Friday, September 28, 2018

Adventures with "Adventures with Waffles"

My first-year students were handing in the results of a library search exercise when a title caught my eye. "We have a book in the library called Adventures with Waffles?" I asked, and indeed we do, a children's book by Maria Parr translated from Norwegian, described thus:
Hardly a day passes without Trille and Lena inventing some kind of adventure that often ends in trouble. Whether it's coaxing a cow onto a boat or sledding down the steepest and iciest hill with a chicken, there is always a thrill--and sometimes and injury--to be had. Trille loves to share everything with Lena, even Auntie Granny's waffles.
This description raises a few questions.

1.  Students were supposed to be searching for books on a topic of interest to them and I suppose it doesn't surprise me that a couple of macho football players would be interested in waffles at 8:00 in the morning, but what drew them to Trille and Lena's little troubles? Oh wait: if you search for waffles on our online library catalog, only three books come up, all aimed at children (and none by Leslie Knope), and Adventures with Waffles is the first listed. So that explains that.

2. Who takes a chicken sledding--or a cow boating, for that matter?

3. Auntie Granny? Does this suggest a family history of incest, and if so, what's Auntie Granny doing in a children's book? Besides making waffles, I mean. 

4.  Where can I get a waffle right now? Because I had to get some blood drawn this morning, which required driving to town before breakfast and getting poked with a needle and seeing my lifeblood pour out into a little plastic tube, and even though I had a bagel afterward, I still feel a strong yearning for comfort food. 

If I must have such an adventure before breakfast, I'll take mine with waffles.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. "Adventures with waffles" is the American title of this book, the British edition is titled "Waffle hearts - Lena and me in Mathildewick Cove" that is exact translation of the Norwegian title. I don't know, why the title of American edition was changed.
2. "Who takes a chicken sledding--or a cow boating?" -- read the book, so you will know it.
3. Auntie-Granny is the Grandpa's sister, so she is a bit aunt and a bit granny. That is the matter, why the children call her so.
4. The Russian edition has a receipt for the true Norwegian waffles on its back cover.

Bev said...

Very helpful. Thanks!