Last week, for the n-th time, Twitter outdid itself as a resource for constantly surprising, inspiring and interesting… stuff. I saw the video above (posted by Mia Farrow, no less), of Shel Silverstein narrating his classic picture book text, The Giving Tree – a beautiful, moving story (which I’ve mentioned before, in this blogpost on books about giving).
Hearing an author reading their own work aloud can give a whole new perspective on a story: jokes that you’ve missed before, characters who you imagined differently, recurring themes which suddenly come to the fore. The most revelatory children’s book readings I’ve ever been to (as a child, this is) were more performance than straight reading (several by Michael Rosen come to mind). And there are some great videos of several of our authors reading from their own books on our YouTube channel:
Here’s Philip Ardagh reading from The Grunts in Trouble:
Here’s Fleur Hitchcock reading from Dear Scarlett:
And here’s Axel Scheffler reading from Pip and Posy: The Super Scooter:
Do you have favourite author-reading memories? Or know of any really good author videos on YouTube? Do please share them in the comments!
