Welcome back to Book Break!
And Happy Boxing Day.
Boxing Day's always been kind of my favourite day of the Christmas period.
It's just an excuse to eat loads of leftovers,
play with all my new presents,
which in my case usually just means reading all my new books,
and of course hanging out with the family.
And I think my family this Boxing Day are going to make a trip to see the new Little
Women movie
which I am so excited about
so in honour of the beloved March family
I thought I would do a video all about my favourite families in literature.
Starting of course with the March sisters from Little Women
and their wonderful mother Marmie.
So the March sisters are based on the author Louisa May Alcott's own family.
She was particularly close to her sister Lizzie
who's the inspiration behind Beth
who tragically did die in her early twenties.
But I just love this family so much
because it's such a real portrayal of sisters.
They do butt heads,
particularly Jo and Amy have their problems,
but between all four of them there is just so much love there.
And then another of everybody's favourite literary families
is of course the Weasleys from Harry Potter.
Mr and Mrs Weasley are just the most delightful parents
and they definitely should have got a look-in when Harry was naming his children
instead of Albus Severus.
And then with that just gaggle of red-headed children
who we all adore
except for Percy who is the worst,
I bet that Boxing Day at the Burrow is just the best place to be.
Another of my favourite families is the family from The Railway Children.
I have to admit
I actually know the movie a lot better than the book
so maybe this Boxing Day is the perfect time
to go back and actually read this book.
So this is about a family
who have to move from their fancy London house
to rural Yorkshire
after the father is falsely imprisoned.
So the whole time they're there
the mother is working to try and get him released
meanwhile the children have all sorts of adventures
all involving the railway tracks they're living right by.
And a really big theme of the story is about them as a family
and how they support each other and get through this really hard time.
So I think that would be a lovely family to be part of.
A family that I don't think I'd like to be part of but I love to read about
are the Bennets from Pride and Prejudice.
So Mr Bennet is just this hilariously mean father
who doesn't really care at all about his wife or any of his children except for Lizzie
and then Mrs Bennet only cares about marrying them all off to rich husbands
and she just totally embarrasses them all at every occasion.
And then you have the five Bennet sisters:
the two oldest Jane and Lizzy who are beautiful and intelligent
and the two youngest Kitty and Lydia who are flirty and inappropriate in every way.
And then you have the poor middle child Mary who basically just irritates everybody all
the time.
But I have just read a wonderful book called The Other Bennet Sister which retells the
events of Pride and Prejudice
all from Mary Bennet's point of view and gives her a whole new lease of life.
So watch this space, I do have a video coming in a few weeks where I talk all about that
one.
And then we have the Mortmains from I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
And I always just loved the idea of them living in this crumbling castle,
it all felt very romantic.
So their father is an eccentric struggling writer
who locks himself in his tower all day but never actually manages to write anything.
And their stepmother Topaz is much younger,
again totally eccentric,
and is usually found just wandering around totally naked wearing nothing but some boots.
And then there are three children but the story is mainly about the two oldest girls
Rose and Cassandra
and the wedge that's driven between them by the arrival of two wealthy American brothers.
So again, rather complicated family dynamics here,
but I always just loved reading about this family living in this castle ruins and all
just generally being a bit mad.
And talking of slightly mad families,
we have the grandparents from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
who all live in one bed.
So we have Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine up at one end,
and then Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina at the other.
And at one point, Grandma Josephine says she hasn't left that bed in 20 years,
and isn't planning to start now.
So it's a completely mad idea, but just this really lovely little family who are all totally
supportive of little Charlie Bucket,
and Grandpa Joe actually does leap out of the bed to take him to the chocolate factory.
Growing up, I always really loved the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls
Wilder.
So these are novels but they're basically entirely based on the author's own childhood.
So they're all about Ma, Pa, and their two girls Laura and Mary,
growing up in Midwestern America.
And I always really loved the descriptions of nature.
So little Laura, who I think is only about five in the first book,
which is called Little House in the Big Woods,
goes off harvesting wood chips and collecting sap to make maple syrup.
And it's all about them working really hard all the time but making their own fun through
it all.
So they're these rather twee but really sweet stories.
Then I've got The Lotterys Plus One.
So this is a children's book by Emma Donoghue who's the author of Room,
and it's about a big family living in Toronto.
There's two sets of same-sex parents, seven adopted children, and an array of pets.
And they all live in this big Victorian house that they bought after they won the lottery.
But then, their rather bad tempered very conservative grandfather moves in.
So the story is about them learning to accept and understand him,
and then also showing him how to accept their lovely unconventional family.
And then finally, the family from the Cazalet Chronicles.
They actually had a TV show made all about them called The Cazalets.
So this is the first book in the series, The Light Years, and it's set in Sussex in 1937,
and then there are five in the series, so you can follow this large privileged family
through the years,
and just get completely immersed in their lives.
So do leave me a comment below letting me know your favourite families in literature,
and hit that subscribe button below for new videos every week.
This time next week we will all be recovering from our New Years parties, so we've got a
video all about the best books to read when you're hungover.
So make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on that one.
And while you're waiting you can always go and follow us over on Instagram @bookbreakuk.