Tuesday 30 December 2008

Margot's List

I love children's books and so had a hard time narrowing down my list. I'm committing to the following books:
  1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  2. Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
  3. On The Banks of Plum Creek by Loura Ingalls Wilder
  4. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
  5. Heidi by Johanna Spyri
  6. One of The Bobbsey Twins books  
  7. Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
  8. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
  9. Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
  10. Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey
  11. Twenty One Balloons by William Pene du Bois
I'll post my reviews as soon as I complete them. Come visit me in the meantime. 

Monday 29 December 2008

My list!

  1. Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
  2. Stuart Little by E.B. White
  3. Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards
  4. The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban
  5. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
  6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Sunday 28 December 2008

The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

Title: The Dark Is Rising
Author: Susan Cooper
Pages: 267
Publisher: Puffin
Synopsis:
From Amazon: 'This night will be bad and tomorrow will be beyond imagining. It's Midwinter's Eve, the day before Will's eleventh birthday. But there is an atmosphere of fear in the familiar countryside around him. This will be a birthday like no other. Will discovers that he has the power of the Old Ones, and that he must embark on a quest to vanquish the terrifyingly evil magic of the Dark. '
This book has been one of my favourites since I was a child.
It is the second novel in Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series, and the one I enjoyed the most.
Will Stanton is the seventh son of a seventh son, and an Old One, one of those who protect the world against the forces of darkness.
Newly awakened on Midwinter's day, he must find the 6 signs and keep the dark Rider at bay.
Interweaving pagan mythology, traditional winter and Christmas customs into a great story, Susan Cooper keeps us spell bound.
A great novel.

Please note - last year a film was made with the same title. Although loosely based on the novel, it is nothing at all like it. The film was a huge disappointment.

Saturday 27 December 2008

Vasilly's picks

Hey, Everyone! Here are my five picks:

1. Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret - Judy Blume
2. Where the wild things are - Maurice Sendak
3. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
4. The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
5. Alexander and the terrible horrible, no good, very bad day - Judith Viorst

Friday 26 December 2008

OLD YELLER


This is taken from the first page of the book:

We called him Old Yeller. The name had a sort of double meaning. One part meant that his short hair was a dingy yellow, a color that we called "yeller" in those days. The other meant that when he opened his head, the sound he let out came closer to being a yell than a bark.

I remember like yesterday how he strayed in out of nowhere to our log cabin on Birdsong Creek. He made me so mad at first that I wanted to kill him. Then, later, when I had to kill him, it was like having to shoot some of my own folks. That's how much I'd come to think of the big yeller dog.

He came in the late 1860's, the best I remember. Anyhow, it was the year that Papa and bunch of other Salt Licks settlers formed a "pool herd" of their little separate bunches of steers and trailed them to the new cattle market at Abilene, Kansas.

Travis, Arliss and ma came to love Old Yeller. And in turn Old Yeller protected them that summer. This book brought back lots of wonderful memories for me. If you have never read this book, You Should!!

Thursday 25 December 2008

Sherrie's Book choices

These are my choices for the Childhood Favorites Reading Challenge. I am really looking forward to doing this challenge. I loved reading as a child and I loved reading all the classics, well, now they are classics! I have started this challenge with Old Yeller. I have seen the movie and cried my eyes out, hope I don't do that with the book!

Sherrie's Book Choices

1. Old Yeller - Fred Gipson
2. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
3. Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
4. Treasure Island - Robert Louse Stevenson
5. Swiss Family Robinson - Johann David Wyss
6. Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

Saturday 20 December 2008

Lynda's book choices

Hi
I'm aiming to read 10 books for this challenge:

Not Scarlet But Gold by Malcolm Saville (if I can find a copy)
Red Shift by Alan Garner
The Dark Is Rising ( by Susan Cooper
The Owl Service by Alan Garner
Green Eggs and Ham ( by Dr. Seuss (I loved this as a child and still have it on my shelves)
Mary Jones and Her Bible by Mary Carter
Little Women by Louisa M Alcott
The Tale of Peter Rabbit ( by Beatrix Potter
a Secret Seven book by Enid Blyton
a Famous Five book by Enid Blyton

I'll be starting with The Dark is Rising on the 21st December - as it takes place over winter solstice and Christmas.

I'm really looking forward to reliving some of my childhood reading memories!

Friday 19 December 2008

Childhood Favourites Reading Challenge


Hi

Welcome to the Childhood Favourites Reading Challenge

The challenge runs from 21st December 2008 - 21st June 2009
(winter solstice to summer solstice)



I've decided to host this challenge as I've been intending to read some of the books I loved as a child for ages.
What better excuse than to challenge myself to read some.

The 'rules':
1. Read a minimum of 5 books which you loved as a child.
Anything from Dr.Seuss and Beatrix Potter to Water Scott - you choose your favourites.
They must be books you read as a child, not new children's books
2. Start this challenge on or after 21st December 2008. Finish by 21st June 2009
You therefore have 6 months to complete
3. Join the challenge by emailing me at holisticknitter(at)uk2(dot)net, and you will receive an invitation to post.
4. Post your choices here and / or on your blog
You can choose in advance or pick as you go along
5. Cross overs with other challenges, audio books, eBooks all acceptable.

That's it.
Have fun, and enjoy those childhood memories!