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The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.



Saturday 12 February 2011

Saturday Rave: The Ogre Downstairs

"Johnny was near the head of the next flight, looking absolutely desperate, wrestling with an octopus-like bundle of threshing toffee-bars."

I am a huge admirer of Diana Wynne Jones' books. The Ogre Downstairs was the first one I ever read, and I was really amazed both at the sheer energy of the book, and the incredible variety of Diana Wynne Jones' imagination. Scuttering dust-balls, a purring pipe,  some very angry dolls'-house people - and the absolute need to keep all this and much much more secret from a new and scary step-father.
Marvellous!

Word to use today: ogre.
This word used to be French, and before that it might have been borrowed from the Latin god Orcus, who was hairy and nasty and lived in hell.

1 comment:

  1. I don't think I would have noticed the similarities between toffee bars and octopodes. A great description because it's original, yet completely right.

    ReplyDelete

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