Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
Chicken House is one of my favorite British children’s book publishers. I’ve enjoyed many of their novels immensely, including Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord, Dragon Rider, and the Inkheart Trilogy; Elizabeth Kay’s Divide series; Stuart Hill’s The Cry of the Icemark; and The Mysterious Benedict Society, and I have a whole bunch of Chicken House books still waiting to be read on my shelves.
Chicken House was founded by publishing great Barry Cunningham (as in the subject of J.K. Rowling’s quote, “If it wasn’t for Barry Cunningham, Harry Potter might still be languishing in his cupboard under the stairs…”) in 2000, and it specializes in new writers, artists and ideas. Chicken House joined the Scholastic group in 2005, further cementing their hold in international children’s book market.
I’ve always found Chicken House books to be quirky and highly original, so I received a review copy of Numbers by Rachel Ward, I knew I was in for an interesting read.
I’ve had a copy of Joseph Delaney’s The Spook’s Apprentice for a couple of years now, and only remembered it last week, when I was digging through my shelves of TBR books for some books to read for Halloween. I remember I looked through a list of books that other Harry Potter fans were reading post-Harry Potter, and this book, the first in a series called The Wardstone Chronicles, came highly recommended.
I hadn’t planned on a Halloween theme for the 24-hour Readathon, but I got home late that day from seeing the Galeón de Andalucía at the South Harbor and had no time to pre-select books for the Readathon. Since the pile of scary books was already sitting on my desk, I just grabbed a bunch of them so I could sign up in the nick of time.
I finally got my copy of The Pop-up Book of Phobias (created and written by Gary Greenberg, illustrated by Balvis Rubess, pop-ups by Matthew Reinhart) from BookMooch, just in time for Halloween. If you’ve tuned in since the last 24-Hour Readathon, you’ll know I’m on a scary book kick, so you’ll be seeing a lot of scary books here from here on out!
I first discovered this book in the library of our BookMooch fairy godmother Triccie (she’s opening a bookstore this week: Libreria at the Cubao Expo!), who has an enviable (yes, I drool everytime I’m over at her house) collection of pop-up books! I wanted my own copy for my small — but growing! — pop-up collection, and just my luck, a copy came up on BookMooch a few months back!
This pop-up book showcases popular phobias, i.e. irrational, intense and persistent fears of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people, in macabre 3D images. The cover photo at the very top of this post is the spread on acrophobia, or the fear of heights.
I’ve always wanted to try Salman Rushdie, so I included him in my list for the A-Z Challenge. I have a bunch of his books in my perpetually insurmountable TBR pile, and I’m falling behind in the challenge, so I resolved to pick up the pace so I can finish by the end of the year. Having not read any of Rushdie’s books before, I decided to go with Haroun and the Sea of Stories first, so I can take on his more complex works later on (maybe next year?).
Written in 1990, Haroun and the Sea of Stories was Rushdie’s first novel after his highly controversial Satanic Verses (earning him an Islamic death sentence and causing multiple deaths from violence related to the book). Told from the point of view of a young boy named Haroun, the novel is an allegorical children’s book dedicated to Rushdie’s son, Zafar.
