Small Print: Two-Two sails again
October 11, 2009
Deirdre Baker
It's hard not to be jaded about publishers, estates and authors who try to squeeze yet another round of profit out of established characters by publishing new, "authorized" volumes about "beloved classic characters" whose authors has long since passed on.
Peter Pan, Anne of Green Gables and now Winnie the Pooh, already commercialized and blandified by Disney: Don't the authors of these upstart sequels have enough creative juice to make up their own stuff?
Most of the time they do and they have. If there's anything good about authorized sequels and prequels and what-have-yous, it's that they might win new readers for the originals or send them on to explore the authorized author's own works.
One hopes for the latter in response to Cary Fagan's new episode in the saga of Mordecai Richler's Jacob Two-Two, Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas (Tundra, 102 pages, $12.99, ages 4 to 9). High Seas is a sequel to Richler's Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, first published in 1975 and now re-issued along with its sequels, Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur (1987) and Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case (1995). All are newly illustrated in comic mode by Dusan Petricic.
If there's anyone who could emulate the style and mode of Richler's stories, it's Cary Fagan, author of adult novels, picture books and acclaimed novels for kids, including his Kaspar Snit trio. Fagan is adept with the Dickensian names, flamboyant caricatures and outlandish adventures typical of the Two-Two stories.
In High Seas, Jacob Two-Two, about to turn "two plus two plus two plus one," travels by sea from England to Montreal, becomes victim to a corrupt first mate, swabs the deck, befriends Morgenbesser the former world class wrestler, is captured by Crossbones the pirate and is finally rescued by Child Power – none other than Noah and Emma, a.k.a. "fearless O'Toole and intrepid Shapiro," in cahoots with a team of acrobats, a bad ventriloquist and a retired opera singer.
Yes, there's always something happening here and for a silly yarn, it's rollicking enough. Like Richler's sequels to his own first Two-Two story, this doesn't have quite the attention to detail and character, or to the funny if maddening frustrations of family life and childhood, that the first tale had – nor does it have the self-mocking depiction of Richler's father/author. But as slapstick stories go, it's relatively smart.
Even so, why not read Fagan's Kaspar Snit stories instead? They are plenty rollicking too, and thoughtful and smart to boot. Or turn to my favourite Fagan tale, Daughter of the Great Zandini. Now there's a story that is exotic, wise, adventuresome and more.
NOW AVAILABLE TO North American audiences is Neil Gaiman's short "chapter book" adventure story, Odd and the Frost Giants (HarperCollins, 117 pages, ages 5 to 9), written for Britain's World Book Day 2008 and sold for 1 pound. This edition is considerably more than 1 pound at $19.99, but it's illustrated by Brett Helquist, who adorned the Lemony Snicket books so wittily, and altogether makes a pleasant little package
In the middle of a long winter that "hung in there, like an invalid refusing to die," Odd the Viking boy gets fed up with the quarrelling and mean jokes of the villagers and moves to a woodcutter's hut in the forest. When he frees a bear trapped by a tree, he finds himself caught up in a godly predicament. His new friends – a bear, a fox and an eagle – claim to be "just a few talking animals. Nothing to worry about." In fact they are Thor, Odin and Loki, Norse gods who have been tricked and trapped in animal form by a clever Frost Giant. They need Odd to help them and in doing so, Odd gains the vision to change his own life as well.
This isn't Gaiman at his most careful ("a pool of liquid water"?) or characterful, but it's got a brisk pace and its Norse imagery is a refreshing blast of icy air. Odd the underdog, scorned by his bully stepfather, has a certain appeal as a small person who conquers by argument and negotiation.
The question is, in this world of global warming: Do we really want to send the Frost Giants away?
Author Deirdre Baker teaches children's lit at the U of T. Her Small Print appears every two weeks.
Toronto Star