We have a winner (Sillyness is only the beginning)

In the spirit of the awards season, since the Oscars are coming up soon, I decided I should announce another winner of a Gooseyness Award. I finally, finally got my hands on The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. (Terrwyn nominated it last month : http://gooseyness.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-have-decided-i-have-dallied-enough.html )

It's wonderful, I bet the animated version is beautiful too, but I just read the book so I can only talk about that. This book completely deserves a gooseyness award. It does have simple illustrations, but the fact there are no words, just pictures is charming. Sometimes you don't need words; words just get in the way.

So, I found The Snowman at the library, along with a few other of Raymond Briggs graphic novels. I read Gentleman Jim, a somewhat dark comical story about a man sick of his day job, who gets an idea into his head about becoming a highway robber (you know the type who steal from the rich and give to the poor) and living a life full of romanticized adventure. It doesn't quite work out for him, as he runs into problems with the law and trying to keep a donkey in his backyard. I also found Briggs' The Man, which sounds like an odd name for a book, but I can't imagine what else you'd call it. It was almost a fairy tale about a boy and a man who is seven inches tall. The quote at the beginning captures the essence of the book "After three days, fish and visitors begin to stink" (a Chinese proverb). The book had some amusing moments, capturing how the the boy looks after his small house guest, the difficulties of life when you're that small. It's a book of conversations between the two.  Lastly, I read Briggs' Ethel and Ernest: a true story, an illustrated biography about his parents from the 1920s to 1970s. It was an intimate view of life in England, a family portrait in a very real way, through the struggles of day to day life during the war, the tragedies and a simple triumphs.

I enjoyed them all, though only The Snowman wins the Gooseyness Award, it was by far my favorite.

Part of the rules for the Gooseyness Awards, I believe it was number 5, went as follows:  If the other person isn't familiar with the nominee, then they should try to read, watch, etc in order to decide yay or nay. Actually, that rule may be the most important. The reason behind that rule was when we find a silly person/story/song, etc we needed to share that goofy, glee-inducing person/story/song etc. I'm know I'm always looking for a good story - something that inspires me, thrills me, makes me want to dance or run around outside under the stars. I sometimes think I write because I can't always find stories and somewhere in my subconscious mind I decide, well, if I can't find them I'll just write them myself.