Aristophane’s The Zabîme Sisters Trans. Matt Madden (2010) This was the happy product of a browsing session on a summer day that found me seeking the relief of the public library's A/C. I brought it home and took it to bed on a still-too-hot night, the sort when you really
A giraffe and a cat. Origami gone wild. A fantastic book of transformative tales. A word-lovin' ol' woman, and a sword-wielding girl. The first of these two came to me via Shelagh Rogers' The Next Chapter on CBC. (It's worth repeating; her enthusiasm about all kinds of storytelling is wholly contagious.)
As a child, I didn't enjoy the Ananse stories. I did read a lot of fairy tales and stories about enchantment;I liked the Uncle Remus stories, and I loved the Mouse Woman stories (anyone else in the Mouse Woman fan club?), but Ananse didn't do it for me. That may
Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw (1983) (And my Holman-Harmon Handbook to Literature) I hadn't given this book a thought for my series on Letters for this autumn, but I happened upon a copy of it at a booksale a couple of weeks ago, and I did love my Ramona re-reads (and
Crown of Horns (2003, Book Nine, Conclusion) Tall Tales (2010, Stories to be read afterwards) Bone Handbook (2010, Bonus materials) Book Nine: Crown of Horns At the heart of this volume is the story’s resolution. Readers have waited for eight volumes (nine, if they started to read the series after
