A Rose For the Anzac Boys by Jackie French

A Rose For the Anzac Boys has been on my mind again lately, thanks to all the talk about WW1 commemorations.

It's a wonderful story about three young girls, Midge, Ethel & Anne, at finishing school in England. They help with the war effort by rolling bandages...until they hear that Midge's twin brother, Tim has been listed as 'missing'.

The three girls decide they have to be more involved somehow and hit upon the idea of setting up a canteen for wounded soldiers in France.

They're quickly surrounded by the realities & chaos of the war. They are confronted by young men not only suffering from horrific wounds but also scarred psychologically.
Midge is eventually recruited into the ambulance service and ends up helping to prep the wounded before surgery.

French provides a lot of detail and background to this story of every day bravery and courage. However, she doesn't shy away from showing us the dark & desperate side of war as well.

Six years later, I can still recall many of the images and feelings from this story as Midge is confronted with the hell on earth that was the front line.


This is a teen/YA novel with strong, sympathetic female protagonists. Highly recommended for lovers of historical fiction.

This post is part of Lisa's Flashback Friday.

Ode to Autumn - John Keats

We have been enjoying the most glorious of autumns in Sydney this year. 

The warm, sunny days, stunning sunsets and balmy nights have everyone extolling the virtues of autumn.

A trip to Mudgee last weekend reminded me of my favourite autumnal phrase from John Keats 

"season of mists and mellow fruitfulness..." 

I was first introduced to this poem at a teaching conference many years ago.

It was autumn and the lecturers obvious passion for this poem shone through every word & phrase 

until I had goosebumps on my arms and the hairs on the back of my neck were shivering in pleasure.

I have never forgotten that day, or this poem or how it made me feel.

Ode To Autumn - John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, - 

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday

and Flashback Friday.

Flashback Friday - The Gunslinger series

When I was a sweet young thing of 19, Mr Books first introduced me to Stephen King, by giving me It for Christmas (so romantic I know!)

But it was love at first sight on both accounts.
It was also a love that waxed and waned over the years on both accounts!

After nearly 15 years apart, Mr Books and I found each other again only to discover that our love for each other and SK had kept apace.
We had both lost faith with King during the 90's but we had also found our way back into the fold by the time we found each other again.

For me it was The Gunslinger series that brought me back.

I read the first two (The Gunslinger(1982) and The Drawing of the Three(1987) in the late 80's & The Wastelands(1991) a couple of years later.
I adored them. They were rough, they were cruel, they were dark and gritty, but they were also romantic and spell-binding.

Roland is the gunslinger - a mysterious man - who has been chasing an even more mysterious dark man through time and worlds for a very long time. He is joined by a young boy, Jake in his quest and later Eddie and Susannah join the ka-tet.
All are reluctant and unwitting participants in the quest. But as they go along a bond forms and the quest takes on different meanings for all of them (including me the reader).

King liked to use lots of references from his other novels through out these books. Sometimes it was characters or places that popped up and sometimes it was shared events & experiences. Shared or parallel worlds also occurred to keep the King devotee really on their toes!

My three books are some of the original covers which include gorgeous colour plates throughout.
They were reread several times with no hope of ever seeing the end of the quest. King kept publishing other books; I thought the Gunslinger had been forgotten by everyone but me.

Imagine my delight when I discovered a fourth book in my local bookshop in the year 2000! My only disappointment was the non-matching covers and the fact that Wizards and Glass (1997) didn't actually move the story of the quest forward. Instead , King spent an entire book on Roland's back story.

The next wait was not so long, and was well rewarded.
In a flurry of activity and purpose King published Wolves of Calla (2003), Song of Susannah (2004) and The Dark Tower (on his birthday 21 Sept 2004) within 12 months of each other.

The quest was over (or was it?), Stephen King made an appearance in his own book (yes, really!) and a companion book Through the Keyhole was released in 2012.

I have read since, that King revised the original Gunslinger in 2003. I'm not sure if I want to read the new version or not. I'm not sure I even have the stamina to reread the whole series again.

But I did love this fantasy world of quests and journeys.
It still lives fresh in my mind to this day.
Roland and Flagg are part of my mythology now; a shared experience with Mr Books (who shares a birth date with Mr King - really!)

When Mr Books and I combined libraries, our King shelf proudly declared that we two, were indeed, two of the devotee's.
Plenty more Flashback Friday's in that pile!

Freaky Friday

I haven't participated in the Friday features for quite some time. We've had such a lovely, busy, social summer that has left me little time for regular blogging habits.

But a quiet weekend looms ahead and it's time to catch my blogging breath!

I've had Paris on my mind again lately, so this week I'm going to highlight John Baxter's The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris.


Book Beginning:
Flipping through the front pages is a tantalising experience.

A map of Paris with a key of things to see and visit.
A quote by Walt Whitman to whet our appetites "We must not tarry here, We must march my darlings." Three delicious pages of contents...and then,

chapter 1 "To Walk the Walk".

"Every day, heading down rue de l'Odéon toward 

Café Danton on the corner of boulevard Saint-Germain 

or towards the market on rue Buci, I pass them. 

The walkers."

 Page 56:

"Walking in Paris requires the same rhythm. 

People who lead tours or write guides crave an itinerary, 

the route A to B. 

The flâneur has no such aim."

I doubt very much that this book will make me cry. 

I suspect it will make me pine and yearn and hope. 

It will  probably make my itchy feet squirm with impatience.

But cry? No.

Parajunkee and Alison Can Read have asked the question this Friday "What was the last book to make you cry?"

I don't cry easily, but I do get teary and sentimental and gushy. Occasionally a book will cause a few tears to run down my cheeks. Only a couple have made me sob.

The two sobbers come from my childhood. 

They have caused me to sob as an adult as well. 

They are Anne of Green Gables (when Matthew dies) and Seven Little Australians (the final chapter watching them all get on without Judy!!!!!) - it gets me every time.

Little Women/Good Wives almost makes it into this category with a heaving chest and a big long drawn out sigh of sadness, but, alas, no sobs!

The last time tears ran down my cheeks whilst reading was Room by Emma Donoghue.

I also remember some tears at the end of The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, The Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson, Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta, The Colour Purple by Alice Walker and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.

For those of you who don't know The Power of One, let me enlighten you with a Friday Flashback.

It was published by South African born, but moved-to-Australia author, Bryce Courtenay in 1989.

I didn't read it until the movie starring Morgan Freeman came out in 1992.

It's set in South Africa during apartheid in the 1940's and 50's - a time we now know well thanks to the memoirs of Nelson Mandela.

I don't remember a lot of the details of the book any more, but the injustices of the apartheid system were burnt onto my soul at the time.

It was my first real look at what was going in South Africa & coincided with the release of Mandela from prison. 

It horrified me that I knew so little about the world and that this kind of oppression could still exist in my own lifetime.

I surprised myself by how strongly I responded to this book. I was like the child character, Peekay, slowly having my eyes opened to the horror of apartheid. 

Of course I cried!

Red hot tears of frustration and rage. 

Bitter tears at my inability to know what to do to change things.

I'm not sure how my older, more jaded self would view this book now. 

I think somes books are meant to be read at a certain time in one's life and never again. And I suspect this may be one of those.

Happy Friday everyone

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I have heard so many rave reviews and glowing testimonials about this book from my younger colleagues in the bookshop over the years, that I've been wondering how on earth I missed hearing about The Secret History when it first came out.

What was I doing in 1992/3 that allowed me to completely miss the hype surrounding this book?

I cannot answer this in any way that provides satisfaction or clarification. I was teaching. I was reading. I watched the news and read the weekend papers. I discussed books with anyone I could find. But The Secret History never crossed my radar.

However, I can tell you that a number of years ago, whilst browsing through a second hand bookshop on holidays, I came across a copy in very good condition.
With my colleagues in mind, I bought it & began reading it straight away, to see what all the fuss was about.

I was a little puzzled.

The who-dunnit was revealed early on so that we were left with a why-dunnit. So far so good.
The place and time were lovingly drawn; I could picture the campus, feel the cold & remember the insecurities and awkwardness of the age.
But I have to confess that I didn't really care about any of the characters.
I didn't care that one of them was done away with by the others in the group and I didn't really care about their motivations.

Whilst I enjoyed the book as a whole & appreciated what Tartt achieved, it certainly hasn't ended up on any of my favourite/Top 10 lists at any point.

Maybe you need to be a certain age or at a certain time in your life to discover the true joys of this book?

Five years later, I'm still trying to work out why The Secret History didn't weave the kind of magic on me that it has on so many others.

Was I too old and too removed from the college experience to succomb to it's hedonistic urges again?
Were my expectations too high?

The Secret History has become my secret mystery; an enjoyable enough read but why all the fuss?

I'm posting this as a Flashback Friday post (although I've just discovered that Lisa is having a hiatus over Christmas!)

Friday Flashback - Dirt Music by Tim Winton

After reading Eyrie recently, I'm feeling more ambivalent about Tim Winton than I've ever felt before.

I went through a similar phase after trying to read The Riders - a novel I miserably failed to engage with on any level. It also had the dubious honour of being one of the first books I decided not to finish. (I was about to turn 30 and had reached a point where I felt that life was too short to read a bad book, or a book that wasn't working for me)!


But about 6 years later, I decided to try again with Dirt Music.

And I loved it.

I had had my first holiday to WA in 1999 and I felt a more personal affinity for the WA landscape that Winton wrote about so beautifully.
I pictured David Wenham as Fox. And the soundtrack played in my head the whole way through.

I enjoyed the unusual relationship that developed between the two main characters; it suited the frame of mind I was in at the time.

In hindsight, the relationship doesn't look so satisfying. But I'm not sure that satisfying and comfortable are words that Tim Winton would be very comfortable with either!

I remember Dirt Music with a great deal of fondness. Even the long anticipated, over-dramatic, far-fetched ending brings a smile to my lips. For me there was a cinematic element to Dirt Music. I was desperate to see it on the big screen where justice could be done to the over the top ending!

But after my experience with Eyrie, I'm a little concerned about revisiting Dirt Music in case I come away thinking, "oh no it's just another lost in WA blokey story".

This post is linked to Flashback Friday and AusReading Month.

Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner

Seven Little Australians was published in 1894 but first came to my attention in the mid 1970's thanks to a wonderful 10 part tv series on the ABC. I was only about 8 or 9 at the time but I was blown away by the story. After the tear-jerker tenth episode ending, I sat down for my first reading of the book.

I have now reread Seven Little Australians a handful of times. Each time it makes me cry.
Correction - every single time I have to put down the book so I can sob out loud!

But enough about me.

Seven Little Australians is one of the few Australian books that has never been out of print. And the only Australian book to have been in continuous print for over 100 years.

It is set in suburban Sydney in an area called Lindfield. In the 1890's this area was completely rural. Now it is in the middle of the northern suburbs area of Woodlands, Killara.

The story follows Judy and her 6 siblings and step-siblings.
They're an unruly bunch, allowed to run wild by a too distant father and a too young step-mother. They play pranks, argue and tell tales on each other. They go to Luna Park for an outing and have picnics. They sneak into your heart and take up life long residence there!

The young actress who played Judy in the ABC series is Jennifer Cluff.
Years later I moved to Mudgee to take up a teaching position and learnt that Jennifer was a Mudgee girl herself. I was delighted to learn that one of my best friends had gone to school with her and her sisters and that I had been teaching a number of her nieces and nephews. It gave Judy's story another lease of life to me.

And now, thanks to writing this review for Flashback Friday (the one and only & original FF hosted by Lisa) I've discovered that there is now a Seven Little Australians park in Killara.

But the old Turner home is another matter.
Instead of becoming a national cultural & heritage centre celebrating the life and times of the author and the book it has been allowed to wallow in uncertainty awaiting a philanthropic miracle.

To say that I can feel a visit to both park and house coming on is an understatement!

Below is the youtube link to the first episode of Seven Little Australians from 1973. It's lovely to see a young Ruth Cracknell and Leonard Teale at work.

Thing by Robin Klein

This weeks Friday Flashback is for younger readers. It is still a favourite of many Australian teacher's and features on State premier's reading lists.


It won the CBCA award for junior readers back in 1983.

Thing written by Robin Klein & illustrated by Alison Lester is a sweet tale about a girl called Emily who dreams of having a pet. But Emily lives in an apartment and the landlord doesn't allow animals on the premises.

Everything changes when Emily discovers a vegemite coloured 'rock' in the park.

Thing works so beautifully because Klein treats the drama of having a pet stegosaurus so normally. Thing likes to watch TV, it can disguise itself as pieces of furniture or shrubbery and loves to play hide n seek.

Emily & Thing's story became so popular that Klein & Lester teamed up 2 years later to produce Thingnapped when we see how well (or not) Emily and Thing cope with being separated from each other.

Belonging & friendship are the underlying themes that link most of Klein's books.

She went on the publish a spate of Thing books in the mid 1990's called Thing Finds A Job, Thing's Concert, Thing's Birthday and Thingitis. As well as enjoying success with her series for older readers starring Penny Pollard and Alison Ashley throughout the 80's and 90's.

Sadly Klein suffered from an aneurysm about a decade ago and has been unable to write since.

The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough

Today I was chatting with one of my book reps about what we were reading. She mentioned she would like to read McCullough's new book, Bittersweet as she preferred her earlier works and this seemed more in line with the those books.

I tentatively agreed as my experiences with McCullough had not necessarily been rave ones.

I read Thorn Birds and Tim about the time they were both made into movies/TV series and I was probably too young to really enjoy them for anything more than the naughty sex scenes! I enjoyed the beginning of her Roman series, but got tired of it about half way through and never finished it off. So I was feeling lukewarm about Bittersweet...until I suddenly remembered The Ladies of Missalonghi.

I blurted it out and my rep looked at me with delight and exclaimed, "I love that one too. I've never met anyone else who even knows about this book, let alone loves it too!"

It was published in 1987.
It's set in the Blue Mountains in a little town called Byron just before WWI. It's a slight, easy read that caught me by surprise at the time. I found it utterly delightful and charming for all its improbabilities and flaws. It became my "I'm bored" rainy Sunday afternoon read. I loved it!
I loved quiet, submissive Missy who learnt to stand up for herself. I loved the setting & the quiet build-up of tension and I loved the rather mixed up feminist messages on display.

Just talking about it again today makes me want to read it again - right now!

A quick google before posting this has revealed a whole new world though.

Apparently there were plagiarism accusations made against McCullough for this book because of its similarities to a lesser known L.M. Montgomery book called The Blue Castle. I even found a discussion page on the topic from 2008.

I'm sure I will always have a deep and abiding love for The Ladies of Missalonghi, but the temptation to check out The Blue Castle for myself is now lurking in the back of mind!

I have reviewed this book for Flashback Friday hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies and in preparation for my hosting of AusReading Month in November.

Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park

This weeks Friday Flashback is a modern day classic that regularly features on school reading lists and 'must-read' Australian books lists.

It won the CBCA award for older readers back in 1981.

And it was made into a movie in 1986 (see below).

Ruth Park wrote novels for adults and children. She was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia when she was 25. She married Australian author, D'Arcy Niland (who wrote The Shiralee) and had 5 children. Her youngest daughters were twins, Kilmeny and Deborah, who became well respected illustrators for children's books.

Playing Beatie Bow is set in Sydney in modern times. Abigail is facing all sorts of family upheavals and spends a lot of time wandering around her local area of the Rocks to avoid the tension at home. A bizarre meeting with a young (lost) girl called Beatie Bow causes Abigail to travel back in time to 1873.

Park provides an evocative and memorable journey around the streets and slums of colonial Sydney as Abigail tries to find her way home again.

Curiously, to the 21st century reader, it's the scenes set in 1980's Sydney that jar the most. They sound dated and almost cringe-worthy. Or maybe that's just me - since I was also an out-of-place teenager in the '80's!

Penguin Australia have now released new editions of Australian children's classics with lovely hardback covers, including Playing Beatie Bow.

Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie

This week's Friday Flashback (hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies) is one of my all-time favourite past Booker winners (1981).

It was my first attempt to read anything by Salmon Rushdie.

It was also one of those books that evoked a sense of place so strongly that I still feel myself back there simply by talking about it.
But by back there, I don't just mean India.

I mean Perth, Margaret River and Denmark in southern WA!

Midnight's Children was the book I took on my 2 week holiday to Perth in 1999. I was visiting a dear school friend and her family at the time. I was able to use her home as a base from which I went on a few day trips and extended excursions.

For me, Midnight's Children became this strange parallel universe that I travelled through in my mind even as my eyes took in the incredible sights and sounds of WA for the first time.

I remember certain B&B's, cafe's, bushwalks and even a boat trip in Denmark that have become intricately enmeshed with scenes and characters from the book.

I was enthralled, mesmerised even by Rushdie's writing. I loved the mix of historical fiction and fantasy. I adored his discussion on time, history, truth & memory.

“I fell victim to the temptation of every autobiographer, to the illusion that since the past exists only in one's memories and the words which strive vainly to encapsulate them, it is possible to create past events simply by saying they occurred.” 

I made notes, jotted down quotes and my travel journal became a weird mix of travelogue and book review.

“What's real and what's true aren't necessarily the same.” 

Midnight's Children began a personal phase of reading all things India that lasted quite a few years & included lots of memorable books like A Passage to India, The God of Small Things, A Suitable Boy, Interpreter of Maladies, Fasting, Feasting & Journey to Ithaca just to name a few!

“Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.” 

Midnight's Children was also the joint 1981 winner of the James Tate Black Memorial Award. 

Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

This weeks Friday Flashback has become a modern day Aussie classic in a very short period of time. It won the CBCA award for older readers back in 1993. And it was made into a movie in 2000 with Melina Marchetta writing the screen play.

It was via this movie starring Pia Miranda, Kick Gurry, Greta Scacchi, Matthew Newton and Anthony LaPaglia that I first came across this book.

I was already in my thirties and hadn't read any teen literature for a decade or so. But the movie looked like fun, so I watched it during the summer holidays.

It was so delightful, so heart-breaking, so heart-warming and so full of Sydney that I was won over from the start. The next day I went to my local bookshop and purchased a copy of the book.

The book and movie are a little different, but with Marchetta at the helm for both, the heart and soul of the story remains the same. And the heart and soul of this book is Josie Alibrandi.
This is her coming of age story. This is her family, her friends and her Sydney.

If you haven't read this book or seen the movie, then put it high on your list of things to do this weekend.
You wont be disappointed.

Flashback Friday - Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French

Flashback Friday hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies is a new meme that encourages us to remember a book we read over 5 years ago that is still in print and that we haven't blogged about previously.

Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French won the CBCA Younger Reader's award in 2000. It is regularly set as a school text & has been turned into a play.

I read it about 5 years ago when my stepson was studying it in class. 

I enjoyed it more than he did! But at that point he preferred the Cherub series and books with more action. 
Whereas historical fiction is right up my alley. 

French moves between modern times and WW2 to tell this story that begins with a group of children telling each other stories while they wait for their school bus each day. One day Anna begins a story about a secret girl, hidden away by her father during WW2. As Anna's story progresses we realise that the girl is none other than Hitler's daughter, Heidi.

As Heidi comes to terms with her father's other life, Anna and her friends question the meaning of good and evil and how do you recognise it. Moral dilemma's abound and of course, the big question is, did Hitler's daughter really exist or not?

Flashback Friday - Mandela The Authorised Biography

Flashback Friday hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies is a new meme that encourages us to remember a book we read over 5 years ago that is still in print and that we haven't blogged about previously.

This week the news has been full of Nelson Mandela's failing health.

Mandela has been such an inspirational leader and man that it is difficult not to feel personally involved and deeply affected by his illness.

In 1999 I read Anthony Sampson's Authorised Biography on Mandela. It was incredibly moving and at times, almost unbelievable.

Over the past few days, I've taken to flicking through my copy to touch, once again, some of this humble man's greatness.

Right from the Introduction you know that you're in for something special. Mandela promises Sampson "to discuss critical questions" with him, but also to leave him "free to make (his) own judgements and criticisms."


Sampson's aim was to "show the harsh realities of Mandela's long and adventurous life as they appeared to him and to his friends at the time, stripped of the gloss of mythology and romance; but also to trace how the glittering image of Mandela was magnified while he was in jail, acquiring its own power and influence across the world; and to show how the prisoner was able to relate the image to reality."

I'm too young to know anything of Mandela's early years except via books and articles. But the day after my 22nd birthday Nelson Mandela was released from jail and I wept at the images being beamed around the world. He looked so fragile and overwhelmed by the crowds and the outpouring of support. It was such a moving moment that I determined then and there to know more.



In 1991 I visited Glasgow during my 10 mnth 'gap year'. I visited Nelson Mandela Place (renamed by Glasgow City Council in 1986 to signal their support for the free Mandela campaign). The former St George's Place also just happened to be home to the South African consulate!

I followed closely Mandela's four year campaign to become the first black President of South Africa. I rejoiced at his victory, but was a little unsure how he and his party would manage the transition to power.

Reading his biography showed me Mandela the man - his insecurities, his flaws, his issues. But it also highlighted how much of a consummate politician he was. Mandela knew how to make the romantic myth that had built up around him work for him.

His political agenda and showmanship could have left him sounding and looking like every other politician in the world. But somehow Mandela managed to portray a genuine, authentic and humane aura at all times.

"He had a moral authority and concern for the truth with which few could compete, as a rock of continuity in a discontinuous world."

He was generous and gracious with his time in the public limelight. But when he retired he made it clear that it was time to step back from the public stage so that he could focus on his family life.

Sampson's final statement reveals not only why Mandela was a hero of our times, but why his biography has been so well received & praised & read over the years.



"Mandela remained a master of symbolic images, but they had become part of his own personality and history, acquiring more universal appeal as he retired from politics to become an ordinary old man. He has survived the most testing challenge to his reputation when he emerged from jail to face up to his overwhelming global icon; and he did so by presenting himself as a fallible human being. His biography in the end converged with his mythology; and it was his essential integrity more than his superhuman myth which gave his story its appeal across the world."

Sampson's biography was updated in 2011 (after his death in 2004) with a new afterword by South African journalist John Battersby.

Pamela Allen - Bertie and Mr McGee

Bertie is the latest offering from Pamela Allen.

Bertie is a 2-sided book; one side shows a happy Bertie. Flip the book over to see a grumpy Bertie.
Bertie's mood influences that of his family and dog in a simple story about the impact our emotions have on those around us.

The illustrations and family of Bertie will be familiar to those fans of 'A Lion in the Night' and 'Bertie and the Bear'. (As an aside, I wonder if 'Ordinary Albert' is the story of grown-up Bertie, or if Allen just has a thing for the name?)

Mr McGee was first published in 1989 and is a fine example of Allen's fun, rhyming style that has the won over the hearts and minds of so many Australian children.

This book demands to be read aloud. It delights young children from start to finish. I've had groups shriek out loud as Mr McGee floats away. Then clap their hands with joy when he lands on his head in his bed!

I mentioned in an earlier post about this year's CBCA shortlist how books can change and blossom in a way not predicted as soon as you read them out loud to a group of young children.

All of Pamela Allen's books fall into this category.

Perhaps it's her trademark cause and effect device that is so powerful.
Combined with her dance-like language, it's difficult not to add your own sound effects and actions, to create a storytelling experience that is highly personal and individual.
I guess that is why so many of her stories have been converted into stage productions and plays.

Mr McGee has been such a popular character, that he has spawned another 7 picture books.

Friday Flashback hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies is a new meme that encourages us to remember a book we read over 5 years ago that is still in print and that we haven't blogged about previously.