Episode 62 - Small Folk (Chirri and Chirra, Underground and The Gammage Cup)

To kick off this new season we're reading books about tiny people - small folk. Our picture book is Chirri and Chirra, Underground, by Kaya Doi (translated from the Japanese by David Boyd). An absurd, gentle, surreal journey for two tiny girls on their bikes. Dring dring! We're having peanut soft serve with the mole people. Dring dring! We're having dinner and card games with a family of badgers. And now the badger dad is digging a hole through the side of his own house. Lovely soft colour pencil drawings, low danger, high whimsy. Get this for your Brambly Hedge fan.

Our chapter book is The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall. This gem from 1959 starts very safe and cosy, in a lovely Minnipin village called Slipper-On-The-Water... and then swerves suddenly and completely believably into the rise of totalitarianism within a small, idyllic community. It's a book about government, about how we live with each other, about what taxes are for (!). What a surprising and radical book in cute, Hobbit-like clothing. There are also glowing swords.

We discussed the cover art by the brothers Hildebrandt, whose Tolkien art you can see here. They also illustrated the sequel to the Gammage Cup, the Whisper of Glocken.

Matt mentions Brisingamen a couple of times in relation to this week's chapter book - you can find our episode about Alan Garner's classic The Weirdstone of Brisingamen here.

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