Behind the Reviews – Edition #35 (Write From My Childhood)
As well as TV show analysis pieces, I’ve also written book analysis pieces, specifically on two book series (or at least some of the books within these series) that I had and loved as a child, the Clue series and the Mr. Men and Little Miss complete collections.
I don’t know why but at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, books from my childhood came to the forefront of my mind. Maybe it was the uncertainty and instability of the time, but I felt nostalgic for those books. I bought myself both book series online.
Write from My Childhood: Mr. Men and Little Miss Complete Collections
I wrote this analysis piece after reading through every book in each collection. I enjoyed re-reading these stories (and discovering new ones through the books in the collection I didn’t have as a child) on a general level, but knowing I was going to write this analysis piece, I also made notes on each book.
Firstly, I realised that I loved the books so much as a child due to the simplicity of the stories, the unique characters, and the colourful accompanying illustrations. However, there were many other aspects of each collection’s structure that I appreciated as a writer.
I appreciated that there were many crossover appearances within the collections, with multiple Mr. Men and Little Miss characters appearing in books outside of their own. The collections also featured puns and other plays on words, ambiguity on whether the characters were human or alien, supernatural elements, the characters either being friends or related to each other, and meta references with the narrator including themselves in the Mr. Men and Little Miss world in some books, and even the books appearing within the books.
In my research for this analysis piece, I discovered that 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of the first publication of the Mr. Men books.
Write from My Childhood: Clue book series
I wrote this analysis piece shortly after the Mr. Men and Little Miss analysis piece. I also enjoyed re-reading these books and analysing them as a qualified writer.
I wrote in this analysis piece that I loved the series growing up as I loved the board game (despite not having a detective or sleuth bone in my body), the structure of the mansion, the designs of each book cover, and that simple and easily-named characters were brought to life. As a writer, I appreciated that the writers kept things simple with each book written in an almost-identical format, that Mr. Boddy was a self-aware character, and the simplicity of each story within each book.
Another feature I appreciated and noted was that there were times that one of the main characters (i.e. Miss Scarlett, Mr. Green, etc.) were “murdered”, although it turned out they actually weren’t and their apparent deaths were explained away in the next story. I also appreciated the occasional meta references.
I had a lot of fun re-reading these books from my childhood, and analysing them as an adult and qualified writer. I’m not sure if I’ll look for any more books from my childhood to re-read and analyse, but never say never.
Behind the Reviews – Edition #36 will be released next week and will focus on the TV Week – Previews pieces.
Loveday Writing 