Saturday 25 January 2014

Quite a Lot of Books.


I've been busy with books recently.

These are new here. The top two, "Flea Market Style" and "Granny Squares", were Christmas presents. They're both quite nice - not fantastic or special in any way, just fairly nice examples of their genre (I do like interiors and crochet books). The Nigel Slater "Tender Vol II" book was a mere £1 from a charity shop.  I already have Vol I so was pleased to find the second one. It's a beautiful book and there are some lovely photos inside. I've only read the introduction so far and I am already inspired to grow more fruit in the garden. I may even get round to using the recipes one day... The bottom two books; "Decorate Workshop" and "Gardenalia", were TKMaxx bargains. I'm enjoying the "Decorate Workshop" book especially. I have to admit that with interiors books it's more about the pictures than the text, once you've actually read one, there's no need to ever read another one! This follows a slightly different format to other interiors books, but the pictures are still the best bit. Gardenalia could do with more pictures and less text...
 
Excerpt from "Decorate Workshop".

 Excerpt from "Decorate Workshop".

 Excerpt from "Gardenalia".

 Excerpt from "Tednder Vol II".
 
Over the Christmas holidays, in addition to having the 4000 word essay to write (which I submitted with a few hours to spare, hurrah!), we also had a book chain assignment to complete. This involved reading ten children's books which were to be linked in some (fairly random!) way. Five were to be for older primary school children, and five for younger primary school children. My chain began with The Kite Rider which I'd found in a charity shop and had initially bought for my daughter to read. This linked (via a kite theme) to The Kites are Flying which linked (via Michael Morpurgo) to Private Peaceful, etc, you can see the gist of it all on the poster above which I made. The last book in the chain is The King of Capri by Jeanette Winterson and illustrated by Jane Ray. I wanted to include this one as it made the chain continuous and it was a good excuse to buy another Jane Ray book. I have to confess that this is the one book I hadn't actually read before doing my poster. I had ordered it from an ebay seller but it didn't arrive in time so my blurb is derived from amazon reviews! Had I read it I would have reviewed it slightly differently. I like the illustrations and most of the story but don't like how it ends. Anyway, it's still a good excuse for including some more of Jane Ray's lovely paintings on my blog...






The last two illustrations are actually from "The Happy Prince" which is another recent Jane Ray aquisition, this time from a charity shop.

You can see I'm building up quite a collection. Initially I started buying them for A, but she's not terribly fussed about them, so they're kept in the living room bookcase now for all to enjoy.

I have selected "Children's Literature" as my optional class at university. I thought it would be interesting and useful to find out from the "experts" which new authors and books are recommended for children, my own knowledge being rather dated (authors I particularly remember liking as a child include Joan Aiken, Nina Bawden, Noel Streatfield, Leon Garfield, Nina Beachcroft...)


So here is another pile of new-to-me books (the whole lot cost less than £15 via ebay - I decided to buy rather than borrow as my children will be able to read them later too). These were all recomended either by the tutor or by my other classmates, many of whom are English grads as the literature we're going to be looking at is for children aged around 8 - 15 so is applicable to both primary and secondary PGDE students. I've already read "Wolf" and found it an exciting and enjoyable read.   

And today I took some "stuff" to the charity shop and came away with these, £3 the lot (the deal is 4 children's books for £1). How many can I read before my next teaching placement (when life goes a bit mad and time is in very short supply). I only have a week...



24 comments:

Amy said...

I seem to remember The Owl Service, must have read that when I was younger. I read Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses series of books a while ago and really enjoyed them, so I want to read more books aimed at children and young adults.

Loving the charity shop bargains, that's a good haul you've got!

Mereknits said...

I love books, love reading them myself and reading them to my kids when they were younger. Hugs to you and good luck with the reading.
Meredith

Kate said...

Great finds to add to your collection :-) I love the idea of a book chain; I may have to use that for my homeschooling curriculum. Have a nice weekend.

Unknown said...

I love kids books I'm in my 3rd year of a four and a half year primary education degree, hard work with.young children.but determined to finish. Love your blog :)

Simone said...

My goodness! It would take me years to get through all those books! Enjoy reading them!

Diane said...

Sooooooooooo much nicer than a Kindle. Books are forever xxx

CJ said...

A fantastic post, I'm always wondering what books to get for my boys, aged 10, 7 and 5, when Waterstones is just full of Beast Quest and very poorly written footballing stories. I'll be having a closer look at the titles in your pile. And I'm really envying you your Tender books. I've been looking for them (at an affordable price!) for ages, how fantastic to find one for a pound. One day...

Linda said...

A lovely book-y post! So jealous of your Nigel Slater bargain - I paid full whack for my Tender II.
I'm a great fan of children's lit, preferring it to much adult fiction despite wading through French novels (in French) for my PhD. Philip Reeve 's Mortal Engines, Rosemarie Sutcliff, Alan Garner...
Love Jane Ray's illustrations too. We have a framed sheet of her wrapping paper illustration of Noah's Ark in our bathroom.
Good luck with the next teaching practice. Are you daring to watch 'Tough Young Teachers' on BBC 3 just now?

blueskyscotland said...

The Jane Ray paintings are different class. I used to like Rupert Bear books just for the artwork alone as it was so colourful and vivid.
It's a shame that books are cheaper than they've ever been though. I brought three new paperbacks for £5 recently yet I was happy to pay that for one new book 15 years ago. Wonder what the writers think about that?

Louise said...

Some interesting looking books - I love Nigel Slater, even though I'm a really fussy vegetarian! I love reading childrens books too, that's an area I'm really interested in - there are no optional modules of study on PGCE courses here, as far as I'm aware (my school direct one had no options at all) but I'd love to have studied children's literature for the course.

Claire said...

You must have lots of lovely book shelves, to house your collection Anne.....My book shelf is groaning and there's very little room left on it.
Love Jane Rays illustrations, I'm not familiar with her work, so nice to be introduced.
Introducing children to the joy of reading is such a wonderful thing......

Claire x

Mairéad said...

You've got lots of lovely books there. I was very tempted by Flea Market style when I saw it in Waterstones a few weeks ago - then I remembered that I don't need any new books!
I used to love reading children's books when my son was small, especially ones that had nice illustrations.

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Cybèle said...

Love reading about your children's books. I found the early years with my two quite hard but the one thing I always enjoyed was reading with them. 14yo is now an avid reader herself and loves her English Lit and Lang GCSE so far (helps that she has a very enthusiastic teacher). 11yo is less keen, but he does like reference books like atlases and fact magazines (How it works seems to be a hit at the moment). That is, when I can drag him away from the lure of Minecraft!
Good luck with the placement.

Neighborhood Watch said...

Synchronicity! I was just talking about Noel Streatfield, whom I never ever talk about, and Ballet Shoes, which was a on public television in three installments when I was a girl. I loved it!
And, I too bought a children's book at the thrift store on the weekend. The Wheel On the School, which I never read, but would get annoyed at as a kid--for some reason. Annoyed as in--oh! That book again!

Lyn said...

What fun...to have a good excuse to be able to say sorry I have to read this....can't do the ironing! Xxxx

Unknown said...

I love books, love reading them myself and reading them to my kids when they were younger. Hugs to you and good luck with the reading.
MeredithTop Ten Web Hosting Reviews

* said...

I wish I could fit more reading time in...I find I read just before bed, but normally only make two more pages in before I'm asleep.....so annoying! Have you read any Gervase Phinn? I do like his wit, both adult and kids books. I have to admit to not really being up on kids books, my oldest. Has a few faces, but some of the books of his I've read of his, I've almost thought inappropriate, but then maybe I'm behind the times!

* said...

*faves

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