Margaret Atwood for the little ones

Margaret Atwood spread the joy of the written word among children, too. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Even as she wrote her way to becoming the literary giant that she is, this year’s Booker Prize winner (awarded jointly with Bernardine Evaristo), Margaret Atwood spread the joy of the written word among children, too. Aimed at primary schoolers, Atwood’s books for children are a departure from her radical, genre-bending work for adults. She focusses almost single-mindedly on the unshackling of the imagination that an enriched vocabulary can spearhead. It’s a joyride if you can keep pace with it.

Atwood packs it in with new words, making this a book that is as much fun to read aloud as to read on one’s own.

Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda (2004, appropriate for 5+ years) is the story of two children: Bob, who was abandoned by his parents as a baby and raised by three dogs — a boxer, a beagle and a borzoi — and Dorinda, the disappearance of whose parents in a disaster force her to live a Cinderella-before-she-finds-the-prince life with her mean relatives. When the two of them accidentally meet, they forge a deep and unlikely friendship. Bob, who had always imagined himself to be a dog, learns to read and speak, and Dorinda discovers spunk. Together, they avert a disaster and end up finding their families. As the alliterative title suggests, Atwood packs it in with new words, making this a book that is as much fun to read aloud as to read on one’s own.

Together, though, they are ready for the rollicking adventures that come their way.

Alliteration is common to Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes (2003, appropriate for 6+ years) as well, as Atwood takes her readers through their “r” words, while showing them why resisting boundaries could yield delightful results. Ramsay and his friend, the red-nosed rat, meets Rillah, Ramsay’s polar opposite, when they travel away from their home full of revolting relatives to go radish picking. It is the beginning of an unlikely friendship, given their differences, or, as Rillah puts it: “You are rude, but at least you have relatives, however revolting. I am refined, but my relatives, although outwardly respectable and refulgently attired, are lacking in rectitude.” Together, though, they are ready for the rollicking adventures that come their way.

How Samantha develops empathy for the avian creatures is told through flourish and the right amount of didacticism.

Much before these two, in her third book, For the Birds (1990. appropriate for: 5+ years), Atwood turned her attention to something more serious: the many environmental hazards that birds fall prey to. When Samantha, trespassing in her neighbour’s garden, is transformed into a a scarlet tanager, she is exposed to everything from lead poisoning to pesticides. How Samantha develops empathy for the avian creatures is told through flourish and the right amount of didacticism.