Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
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Here’s a story that made my day.
A few months back, I had blogged about a bunch of bookmarks I found at a bargain bookstore. Among those I featured was a beautiful bookmark featuring some unicorns prancing in the night sky. It was the only one in the tray of bookmarks that wasn’t based on an actual book, and it was smaller than the rest,but I’ve always loved unicorns and I liked the softness of the painting featured in the bookmark.
I’ve always wanted to read Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — I’ve actually had a copy sitting on my shelf for several months now, but for a while there was some hype about it and I wanted to wait for it to dial down a bit. And then when I was looking for a book to read this weekend, the chartreuse cover got my attention so I finally took it out of its packaging, covered it in protective plastic (of course), and started to read it.
Originally written in Swedish, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first book in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. The novel has won multiple awards, including Sweden’s Glass Key Award in 2006 for best crime novel of the year, the 2008 Boeke Prize, the 2009 Galaxy British Book Awards for Books Direct Crime Thriller of the year, and the 2009 Anthony Award for Best First Novel.
Saturday was the Flips Flipping Pages Book Discussion on Bill Willingham’s Fables: Legends in Exile, led by our youngest-ever moderator, 13-year old Paolo.
I read my Fables deluxe edition back in March (I had it signed by James Jean in December) and I enjoyed it a lot, so I was looking forward to discussing it with the Flippers.
Eloise is one of my favorite children’s book characters, although not one I know from childhood (unlike Babar, Madeline, Curious George, or Tintin). I only discovered Eloise when I saw the old movie (with Julie Andrews as Nanny) on Disney channel when I was in college and learned that it was based on a book.
Eloise is a feisty six-year old girl living at The Plaza Hotel in New York City (hahaha, like Grandmere in The Princess Diaries, also played by Julie Andrews but in the movie she has a state home on the Genovian embassy grounds) in a book series by Kay Thompson illustrated by Hilary Knight. If you’ve seen Eloise, you’re bound to remember her forever, with the wild hair adorned with a flouncy bow, and the ruffled blouse and jumper ensemble (and pink knickers underneath!).
Every third Tuesday of July, the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY), the organization committed to the development of children’s literature in the Philippines, leads the celebration of National Children’s Book Day, commemorating the anniversary of the publication of Jose Rizal’s The Monkey and the Turtle in Trubner’s Oriental Record in London.
Rizal’s The Monkey and the Turtle is said to be the first illustrated story for children. A draft of the story is scribbled on an album belonging to Juan Luna’s wife Paz Pardo de Tavera. The story is based on a Filipino fable about the silly monkey and a clever turtle and is an elementary school staple in the Philippines. In fact, one of my fondest memories of grade school is connected to this story. In second grade, this was our class’s piece for Sabayang Pagbigkas (class oratorical contest) on Linggo ng Wika, with half the class playing “Pagong” (turtle) and the other half playing “Matsing” (monkey). Hahaha, I was in the monkey group and I still remember the very emphatic “Tatadtarin kita nang pinong-pino!” (I will chop you into tiny pieces!).
