A Cobwebby poem

Cobwebs can be magical things. The glittery strands you can see an early morning often seem to be out of this world...like as if maybe faeries really do exist.

Sometimes you find old treasures hidden in old, dusty shops - this little book with nature poems for children truly is more than it looks ♥

A Peculiar teaser

Sometimes you see a book that has such a colourful and fantastic cover that you simply must have it. This is one of those books.

"The Peculiar", as it is called, is indeed a peculiar book, although the creature the title references to is so much more.

As a creature of two worlds, Bartholomew is hated by both. This story begins the day he got himself noticed - which, he knew, he ought not to be. The wise saying of the area he lives in clearly states:    

"Don't get yourself noticed and you won't get yourself hanged."

Now what? Next thing he knows he has to flee for his life - and gets himself tangled up in a sinister plot where he must gather all the courage he can to try to set things right... before it is all quite too late.

My teaser:

"You didn't simply go places. It was unwise to leave the house, dangerous to go into the street, but it was mind-bogglingly foolish to venture out of the faery slums. Bartholomew had not needed to be mind-bogglingly foolish until very recently."

pp. 268 

"The Peculiar" by Stefan Bachmann

I enjoyed the story, and I am eager to get home so I can start on the second and possibly last book, "The Whatnot". I might even treat myself to the short-story collection Bachmann has made in collaboration with a few other authors.


More teasers:
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Should Be Reading

A new game, anyone?

Source

Children of the Lamp - a tiny teaser

I was leafing through the first book of The Children of the Lamp-series, The Akhenaten Adventure, the other day. I wanted to share this quote/teaser with you as it truly is one of my favourites of all time.

Perhaps I might even get these words printed and put up on the wall back home one of these days... That is something worth considering, for sure.

"Welcome to my house," he said. "Enter freely of your own will and be sure to leave behind some of the happiness you bring to it."

by P. B. Kerr, p. 82

A little peek for you

The Akhenaten Adventure by P. B. Kerr

I hope you all had a great weekend!

More teasers:

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Should Be Reading

A New Year's Wish

                              ... for each and every one of you!

Source

I found this in a wonderful book called The Akhenaten Adventure many years ago. I remember falling in love with many a passage in the book, and here is one of my favourites:

"May you get all your wishes except one, so you'll still have something to strive for."

There is a next line in the wish, too, and I have already posted that in this blog post from a while back.

It is somewhat strange that we have once more turned a full circle - that we will, in a few hours, stand at the beginning of a new year. I have turned the last page in my diary, and so, tomorrow, I will start all over again from scratch. Many good things have happened this year. Many sad. Hundreds of memories have been made, and most of them shared with someone special. I try not to take things for granted. I am grateful for the past and still curious of the future. I am loved, too. A lucky girl, all things considered.

I wish you all  A Happy New Year.  I do hope you will experience the greatest year yet. I have faith in you finding happiness in a great many little things. Be well. Be loved ❤

An excerpt from The Akhenaten Adventure

The awe of a book collection

Source

Would you like a cup of tea?

Tea, travels and cats - this movie kind of reminds me of Alice in Wonderland!

A scene from "The Cat Returns"

The Butterfly Ball

...and the Grasshopper's Feast

Alluring colours and shapes!

This is a children's book that is all about rhyme. It tells the story of different insects and critters with curious names that gathers for a ball. They are all quite dressed up in their finest - and whether it is elegant, pretty or scary, they all have a role to play.

This might come across as a girl's book, but rest assured - there are quite a few of these mysterious creatures that are just as fitting for a little boy. The rhymes are witty and rolls off the tongue with ease. You might even say they are marching away of their own accord!

You want an invitation?

Here you go!
"The pleasure of your company is requested"

The teaser I am giving you today comes from the first page:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"As night turns to dimness and draws back its curtain, 

Stars, those bright sequins, now all disappear,           

As dimness grows radiant, dawn makes it certain      

That butterfly weather, quite perfect, is here;"               

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look at Mr. Grasshopper with his top hat and cane - dashing, indeed!

If you want to know the rest of the story - and how the party goes - run and get a copy for yourself. This book, written by Alan Aldridge and William Plomer, is a peculiar and most wonderful addition to your collection!


More teasers?
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Should Be Reading

The Merlin Dance always makes me smile

One cannot have too many books, right?

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Silence in the library?

This image is made by Anna-Marie Jung. I just love it!

Look at those ninjas!

More of her work at http://www.threadless.com/made/anna-maria-jung

Pink Panther, you say?

I loooove Pink Panther! I have a Pink Panther at home - a plush toy that is two years older than me. Or, rather, came into the family two years before I did. I got him when I was born and he has followed me around ever since. He looks like an old friend, I would say - a bit worn-out and thin, but still cozy. His current home is in my library, on one of the top shelves so he has a good view - you know, old friends do deserve a good view.

During a visit at my grandma's a few days ago I suddenly saw this (!) on TV! Simply marvellous, do you not think so? I should probably frame this. I do not often get to see Pink Panther animations, but I cannot really recall having seen him reading much? So even though these are only letters of his I still jumped to attention and got this snap-shot real quick:

Pink cuteness!

I really ought to add a picture of my own Pink Panther as well, but that will have to wait for some other time as I am not at all anywhere near home at the moment.

Is it too much to hope that these will come in books one day, you think?

Look what is waiting for me at home!

A couple of days ago this arrived in the mail back home. My boyfriend was so kind as to take this picture and send it to me. I am ever so excited! Look at all these lovely books - my newest additions ♥ Cannot wait to get home so I can sit down and read them!

Chu's Day by Neil Gaiman
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce

Which books made it into your last book haul? x

A Raven Mystery-teaser

Tonight I picked up one of the books I got when I was in London. This one is a book for younger readers aging 8 to 12 or thereabouts, but the hilarious characters and the quirkiness of it got me really enjoying it.

The storyteller is an old, curious and intelligent raven - who for obvious reasons is having troubles communicating the dangers that lurk around the castle to everyone living there (and who are not quite normal people, mind you). As you well can imagine this leads to funny situations...and a lot of flapping and stalking about.

The raven refers to himself as "my feathery self" and flicks his beak to convey self-composure and elegance when he is rather in fact a bit unsteady at times due to either clumsiness or his old age. I really cannot be sure. He notoriously breaks out of his cage. He has a weekness for the girl of the house - perhaps due to her black hair which reminds him of his late mrs. At one point he applauds himself when he lands on the back of a chair "at only [his] second attempt" after swooping across a hall! The bird even has a sassy tongue (or sassy thoughts, rather) with opinions and contemplations to complete the picture you just have to love.

Now, over to my teaser:

" Castle Otherhand is home to all sorts of oddballs, lunatics and fruitcakes. It's just as well for all of them that they have a secret weapon: he's called Edgar. " 

Flood and Fang by Marcus Sedgwick

I have not yet finished the book, but it is an easy read. It even contains little illustrations of the raven and the things he gets up to. All in all, this book is well worth your time - and if you happen to have a child I am sure he or she would love sharing it with you. Perhaps this is a perfect read-aloud?


More teasers:
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Should Be Reading

Butterfly wings...?

From Pinterest

❤ snow

A little Narnia-resemblance, perhaps?

Winnie the Pooh

I love Winnie the Pooh. Such a simple way of living. All that matters are his friends and enough honey - being content with little things. This particular phrase summs it up nicely:

If I get children one day, I will make sure to read them some books with Winnie the Pooh and his friends! They are utterly adorable.

Manga

Recently a friend came around for dinner and a cup of tea. After chatting for a while about books, travels and all sorts of things and generally enjoying ourselves, we came upon the subject of movies. We figured we could watch one with some snacks and - yep, you guessed it - another cup of tea, as we had no particular plans for the next day. After looking through my collection, we found "The Last Airbender". Upon seeing this, she remarked that she had the whole animated series on her laptop, and that we could watch this if I wanted to. Sure I did!!! We had a blast. We sat there for hours laughing and having fun. I love the series.

Now, my sis and my youngest brother have been reading Manga online for some time - I was not even aware you could do that before they showed me. I have never thought about it. It seems like there is a lot of nice stuff in the "Manga"-world worth reading. This is definitely something I have to look into - or perhaps just take the easiest way and pop by a secondhand bookstore...! Just another excuse to do so, right?

Anyway, I came upon this picture today - and I really wanted to share it with you (which is what inspired this post in the first place). I think it is really pretty.

http://alexandrecdebruijn.wordpress.com/category/andre-c/page/2/

The Joys of Summer Vacation

It has been years since the last time I was back home during the summer months. Since we bought our house in the south of Norway, my family has been visiting us instead for a couple of weeks each summer. This time, however, it is the other way around. Which is nice. I have been looking forward to spending the days outside in the sun with a book, quarreling a tiny bit with my brothers and sister (just for old times sake), visiting my grandparents, catching up with friends, meeting my godson again and so on. There are some new family members to get to know and a new little hut to visit with friends. My boyfriend will enjoy fishing with his dad and I will watch some movies with my mum and sister. Now, we are supposed to do some work on my parents' house as well - but hey, that can prove fun, too!

A quite different task that is awaiting me back home is sifting through my boxes... My mum recently excavated a lot of stuff from the storage room that we are now going to redecorate. I sincerely mean "excavated", because oh my! was there a lot of stuff in there! She found my mineral collection, boxes with (for the moment) unidentifiable items, heaps of random stuff and...my childhood books!

My mum always read a lot for us when we were kids. So, obviously, we do have a lot of children's books. I love them all dearly, so I am bringing a lot of them with me to my house. This summer I am hoping to find the most treasured ones, too: There are two children's books I remember distinctly from when I was very little - they were my all-time favourites. When I was about ten years old, we moved house. As I was rather through with reading them at this age, I packed them down in a box - and I have never seen them again. Quite the mystery. Surely, they have to be in one of my boxes somewhere? I do hope I will find them. Fingers crossed!

You guys might remember them from your childhood? One was a Postman Pat book, and the other one a Norwegian Trolls' book:

"Trolls" by Rolf Lidberg - I love the pictures!

Two weeks will pass too quickly, I predict, so it will be time to head home before I know it. Luckily my family will join us in our home for a whole third week. It will be a good summer!

Oh, by the way - I have brought these books with me as my holiday reads - hopefully there will be plenty of happy reading moments in the days ahead ♥



"One day" by David Nicholls



What are you bringing with you on your summer vacation?



"The Little Giant of Aberdeen County" by Tiffany Baker