While waiting around for my daughter’s pottery class to finish one Saturday afternoon, I dropped in to one of my favorite used book stores in Winnipeg called Nerman’s. Their basement is chock full of children’s books and to my delight, I discovered an Eva Ibbotson title, Not Just a Witch (Macmillan, 1989. Illustrated by Alice Englander.) When I showed it to my daughter, a self-proclaimed Ibbotson fan, she was delighted.
With her characteristic offbeat humor, Ibbotson introduces us to another wacky world of witches and mythical creatures that don’t quite fit the stereotype. The story begins with two witch friends, Dora and Heckie who, on their graduation from their witch academy, have a falling out over the fact they have unwittingly chosen the same hat (one with serpents, of course) for their graduation party. The two part company and the story then follows the adventures of Heckie as she settles in a small town called Wellbridge.
We’re not all the way through the book yet, but my daughter insists upon being read from Not Just a Witch every night and I am enjoying this one as much as I have the other Ibbotson titles I’ve read with her. (See my other PT posts on Ibbotson here and here.) Do you have a favorite author whose books you and your child enjoy reading together? Do tell!
Just a few weeks ago, I did a short post on the recently deceased children’s writer Eva Ibbotson. I picked up a few of her books at my local library, and became instantly engrossed in one of them, so much so, that it became my bedtime read, rather than my daughter’s! That book was Journey to the River Sea (Macmillan, 2001). Set a hundred years ago near the turn of the century, the story features a young orphaned girl, Maia, who is sent on a journey from England to distant relatives, the Carters. The Carters live on a rubber plantation on the banks of the Amazon river near the city of Manaus. Maia is accompanied by a governess, Miss Minton, who must not only educate Maia, but the twin daughters of the Carters, Beatrice and Gwendolyn.
Maia is intrigued by the adventure that lies ahead of her. She is fascinated in particular by the Amazon River and is eager to experience this new part of world. She and Miss Minton board the RMS Cardinal and make the journey across the ocean to South America. While on board, Maia befriends a young boy actor named Clovis, who has been ‘adopted’ by the Goodleys. The Goodley’s run a theatre troupe and plan to stage Little Lord Fauntleroy at the Manaus Theatre with Clovis as the lead. Maia promises Clovis that she will do her best to meet up with him once they arrive at the city.
Now, rather then give you any more of the story, I insist you get out the book. Suffice it to say, the Carters are not quite the family Maia expects and she has many more adventures once she arrives at their house. I found Journey to the River Sea to be a riveting and captivating read. The characters are fully developed and dynamic; the jungle and plantation setting marvelously evoked, and the unfolding of the story’s event evenly paced. I kept thinking to myself what a marvelous movie this would make, but of course, as a story in a book, it is also quite fine as it is. If you are reading chapter books to your children, I’d certainly recommend this one to keep both mother and child entertained. Or, as in my case, simply ‘mother’ entertained!
In the new issue of PaperTigers, poet Debjani Chatterjee gives a list of poetry books in the Personal Views section entitled Borderless World: Multicultural Poetry for Children and Young Adults. I found one of her suggestions at my local library. It was Around the World in Eighty Poems selected by James Berry and illustrated by Katherine Lucas (Macmillan Children’s Books, 2001.) This wonderful book contains 80 poems of differing forms and origins. A map at the beginning of the book shows where all the poems come from, and the poems are organized in the following index by their culture of origin.
My daughter and I have been reading this book together. Since poetry is a short form, I like to have my daughter read the poems to me. She sometimes takes issues with the metaphors; often she is quite literal in her interpretations, and yet other times she enjoys the sounds of the poem or the subject (of course, she picked a poem “All the Dogs” to read as dogs are her current obsession!) I liked the way we browsed through the book together, looking at the illustrations and titles to figure out which poem we wanted to ‘encounter.’ Poetry books are special that way; they are not necessarily meant to be read in a linear fashion. A poet I once read, talked about poems in a book being like pictures in a gallery — the poems are self-contained units of art meant to be appreciated in a singular way as one would gaze on a painting. Around the World in Eighty Poems is the kind of collection one can browse through and select accordingly. Katherine Lucas’ illustrations in soft dreamy pastels supplement the poems beautifully.
Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Liz at Liz in Ink.
While waiting around for my daughter’s pottery class to finish one Saturday afternoon, I dropped in to one of my favorite used book stores in Winnipeg called Nerman’s. Their basement is chock full of children’s books and to my delight, I discovered an Eva Ibbotson title, Not Just a Witch (Macmillan, 1989. Illustrated by Alice Englander.) When I showed it to my daughter, a self-proclaimed Ibbotson fan, she was delighted.