Weeks after reading these stories, a glance at the table of contents brings back their characters and arcs in a moment. (With "Flower Watching" and "Eskimos" I also required the aid of the characters' names I'd noted.) These stories stood out, not only as independent narratives but, simultaneously, for the
Ater a year of new-new-new, January has been filled with the familiar, the known. It's not been about making new-shiny-library-residing friends, but about becoming better acquainted with long-time residents of my own bookshelves, remembering what drew particular authors onto my MRE (MustReadEverything) list and particular books onto my shelves. Have
"Not far from here, I have seen a house held up by the hands of trees. This is its story." So states the title page of this illustrated work with prose by Ted Kooser (who has won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry) and images by Jon Klassen.
The day I consider myself too grown-up to read a children's story, is the day I stop reading. Rumer Godden's The Dolls' House (1948) Illus. Tasha Tudor (1976) I re-read this slim volume countless times when I was a girl. Not only did I have a dollhouse, but I was one of
Astrid Lindgren's The Brothers Lionheart (1973) Trans. J. Tate Illus. Ilon Wikland (1984) Everybody knows Pippi Longstocking, but not so many readers know The Brothers Lionheart. I read it on the advice of a reading friend, who counts it amongst her favourite children's books. And then I learned that it's also one of Iris' special
