golden op-shop moments

For months I have been driving past a secondhand bookshop on my way to visit a friend. It was a big old rundown looking place, and somehow didn't appeal. But this week I had a bit of time on my hands so decided to have a look. It turned out to be a bookish girl's dream come true. It literally had books bursting out of it. Room after room of books from floor to ceiling, in a great big messy jumble. It was a fluke to find things, but that somehow made the find all the more satisfying. I'm determined to collect all the books I read when I was young, and I found some real keepers here.

It reminded me just how important it is to take the blinkers off sometimes. Take a look around, there may be some treasures waiting for you in a wee corner shop that you've never noticed before.

Three Astrid Lindgren titles: Ronia, the robber's daughter,
Emil Gets into Mischief, and Mardie, as well as another Sue Barton book
for my growing collection

Little Grey Rabbit by Alison Uttley, but not the traditional one,
the illustrator is different

some black and white pictures too

Comments

A cup of tea and a bit of book chat - September with The Conductor and Yoghurt Banana Muffins

Every quite often it seems a New Zealand author writes a book that I love so much that I can't stop talking about it. In the last few years there was Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs, then Mr Pip , and this time it is..... The Conductor by Sarah Quigley. The Conductor by Sarah Quigley It's cold, it's spare and it's very stark, but Sarah Quigley has created something powerfully beautiful in this book that follows the story of the composition and first performance of Shostakovich's 7th symphony amidst the seige on Leningrad by the Nazi's in 1941. Based around the story of Shostakovich’s single-minded endeavour to write his 7 th Symphony, and see it performed, the book shows the lengths that an artist will go to to express himself. While most people are fleeing the city, and others starving and dying, Shostakovich determinedly writes his piece of music, and it falls upon conductor Karl Eliasberg to rise above his own starvation and grief to bring toget...

Charlotte in Paris

Four years ago we went to France. We travelled with my husband's mum, who, delighted to be returning to her homeland with her little entourage of wide-eyed Kiwi family, took us on a whirlwind trip to all her favourite places. One of those places was Giverny, the little town in Normandy that was once home to Monet. In preparation for our trip, I purchased two children's books for the girls, about a little American girl Charlotte who goes to live in Giverny with her parents at the time when Monet and his many disciples are painting 'en pleine aire'. The first book, Charlotte in Giverny , brings Giverny to life, and gives context to many of the famous paintings of that era. My girls loved Charlotte, and spent many hours poring over the books, with their delightful illustrations and collaged pages. The trip to Giverny was made all the richer by having a story, and a character, to link it to. In the second book, Charlotte in Paris , Charlotte's visit to Pa...

The young readers' dilemma

Sometimes it really hits me just how many and varied are the responsibilities of parenting. There's stuff like the values we model, and then there's other stuff like making sure they get to all their teeth when they brush. It's a big gig. It's a gig that gives me infinite joy, ( oh, and sleepless nights occasionally too ) but I don't take the responsibility lightly. I'm conscientious, that's just how I'm wired. And I'm also a librarian. So, imagine this: I go to my daughter's parent/teacher interview, and am told that my child is doing just fine (good), but....there's one thing....(uh oh) she could do with extending her reading . As I walk past the empty playground after the meeting I erupt; "bwah hahahaha". Because the irony certainly isn't lost on me. But, I'm so glad for that parent/teacher meeting. It got me to thinking. Both my older children have been hooked on reading book series - ch...

The Librarian

Search This Blog