Deb Nance
James Mustich in 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die writes, “Except for the Bible, it's hard to imagine a book so rooted in our collective subconscious as the Grimms' Children's and Household Tales...” and I think that is true. It was the Grimms brothers who first collected and edited such stories as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Rumplestiltskin. This is a collection everyone should read.
I checking out Half Magic from the library at school when I was young, maybe seven or eight. I took it home and read it cover to cover that night; I couldn't wait to go back to the library and see what else was on the shelf by this author. I'm not sure if our library had all seven books in the series, but I definitely found Knight's Castle and at least two more of the Eager books—these were my favorite books for many years, and I still feel a sense of delight at rereading them sixty years later.
Knight's Castle is the story of the children of the children in Half Magic, cousins who are unexpectedly and unwillingly thrown together when a parent is hospitalized. The children are given some wonderful toys to occupy themselves during this difficult time, and the favorite toy is quickly found to be an enormous toy castle. One of the children, Roger, has brought his soldiers from home with him, and it is one of the toy soldiers, an old family possession, that first shares magic with the children.
I loved Half Magic and I loved Knight's Castle when I first read them, but rereading them as a grownup is an even richer, more fun experience.
And I am off...off for a year of Oz.
Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle will start a readalong of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. The Book Stop, home of a fellow Oz fan, will be joining Lory as co-host.
There are 14 books, and the plan is to start in December and read in published order through January of 2025.
If you're not up for such a commitment, though, there will be a stopping point at the end of the first six books. Baum actually tried to end the series here — he wanted to write other things — but his fans wouldn't let him, so he reluctantly went back to writing an Oz book a year till the end of his life. The later books have some good parts, but the first six are probably the strongest. You'll get a good taste of Oz that way, even if you don't go further.
It's not necessary to read all of them, or read them in order. Feel free to dip in as you wish.
There will be a monthly post on each book, at The Enchanted Castle or at The Book Stop or both, and a roundup of any posts that are shared with us. #Ozathon24 is the hashtag for sharing.
Part I: Essential Oz Adventures
December, 2023: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
January, 2024: The Marvelous Land of Oz
February, 2024: Ozma of Oz
March, 2024: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
April, 2024: The Road to Oz
May, 2024: The Emerald City of Oz
Part II: Further Journeys in Oz
June, 2024: The Patchwork Girl of Oz
July, 2024: Tik-Tok of Oz
August, 2024: The Scarecrow of Oz
September, 2024: Rinkitink in Oz
October, 2024: The Lost Princess of Oz
November, 2024: The Tin Woodman of Oz
December, 2024: The Magic of Oz
January, 2025: Glinda of Oz
An online book club chose Finding Dor0thy. Then our film club picked Wizard of Oz. It seemed like a good time to reread The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
If you are a fan of the movie, you will find little to disturb you. Some scenes in the movie have been condensed from the book (the witch makes four attempts to secure the four wanderers before succeeding in the book, rather than the one in the movie) and the trip to visit the good witch after the departure of the wizard is omitted completely in the movie, and, of course, the beginning and ending scenes in Kansas are a completely fabrication in the movie, but the movie has generally stayed true to the book.
I think children will still find the book captivating.
Yes, you are reading correctly: F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's the story of a man who was born old and grew younger and younger as time passed. A little story, well told.
Forget everything you think you know about writing. Throw all the information you've obtained in school about how to write. All of that is useless. Writing doesn't come from your logical, thoughtful brain. It's really out of your control and it's only when you let go of that control that you can write.
And, thus, my difficulty.
Timeless stories of the friendship of two very different fellows, Frog and Toad. Highly recommended.
Timeless stories of the friendship of two very different fellows, Frog and Toad. Highly recommended.
Max the cat is on the attack. Fish, the dog, shoestrings, socks...what will Max attack next?
A fun story of Max on the prowl.
Wakawakaloch hates her name. It's a name everyone has trouble with. It's a name people make fun of. It's a name she can never find on a t-shirt. Then a wise one suggests she learn the history of her name and she suddenly has new respect for her complex name.
It's a fun look at names and the difficulties we have with them.
My Place depicts a neighborhood in Australia and its changes over time. Wheatley starts with present day (or, rather, what was present day when the book was first published) and moves back ten years for each two page spread. I, like most Americans, know absolutely nothing about the world outside the U.S. of A. so almost all the historical events depicted in this book were new to me. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed taking a small trip through a small part of Australia with Wheatley and Rawlins. Well done.
A boy is waiting for the sap to run. Then it will be sugaring time.
He's waiting.
And waiting.
And then his tooth is loose.
And he's waiting for that, too.
Bindu loves her bindis and she loves her Nani, and she especially loves to match her Nani. It's hard for Bindu to face up to opposition and intolerance that she sometimes meets because of her culture, but Nani does it well and Bindu finds herself following her Nani's lead.
A story that is steeped in cultural pride and courage to face and overcome intolerance.
I love A.J. Jacobs and I was very happy to see that he has written a new book. In the past, Jacobs has written what I call challenge books; Jacobs sets a challenge for himself and has tried to accomplish his goal. In the past, Jacobs has tried to be as healthy as possible; improve himself by following others' advice; become the smartest person in the world; follow the Bible literally. In Thanks a Thousand, Jacobs sets out to thank anyone who had anything to do with his morning cup of coffee. This turns out to be a herculean task; Jacobs ends up finding that he needs to thank virtually everyone in the world.
It's a fun and (somewhat) inspiring book about the power of gratitude on one's happiness. I think Jacobs is actually a slightly less snarky person after this experiment.
A wordless graphic novel, The Arrival is the story of a man who leaves his family to work in the big city of a foreign land. The pictures show a place both familiar and strange, people both familiar and strange, objects both familiar and strange. That combination of familiarity and strangeness created a feeling of fascination in this reader that kept me reading (Reading? Is that the word for figuring out the story from the pictures without text?) to the end. A brilliant book. A must-read.
James Herriot shares stories of his time in the RAF during WWII. He often uses these as springboards to times he spent as a vet.
If you are a wanna-be writer, you will do well to read these stories and listen to a master storyteller at work.
A group of animals ride together down a river, learning how much they need the things that others have to offer.
It's a wonderful story told with lovely repetition, and which culminates in a glorious spill over a waterfall with everyone relying on everyone else.
The story of the life of Vincent Van Gogh is ideal for a graphic novel, I think, and this is that story. Vincent never fit in, not with his family or his friends, and that soon becomes obvious in this book. His brother faithfully supports him, nevertheless, as Vincent travels to Provence where he finds great inspiration. Art about art.
Nobody can tell you how to do it.
They can tell you how they did it.
They can share stories of their attempts to write, good and bad.
But, honestly, after reading five books about writing this year, including this one by a very good writer, a knowledgeable writer, I say that nobody can tell you how to do it.
Ray Bradbury suggests that you, as he has done, should write a lot and write with passion. Try that if you wish. And if it works for you, good. If not, try someone else and test out their ideas.
Henry Brown is enslaved from birth, forced to work in a tobacco processing factory. He meets Nancy as a young man and the two slaves marry and have children together. And then Nancy's owner sells her and her children. Henry Brown never sees his family again. It motivates Brown to escape, and he has the idea to box himself up and mail himself to a free state. And so he does.
A story of courage and inspiration.
As a young child, Edward Eager was my favorite author. There was a lovely shelf of Edward Eager books in my school library, and I couldn't wait each week to pick a new one. This was one of the weaker ones in the series, I thought. Still I couldn't resist reading this book again when I found a copy in my Little Library this week.
It's the story of two sets of cousins, each set the children of one of the original four children in Half Magic, now, of course, adults. They go to stay with an elderly woman by the seashore and meet a frog in a magical thyme garden. The children learn they can travel through time with the thyme. (Clever, right?)
It will never be my favorite Edward Eager, but I did find I enjoyed it a little better this time.
Daddy sights a weed in his yard, but his daughter sees it first and falls in love with the little flower. What is Daddy to do? Told with exuberance, this is a little story of perception and tolerance and love, with a perfect ending.
A girl and her grandmother want to rent out the apartment over their store, but it's such a run-down space that no one wants it. Then the girl finds a way to promote the apartment to just the right couple, and there is a new feeling of companionship there.
A gentle story of friendship and the subtle nudges that get us where we need to be.