a delightful exploration of the nuances of family life, friendship and school

/
a delightful exploration of the nuances of family life, friendship and school

ages 3 to 8 years
Henrietta is a ‘great go-getter’ with an ‘adventurous spirit’ and ‘great determination’.
She’s also ‘an explorer of life, and that includes trees, bugs, animals and all mysteries.’ She’s waiting for a new baby—and hoping for a sister. She’s also starting school, making new friends, having her first sleepover and doing all the things that lucky children do at that age.

There are disappointments of course

Read More

famous people reading: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

/
famous people reading: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

This looks like a great way to spend a birthday—reading and sunbathing on a car bonnet in Martha’s Vineyard. The pic is from New York Jackie: Pictures from Her Life in the City and was taken on her 60th birthday.

She’s reading The Most Beautiful House in the World, which I gather is a bit like a cerebral version of Grand Designs! The author is architect and prolific author, Witold Ryczynski—a man of forthright and strongly held opinion, including:

Read More

a tender hearted look at dementia and the beauty of a life lived with simple pleasures

/
a tender hearted look at dementia and the beauty of a life lived with simple pleasures

ages 4 to 12 years
Angela—who gets up before daybreak—waits for a special visitor. As she waits she bakes shortbread cookies, the ‘lovely sweet smell’ reminding her of her childhood. ‘That’s why she makes them so often.’

She becomes anxious as she waits and, with ‘her heart lurching in all directions’, she tries playing along to a quiz game on television. ‘That’s when she hears a small voice behind her 

Read More

a heart tugging look at how it feels to be different and a call to be more accomodating

/
a heart tugging look at how it feels to be different and a call to be more accomodating

ages 6 years to grownup
Everyone knows what it is to feel different or misunderstood. It's part of modern life—we meet many people in many circumstances and we don’t always ‘click’. And that’s fine, mostly we just do what needs to be done and move on until we come to a place we really do fit. But, for some people, being different or misunderstood is a constant. Ivan is such a child and he tells us that he is, in fact, a crocodile:

“I look like a boy but, inside, I am a crocodile. It’s not something you can see, of course, because it’s inside.

Read More

a lyric look at life’s unexpected moments, friends, rescuers, and the wonders of finding beauty

/
a lyric look at life’s unexpected moments, friends, rescuers, and the wonders of finding beauty

ages 2 to 8 years
If there is one certainty over the course of a lifetime, any lifetime, it's that there will always be something unexpected coming. Sometimes it’s a storm and sometimes it’s the ‘most beautiful sound’ we’ve ever heard. Alfred Fiddleduckling experiences both.

Alfred is a soon-to-hatch-egg when the story begins, safely nestled in a fiddle case on a sweet little boat loaded with new ducks for the Captain’s home

Read More