A Sheep with an eating disorder (Marvin Wanted More - Joseph Theobald)

Member Name: librelola

Product:	Marvin Wanted More - Joseph Theobald
Date:	22/02/06 (238 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny story with beautiful illustrations

Disadvantages: None

If you eat too much you will end up puking!

This is the moral of the story behind Marvin Wanted More!

Or perhaps there is a little bit more to it? Or a little less?

Maybe I like analysing too much…

: )

Let’s see…

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Marvin Wanted More is the first picture book by the very talented author / illustrator Joseph Theobald, who trained at Falmouth Art College and lives in the UK.

Joseph Theobald has illustrated other children’s books, of which Crow’s Nest (written by Sandra Horn); he also creates illustrations for various other projects.

The book is directed at children from 3 onwards and costs £9.99 (hard back) from most major bookshops, or £6.79 from amazon.co.uk (hard back as well)
A brand new soft back cover purchased from amazon.co.uk costs £4.79, they don’t seem to have any used ones at the moment!

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This is what one would term (albeit reluctantly) a “fun” book.

The story is simple and it is rather funny, while at the same time harbouring a little message for people like me who need to find a meaning in and for everything!

The illustrations are the strongest point of the book in my opinion. If my guessing is correct (and I think it is), Joseph Theobald used a mixture of oil pastels and watercolour for his delightful creations, that give a clean and pure impression to the images. The backgrounds are mostly smooth and a dreamy air pervades most of the illustrations. He uses bold colours yet manages to maintain a general feeling of warmth throughout.

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Marvin is a sheep.

The author could not possibly have opted to work with a human specimen as a subject because showing a human stuffing himself with a myriad of foodstuff would simply not have worked as well as a nice cute fluffy white sheep innocently grazing grass, even if the seemingly sweet animal is as greedy as some of us humans can be and is clearly suffering from a severe case of binge-eating syndrome or even bulimia.

It’s just cuter to be a deranged sheep than to be a deranged human.
(In my next life I want to be a sheep).

So…

Marvin is (still) a sheep but he happens to be slightly smaller than your average sheep and not only does he suffer from severe eating disorders but on top of that he has an inferiority complex.

One day he was feeling rather gloomy.

“What’s the matter?” – asks Molly.

Now Molly is your typical (not sheepish at all) sexy sheep chick, fluffy and gentle, who wears a pink flower behind her ear (because deep down she knows that she is not any different to the rest of the other sheep in the meadow and she also suffers from several psychological disorders which she simply hides behind her flower, but will she admit it? No way she will…)

Marvin complains to Molly that he feels terrible about being smaller and not being able to run or jump as fast as the other sheep.

“I’m too small, it’s not fair”

In this cruel world, even sheep have to be subjected to mental traumas due the genes they have inherited from their parents…

“But I like you as you are,” said Molly.

(“Then why are you going out with the bigger fitter sheep?” thinks Marvin under his breath… but hey… )

Not convinced by sexy Molly’s words, Marvin decides that in order to grow bigger, he needs to eat more.

“So when the other sheep had finished eating… Marvin ate some more.”

What the author is at pains to reveal here, is just how hard it is for Marvin to control his fits of bulimia, but this being a children’s book, he is merely trying to protect our little ones from the fate that may one day await them… or maybe it’s a warning.

So Marvin goes on eating and getting bigger and eating and getting bigger and eating and…. Yes, all right…you got the point.

Pretty soon, he could run and jump much higher than the other sheep (beats me, when I put on weight, I can’t even think of jumping…)

But was Marvin satisfied that he had now reached the same level of “jumpiness and runniness” as his mates? Of course not! His inferiority complex would not allow that to happen and so he was growing bigger by the day until he reached the point of no return and simply could not stop eating anymore…

“Don’t eat the forests!” called the other sheep.
“You’re getting too big!” cried Molly

(“Fancy me now?” thought Marvin under his breath again)

Eat the forests he did, and the mountains too… to quench his thirst “he drank up whole lakes” (why did God never think of creating “wine lakes” he thought?)

But the greedy thing still wanted more…

And so he ate one country after the other and when there was no space left on planet Earth for him to balance on…

“He jumped onto the moon and ate the world!”

Although he was very big, Mercury and Mars were simply not near enough his point of reach to suffer the same fate as the Earth and only then… only then… did Marvin realise what binge-eating can lead you to… utter loneliness…

He was all alone…

“He missed the trees, and the meadow, and the other sheep, but most of all he missed Molly.”

Now the author purports that this is why he suddenly felt sick… I mean okay.. this is a kid’s book, but who are you kidding here???

In any case… faced with his inner persona and the vast mysterious universe, Marvin finally admits to himself that he is indeed the undeniable object of an acute case of bulimia and that since this was so, he might as well take it to the end…

And take it to the end he did… by regurgitating the entire contents of his oversized stomach…

“Out came the world and everything with it.”

I do hope that any myths compilers will be reading this, I think it is worth noting in future chronicles that the human race was once swallowed up and heaved up again from the very insides of a monstrously sized sheep (was one of the Nazca lines not in the shape of a sheep? No no…).

I will never cease to be amazed by the fact that, subsequent to this vomiting session, Marvin regained his original size and shape (if only it were that easy!)

And even more amazed that the earth was not gravely altered..

”Although things weren’t quite the same as they were before…”

But Marvin was happy and what is more… Molly, having had enough of being mistreated by the big strong fit sheep, had a flash of consciousness and suddenly realised that size DOES NOT matter after all, it is the tenderness that does it.

I think Marvin was tender (especially roasted with a nice glass of red… heeheehee… sorry vegetarians…)

“I like you just the way you are” she whispers in his ear.
And seeing the look of past disillusion in her eyes, he believes her and says:
“I like me just the way I am too.”

So all was well that ended well…

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Is there a moral to this story?

Yes, I think there is: Don’t be so bloody greedy and at least, once you have reached the goal you had set yourself, don’t trample upon others to reach heights that will only dizzy you and where the light does not exist.

Have you learned your lesson yet?

: )


© Lola Awada 2006


PS: I simply wish to point out here that no offence was or is in any way intended to any bulimia sufferers or anyone suffering from eating disorders; I suffer from them too, I have a friend who has been treated for severe bulimia for 10 years and I know that this is not a laughing matter. But if we do not use humour to liven up even the saddest and most tragic of topics, what else is there for us? I hope that no one will take this personally, but feel free to lynch me virtually if that makes you feel better…

Summary: Funny story, dreamy illustrations