Last Christmas, Eloïse was given a children’s book with a difference by her Uncle Jack. The book in question was Goodbye, Penguins by Greg Stones.
Round at Jack’s house one afternoon, he had the great idea of filming Eloïse’s spirited rendition, as she reads this book with verve. The result is very entertaining, especially if you’ve read the book (which very few people have, since the print run was only 550 copies).
Many thanks to Uncle Jack McKenna for the camera work, editing and playing himself as sofa companion.
We’ve put a copy of this video on our MythTV, where Eloïse likes to watch and read along with herself.
Hello! I just wanted to let you know that this video is totally and completely AWESOME. I cannot even tell you how amazing it is to see Elosie reading my book. She is so funny! I have never laughed so hard at my own work. This really means a lot to me. Thank you so much for the presenting my book in such a perfectly funny way.
Very sincerely,
Greg Stones
P.S. Would you mind if I put a link to this video on my website? My fans would love it!
My wife’s brother, Jack (Cc’ed on this), is the guy who deserves all the credit. He had the idea of filming Elo?se reading the book, then actually did all of the filming and editing. All we did was supply a daughter and put the video on our Web site.
Jack gave Eloïse a copy of ‘Goodbye, Penguins’ for Christmas. She immediately fell in love with it and within a couple of days started to repeat the words when we read her the story. Then, she began to say them before we could, as soon as we turned the page. For some reason, instead of ‘One penguin was shot out of a cannon’, she says ‘One penguin was crushed by a doughnut’. She usually says that instead of ‘One penguin was crushed by a safe’, though. We have no idea why she substitutes a doughnut. It’s her own invention.
Jack lives in Providence and knows your work. He has something by you hanging on his living room wall. We would never have known about your work if it hadn’t been for him.
Anyway, please feel free to link to this from as many places as you wish. It’s your work, after all. If anyone should be asking permission, it should have been me before I put it on our site. I’m glad you see the humour in it.