Classics Challenge 2015
Arabel’s Raven by Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake
We have thoroughly enjoyed doing The Classics Challenge and have read some fabulous stories. Arabel’s Raven is the final classic story that we have read this year and it was full of so much humour and intrigue that I’ve bought all the other Arabel and Mortimer stories!
Gobbolino The Witch’s Cat by Ursula Moray Williams & Catherine Rayner
We’re nearly there! Gobblino is is the eleventh book that we have read for the 2015 Classics Challenge which has been a lot of fun. All the books that we have read have been new to my daughter but some have been new to me as well. I don’t remember reading Gobbolino as a child although the story did seem…
The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy
The Worst Witch is the story of Mildred Hubble, a young witch who is often in trouble at school, often through no fault of her own.
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll & Sir John Tenniel
Alice in Wonderland is celebrating her 150th birthday this year and during the summer we visited RHS garden Harlow Carr which was celebrating with an Alice in Wonderland trail. We were given a booklet of trail activities and as well as completing puzzles and quizzes we counted the Queen of Hearts’ tarts at each activity station. The Alice in…
Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr & Marjorie-Ann Watts
Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf, published in 1955, is the first book about Polly and her adventures with the Wolf who is determined to eat her. Catherine Storr originally wrote the stories to allay her daughter Polly’s fear of wolves. She then wrote a second book, Polly and the Wolf Again.
The Moomin stories – Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson
I read most of the Moomin books as a child (I wonder where those books are now!) and my daughter really enjoyed Comet in Moominland which is the second book about the Moomin family who live in a blue house in Moominvalley. The first Moomin story, The Moomins and The Great Flood, was first published in 1945 so,…
The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton and Jan McCafferty
Although I enjoyed many of Enid Blyton’s books as a child, including The Famous Five, Malory Towers and St. Clare’s, I didn’t read The Magic Faraway Tree stories. I had no idea what was so special about the tree and its many inhabitants but once my daughter and I started reading we were both hooked, not…
Happy 70th Birthday Pippi Longstocking!
The Pippi Longstocking stories are celebrating their 70th birthday this year, May 21st 1945 was the day that Astrid Lindgren first showed the manuscript to her daughter Karin. Originally written in Swedish the stories have been translated into many different languages as well as being made into films and television series’. Pippi Longstocking (Pippilotta Comestibles Windowshade…
George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake
Our daughter giggled her way through George’s Marvellous Medicine which we read in a day as we enjoyed it so much. She’s now telling anybody who will listen about what happened to Grandma when she took the medicine and insisted that we recommend the book on Story Snug.
The Teddy Robinson Storybook by Joan G. Robinson
The Teddy Robinson stories are childhood favourites of mine and I still have my old, battered copy of More About Teddy Robinson with its curled up, brown pages and the illustrations that I coloured as a child. I was delighted to discover that the stories have been reprinted in a new collection and we gave my daughter…
