A Summer Challenge

I’m really beginning to dislike this whole “needing sleep” thing, as it’s getting in the way of all the things I want to do, most notably lately all the books I want to read. Now. I have a pile of books I’ve started and not finished, yet I keep succumbing to the lure of the library. Alas, I drive past it every single work day.

Now, one of those books in my long-abandoned stack is Le avventure di Pinocchio. Yep, in Italian…which may in part explain its unfinished state. And then back at the start of the year I believe I said I wanted to read a book in Spanish this year. I only have a shelf-full to choose from. So when I saw that Ekaterina at In My Book was hosting a challenge to get those of us who aspire to read in other languages to actually do so, I thought I’d better sign up.

The challenge runs from now through the end of August (phew, plenty of time), and asks us to read in a language (or languages) we aren’t fully comfortable in–the ones you have to work at. Well, given how much I’ve forgotten in the 10 years since I actually studied in Italian/13 since I studied Spanish, I think I’m safe there! There are levels: since my goals for the year include Pinocchio and a TBD Spanish title, I’ll aim for Intermediate, two books. She also has a category for films, Subs fan, which I will hopefully participate in as well. Helpfully, Ekaterina is counting short stories and adapted books, so that even beginners may participate.

Ekaterina asks:

What languages do you know? Note: even if you are a beginner, it totally counts! And don’t forget to mention what your mother-tongue is!

Spanish and Italian (based on knowledge of these I find I can sometimes work out a little basic French or Portuguese, but I’ve never studied either), and my mother tongue is English. (American variety.)

What is your history with these languages?

I studied Spanish from 5th through 12th grades in school–my last year we primarily focused on literature and culture. I took one year of Italian at university, knowing I would be spending a semester (four months) in Florence (Firenze), Italy. Alas, the Italians are so accommodating to tourists it could be sometimes difficult to actually practice what little Italian I knew. On the other hand, it proved useful for helping Italian tourists with directions. (True! I don’t think I look the least Italian, but for some reason I must have looked like I knew the way to the nearest McDonald’s/train station/etc.)

Do you use them or are you out of practice?

Rather out of practice, although I do listen to music in both languages. I occasionally read shorts posts online as well, but I’m afraid I’m all too quick to click on Google Translate.

Have you read some books in these languages? Did you like it?

I’ve started books in both. Other than for Spanish class I’ve never finished anything–sometimes it’s just easier to return to the mother-tongue than keep working so hard to read something that’s supposed to be fun.

What are your plans for the challenge?

To actually finish something for once! And maybe begin to recover some of the language skills I’ve lost.

Once I finish up my current stack of library books (I think I”m down to two), I think this challenge will be my next focus. After all, I think it’s going to take some time to get through Pinocchio…

Completed: The Hunger Games Series

The Hunger Games (2008)
Catching Fire (2009)
Mockingjay (2010)
Suzanne Collins, U.S.

Much of my reading March was spent reading Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy for the first time. It was mostly chance that I picked up the first one from the library, but I quickly knew I would be reading all three. I feel like there are so many things that I could mention here as I think about these books. The descriptions of food in Book One—I was struck by the plenty, as related by a narrator who has had a life of meager meals. The references to Roman society, from arena to myth to names. The names as clues to not just home district but to character—looking up many of the real life Roman namesakes for Collins’s characters I was able to accurately guess both the politics and the fates of The Hunger Games versions. But what strikes me most in the end was the violent society depicted and how emotionally impacted I was at the end.

Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences. You can spin it any way you like. Snow thought the Hunger Games were an efficient means of control. [...] But in the end, who does it benefit? No one. The truth is, it benefits no one to live in a world where these things happen.

Mockingjay, Chapter 27

The final pages of Mockingjay were like a punch in the gut. I don’t know why, precisely. Perhaps it was in part the binge of reading I did to finish out the series. Perhaps it was the culmination of the violence in the series—which in a way felt so meaningless in the end. Perhaps it was that through all three books Collins so successfully depicts PTSD among various characters and it is clear by the end that such trauma never truly goes away—and knowing that my second cousin, after two tours in Afghanistan, suffers from it. He carries the bullet that should have killed him, had his enemy’s gun not misfired. Perhaps it is the university acquaintance—my age—who lived through the horrors of Sarajevo when she was just a kid, nine, ten. Never knowing if she would see her friends again, huddling in the basement, afraid. My biggest worry at that age was whether my best friend could come over for my birthday or not. Maja’s story came to mind as I read the final book. Whatever it was, I was so impacted by the closing chapters that my sleep was restless that night, and I found I couldn’t read fiction for a week after.

And I’m forced to wonder: do people really pay attention when they’re reading these? Do they think about this? How possible it could be for us to turn on each other this way? That perhaps we are already Panem?

My—American—society is so violent. Violence permeates us—our entertainment, our values (turning the other cheek is not generally considered a virtue), even our language. Shortly after the Newton school shootings I started paying attention to phrases in American English (at least in American—they are idiomatic; I don’t know if other dialects use them) that may seem innocuous on the surface but come from violent background. An NPR story discussed just the gun-related metaphors. Shoot from the hip. Ride shotgun. Straight shooter. The phrases may have become non-violent in used meaning but they seem to begin to reveal just how deeply aggression pervades culture—and how it is valued.

And perhaps this is why I am so impacted by the darkness in these books. I feel no particular affection for any of the characters, as far as that goes, yet I can find the deaths so tragic, and more easily see how broken the survivors are, rather than the strength that allows them to survive and the hope that allows them to try anew. Rather than being too fantastic, The Hunger Games series seems too realistic.

Completed: The Castle of Otranto, Classics Spin

The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole
1764, England

Eep! Between extra busyness at work (they’re expanding–lots of furniture moving going on), taxes (at points yesterday I  was feeling a bit stabby about the number of forms I had to fill out), and other distractions (books, actually!), here it is a good week after I finished The Castle of Otranto and I’m just now getting around to posting about it. Good thing the family Easter dinner isn’t until this evening…

The Classics Spin challenge proved a very effective means of finally returning to my Classics Club list (and also my Sensation! project for that matter). Lucky number 14 in my case turned out to be the novel considered the earliest Gothic novel, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto.  It is really more a novella, which is a bit fortunate, as I found my reading attention more often directed elsewhere this month.

The Castle of Otranto is the second early (pre-1800) Gothic novel I’ve read (along with Castle Wolfenbach), and so far my impression of the genre–at least these early examples–is that they feel equivalent to today’s bestseller: fast-paced action stories full of unlikely twists and turns and unremarkable prose. Were it not for the archaic vocabulary (more or less difficult depending on one’s familiarity with the language of the era) a reader could zip through these novels in no time. Were it not for The Castle of Otranto‘s status as the first example, I could believe it easily forgotten. True, it might not be fair to compare The Castle of Otranto and Castle Wolfenbach, as the latter was forgotten, assumed a fictional creation of Jane Austen, but I confess I do not find the former any more remarkable or memorable. (Of course, well over a year later, I can still recall Eliza Parsons’s abundance of semi-colons.)

In the preface to the 2nd edition, Walpole claims to be attempting a blend of “two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern. …in short, to make [the characters] think, speak and act, as it might be supposed mere men and women would do in extraordinary positions.” Whether this was a true motive or merely Walpole’s invented justification for creating a supernatural thriller, I do not know, but I find it a stretch to believe his characters “real,” at least as a 21st century reader. Not only are the women angelically good, some of the men are as well. Only the villain of the piece, Manfred, has any sort of complexity, and his motives and actions seem a bit of a stretch (or at least too susceptible to superstition for the 21st century mindset). In some ways, I find it amazing that we’ve ever believed women to be the more emotional of the species–literature seems to abound with men whose passions overtake their reason and Manfred is no exception. Of course, this could just be another example of the 18th/19th century English prejudice against the “exotic” Italian–Otranto is set in Italy (despite some very Germanic sounding names!)–and this is not the first novel I’ve read by an Englishman to portray the Italians as more susceptible to their passions for the worse. I imagine the foreign setting also made the supernatural elements go down easier with Walpole’s original readers.

Regardless of Walpole’s success or failure at realism–which I admittedly likely judge by different standards than his–his creation of a new genre is in do doubt. It is no wonder that Catherine Morland and Isabella Thorpe discussed with such animation their favorites of the day–they are undoubted entertainment. I was merely surprised that the father of them all seems to have so little meat to it.

Completed: Dressed for Death

Dressed for Death
Donna Leon
1994, U.S.

Bellezza of Dolce Bellezza and Ally of Snow Feathers are hosting Venice in February again this year, and although I didn’t have any particular plans for Venetian-set reading this year, I thought it as good an excuse as any to pick up another Commissario Brunetti mystery. This is the third I’ve read, and the third in the series–I’m going in order, but I don’t know if it’s particularly necessary–although, I don’t think I would start with this one. Truthfully, when it comes to most mystery series, and this one is no exception, once you’ve read a few you don’t find much new to say about subsequent entries. However, that won’t keep me from reading more of Leon’s mysteries, for the real appeal of the series is the setting. I’ve only ever spent two days in Venice, but I am transported back every time I pick up a Brunetti story.

Leon’s mysteries don’t seem to tie up neatly the way so many other mystery novels tend to do. It was only reading this one, however, that it dawned on me that this makes them truer to real life than other detective novels. In real life, when a suspect is taken to trial we don’t always know for sure that they are guilty, or we may, but the evidence may not be sufficient. A good lawyer may dismantle the prosecution’s case (or defense’s), allowing the jury to reach a verdict that isn’t actually true, but only as true as they can find it to be based on what they’ve been presented. Most mysteries don’t let us see this, but in Brunetti’s Venice, it is made plain for the reader that real life isn’t clean and neat, that politics and connections may trump truth. It is tempting to think, oh, that’s just Italy, they have all sorts of corruption, but one look at the local news  makes it obvious that I would delude myself to think so. The past few years of local news have been full of political scandal and corruption–to such an extent that the local Democrats actually appointed a Republican to a position that had been made vacant due to an embezzling case (long story). So no, the corruption and messy ends are not unique to Italy.

Also refreshing about the Leon novels, the detective, Commissario Guido Brunetti, doesn’t have a tragic flawed past, isn’t an alcoholic, has a happy family life–in the third book his major personal conflict is whether he will solve the case in time to join his family on vacation. Nor are the cases solved quickly, with some miraculous piece of conclusive evidence or some spectacular deduction on the detective’s part. Grunt work, tedious slogs through piles of papers and computer files, and waiting, waiting, waiting–it somehow strikes me as more likely to be realistic than the TV crime procedurals I spend too much time watching, while not being too graphic or gritty. A series I can happily return to.

Odds ‘n Ends

• I really should have posted earlier this week the results of the Classics Club Spin: number 14 was selected, which means I will be reading The Castle of Otranto. If I get it read (and it’s short, so yay), it will fill the Sensation! project slot for this year.
• Speaking of yearly goals, the above post marks my successful completion of a reading challenge ON TIME! One goal down for the year and it’s only February.

Goin’ for a Spin

It’s been nearly a year since I first create my list for The Classics Club, but I’ve only finished two books off the list. (Plus parts of others.) Time to change that, I think and the Club has offered an excellent incentive in the form of “The Classics Spin.” That is:

Go to your blog.
Pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club List.
Try to challenge yourself: list five you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, rereads, ancients — whatever you choose.)
Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog by next Monday.
Monday morning, we’ll announce a number from 1-20. Go to the list of twenty books you posted, and select the book that corresponds to the number we announce.
The challenge is to read that book by April 1, even if it’s an icky one you dread reading! (No fair not listing any scary ones!)

I found the simplest way to create the list was to first remove the really chunky books (which I couldn’t possibly get through in one month) and then  select 20 using a random number generator–sure enough, fast list & a good mix of books I’ve been avoiding and books I can’t wait to read. In random order:

1. Carpentier, Alego: Kingdom of This World [El reino de este mundo] (1949)
2. Baldwin, James: Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953)
3. Bunyan, John: The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)
4. Morrison, Toni: The Bluest Eye (1970)
5. Smith, Dodie: I Capture the Castle (1940)
6. Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness (1902)
7. Aeschylus (Aiskhulos): Plays
   1. Agamemnon (458 BCE)
   2. The Libation Bearers (458 BCE)
   3. The Eumenides (458 BCE)
8. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isayev: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1952)
9. Joyce, James: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
10. Spark, Muriel: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)
11. Gaskell, Elizabeth: Mary Barton (1848)
12. Rulfo, Juan: Pedro Páramo (1955)
13. Dick, Philip K.: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
14. Walpole, Horace: The Castle of Otranto (1765)
15. Trollope, Anthony: The Warden (1855)
16. Camões, Luís Vaz de: The Lusiad (1572)
17. Verne, Jules: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870)
18. Shakespeare, William: The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1589-91)
19. Tolkien, J. R. R.: The Lord of the Rings (1954-56)
20. Tomasi di Lampedusa, Giuseppe: The Leopard [Il Gattopardo] (1958)

Can’t wait until Monday to find out what I’ll be reading!

Classics of Children’s Literature: The Project!

Can I confess to some relief that it’s February? Reading children’s classics and others’ posts about them was enjoyable, certainly, but it turned out to be a bit time-consuming at just the wrong time for me. I mentioned earlier this year my unexpected new job and the lengthy commute tied to it. On a good day, it takes about 50 minutes to get to work (and the same or a little more to get home). Unfortunately, the weather has been less than cooperative more days than not: snow, fog, rain. Can spring and sun come already?! Also, the work day is over eight hours–I was told that I should average about 44 hours a week depending on work load. The hours are easy to get, actually, but adding it all together, I only have a few hours each day for anything not work related, and it’s easy to fall behind on just about everything. On the other hand, everyone is really nice and gets along well, the work is interesting enough, and the routine fell into place quicker than I expected. Just not much time. I’ve considered formally saying “blog break!” but I don’t think I’ll do that–I just will do a lot more drive-by skimming of other bloggers’ posts and skimp on my own blog. Because, after all, I can’t give up reading. I have a pile of library books next to me now: the library might be on my way home. Oops. One of them, The Princess and Curdie, would even have fit into my January reading theme had it arrived on time (I had to request it). But there’s no blogging rules that just because January is over I have to stop reading children’s classics!

Nor do I want to. I don’t mean to continue in the organized everybody read these books this month fashion, rather in the scatter-shot, get to it when I get to it, but with a plan in the manner of all my many other projects. I believe I’ve gained some readers lately thanks to the Classic Children’s Literature Challenge, so for those who don’t know I really like creating project lists for myself. (And then I generally ignore them–explaining at least one of my goals for the year!) This one is a little different in that I started the project before I generated a complete list, and I’ve been adding titles to it based on the reviews I’ve seen throughout the past month. I won’t say it’s finalized–they never are; all my projects are designed to shrink or expand at my whim–and there is certainly no time-frame attached. This is my longest list to date, other than perhaps my revised Classics Club list, but I’ve already made a nice start on it.

To save space, I left some books (series titles, more recent books) off the list below–the complete list is on the Project Page. When I was researching for this list, I found some interesting-sounding titles which I couldn’t readily find through the library system (which, for me is actually quite extensive–not only do I have easy access to books from a large network of public libraries, but also to many of the books from the many universities in Ohio–yay 21st century technologies!), so unique to this list is some limitation based on what I could or couldn’t get without purchasing. Feel free to offer up comments or suggestions–I’m sure I’ve missed some! If you know of any books from outside of English-speaking countries (available in English), I’m especially interested.

1. Perrault, Charles: Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals [Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé] (1697, France)
2. Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm: Grimm’s Fairy Tales, selections (1812, Germany)*
3. Wyss, Johann David: The Swiss Family Robinson [Der Schweizersche Robinson] (1812, Switzerland)
4. Hoffmann, E.T.A: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King [Nussknacker und Mausekönig] (1816, Germany)
5. Pushkin, Alexander: Fairy Tales (1830-34, Russia)
6. Yershov, Pyotr Pavlovich: The Little Humpbacked Horse (1834, Russia)
7. Anderson, Hans Christian: Fairy Tales, selections (1830s-70s, Denmark)*
8. Ruskin, John: The King of the Golden River (1841, England)
9. Marryat, Frederick: The Children of the New Forest (1847, England)
10. Afanasyev, Alexander: Russian Fairy Tales (1855-63, Russia)
11. Ballantyne, R.M.: The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1858, Scotland)
12. Kingsley, Charles: The Water-Babies (1863, England)
13. Busch, Wilhelm: Max and Moritz (A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks) [Max und Moritz-Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen] (1865, Germany)
14. Dodge, Mary Mapes: Hans Brinker, of The Silver Skates (1865, U.S.)
15. Carroll, Lewis:
    1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865, England)*
    2. Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871, England)*
    3. Sylvie and Bruno (1889, England)
    4. Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893, England)
16. Alcott, Louisa May:
    1. Little Women (Part One) (1868, U.S.)*†
    2. Little Women, Part Second [Good Wives] (1869, U.S.)*†
    3. Little Men (1871, U.S.)*
    4. Jo’s Boys (1886, U.S.)*
17. Macdonald, George:
    1. At the Back of the North Wind (1871, Scotland)
    2. The Princess and the Goblin (1872, Scotland)
    3. The Princess and Curdie (1883, Scotland)
18. Coolidge, Susan: What Katy Did (1872, U.S.)
19. Swell, Anna: Black Beauty (1877, England)
20. Spyri, Johanna: Heidi’s Years of Learning and Travel [Heidis Lehr-und Wanderjahre] (1880, Switzerland)*
21. Ispirescu, Petre: Folktales from Romania (1880s, Romania)
22. Collodi, Carlo: Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storio di un burattino [The Adventures of Pinocchio] (1883, Italy) ¤
23. Pyle, Howard: Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (1883, U.S.)
24. De Amicis, Edmondo: Heart [Cuore] (1886, Italy)
25. Wilde, Oscar: The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888, Ireland)
26. Wilde, Oscar: A House of Pomegranates (1888, Ireland)
27. Turner, Ethel: Seven Little Australians (1894, Australia)
28. Kipling, Rudyard:
    1. The Jungle Book (1894, England)
    2. The Second Jungle Book (1895, England)
    3. Just So Stories (1902, England)
29. Falkner, J. Meade: Moonfleet (1898, England)
30. Grahame, Kenneth: The Reluctant Dragon (1898, England)*
31. Grahame, Kenneth: The Wind in the Willows (1908, England)*
32. Horwood, William: The Willows in Winter (1993, England)‡
33. Nesbit, E.: The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1899, England)
34. Nesbit. E.: The Railway Children (1905, England)
35. Salgari, Emilio: Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem (1900, Italy)
36. Baum, L. Frank: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900, U.S.)*
37. Wiggin, Kate Douglas: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903, U.S.)
38. Barrie, J.M.: Peter Pan (1904, 1911, Scotland)
39. Burnett, Frances Hodgson: A Little Princess (1905, England)*
40. Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Secret Garden (1911, England)*
41. Montgomery, L.M.:
    1. Anne of Green Gables series (1908-39, Canada)*
    2. The Story Girl (1911, Canada)
    3. The Golden Road (1913, Canada)
    4. Emily series (1923-27, Canada)*
    5. A Tangled Web (1931, Canada)*
    6. Jane of Lantern Hill (1937, Canada)
42. Porter, Eleanor H.: Pollyanna (1913, U.S.)
43. Burroughs, Edgar Rice: Tarzan of the Apes (1914, U.S.)
44. Colum, Padraic: The King of Ireland’s Son (1916, Ireland)
45. Colum, Padraic: Legends of Hawaii (1922, Ireland)
46. Lindsay, Norman: The Magic Pudding (1918, Australia)
47. Lofting, Hugh: The Story of Doctor Dolittle (1920, England)
48. Finger, Charles: Tales from the Silver Lands (1924, U.S.)
49. Milne., A.A.: The World of Pooh (1926, 1928, England)∞
50. Mukerji, Dhan Gopal: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon (1928, India-U.S.)
51. Potter, Beatrix: The Fairy Caravan (1929, England)
52. Kelly, Eric P.: The Trumpeter of Krakow (1929, U.S.)
53. Kästner, Erich: Emil and the Detectives [Emil und die Detektive] (1929, Germany)
54. Hergé: The Adventures of Tinitin
55. Ransome, Arthur: Swallows and Amazons (1930, England)
56. Wilder, Laura Ingalls: Little House books (1932-71, U.S.)*
57. Kassil, Lev Abramovich: The Black Book and Schwambrania (1933, USSR)
58. Travers, P.L.: Mary Poppins (1934, England)
59. Fortún, Elena: Celia novelista (1934, Spain)§
60. Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Hobbit (1937, England)*
61. Lakin, Lazar Yosifovych: The Old Genie Hottabych (1937, USSR)
62. Atwater, Richard and Florence: Mr. Popper’s Penguins (1938, U.S.)
63. Bazhov, Pavel: The Malachite Casket (1939, USSR)
64. Volkov, Alexander Melentyevich: The Wizard of the Emerald City (1939, USSR)
65. Blyton, Enid: Five on a Treasure Island (1942, England)
66. Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943, France)
67. Lindgren, Astrid: Pippi Longstocking (1945, Sweden)
68. Buzzati, Dino: The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily [La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia] (1945, Italy)
69. White, E.B.:
    1. Stuart Little (1945, U.S.)*
    2. Charlotte’s Web (1952, U.S.)*
    3. The Trumpet of the Swan (1970, U.S.)*
70. Goudge, Elizabeth: The Little White Horse (1946, England)
71. Goudge, Elizabeth: Linnets and Valerians (1964, England)
72. Jansson, Tove: Finn Family Moonmintroll [Trollkarlens hatt] (1948, Finland)
73. Rybakov, Anatoly: The Dirk (1948, USSR)
74. Henry, Marguerite: King of the Wind (1948, U.S.)
75. Thurber, James: The 13 Clocks (1950, U.S.)
76. Lewis, C.S.: The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-56, Ireland)*
77. Rodari,Gianni: The Adventures of the Little Onion [Il romanzo di Cipollino] (1951, Italy)
78. Gubarve, Vitali Georgievich: Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors (1951, USSR)
79. Taylor, Sydney: All-of-a-Kind Family (1951, U.S.)
80. Norton, Mary: The Borrowers (1952, England)*
81. Green, Roger Lancelyn: King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (1953, England)
82. Green, Roger Lancelyn: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1956, England)
83. Sutcliff, Rosemary: The Eagle of the Ninth (1954, England)
84. Boston, L. M.: The Children of Green Knowe (1954, England)
85. DeJong, Meindertt: The Wheel on the School (1955, Dutch-U.S.)

* Indicates a reread.
† Published in the U.S. since 1880 as a single volume titled Little Women
‡ A recent sequel to The Wind in the Willows
∞ Contains Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner
^ Nonfiction
§ I hope to read in Spanish
¤ I hope to read in Italian

Classic Children’s Literature Challenge: Wrap-Up and Links Post 2

I can’t believe the month is over already, it’s gone by so quickly! A big thank you to everyone who participated this month. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did and found as many new books to add to their lists!

I didn’t get to read quite as much as I’d hoped thanks to the new job, but I guess that’s a good reason to be short on time. There were a lot of good posts and I was introduced to many new books and authors thanks to the event. I want to especially mention Jean’s wonderful series of posts on less well-known children’s authors and illustrators and Arenel’s post on Russian children’s literature, which introduced me to many titles I’d never heard of. Jean also ends the month with one last post, in which she shares some of her favorites authors from after 1960.

If you missed any posts this month, the links for those from the first half are on the Links Post 1 [click] and the second half are below. If I somehow missed you, please add your link(s) in the comments below. If you happen to have a wrap-up post, please feel free to link it below.

Informative Posts from Jean – Howling Frog Books:

Padraic Colum
Walter de la Mare
P. L. Travers
L. M. Boston
Tove Jansson
Roger Lancelyn Green
Rosemary Sutcliff
Edward Eager
Elizabeth Goudge
Homer Price
Eleanor Farjeon
Meindert DeJong

Amateur Reader (Tom) – Wuthering Expectations:

The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling (1894, 1895)

Anastasia – Birdbrain(ed) book blog:

Anne of Avonlea – L. M. Montgomery (1909)

Becky – Becky’s Book Reviews:

The Rackety-Packety House – Frances Hodgson Burnett (1906)
The Real Mother Goose – Blanche Fisher Wright (1916)
Heidi – Johanna Spyri (1880)
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)

Bzee – Bacaan B.Zee:

The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)

Carissa – Musings of an Introvert:

Winnie-the-Pooh – A. A. Milne (1926)

Elyssa – unscripted:

Betsy-Tacy – Maud Hart Lovelace (1940)

Santurini – Reading Buddy:

The Little Water-Sprite [Der kleine Wassermann] – Otfried Preußler (1956)
Pinocchio – Carlo Collodi, Illustrations by Roberto Innocenti (1883)

Sarah – Sarah Reads Too Much:

The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame (1908)
Post on her Children’s Lit Class reading list

The Princess and the Goblin Posts:

Anastasia – Birdbrain(ed) book blog
Rachel – Resistance is Futile
Amanda – Simpler Pastimes