Just like a fairy tale

Fairy tales are so hot right now...even if Snow White does have a taste for forbidden fruit. Never trust a girl who flats with seven guys.
 
There's Once Upon a Time, Camelot and Grimm on TV, not to mention two Snow Whites on the screen, and a whole crop of Beauty and the Beasts.

In honour of this trend, I have hunted down some of the latest titles based on fairy tales. Sorry if it's a bit girly, this one - but if there are any males out there in cyberspace, try the Fables or Grimm Fairy Tales series. There's plenty for guys in graphic format! And Jim Butcher's Small Favour has a fantastic showdown with some oversized Billy Goats Gruff. If you haven't read his Dresden Files series yet, DO. This from someone who seldom reads fantasy, but I recognise great story and characters when I see them.

Moving on, every girl secretly wants a fairy tale ending  (unless it's a Hans Christian Andersen one, or you're the witch). So this is for you.

What does colour feel like?

I know, it seems a little odd to "feel" a colour, just bear with me.

Colour the stars by Dawn McMillan (author) and Keinyo White (illustrator) opens with :

Isaac and Luke sat together on the stream bank, the water washing over their feet, the bush standing guard behind them.

"Do you know about colours, Luke?" asked Isaac.

Think about that seemingly simple question : "Do you know about colours?".

How do you "know" colour? Do you "know" a colour by how something is visually represented? Do you "know" a colour by how it makes you feel when you see it? Do you "know" a colour by how something of a particular colour smells? Do you "know" what colour something is by the way it sounds?

[spoiler alert -- stop reading now if you don't want to know the story's twist]

What does colour mean to a blind person? In this story, Luke is blind. He says that he doesn't really know what people mean when they talk about colours, but that it is okay because he doesn't need colours.

The friendship between the two boys is key here, Isaac wants to share with Luke that colours aren't just visual, they are a feeling. Together they explore what colour feels like. For instance, if I said "sunshine", what colour do you think of?

Two highlights of this story for me are : the way in which Isaac explains the colour red, and then when Isaac explains about stars, "tiny pieces of yellow [...] against the black", Luke says quietly that he knows what black is. I got goosebumps.

Then Isaac shuts his eyes, and he realises that the world isn't just about colours, it is also about listening and sounds, and about the feelings that link in with those sounds. Luke responds that in his world, this is how it is, filled with sounds and feelings.

For me, this picture book is a great example of how an author's words meld perfectly with an illustrator's representation of the story. The author has written a story of two boys' friendship, and the illustrator has captured the sensations of this story perfectly.

Get hold of a copy of this book (it's available in English and Te Reo Māori), read it to a child you love, and then start a discussion about what colour "feels" like to them, it might surprise you with what you learn. 

5 books with WHAT ON EARTH titles

"Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."
― Rick Riordan

Wrong. Almost everything strange ends up on a bookshelf in a library near you. Book titles. We have them by the bucketload, and some of them are bound to have titles that raise your eyebrows. I randomly came across Crap dates : disastrous encounters from single life by Marsden, which is the image attached to this intro. I thought it would be funny. It seemed like it would be funny. While some of the experiences are, just as many are sad and (even if you don't squint) an outright declaration of sexual kinks on the first date. (Some within the first few minutes, actually). It did make me wonder what other kind of strange titles we have and, a few weird, deliberate searches later, I had THIS LIST: 5 books with WHAT ON EARTH titles!

What strange/wonderful titles have you come across on our shelves?

Found in translation

So you've discovered Scandinavian crime fiction. Thank you, Stieg Larsson.
You've since read everything by Henning Mankell, Camilla Lackberg and Jo Nesbo, and now you're wanting to vary your diet of Nordic red herring. Time to seek out some new pastures. Fiction in translation has never been hotter - even if it's been around for ages. Don Quixote was published in 1605, The 1001 Nights (otherwise known as the Arabian Nights) was translated in 1706, and the Decameron in about 1350. Children have been in on it for years. There's Heidi (Swiss), Pippi Longstocking (Swedish), The Neverending Story (German), The Little Prince (French), oh, and anything about Asterix, Babar, Tintin and those funny little Moomins from Finland. These days you can't move for graphic novels out of Japan or Korea. Face it, your kids are more cosmopolitan than you are - even Geronimo Stilton's native cheese is mozzarella. So, here's a little list to impress your friends with your grasp of culture. There's a fabulous world of literature out there, if you just have a map.

Oh No It's Raining Again

Given the weather at the moment it seemed fitting to start things off with a Supertramp song especially since its been rattling around in my head for the past few days (don't you just hate that when it happens).

As a kid I loved the rain and would sit for hours watching it fall, thinking deep thoughts. Of course I was only about 6 at the time so those deep thoughts were probably about what was for tea that night and what seemed like hours were probably only a few minutes but at the time the rain was a comforting presence that held me in fascination.

Nowadays it has lost much of its appeal and like many I am beginning to wish it would just go away. One of the good things, though, is that you have a good excuse to curl up in bed with a good book and a hot cup of chocolate and wile away the hours in the world of imagination, so really the rain gives me a reason to read even more. There are also plenty of great movies and music that I can watch or listen to that help push those rainy day blues away.

So if you're looking for something to put you in that summery mood why not try some of the following.