Friday 26 December 2014

Jane of Lantern Hill - L M Montgomery

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So glad to have come across this L M Montgomery - the last novel she wrote from what I've found.  If you loved Anne of Green Gables, or any of her others, this one is worth seeking out and reading.  This comes in a new paperback edition from Virago Modern Classics (number 620) with just the most beautiful cover by Daniela Jaglenka Tetrazzini.  I saw a review on Amazon which said "I first read this when I was seven....".  If I had read this when I was seven, it would not have made the impression on me that it has now, for woven into this children's story are things that seem common to us now, in a world where everyone knows everyone's business via social media.  But when it was written, I think it might have seemed extraordinary to any young reader that it brings in the jealousy that adults feel when things do not go their way; the way children have to cope when adults manipulate things to suit themselves; that PTS (post traumatic stress) is mentioned, but of course not by name as it wasn't invented back in the 1930s.

Jane is Jane Victoria.  Two names.  Jane she likes, but her grandmother in whose house she lives does not, and refers to her always as Victoria. Jane lives in number 60 Gay Street, off Bloor Street in Toronto.  Remind yourself that gay meant something else altogether then - but it's not a gay house:  in fact, there seems no fun and joy in the house she shares with her mother, grandmother and aunt.  It's a sombre, bitter place and her grandmother can find what we'd now call a put-down in every remark she makes to Jane.  Not only that, but with a dead father and a mother who has a busy social life, it is a place where laughter is never encouraged, and neither is cleverness, nor the lower orders. And then, one early summer, a letter arrives.  Jane's father is not only alive, but requests that she spend the summer with him on Prince Edward Island.  It has to be done, and Jane sets out with dread on the long train journey from Toronto to stay with a man she does not know, that her mother is still married to and once loved, and that her grandmother detests with her entire being.  What she finds on the Island is an eye-opener and I will stop right there, for this is a book that needs reading, with few clues beforehand.  It's one of those cosy up on the sofa in front of the fire with no interuptions kind of books - and even at my age I loved it.

I found out whilst researching this book that only in 2008 did the heirs of L M Montgomery release the fact that Montgomery had committed suicide in the early 1940s, and that she had suffered from depression for a lot of her life.  Her husband, a church minister, also had mental health problems.  The family had always known, but it was brought into the public domain because they decided it was time to talk about mental health.  Good for them.  It's so often the silent illness (i.e. no-one wants to talk about it), and it shouldn't be.  You see, if you break your arm, everyone can see the plaster.  But if your head is not in the right place, often the remark made is "pull yourself together".  Do think kindly of Montgomery whilst reading (or re-reading her books).  She didn't do too badly with her writing at all!

Wednesday 24 December 2014

We Are All Welcome Here - Elizabeth Berg

We Are All Welcome Here  Yet another Elizabeth Berg novel that I just happened upon.   She's an American writer, and I think sometimes, that in the UK, American writers are passed over by readers because the subject matter, whilst the same, is just that bit different.  Well, they would be, wouldn't they?  It's not home, is it?   Actually, yes, it is - just a slightly different one.  She writes a good story, she writes from the heart, but she's not a hearts and flowers type of writer at all.  She's another like Lori Lansens who writes about life as it actually is.  Or in this case, was.

Set in the very early days of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, when a white man supporting a negro cause was just as likely to be killed as the negro he was supporting, Diana is the thirteen year old child of a paralysed mother, Paige, who contracted Polio before the birth of her daughter.  To everyone's surprise, she delivered the child in her iron lung and they both survived.  Her marriage did not.  Her decision to bring the child up on her own is frowned upon, but she has Peacie, the day housekeeper to help, and an evening helper too.  She's meant to have a night nurse too, but there is no money to pay for that, so over the years, Diana has done the night care.  This is, first of all, the story of relationships - how different people act with each other and with other folk.  And in Peacie, I found a real live heroine.  Black, hard faced, and perhaps buried deep a real heart, for it is she that ensures that Diana eats properly, that she has clean clothes, that she knows how to shop with very little money, that she doesn't mix with the wrong sort.  And of course Diana resents it, and hates Peacie - she's an adolescent! 

Polio is one of those forgotten tragedies, but the description of how difficult life was for a sufferer brought me up sharp;   I couldn't imagine how awful it must have been.  And Civil Rights?  God, even towns were segregated into black and white areas, even though some whites lived poorer than some blacks they still thought themselves superior.    Well written, and at less than 200 pages still manages to pack a punch.  The story is not based on truth but was suggested to the author by someone who's own mother had been trapped in an iron lung but accomplished much.   I loved the characters here.  I knew Paige would never not have polio but I wished her a better life.  With Diana, I remembered adolescence.  And I loved Peacie - a huge character for a small book. Hugely recommended.

Sunday 21 December 2014

Island Magic - Elizabeth Goudge

I recently read one of Elizabeth Goudge's childrens' books, and it reminded me that she'd written a lot, and I'd read little.  So I decided to start at the beginning, and read a few of her adult novels.  Island Magic was published in 1934, and possibly set at the end of the 19th century.  It has a story which, if brought up to date, would involve tears, angst, bitterness, estrangement, at least one affair and all the other things that we expect (?) these days!

Island Magic is set on the island of Guernsey, an island that Goudge was familiar with from visits in her childhood.  The descriptions of the island itself lean towards the florid, but you get an idea that she was still developing her style - If I had been asked who wrote this without knowing the author, I probably wouldn't have guessed who it was.  The family at the centre of the story, the du Frocqs, live at Bon Repos; an old farmhouse with what would probably be described as a smallholding these days, for a few pigs, a couple of fields and a yard does not make for a large farm in any way.  The du Frocqs, it is very soon clear, are short of money, living in a house lent to them by the dreadful Doctor du Frocq - of the school of "don't do as I do, do as I tell you", widowed with two sons, one of whom he has not seen for many years, and the other, Andre - father of five children, husband of Rachell and living, by his father's grace, at Bon Repos.  Andre is not cut out to be a farmer, it is only because of his wife's money, now fast running out, that the family can stay on.   Into the lives of this family comes a shipwrecked sailor, Ranulph Mabier, who is certainly not all he seems.

It's not a book to rush through, but rather, a book to curl up by the fire with.  Each chapter is divided into sub-sections, so you can read a little or a lot at a time, and always have a stopping place.  My favourite of all Goudge's books was Little White Horse, a children's novel from the 1940s and a Carnagie Medal winner.  This book is not in that class, but interesting nevertheless and most certainly a picture of a way of life that is long gone.

A big thank you too, to Nan of the blog  Letters from a Hill Farm, whose recent post reminded me of this author.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

Just to say - Have a Cool Yule!

ZsaZsa Bellagio


Whether it snows or not - have the Christmas-tide you want, stay warm, eat what you fancy and look forward to a better new year.  I'll be back at the very end of the year with your January book subject, so see you then.

Saturday 6 December 2014

Tell The Wolves I'm Home - Carol Rifka Brunt

Tell the Wolves I'm Home


22 years ago, a friend of mine died.  Aids.  just a little time before that wonderful cocktail of drugs was found that would have kept him alive. So this novel was very close to home.  Some readers may find this painful, and very emotional; but told by a fourteen year old girl, whose sixteen year old sister hates her with a vengeance, some may find all sorts of truths within.

The girls' uncle, Finn, was a painter who's stock was rising when he died.  June, who tells the story, was in love with her uncle, and Greta, her sister was jealous.  It sounds simple, but think again, for there are truths and untruths here, and it takes most of the book for everything to become clear.  When Finn dies, June is heartbroken, and Greta becomes ever more cruel.  At the funeral, they see a man who their parents steer them clear of - Toby, Finn's "special friend",  who will play a large part in June's life for a very short time.

Set in the mid-1980s, the book reminded me of that time when it seemed that anyone could catch the damned disease, people were frightened, and so many died.  The anger, the fear, the despair are all here, seen through the eyes of people who are unlikely to die from it, but are affected by it.  The girls's mother, Finn's sister - who is so angry that her brother left her; the girl's father, taking his wife's side  and working hard to keep the family safe;  the boy at school who likes June, and Greta, jealous of Finn's treatment of June. Then of course, Toby, who is affected ..... all these people will be touched in some way by June's feelings. This is how teenagers feel.  This is how they lie, how they think no-one else knows, how they cope with grief.  Is it aimed at Young Adults?  It's a book for everyone, although some may love it, and some may not.  I am one of the former.

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Smokey-House by Elizabeth Goudge

Smokey-House is the name of the village pub in the village of Faraway, deep in a valley in Cornwall, bounded on three sides by the high moors, and the last by the sea.  In Smokey-House live a family of 5 motherless children, the oldest acting as housekeeper, and their father the publican.  Add to that two dogs (stolen from someone else) and a donkey with a bad temper.  The children are Jessamine, Genefer, Tristram, Michael and Jane; the dogs Sot and Sausage, and the donkey Mathilda.  They live a lovely life, rabbit stew every evening, space to run and play, and nothing to fear except the Man-With-The-Red-Handkerchief (although, frankly, he's the least of their worries, as you will see further on in the story).  The children know that people in the village are smugglers, or Free Traders, as they prefer to be known, they know that the local squire gives money away to the poor, that he loves to hunt, eats well - but have no idea where his money comes from.  When a fiddle-playing foreigner arrives in the village things change in the most dramatic way.   

Elizabeth Goudge won the Carnagie Medal for Little White Horse in 1946, and it has never been out of print since.  Smokey-House, not so well known, has been out of print for some time and it does not have quite the charm of LWH, nor of Henrietta's House, two of my own favourite children's books.  It isn't without charm though.  It has a rather Christian feel to it, perfectly understandable given Goudge's background (father a vicar) and her own deep faith.  But even if you are an atheist, an agnostic, or person of another faith, there is a lovely story here - if you believe in fairies, babies that just arrive, and the goodness of people.

I think I am going to push on and read (or re-read) several more of Elizabeth Goudge's novels.

Monday 1 December 2014

What to read in December - Mrs Mac's choice for you

Well, well.  Every month happens once every year, and every December some of you celebrate Christmas.  And there are so many reads set round this seasonal time that I think you should read something different.....

So - will you read something snowy?  Perhaps The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey


Good Luck, and Yuletide Greetings all

A song for Issy Bradley - Carys Bray

A blooming good read - one to make you sit up, pay attention and (very possibly) count your own blessings.  If you have a faith, you may find yourself agreeing with much that happens - if, like this reader, you have no faith, you may find yourself gasping in horror at the throw-away comments made by members of this particular church.

For this is the story of a family broken apart by the death of their youngest child, who dies so quickly, they have hardly noticed she is ill.  Claire, the mother, copes for a couple of weeks, and then goes into such deep depression that she will not leave her dead child's bed; Ian, an important man in the church cannot leave his church duties alone just for his family; and the remaining three children just have to find their way on their own.  The belief of this particular church is that every one of them, if they follow the rules, will reach Celestial Heaven and all will be well, so death is not a hardship - hence the comment of a sister of the church who comes to visit, when Claire says "Im sad...." says  "Oh! is that all?".  Claire's decline within the family is all important to the book.  The lower she sinks, the lower her profile, the more the others are affected. 

It was a hard book to read.  It hurt.  But although it may never be a classic in the accepted sense of the word, it is wonderfully observed, well written, and I felt that the author, an ex-member of the church in question, had a lot to offer by way of explanation - and achieved it for me.  It was a must-read.  It was unputdownable.  It was bitterly sad, but in parts made me smile - viewing their faith (or not) though non-tinted glasses was illuminating.  It may not be the prizewinner on the list in question but it certainly deserves to be read.

Monday 24 November 2014

A Foreign Field - Ben MacIntyre

On the 100th anniversary of WW1, as a nation here in the UK we have marked that event with a river of poppies at the Tower of London.  Some of us have read books set in that 1914-18 war.  A lot of fiction based on fact has been written on the subject, some of which would have a startling effect on you when read for the first time.  Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful is always one that I recommend if you wanted to read a little something (written for young readers, it is readable by any age) about that dreadful war.  And of course, War Horse  by the same author can be read by any age.  This year I also read All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque which looks at the German view of your average young soldier. Just change the names from Fritz to Joe, Heinrich to Henry, and the view is the same.  Then, for a female view of war, there is My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Maria Young.  It touches on the terrible injuries inflicted on young men, who had to live on with those injuries and has it's title based on postcards made available in field hospitals and places of recuperation, made to be filled in, so that the first part of the card read:

My dear................... (insert name, or mother, brother, wife etc)
I wanted to tell you ....................(that I am alive/well/injured but alive etc)

So for my November anniversary read I chose a non-fiction book - A Foriegn Field by Ben MacIntyre - a journalist who finds a hardly known story and gives it to you complete, research done, and very readable.  You might like to try Agent ZigZag for a riveting tale of WW2.

But with A Foreign Field MacIntyre brings to you a story that is very definitely not fiction, Those written about really did exist, and this small book (261 pages excluding bibliography, notes and index) will tell you not only the truth about a small assorted party of soldiers trapped in occupied France, but also facts about the war in the area to the north east of the Somme that was totally devastated, how and why; about a small village which thrived on gossip, the personalities there, and what happened after those soldiers where taken in and hidden by the villagers.  The number of total dead on all sides in WW1 is so large I have never been able to take it in - but reading this, I found myself stunned by the numbers who died in a day in several battles over the course of the war in this area.  I found myself questioning what exactly was going on in Villeret and the other small villages around about.  Towards the end of the book I found my questions answered in a satisfying way, even though mostly by questions the author asks i.e. what was he doing?  did they know? why didn't they?
An excellent example of how good research tells a good story.  Recommended, especially if you want to find out about a small place in a big war.
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Monday 17 November 2014

Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan

"In Blip Magazine, George Saunders called Penumbra
a real tour-de-force, a beautiful fable that is given legs by the author’s bravado use of the real (Google is in there, for instance, the actual campus) to sell us on a shadow world of the unreal and the speculative. Robin Sloan comes across as so bighearted, so in love with the world — the ancient world, the contemporary world — so in love with love, in love with friendship, in love with the idea that our technical abilities can serve as conduits for beauty, that the reader is swept along by his enthusiasm. It’s a lot of fun — but it’s also a powerful reading experience with a wonderful undeniability."
So - can I do better than George Saunders?  But that's a powerful  little description of a book I really, really enjoyed.  A book I finished with a smile on my face and a contented sigh - and let me tell you, not every book I read does that for me! 

Mr Penumbra is the elderly proprietor of a bookshop in San Francisco, where Clay Jannon works the night shift (it's open 24 hours, right?) after his failure as a website designer for a company that has gone bankrupt.  It's an OK job, not many customers during his hours of 12.00 midnight to 8.00 am, so plenty of time to surf the net, have a look at the books..... but only the new books.  On the orders of Mr Penumbra, he's not to remove any of the books in the back of the shop.  Any of those on the tall, tall shelves that require ladders to reach the volumes.  Any of those at arm's length.  Those near the floor.  They are old, dusty, and frankly, for a while, he has no interest in them anyway, and neither do many customers.  Those that are interested tend to be a little odd, mostly over 50, and the book they borrow (for they cannot be bought) must be recorded in a leather-bound ledger together with a description of the customer.....

This book is full of references.  Old books, other languages, typefaces,The Mechanical Turk, people who really existed, companies that exist - and it's such fun!  Yes, it contains a description of Google's real campus.... and it refers to lots of things that Google can do for Clay when he sets out to solve a 500 year old mystery.  If you like codes, if you love fantasy trilogies (Perhaps Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant), if you like a book with a villain, a hero, and some good friends,  if you are a bit of a computer nerd and sit up all night trying to write your own programmes; but most of all, if you like a book that makes you want to look up something on Wikipedia or elsewhere on the internet, but meanwhile makes you want to keep turning the pages, then this is the read for you.  And is the mystery finally solved?  Well, you'd have to read the book to find that out, wouldn't you?  But it's a great read, and for any of the reasons above that might make you think "she means me!" - I recommend it.

For information:  The yellow cover appears to be the US paperback, the other the UK paperback, and I note on Amazon that there is a new cover altogether which personally I don't like.  My favourite is the yellow.


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Tuesday 4 November 2014

It's not all about books!!


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Photo: Stag Minstrel sideboard/dressing table/chest of drawers - you name it.  Very versatile in Provence

You may like it, you may hate it, but it has been many years in the back of my mind although I didn't know that until I saw it. 
 
 When we bought a 14" Sony portable TV many, many years ago, we lived in a tiny one-bed flat, and the OH made a built-in unit in an alcove, unlike anyone else's.  I loved it.  But over the years, we bought a bigger TV and it wouldn't fit anywhere near that little unit, which had to be dismantled. (We did re-use the wood - upcyclers, even then!)  For that new TV we acquired a pine kids' toybox, painted it pale blue, and the OH cut a slot out of the front for the video to peep out.  Lots of people loved that one, and you know, in another life, we might have made upcycling a business!  
 
That big TV was with us for many years, moved from London to Dorset and still worked a couple of years ago when we bought a flat screen TV. (We just can't remember what happened to the big TV, but one thing's for certain - it didn't get dumped!!).  Anyway, the flat screen TV went on a new entertainment centre - you know the kind - like a coffee table with boxed in sides a space under the TV for all the gizmos, and a drawer for instruction booklets etc.  And I never took to it.  So much so that I was supposed to paint it, but couldn't apply myself!! 
 
And then, two weeks ago, we were trawling round yet another Vintage Warehouse (which, have you noticed, are springing up everywhere like a rash?).  They used to be called House Clearance Depots, but Vintage sounds so much nicer than house clearance, doesn't it?  We were looking for a very small but chunky coffee table (no luck there so far); we found a lovely circular Ercol dining table with splayed legs and drop leaves - which we'd have bought, but our dining chairs are oversized and would not have fitted round; we saw lots of lovely stuff and were we starting our life together today,  it wouldn't take us long to get it together.  Anyway, I digress.  I was away on that side of the warehouse inspecting 1950s light fittings which I didn't like for me, but had to admire when the voice of the OH behind me pointed me in the direction of some lovely painted furniture and there she was!  Oh!!!!

We had a cup of tea and slice of cake in the cafe, went back and had another look, went home and measured the space (small cottage, no long walls!) and it would be perfect.  So phoning and asking them to hold it until the following day, we smiled and said "must have been waiting for us".  Today I take that remark very seriously, as I found it on their facebook site as early as June - how could someone else not have loved it?  TV looks great and look!  6, I said SIX drawers!! we are always short of space and will soon fill them.   I look at my little beauty every day, and make that Mmmmm sound.  She's lovely!
 

Saturday 1 November 2014

What to read in November - Mrs Mac suggests:





 A book with lost or found (or equivalent) in the title - 

e.g. The Missing File - D A Mishani

 

The Other Side of You - Salley Vickers

I couldn't stop reading this bitter sweet book.  David, a psychiatrist, and one of his patients, Elizabeth, an attempted suicide, each have baggage.  For her, it's the meeting of, and the loosing, of her soulmate; and for him, the loss of his brother in early childhood.   For several sessions, Elizabeth is unable to talk abot her attempted suicide (which was not a cry for help, but very much meant), until discussing an Italian painting with her doctor, she suddenly decides that it's worth telling her story.  In doing so, she becomes the catalyst for David to think again about his brother, how he died, and how his whole life has been affected by that. 
I wonder how most of us would feel, meeting that soulmate and then loosing him the very next day;  the anguish that would go with that loss, the steps taken to fill the hole left by that loss, and the sudden re-meeting by chance, of that very person, so many years later?  I wonder how many of us have family history that we don't doubt? 

It is a dark book - we know almost immediately that Elizabeth attempted suicide, but not why.  We also  know that she is David's patient, and that it is his job to "heal" his patient.  It takes a while for us to realise the facts behind the attempt.  It takes us a while, too, to understand that sometimes David gets too close to his patients.  His own personal life is in turmoil, something he slowly comes to acknowledge when Elizabeth is telling her story.  Dark it may be, but with redemption.  It is the story of love but  not between the doctor and the patient in the accepted sense of the word love.  It is so beautifully written that it's a master class in the description of feelings - If you haven't caught up with this one yet I recommend it.

I'd like to hear your comments if you have read it, too.

Saturday 25 October 2014

Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War - Vernon Coleman

Mrs Caldicot has been married for over 30 years to a dour, ignorant man who "worked in sewage".  She has learned to think but not speak, as she has nothing worth saying, apparently.  When he dies, she is not bereft, but finds herself not knowing quite what to do with herself.  She has a large, three bedroomed house and a garden, but no hobbies, no friends, and no interests.  That doesn't last long, for her son is determined to sort things out and arranges for her home to be sold, and for her to reside in a retirement home, which smells of cabbage, and where residents are drugged up to the eyeballs.  She is quick to stop swallowing her drugs, and persuades (or rather teaches) her two roommates to do the same.  She refuses to eat cabbage, and insists that her cat comes to live with her.  That's just the start of this heartwarming tale, where we learn that even the old should have a voice.  (In telling the tale, Vernon Cole has observed how badly the elderly can be treated when foisted off to care homes unnecessarily.  Somehow, the care home business in general still has some dreadful stories to tell 40+ years after this book was written, as we see in the news).  But if that sounds bleak, it isn't at all, Mrs Caldicot is suddenly able to rise above all that and Do Something About It!  

That was my view, but I found this review from 2006 on Amazon after I'd read it, and thought you'd enjoy reading it.....
" 5.0 out of 5 stars A great read - revolution for older folk, 16 May 2006



Mrs Caldicot has a bummer of a husband. He dies. Her relatives want to dump her in a nursing home so they can sell her house. And then it starts. Good old Mrs C suddenly gets a bit lively. She stands up for herself and won't put up with the boss of the nursing home. She starts a revolution. Its sad and funny all at the same time. And underneath it all there is the message. I loved it."

Thursday 23 October 2014

Perfect - Rachel Joyce

I really must apologise for not reading this sooner.  To both Rachel Joyce, the author, and to you, my readers.  Because if you have not found this one yet, add it to your list and find it now!  First, it's so well-written, that to a pedant like me, my eyes just rolled along the lines with joy, not finding "wrong grammar" and that kind of stuff.  Second, a brilliant idea for a story.  Third, some shocks as the book moves along. Enough of me, let's get on.
Perfect
 

The Perfect of the title can mean many things.  It may be the way that Byron's mother tries to behave, because that is how her husband Seymour wants things.  Who would want a Stepford Wife?  A difficult thing to live up to, and following the news that two seconds were to be added to time in 1972 because time itself was out of joint with Earth's movement, Byron begins to panic that things cannot therefore be perfect.  It is that panic that causes an accident.  Not fatal, not even nasty, but the events which follow make Byron and his friend James conspire to make things perfect again.  We have two stories beautifully woven together within the covers.  One set over a few short months in the Summer of 1972, where following that little accident, things seem first to be out of kilter at Bryron's home, and second when Bryon and his best friend James try to make things right again, when perhaps leave well alone would have been a better bet.  The other story is now.  Jim, who has been in and out of mental hospitals since his teens, is finally discharged for ever when his current hospital closes down.  He has little rituals he has to perform, and he knows he is different.  He has no friends, he lives in a broken down motor home, and works as a table clearer in the cafe of a large store.  How Jim and the two boys are linked will become clear towards the end of the book, but before you get there you will gasp as I did when adults behave badly, whether to Byron and James, or to Jim, and you will have some tears to shed as the truth unfolds.

Rachel Joyce is clearly a people observer.  She, like most of us, has met adults who show their dislike of people who are different; kids who don't always understand what they see or hear, and also, adults who have no idea of the effect of what their words thoughts and deeds might be upon children.  But her keen observation has produced a story that I am unlikely ever to forget.

 It is a thriller, a love story, a reflection on how when kids get things wrong there are knock-on effects, but the important thing is that it's a well-told tale, and yet it seems not to have got the kudos that Harold Fry did.  I wonder why?  I believe it to be the superior book, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Hoot - Carl Hiaasen

Roy Eberhadt - ecowarrior!  Although he doesn't know that yet.  Moving from Montana to Florida is a big deal for Roy, he loved the horses and the wide open spaces, and Florida just seems flat (and hot!). He moves a lot - his father's job takes him all over (and it's only when you get about half way through the book that you find out why), and every move Roy has to find friends at a new school, try to keep out of the way of bullies (he's small for his age and quiet), and generally get on with his life.  This move, however, may become something higher profile for him!  It's because of the bully on the bus that he sees a kid with no shoes running for the schoolbus - but no! he doesn't get on the bus, he runs on and over back gardens and away.  It takes a while for Roy to find out who he is and why he's running;  and meanwhile, a food chain is attempting to open a new restaurant on the corner.

Clever cover, clever title;  for you'll not be very long into the book before you discover that the creatures that need saving  are burrowing owls, a real species, and protected in the USA.  Cute, too.  This is where Roy finds out who his friends are, that grownups often lie to save their own skins, and that not all parents are good parents.  Oh, and that big business is often corrupt!  So easy to read, such a good story.  I cannot imagine that kids from say 8 or 9 up to early teens will not enjoy the adventure.  As an adult I enjoyed it very much, and I know several other readers I lent it to felt the same.
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Friday 17 October 2014

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures - Kate DiCamillo

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated AdventuresI've been a fan of Kate DiCamillo since I came across Because of Wyn-Dixie.  This is an entirely different book, but a wonderful adventure for younger readers (or to be read aloud as there are some wonderful shouty bits!)  Flora saves a squirrel from certain death when he is sucked up by a very powerful vacuum cleaner.  Somehow, this dreadful event turns him into a super-hero, and Flora names him Ulysses.  In a strange turn of events, Tootie, the lady next door who was operating the vacuum cleaner at the time, has a nephew (William) foisted upon her for a few weeks as he has misbehaved following the re-marriage of his mother to a man who insists on calling him Billy.
Flora's Mum seems to enjoy the company of her typewriter more that that of her daughter; Flora's Dad does not live at home any more, and Flora is a little odd ..... well, not really, as you'll see the further into the book you get.  Anyway, there are some great adventures to be had along the way, and those which have Ulysses being a super-hero are done in graphic novel/comic book form, whilst the rest of the book is a normal reading book.
I polished it off in a couple of hours, but then I am rather older than the aimed-at reader!  What child does not feel left out sometimes, or unloved sometimes, or wanting an adventure sometimes.  That's Flora, and I liked this little girl very much indeed. 

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Most popular post about such a small room!

 What a funny thing!  I have feedjit on my blog.. a little tool which tells me who has visited recently/who is visiting right now.  I love it, and I wonder sometimes who these visitors are, and how they came across me.  I'm not a professional blogger (I don't have any advertising, I sometimes post only a couple of times a month), and no-one offers me new beds, new paints, new books;  but somehow I have a most popular post......  my regulars number around 35 - but in a year, this one has had 1,111 yes! one thousand one hundred and one hits.  Why?  And one of the funniest thoughts I had was - how have the Americans( they've hit the most) found this?  Because the first few words of the title are "Downstairs toilet, change of colour...." and Americans, (bit of a sweeping statement coming up), to my knowledge, call these rooms anything but toilets!  I don't mind of course, the more the merrier that view my smallest room, but I am intrigued as to why that post is sooo popular.  Any ideas?

Sunday 5 October 2014

The Night of the Burning - Linda Press Wulf










Although this is a children’s book, aimed, I think, at good readers of 10 years upwards, it is an excellent introduction for a reader of any age one who knows little of the fate of Polish Jews towards the end of, and after, WW1.

In short chapters, this book tells the story of sisters Devorah and Nechama, who live in abject poverty in Poland, near the Russian border.  It speaks of the hatred of Christians (Jews killed Jesus - that old chestnut) and what that kind of thinking will ultimately turn into.  This is a historical fiction based on real characters, and follows the two sisters on their long journey after the death of their parents - one from typhoid, and one (probably) from starvation - rescued by one of those heroes who not enough people hear about, Isaac Ochberg, who managed to get 200 Jewish orphans to South Africa. 

Do read the "Afterward" and "Author's note" at the end of the book - there are some questions answered there.  And Devorah, who tells the story, was the mother-in-law of the author.

Early One Morning - Virginia Baily

I was attracted to this novel purely by the cover (as I suppose this is meant to happen!) and it has very little about the contents on the b...