these classic tales is refreshing and very funny – like his suggestion that there is more fun to be found in watching Elizabethtown with a corpse on your lap than in reading Curious George.

But what I found perhaps even funnier than his post was the comments that followed.

But my favourite was in response to Lambert’s review of Blueberries for Sal which he suggests gave him the impression that grizzly bears are all just chillin in the woods – an impression which he says led him dangerously close to becoming “a wet pile of organs” when he was nearly attacked by a bear in 2000.

Lambert’s article has made me think twice about some of the reviews I post here- as some of you pointed out in my very own comments section on my post Old MacDonald had a Slaughterhouse, I can sometimes read a little too much into my stories.

Ignoring the fact that that’s kind of the point for a second, let’s talk about those comments.

Contrary to what Geert Lovink would say about most bloggers, I do aim to foster public debate with my blog. My main priority with my content is not the creative value but the actual messages – that is, I would rather you engage with what I write, rather than how I write it.

Which is why I always appreciate when you comment on my blogs and contribute to the discussion I have tried to start. I’ve turned off all the moderation settings for my comments because I want you to be able to freely share your thoughts – regardless of whether they coincide with mine.

In an ideal world, my blog would be a non-hierarchical space to share ideas where noone has power to delete anyone’s ideas and noone’s voice is any louder than anyone else’s. Kind of like a picture book public sphere, if you will.

This is difficult, obviously because this is my blog and I’m always going to be the centre of the Harlot’s Web Universe. Turning off moderation settings and letting discussions go where they will is a part of my effort to eliminate any hierarchical structure of discussion.

So please, disagree with me. I don’t want to preach to the choir here, as Geert Lovink suggests bloggers do. I want to tell you what I think but what good is it if you already know and agree with it all?

If you’ve got something to say, say it.

The best part of blogging about children’s books – compared with say, politics or war is that what we all write here can actually make a difference.

I don’t need to inspire the masses or motivate political action because all I want to do is tell you about the great books I read and hope you share some with me – and each other.

Sharing a good story with even one reader makes a difference, so I hope you will all continue to read and contribute to discussions and engage with my picture book public sphere.

That’s all from me today anyway. I’d say please comment but I’m hoping you’ve already got that by now.

So on that note, I leave you with my favourite comment from Old MacDonald had a Slaughterhouse, sadly from an Anonymous writer so I can’t link out to them:

This book is fantastic. Gorgeous illustrations, cloud boy makes shapes in the clouds so he’s never alone.

Must read!

I just can’t get enough of her. What an extraordinary woman! If you’re not keeping up, Astrid Lindgren is the author of Pippi Longstockings and a massive Swedish icon.

Pippi by Sarah Mensinga

She’s kind of what you would call a big freaking deal over there.

Anyway, all this is just my way of saying I love Sweden. I’m a scandophile- I’ve made no secret of that so far in this blog but just in case it hasn’t sunk it quite yet, let me tell you once more.

JAG ÄLSKAR SVERIGE!

Shut up, Evie, what does this have to do with children’s books?

Hush, dear. It has everything to do with children’s books.

There are a few things Swedish people know how to do better than anyone else in the world and one of them is children’s books.

Another is lagom.

Lagom? Huh? Pretty sure that isn’t a word, Evie.

OK, for starters- stop interrupting me. I’m getting to it. And secondly- you’re right, it isn’t a word in English because lagom exists only in Swedish.

The best translation I have is somewhere between enough and sufficient. It means ‘not too little, not too much’ and it’s pretty much the basis of Swedish culture.

Swedish people just get off on being normal. The concept of lagom informs all aspects of Swedish life, spreading equality and making sure nobody is better than anyone else. Or perhaps more significantly, that nobody has any more than anyone else.

It’s also a large part of the philosophy of the Swedish file-sharing (read: illegal piracy) website, The Pirate Bay. Because if everyone is equal and nobody deserves to have any more than anyone else, isn’t a file-sharing website a great way to ensure this?

Granted, the motivations behind The Pirate Bay may not be quite as innocent as I describe but stick with me here for a moment.

Let’s talk about copyright.

To completely simplify the ideology behind The Pirate Bay, the basic idea is that all information should be free to everyone and that current copyright laws are insufficient to work and control media distribution in the current technological climate.

The Pirate Bay thinks copyright laws are unnecessary in regards to personal use and I tend to think the same thing – although not quite as virulently.

As soon as you write something, you have copyright over it. The Creative Commons project aims to give a more complex form of copyright so creators can choose to what extent they are happy for their work to be reproduced – but I’m cynical.

I haven’t added a Creative Commons license to my blog because I’m just not convinced that it works.

People don’t always have bad intentions when they copy material they find online. In fact, in the majority of cases I would guess that they don’t.

Human beings like to share- it’s in our nature and it’s the nature of story telling.

I look for stories with two mums because I want to share my reality with you – if I copy a passage from a book or an image of a cover for this blog, it isn’t because I’m trying to rip someone off, it’s because I simply want to share.

And in the same vein, if you want to share any of my images or reviews, I’m fine with that as well.

When it all boils down, do you really think someone who was planning to steal and monetize someone else’s content would be deterred by this little symbol hidden deep within a site?

Not likely.

But speaking of images of Alexander Skarsgård in the shower… Here’s a screen cap of a film. Copyright infringement? It’s likely.

He’s Swedish though- so it’s totally lagom.

We live in a particularly multicultural area in Melbourne so our library has a huge number of books published in other languages (like Non, Non et Non which I wrote about earlier this week).

And I have found the most beautiful little book about a water droplet who drops down from the sky for the day – the only problem is, it’s in French.

It’s called Histoire de Perlette by Marie Colmont and for any French-speaking readers, I managed to find a free online copy of it here.

I’m tempted to translate it for Baby because it is such a beautiful story and I can’t seem to find it anywhere in English. Baby is only 18 months old so it’s probably good for me to read to her in French but neither of her mothers can so it is somewhat limiting.

What do you think about reading to children in languages they don’t speak? Does anyone actually have any knowledge about the educational benefits of doing this?

I know my friend, Olle would say the only way to learn a language is to live it, but does this still apply for babies?

In the mean time, the pictures of Perlette seem to keep Baby engaged but I’d love to hear if anyone knows anything more on the matter.

As some of you may know, I’m a vegetarian.

I choose not to eat meat for a number of reasons but one of the main ones is obviously that I don’t want to eat animals.

Now hold that thought.

90% of the stories I read with Baby are about animals. Having animals as characters serves an important function- it appeals to children’s sense of ridiculousness and often allows for authors to make their messages gender-neutral.

But a lot of these stories are also on farms. Farms with cows, lambs and chickens where everyone is chillin out, with a moo moo here and a moo moo there.

That is, until they go to the slaughterhouse. But the stories don’t mention that part.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking to educate Baby on the cruel ways animals can be treated – I don’t need to give her nightmares. I’m just worried about the sheer number of books that are written about farm animals.

Herbivorous has recommended a book called ‘Edwina the Emu’, a story about an Emu who tries to work as a waitress and is horrified to find people ordering her eggs to eat.

I’m looking now for more books with with a similar attitude. In my mind, animals living on farms to be consumed at a later date is not OK. So of course, I don’t want to be giving Baby the message that it is by reading her book after book about the happy little animals chillin at the farm.

As always, please send recommendations my way. But I also want to hear from you about this… let me know what you think!

I find myself bringing up the stories I read with Baby in everyday conversation with my friends and before I can stop myself, I’ve started telling people about Octave, the little bear who couldn’t say ‘yes’*. And of course, once I’ve started talking, I can’t just cut out mid-conversation so I find myself talking and talking while in my head I’m shouting ‘Mission Abort! Mission Abort! You are the only person who cares!’

So I created a blog.

After all, isn’t that the point of blogs? Aren’t they all just an outlet for people like me who have interests that my friends have tired of hearing about?

Well it turns out I’m not alone, in any case.

There may not be as many children’s books blogs as there are music blogs but it seems there are still a number of bloggers who have beat me to the punch when it comes to this topic.

Which was inevitable, really, given the sheer number of blogs in the blogosphere. In today’s web, where there are over 200,000 fans of Facebook pages like ‘If Mr Bean was in Twilight he would look like this’, there is always going to be someone who has had your idea first.

(In case you were wondering)

Which I don’t mind- in fact, I think it’s great. It’s all to do with Chris Anderson’s theory of the Long Tail which basically explains the commercialisation of the internet by demonstrating that even though a few sites may dominate the market in any particular topic, there is also an ever-increasing number of much smaller sites which are arguably of equal importance.

It’s all about demand. In non-internet terms, it’s the process of people going from shopping at Coles for all their groceries to going to cupcake cafes like Little Cupcakes or a vegan fast food joint like Lord of the Fries in Melbourne.

Mmm, anyone else hungry? Oh, I digress.

The point is, you don’t need to have a lowest common denominator approach to make a blog work anymore because the internet allows people with the same interests to find each other and talk until their heart’s content about Octave and his difficulties saying yes*.

Take We Heart Books for example. We Heart Books is run by two mums from Melbourne and in much the same fashion as Harlot’s Web, is designed to help readers choose books for the “little people” in their lives.

My favourite part of We Heart Books is their world tour of children’s bookstores, which includes some incredible bookshops like this one in Beijing

The blog is linked to a website which sells books and other merchandise but it is so well designed, I can’t hold anything against them for using the blog as advertising. Plus, the books they review really are great books so although they do stand to gain from writing favorable reviews about books they sell, their blog also offers readers a lot more than just reviews.

The design of We Heart Books is also impeccable- very easy to navigate with categories and archives and I have mentioned before, I am always a fan of websites with Scandinavian-esque designs.

The other blog I wanted to just quickly bring up is Seafarer’s Children’s Books. This blog was set up in April this year and doesn’t look like it is going to be adding much more content but it is a great example of niche blogging within a niche.

As the title suggests, Seafarer’s Children’s Books is for Seafarer’s Children. It’s basically a list of 10 books which are all dedicated to the same topic. They are each explained in great detail, including the background of the authors, illustrators and publishers and contact details are provided for those wanting further information.

So with that, I will leave you to peruse the many links I seem to have embedded today but as always, please leave any comments/suggestions you have in the comments section below!

*For anyone wondering, I’m talking about a cute little French book I found during the week called Non, Non et Non! by Mireille d’Allancé- Baby doesn’t speak French but she loves shouting Non! with me while I read

Johnny Valentine

Alyson Books

Success! At last!

Well, almost..

I may not have found a story with two mums but I have found a great story with two dads.

The result: One Dad, Blue Dad, Brown Dad, Blue Dads by Johnny Valentine. (And yes, that is a link directly to its Amazon page because I am totally willing to whore this one out).

The best part of this story is that, strangely enough, the focus of this story is not on the fact that Lou, the main character’s parents are gay.

The focus is on the fact that Lou’s two dads are blue.

Lou tells his friend all about his life with his two blue dads, explaining that they have a completely normal life, except that he can’t see his dads against the sky sometimes. Their blueness doesn’t rub off on him if they hug him too tightly and they can still eat cookies in bed.

This book appeals to preschooler’s sense of ridiculousness without being overly didactic. It encourages children to consider what other families might be like which makes it an important book for children with any number of fathers.

Now if only I could find one with two mums… As always, please send suggestions my way!