Joan Bodger (1923–2002)

A lovely, restful sort of book, as the author describes her family's travels around England in 1958, searching for the locations of their favourite stories. I was amazed at how much they did find, and wonder what would be left of that today.

I intend to look for the author's autobiography, The Crack In The Teacup, but anyone who wants to stay in their happy place after reading How the Heather Looks should probably not delve too deeply into biographical material.

Bodger, co-founder of the Storytellers School of Toronto, and illustrator Lang knit together a tale of family love and responsibility with a number of traditional folk and fairytales such as Snow White and Rose Red, The Tiger’s Whisker, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Bodger uses the above tales to tell the story, as well as the story’s characters to tell the above tales. After the husband and father (Bernardo) leaves for war, Sylvania and her daughters work as forest gleaners to show more support themselves. But when Bernardo returns home angry and changed, Sylvania seeks the aid of the Green Knight of forest. Bodger reunites the forest family using the archetypal themes in a number of folk and fairytales, but without the book’s “Appendix” to describe each tale used in the story, readers less familiar with these tales may miss the rich narrative history that both Bodger and Lang use in The Forest Family. The book is recommended for children age eight to eleven. show less

family travelling England in search of places described in their favorite children's books. It was fun and I enjoyed it. I found it slow in parts where I didn't care very much about the books. I was surprised how many of the books I had read and enjoyed. It is a trip I might like to take myself.

I read this book with a friend of mine in Kelowna, Canada. We made a Pinterest board out of it.