a bear called paddington by michael bond

I haven’t read it since I was a child in maybe 3rd or 4th grade.” 05/27/16 marked as: want to read “I’d watched the recent film version during the late Spring and thought I’d circle back around and read this again to see how closely the film followed the story.In sum, an entertaining an charming book whose self-contained chapters lend themselves well to bedtime stories. With a bit of thought, some of these make great advice for budding authors. There was a nice prologue with some interesting observations by the author several decades after he wrote the original. I did find myself picking up my Kindle Paperwhite to highlight a few choice passages and funny parts for later reflection though. Toward the end, I began to read using rapid serial visual presentation (with Spritz), and the language and quirks came through just as well as any other parts of the book. It’s this slight change which allows our young bear to get into far more trouble than a human youngster might. The difference is that, because he’s a cuddlier small bear, he’s cuter and thereby one is prone to be more forgiving than they would be of a child or of a grown woman who’s so dense that she apparently doesn’t have any linguistic intelligence at all.īecause Paddington is a bear and not a young child, the family also allows him to do things by himself that no sane parent would allow a young child to do: go to the market by themselves, wander around in a crowded theater unattended, float out into the ocean without a keen eye being kept on them. In this sense the book falls into a category similar to Amelia Bedelia, who perennially doesn’t understand colloquialisms and other homophones. Paddington gets himself into the same types of trouble a typical 3-6 year old would in not understanding the culture, mores, and standards around him. As a result of this, I’m surprised that Paddington was made into a movie instead of a television show.

In form and structure, the book was more like a collection of short stories about Paddington than it was a novel with its own three act structure, which is what I had expected. I think I preferred these smaller self-standing stories to the beginning. The opening was also a lot more initial set up and seemed to be a beginning of a larger plot which didn’t turn into anything while the final chapters were more or less stand-alone vignettes with their own internal mini three act structures.

Perhaps it was too much set up and not enough character? The character shines through more brightly later on in the stories toward the end. The beginning of the book felt like an uphill battle to read.

Want to follow me via Email, Newsletter, Social Media, RSS, or Push Notification? View all subscription methods here.

A bear called paddington by michael bond