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Tag Archives: friendship
The most enjoyable ‘collected letters’ I’ve ever read: 84, Charing Cross Road (and the Duchess of Bloomsbury street)
From 1950 to 1970, an American scriptwriter, Helene Hanff, embarked on self-education by book with the aid of some British secondhand booksellers. 84, Charing Cross Road is a collection of the letters which passed primarily between Hanff and the shop’s … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century, American, British, Diary, General adult audience, Letters
Tagged American, books, British, criticism, epistolary, friendship, literary criticism, literature, rationing, trans-Atlantic, travel
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A children’s series that ages with its audience: Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill captures 10 year old life well
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill is the third in Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series. The girls are now 10 years old and the largely standalone chapters of the first two books smoothly transition into larger story arcs … Continue reading
Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, 7 years and up, American, Children's, Children's Classic, Children's Classics, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novel, Uncategorized
Tagged Betsy-Tacy books, childhood, children's classic, early 20th century, fiction, friendship, good out loud, growing up in America, historical, humour, illustrated, imagination, Maud Hart Lovelace, mid-western United States, play, school, semi-autobiographical, siblings, society, starting school
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Deadly lizards, delinquent boys, a sinister warden and a whole lot of HOLES feature in Louis Sachar’s acclaimed YA novel
When Stanley Yelnats gets caught holding a celebrity’s stolen sneakers which have just fallen on him out of the sky, he knows that it’s because of the family curse acquired by his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake, … Continue reading
Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century, 20th Century YA, Adventure, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Family Drama, Fiction, Light Fiction, Novel, YA Classic, Young Adult
Tagged boys, camping, friendship, good out loud, growing up, hardship, history, Louis Sachar, overcoming adversity, resourcefulness, summer camp, survival, Texas, well written
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Climbing trees, cutting your own hair and making messes with all the things you find in the kitchen: Maud Hart Lovelace’s second Betsy-Tacy book beautifully captures the experience of being 8 years old
Betsy-Tacy and Tib continues Maud Hart Lovelace’s engaging series of early 20th century American childhood. Betsy, Tacy and their new friend Tib are now 8-year-olds. Life is full of adventures, often with their genesis in Betsy’s fertile imagination. In this … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century Children's, 5 years and up, American, Children's Classics, Novel
Tagged 5 and up, American, Betsy-Tacy books, childhood, children's classic, early 20th century, fiction, friendship, good out loud, growing up in America, historical, humour, illustrated, imagination, Maud Hart Lovelace, mid-western United States, play, school, semi-autobiographical, siblings, society, starting school, well written
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Our attitudes and experiences of near neighbours haven’t changed all that much in the last 160 years, if Emily Eden’s The Semi-Detached House is any guide
The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden is a social satire written in the mid-19th century. When young Lady Chester moves into a semi-detached house in the suburbs she anticipates being forced into awkward intimacy with vulgar neighbours, whose daughters will … Continue reading
Posted in 18th Century, British, General adult audience, Novel, Novel of Manners, Victorian
Tagged birds, British, fiction, friendship, having children, humour, mild romance, newly weds, novel of manners, observant, pregnancy, satire, society, some anti-semitism, suburban life, Victorian Era, women
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Capturing childhood: Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace
I recently discovered Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series doing a literature-map search of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Similarly, Lovelace’s series draws on her own American childhood and the target audience ages with the protagonists. In the first book, Betsy-Tacy, the girls … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century Children's, 5 years and up, American, Children's Classics, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage
Tagged 20th Century, 5 and up, American, Betsy-Tacy books, childhood, children's classic, early 20th century, fiction, friendship, good out loud, growing up in America, historical, humour, illustrated, imagination, Maud Hart Lovelace, mid-western United States, play, semi-autobiographical, siblings, society, starting school, under 7s, whimsical
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The Dragon of Mith by Kate Walker
The Dragon of Mith is an Australian kids book by Kate Walker. It’s the story of a vegetarian dragon, a ridiculous number of dragon-slayers, a community of hermits and a blood-thirsty butcher (amongst others). I have vague memories of the … Continue reading
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion follows on where The Rosie Project left off. Don and Rosie are now married and living and working in New York. They’ve adjusted to many of the challenges of married life and abandoned the … Continue reading
Posted in Australian, Comedy, Contemporary, General adult audience, Romance
Tagged 21st Century, Australian, autism, comedy of errors, disability, Don and Rosie book, fiction, friendship, Graeme Simsion, having children, humour, lighthearted read, marriage, New York, non-neurotypical, pregnancy, relationships, romance, romantic comedy, social skills
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Goodnight, Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
Goodnight, Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian is a historical novel and modern children’s classic set in World War II Britain. Billeting arrangements bring together Mister Tom, a gruff and grieving old man, and Willie Beech, a starved and abused child … Continue reading
Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, Children's Classics
Tagged 10 and up, 20th Century, adoption, billeting, British, character-driven, children's classic, dogs, domestic abuse, fiction, friendship, good out loud, growing up, historical, home front, London's East End, mental illness, poverty, the country, wartime, well written, widowhood, WWII
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