My Thoughts: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

I finished my last book for the Once Upon a Time III challenge!
I had kept The Invention of Hugo Cabret for this challenge, and then had a tough time finding an evening to sit down and devour it.
For those of you who haven't read it (you should go add it to a wish list now! ;0 )
the book is told through a large number of sketches and words, it looks chunky but can be read in a few hours tops. The tale follows Hugo an orphaned mechanical genius as he fights to restore an automaton - a machine which can write or draw. He discovers many new people along the way.
I loved the pictures they were so serene, I'll be going back to this book again and again. I also loved using this book at school with a class of kids who all have either dyslexia or literacy difficulties. They could 'read' the pictures fantastically and it was a book that was easily accesible. I'm trying to convince the department to buy a set as I only had my copy and 15 kids.


Other Once Upon a Time III reads:
The Wild Woods, Charles de Lint
Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
Beauty Sleep, Cameron Dokey
Lady Cottingham's Pressed Fairy Letters, Brian Froud
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

4 of these books were out of my pool of 8, which I'm very impressed with as I normally go off on a tangent. If I really had to pick a favourite I'd pick Beauty Sleep, but all of the books were great.
I should be joining in reading a version of A Midsummer Night's Dream on Sunday but not sure if I'll be managing the play or a fairytale version I discovered in the school library

My Thoughts: The Wild Wood by Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint is an author I've heard much about through the blogging world and this was my first experience with his work.
In The Wild Wood Eithnie, an artist lives surrounded by her beloved woods yet her art and her feeling of serenity in the woods is fading. She feels like she is watched, like someone or something is haunting her.
Eventually she is visited by the Faeries who have a special favour to ask of her.
I liked the simple language in this book and that the Faeries were part of a very real and recognisable world. I wouldn't give it 5 stars but I definately want to read more of Charles de Lint's work in the future.
Challenges:
Once Upon a Time
999 (Fantasy)

My Thoughts: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

With just 5 days to go till the end of the Once Upon a Time Challenge I still have 2 books to read!!!! Life has been chaotic and I haven't been getting in my normal amount of reads, last week we had an open door week at school - any teacher can go and walk in and observe another teachers lesson (stressful), I had to organise and take 200 kids on a trip and write 26 reports on pupils in my form group (I see them for 15 mins a day and only teach 2 of them). Plus I uped the amount of time I'm spending at the gym.

I have the biggest book pile to tackle, the 6 weeks summer holiday is going to be a book a day mission to try and control the ever growing stack of books.

Over the weekend I finished Inkheart, and boy it was great.
Synopsis: Meggie is wokeon one night to find a strange man standing outside her bedroom window. Awakening her day he invites the man in and they go off for a private chat.
After that night Meggie's life makes a massive change, her and bookloving bookbinding father go off to an book obsessed aunt in the country. Meggie discovers her father can read characters out of a book, and he is hunted down and kidnapped by the very creatures he once read out of a book. And then the adventure begins...

What I liked: The fairy tale style, made me feel like a kid again. It also has a really positive approach to reading.

What I didn't like: It made my mental tbr pile grow, each chapter starts with a quote from another novel, it made me want to read Peter Pan again, The Princess Bride, and The Jungle Book. Seriously, I enjoyed it all.

Challenges:
Once Upon a Time
YA 2009
A-Z (Title)
999 (YA)

Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon: Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey

Pages read total: 938 (+ 66 pages of picture books)
Books read: Finished Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett, read What I Was by Meg Rosoff, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, An Elgy for Easterly, Mrs Biddlebox (pic book), The Viewer by Gary Crew and Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey
Total reading time: approx 15 1/2 hours.


My final book of the read-a-thon (I'm going to read a short story in the last hour).
I saved this book especially for the read-a-thon and I'm really glad that I did.

Beauty Sleep is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Aurore as we know has two spells put on her as a baby, one that in her sixteenth year she will prick herself with a needle and live no more, the second a countering spell that says that the needle will send her to sleep for a hundred years till a prince awakens her with a kiss.
In this version Aurore is a tom boy, not a typical princess. Whe her parents allow her outside into the garden at 10 years old for the first time she immediately falls to gardening. As the years pass she happily (against her mothers wishes) gardens, builds fires, talks to the common people and gets a tan (something a princess isn't supposed to have).
On her sixteenth birthday the kingdom is suddenly plagued with disaster - the sky rains blood, death comes, wolfs hound the streets. Thinking this is all her fault: a result of her fate, Aurore runs away to an enchanted forest where her true fate is to be played out.
A great book to read for those who love fairytales retold.

Challenges:
2009 YA Challenge
999 (YA)
Once Upon a Time III

My Thoughts: Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Letters by Brian Froud and Ari Beck

This is the third book in the Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Collection that I have read. I love this collection so much, these are books whose pages you just have to run your fingers over as you read.
The collection is based around the character Lady Cottington, as a child she was suddenly surrounded by fairies one morning whilst out drawing. When the fairy landed on her page she slammed the book shut - fairy sqashed inside. As she grows older the fairies give her more and more grief. These fairies don't fit into the Disney-esqe cutesy type, they are often naked, poking their tongues or bottoms out.
('Shakespeares' reply)
This new book, which I saw on Saturday and couldn't resist is a collection of 'replies' that the character got when she sent out letters asking about peoples' experiences with fairies. The replies are from famous characters such as Queen Elizabeth, Lewis Carrol and William Shakespeare. Many of the letters fold out from the page, some are even tucked away into little envelopes, (I carefully peeled open evenlopes not wanting to damage them).
(a letter and photograph from the 'Queen')
Surrounding the letters are the fairies who got squashed in the pages and some of Lady Cottington's notes.
I've posted photos of some of my favourite pages - sorry about the sideways one, I didn't think of that when I took it!

Click on the pics to make them bigger.

My Thoughts: Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

This book is the second in the Wicked series and in my opionion far better than the first which I thought needed a serious editing.
The novel focuses on Liir, the son (maybe) of Elphaba the Wicked Witch. The story opens when he is discovered laying half dead on the side of the road. He is taken to a nunnery and where they try and fix all his broken bones and find a musical girl, presumed a mute to play him back to conciousness. The first half of the book moves from the present with her playing to him, her thoughts and his bodily reactions to his memories of his recent past which are cojured up through her music.
We discover where he has been and all that had happened since the death of the witches. When he finally awakens he then goes off try and fulfill some of the promises he had made.

Challenges:
999 (Fantasy)
What's in a name? (relative)
Once Upon a Time III

Once Upon a Time III : Short Story Weekend II

Silver or Gold by Emma Bull can be found here on the fantastic Endicott pages.

This story is part folktale part fairytale, just as I like them.
Moon Very Thin is at the end of her training as a witch when Alder Owl, her teacher, is drawn to going away in search of the missing prince. Moon is uncomfortable with staying alone, and has the task of banging on the journey drum each night at sunset to call Alder Owl on in her journey. It is this drum call that allows her to know the Alder Owl is safe, but when one night the drum fails to sound Moon has to set out on a journey of her own in search of her teacher.
This is a journey of growth and self knowledge.
You should go and check it out yourself, it is long but definately worth the time and effort. The last paragraph is worth it just for itself, I would have copied it here but it would just spoil the story. Go have a read!

Last weeks:
Short Story Weekend:
GodMother Death


Check out Short Story Sunday, held here

Short Story Weekend: Godmother Death by Jane Yolen

My first short story read for Carl's Once Upon a Time III challenge.

You think you know this story. You do not.

You think it comes from Ireland, from Norway, from Spain. It does not. You have heard it in Hebrew, in Swedish, in German. You have read it in French, in Italian, in Greek.

It is not a story, though many mouths have made it that way.

It is true.

How do I know? Death, herself told me. She told me in that whispery voice she saves for special tellings. She brushed her thick black hair away from that white forehead, and told me.

I have no reason to disbelieve her. Death does not know how to lie. She has no need to.

Death is tapped on the shoulder one day and asked to be the Godmother to a peasant child just about to be born. Shocked at the request she complies and promises to look after her godson when he becomes a man.
Despite his peasant background Death transforms the young man into a world famous doctor, a doctor who knows just who will die and who will not. For years this is successful until the doctor is rushed to the side of a beautiful dieing princess, struck by her beauty he tries to trick Death.

This story can be found on the wonderful Endicott Website here

Once Upon a Time III (March 21st - June 20th)

This is a challenge I knew I'd be signing up to, Carl is hosting the Once Upon a Time III challenge, last year I came back to my blog too late to participate although I really wanted to.

Carl gives a number of options, I'm going for Quest the First, which is to read 5 books from either the fantasy, folklore, fairytale or myth genre. I'm also going to participate in the Short Story Weekends. I will also try and read Midsummer Nights Dream in June as this was the first Shakespeare play I ever read, at aged 11, I loved it but have never read it since.


This is my pool, I'd love to read them all and hopefully the easter break will give me a chance. And it would wipe a large lump off of my tbr pile.
Beauty Sleep, Cameron Dokey
Son of a Witch, Gregory Maguire
The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susanna Clarke
The Court of the Air, Stephen Hunt
The Wild Wood, Charles de Lint
Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales, Angela Carter
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
Night's at the Circus, Angela Carter


I look forward to reading everyone's posts.