The lonely book by Kate Bernheimer illustrated by Chris Sheban

Do you ever wonder how books arrive in our school library?  There are so many ways.  I might read a review or see a book in a shop or a student might suggest a new title.  One of the ways we find terrific books is via a very special bookseller in Sydney - Kate at Bloomin' Books.  Her selections are always such treasures. While I was away in 2012 she sent The lonely book and so this week I picked it up knowing I was in for a treat.

When the book (the hero of this narrative) is new it is very popular in the library passing from borrower to borrower "it hardly ever slept at the library."  Years and years pass and the book is now over looked and left on the shelf until one day it is found on the floor and borrowed by a little girl who rediscovers its magic "Daddy!' she whispered. 'This is the most beautiful book I've ever read.  Can I take it home?"  The last page is missing but this does not worry the little girl.  She is able to imagine her own happy ending.  The little girl keeps renewing the book but one day she accidentally leaves it behind at the library and a helpful volunteer places it in the basement thinking it is meant to be part of their book sale.  "And the lonely book missed Alice.  Though all the books were kept tidy and safe in the basement, it was very dark.  The book was lonelier than it had ever been."

Finally the day comes for the book sale.  It is raining.  Alice and her dad arrive at the sale.  Will she been reunited with her special book?  Everything about this book is special - the story, the emotional journey undertaken by the book itself and the gentle water colour illustrations.  This book will be one of the first I read to our students this year.

Throughout, Sheban’s soft watercolor illustrations present a warm, cozy depiction of the child’s communion with her cherished book.

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter

The sub-title for The Humming Room states "A novel inspired by The Secret Garden."  I have loved The Secret Garden since I first read it as a young child so I was keen to explore this book by Ellen Potter - I recently read and really enjoyed her book SLOB.

The plot of this book is indeed exactly like The Secret Garden but the setting is quite different and the garden has been inspired by the Amazon rainforest.  Roo Fanshaw is sent to live with her reclusive and mysterious Uncle following the death of her father and step mother. Mr Fanshaw lives on an island called Cough Rock in a building that was once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children.  Roo is told not to go near the west wing. Of course very soon after her arrival she goes exploring and eventually meets Phillip, Mr Fanshaw's sickly son, and a mysterious island boy called Jack.

I picked up this book from my huge reading pile yesterday intending (as I often do) to read a page or two.  Several hours later I lifted my head and let out an enormous sigh of satisfaction.  This is an engrossing and enjoyable book perfect for the middle primary reader.  I would suggest looking for Journey to the River Sea after you read The Humming Room.  Here is a review with a detailed comparison between The Secret Garden and The Humming Room.

Here is scene when Roo first sees the garden :

"The glass dome enclosed what looked like an ancient, brittle jungle.  Dead trees towered up out of the dirt floor.  Their branches were thin, many broken and hanging, trapped with in the spindly arms of other branches.  Thick, ropey vines twisted around the dead trees, climbing up to the very top then tumbling down in thick gray sheets, like grim waterfalls. Clinging to some of the panes on the dome were brown creepers, pressing themselves against the glass as though pleading to be let out. ... It was the saddest and most beautiful place Roo had ever seen"

An homage to a cherished classic that can work as a companion piece or stand alone as a solid, modern tale for young readers in the 21st century.

Waffle Hearts Lena and me in Mathildewich Cove by Maria Parr translated by Guy Puzey

Late last year I attended a Christmas function with Alison Lester as the after dinner speaker (more about her book Sophie Scott goes South soon) and while I was there a friend of mine gave me Waffle Hearts.  This has turned out to be a lovely present.

I liked the look of this little hard cover book straight away.  The textured cloth cover reminded me of books from my long ago childhood and I do find myself drawn to books that have been translated especially books from Scandinavia.  Waffle Hearts is a Norwegian book but oddly one of  two the main characters - Lena is exactly like the famous Swedish character Pippi Longstocking.  Lena also reminds me a little of Violet Mackerel and Gooney Bird Greene.

There are twenty chapters in this volume and each one is a self contained story narrated by her friend Trille. His real name is Theobald Rodrik Danielsen Yttergard but everyone calls him Trille.

"(Lena's) my best friend, even if she is a girl.  I have never told her. I don't dare, as I don't know if I am her best friend. Sometimes I think I am, and sometimes I think I'm not.  It depends.  But I do wonder about it."

Lena is fearless and always on the look out for an adventure.  I think my favourite incident comes in chapter four when Lena decided to re-enact the story of Noah's ark using her Uncle's small fishing boat.  Trille as usual is doubtful this will work but he is a loyal friend and so the pair round up various farm animals, wild animals and even insects in jam jars.  Everything goes smoothly until Lena declares they need a cow.  "In the middle of the gangplank, with the heifer in front of us, we suddenly discovered that the goat was eating the curtains in the cabin.  Lena let out a furious scream, and from that moment everything went wrong ... "

While there are many, many very funny incidents in this story there are also moments of great sadness such as when Aunty Granny - the maker of delicious waffle hearts - dies suddenly and when Lena moves away
and breaks Trille's heart.  Do not worry though the ending of the whole book is so perfect it will make you smile.  I also want to mention the grandfather who is a very special character in this book. He still has the ability to participate in imaginative play and when the parents are away there is great fun to be had.

You might like to read this warm and detailed review.  You can also read an extract from the story here.  There is a television series based on this book but I suspect it is in Norwegian.  As I have done previously with translated books I am including the Norwegian cover here so you can compare it.

The little reindeer by Michael Foreman

I know it seems odd to talk about a Christmas book in January but this one has been on my pile since December.  You might remember we had a little event in our school library over the last twelve days of the school year.  Each day we announced a book for the twelve books (days) of Christmas and one lucky class from our junior grades won the book for the day to read and enjoy.

We had one or two classes who used this time to read a different Christmas book every day. When I asked two students from a Kindergarten class which book they enjoyed the most they did not hesitate and declared everyone loved The Little Reindeer so I bought it home to read.

This is a gentle story about a curious small reindeer who one day wanders into a building and suddenly finds himself wrapped up and placed on Santa's sleigh.  He jiggles around so much he eventually falls out of the sleigh and lands on the roof of a high rise building in New York city.  A small boy finds the little reindeer.  "In a corner of the shed the boy made a straw bed for the reindeer and fetched milk and a whole assortment of cereals.  'Tomorrow we can try lots of different things to eat and see which you like best."  The reindeer is housed with some pigeons and he learns to fly.  By summer he is big enough to give the boy rides around the city.  On one glorious double page we see the boy and reindeer flying over Central Park in autumn with all the trees covered in orange and golden leaves.  When winter returns the little reindeer is needed elsewhere but the boy finds a note :

"Dear Boy,
Thank you for looking after my smallest reindeer.  See you next year.  
Love Santa Claus."

In 2004 an animated version was released.  You can see a tiny extract here.  Read this book with a glass of milk and a peanut butter sandwich.

This gentle tribute to the pleasures of good company has a quiet energy that grows page by page; the farewell packs an emotional wallop.

The Great Nursery Rhyme Disaster by David Conway illustrated by Melanie Williamson

Early in the year I have plans to explore our collection of books about Humpty Dumpty.  Humpty himself is not the main character in The Great Nursery Rhyme Disaster it is Miss Muffet but I think this book might be a fun way to talk about Nursery Rhymes and hopefully revisit old favourites.

Miss Muffet is bored with being in the same old rhyme day after day so she sets off to try out a new rhyme.  Along the way she meets The Grand old Duke of York, Jack and Jill, the mouse who lives by the grandfather clock, Johnny Flynn and Tommy Stout, the dish and the spoon and finally Humpty Dumpty.

This is a typical case of the grass is not greener on the other side of the hill and Miss Muffet eventually finds her way back to her own rhyme only to have the spider side down beside her and frighten her away!

I love the huge colourful illustrations in this book along with the changes of type face and the inclusion of each rhyme.  In my next post I will talk about the Humpty Dumpty books I plan to read to the students this term.

Mr and Mrs Bunny - detectives extraordinaire by Mrs Bunny translated by Polly Horvath illustrated by Sophie Blackall

I am welcoming myself back to my blog after a little absence by talking about Mr and Mrs Bunny - detectives extraordinaire which is one of the funniest books I have read in a long time - not slap stick funny just genuinely witty.  I think the cover shows this will be a terrific book- written by Mrs Bunny herself and translated by the talented Polly Horvath.

Madeline lives in Canada on a small island east of Vancouver Island.  This should be idyllic but her parents are hippies who have lost touch with reality and so the management of their day to day life has fallen on the shoulders of young Madeline. "She became very good at cooking and cleaning and sewing and bookkeeping and minor house-hold repairs. She was the one who changed the lightbulbs.  When only ten she got herself a waitress job part-time at the Happy Goat Cafe."

The plot of this book is so wild and zany it is hard to explain.  Madeline heads off to school on day, making the long trip to Vancouver Island because she does not want to be homeschooled.  Meanwhile Mr and Mrs Bunny (who live alone now that their litter of twelve rabbits have grown up and moved far away. "The closest one was in Australia." ) have decided to move to a new house. Mr Bunny has found the perfect new house with furniture and even a shiny red Smart car.  Meanwhile four foxes have arrived at Madeline's house because they have a code that needs to be deciphered.  Flo and Mildred have a cousin in Ottawa who is an expert at codes.  The foxes need his address.  Sadly Flo and Mildred are so absent minded they have no idea about this.  Madeline would know but she is at school so the foxes kidnap these hapless parents and leave a ransom note.  Now this madcap adventure moves into full swing.  Madeline finds the note, heads off to talk to her uncle but he is in a coma, she bumps into Mr and Mrs Bunny who just that morning have bought some smart fedora's so they can follow their new passion as detectives.

Throughout this book there are very clever references to modern life such as :

"We speak Fox, Marmot, Bird,' said Mrs Bunny.  'You know, the Romance languages.  All bunnies learn those in grade school.  Later we might pick up a little Bear. Some Groundhog and a touch of Prairie Dog.' 'Highly esoteric,' sniffed Mrs Bunny. 'And impractical.  I keep telling him he should take a course in Squirrel."

"He paused so long one of the councilbunnies went out for coffee.  One had time to order a short decaf double shot no whip mocha iced frappuccino to go. ... he had time to change his mind to a venti semi skim soy no sugar caramel macchiato with no whip but double caramel and a reduced-fat skinny poppy seed and lemon muffin, hot, no butter."

"Mrs Bunny paled.  She had been found out!  She wasn't an urbane bunny after all.  She was just another country bunny who had lived on the outskirts of a human town. There was no lower status amongst bunnies."

Here is the author web site which includes some review extracts.  Here is a sixty second book review. I would give this book five out of five stars - rush into your library today!

The sequel has just been published Mr and Mrs Bunny - almost royalty and I hope to buy myself a copy this week.

A wickedly funny ramble. With bunnies.

The Fourth King by Ted Sieger

We have celebrated Christmas in our school library by announcing a book of Christmas every day for the last twelve days - The Twelve Books of Christmas.

One book I sent out to a lucky class was The Fourth King.  Our narrator is the Fourth King himself who has been watching the stars for "the sign that would herald the birth of the King of Kings."  Finally one night King Mazzel (the Fourth King) sees this star so he grabs two special presents - the royal star map and the royal star crystal - and he rushes off to catch up with the other three kings - Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar.

Just as he is getting close a huge storm rages across the desert and Mazzel and his faithful camel Chamberlin are blinded by the sand.  As the winds die down they hear the cries of a young girl.  Our intrepid heroes rush back into the storm to rescue her.  "We headed back into the storm, and there, in its heart, we found a little nomad girl - sand-stung and frightened,. her name blown away by the wind."  They find her family and set off again only to discover they have missed the Three Kings by minutes.

This next part of their journey sees them meeting up with a merchant caravan - hundreds of camels travelling through the desert, lost and with no map.  Naturally Mazzel stops to help "it was quite a detour to their hometown,.  In slow procession, we led the caravan safely out of the desert.  My heart soared: I could still see the star; perhaps we would meet up with the Three Kings after all."

On the third part of the trip as they are resting for the night they hear a sound of tinkling.  It is coming from a small thirsty plant.  Mazzel gives the plant the last of his water. "To our amazement, the plant began to flower, then dropped into my palm a little round fruit that sounded like a bell."

The next obstacle is a huge wall which is being built by child slaves.  Mazzel offers his gift that was intended for the newborn king in exchange for the children's freedom but the rich man takes the star crystal and he will not free the children.  So Mazzel and Chamberlin stay on and help the children with the building.  As a way of saying thank you a  little girl gives them a wooden toy lamb. "It made me smile.  I hid the lamb in my tunic and promised her, that somehow, we would all be free."

This is a religious Christmas story but surely Christmas is a religious time.  The ending will make you smile along with the time you share exploring the joyous and detailed illustration.

Here is a web site about the author with some funny comments about camels.  Here is a detailed review. An animated film was made of this book but it seems to be unavailable.