Singing for Mrs.Pettigrew

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An spellbinding insight into storytelling from one of today's greatest writers.This collection by the 2003-2005 Children's Laureate, Michael Morpurgo, contains short stories, essays and commentaries to illuminate the craft of storytelling. Analyzing all aspects of writing - character, plot, sources and inspiration, retelling and biography - it is perfect for anyone, young or old, who loves great stories and wants to know more about the art of telling tales.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 5 Up-This collection of short stories, each prefaced by a related essay, will probably resonate more with adults than with young people. The stories have all been published previously, and the author's insights into the creative process or backstories about his relationship with Ted Hughes, for example, will not enlarge upon them in ways that most young readers are likely to appreciate. Selections include "Meeting Cezanne," "I Believe in Unicorns," "My Father Is a Polar Bear," and "The Mozart Question." Bailey's line drawings have a lovely old-fashioned quality appropriate to the remembrances inspired by Morpurgo's boyhood or his magically inflected tales of children with keen imaginations. Libraries lacking these stories in their other editions may want to add this collection. For those who already have Morpurgo's books, it is unnecessary.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

The former Children's Laureate of Britain and author of more than 100 books for young readers presents a collection of stories and personal essays that are intended to illuminate the author's craft and offer insights into his evolution as a writer. His tributes to his favorite author, Robert Louis Stevenson, and his mentors, poets Ted Hughes and Sean Rafferty, are refreshingly generous in spirit. Younger readers, though, will doubtless skip the essays and go directly to the stories, many of which are clearly autobiographical and reflect the author's horror of war (most memorably demonstrated in his haunting novel Private Peaceful, 2004). Adult readers will find the mix of fact and fiction sometimes illuminating but just as often frustratingly sketchy. One would like to know more about how the author turned from reluctant reader into successful writer, about his relationship with Hughes, about his founding with his wife of the Farms for City Children program, and more. Nevertheless, the collection offers a tantalizing invitation to read more both by and about this distinguished writer and storyteller.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2009 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Looking back over his life and long career the former British Children's Laureate offers 11 short stories published between 1982 and 2006 interleaved with reflections on the art and craft of writing and the influences of places (particularly the Scilly Isles), people and other authors on his own work. The stories run a tonal gamut from the tongue-in-cheek "Meeting Cezanne" (in which a lad mistakes one great artist for another) to the inspiring rescue of a library in "I Believe in Unicorns." The deeply poignant "For Carlos, a Letter from Your Father," written by a doomed soldier to his infant son, is one of five stories that involve war's short- or long-term tragedies. Throughout, Bailey scatters small, Edward Ardizzonestyle sketches that echo the author's characteristically meditative voice. Morpurgo will probably never have a wide audienceof children, at leaston this side of the Atlantic, but his literary gifts and his approach to what he dubs "an art and a craft and a marvelous magic" come through clearly here. (Belles lettres. 12 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.