Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human? Neil Gaiman

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
This book starts out in the town of Wall in England.  The Faerie Market is about to begin just outside the gates.  Dunstan Thorn, a very ordinary farmer, meets a beautiful and beguiling slave at the market and she gives him a glass snowdrop. Dunstan marries and ordinary girl from Wall but receives a baby in a basket that he conceived with the slave.  He names the baby Tristran.  We then skip ahead 18 years.  Tristran is in love with the town beauty and pledges to find and deliver a fallen star in exchange for her hand in marriage.  The adventure begins.  Tristran takes off into Faerie to discover many new things.  Including, but not limited to, the star is a ethereal girl with the name Yvaine.  I love Neil Gaiman's stories and this is no exception.  I love that he includes nursery rhymes and interprets them literally.  The first we come across is "How many miles to Babylon?"

How many miles to Babylon?

Three score miles and ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes, and back again.

If your heels are nimble and light,

You may get there by candle-light.

Tristran uses this rhyme and a candle to cover months worth of walking in just a few steps.  He also throws in "The Lion and the Unicorn."

The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown

The lion beat the unicorn all around the town.

We are introduced to the Unicorn that the moon sends to assist Yvaine and Tristran.  The lion and Unicorn were fighting and Tristran steps in as the lion goes in for the kill.  Incidentally, the rhyme is about the English Coat of Arms, so naturally I love it.  The adventure is a good one; filled with intrigue, faries, ghosts, poison, a race to get the "treasure" and a ship that floats.  The twist is a good, though foreseeable, one.  In any worthwhile fairy story, things are not what they seem and people are not who you think they are.  So, of course, she is not JUST a slave girl.  Tristran is not JUST a heart sick teenager, foolishly chasing rainbows (or stars).  If this were a story told around a campfire, I would have come away with a euphoric feeling of having just had a magnificent experience.  Since it was a book, I am left feeling a bit discontented.  I had a similar occurrence after reading Neverwhere.  I wanted something more out of it.  There were so many wonderful ideas!  I wanted to know more about the Lilim.  Who were they, what were they once?  What about this Castle Fellowship?  I understand they were protecting the heir but who are the others?  How did they know about him?  How did it start?  And Captain Alberic and the Perdita!!  An airborne ship that harvests lightening?!  Fantastic!  But I need more!  I was left wondering about the Stormhold and Una and wanted a bit of a back story there.  What happened with Madam Semele/Ditchwater Sal in her past?  And that strange  inclusion at the end about Tristran breaking the power of the Unseelie court?  More on that as well, if you don't mind Mr. Gaiman.  All in all, I enjoyed this book.  Would recommend it and read it again.  He is an amazing story teller and a talented writer.  An extra hundred pages would have made him a genius.

P.S. This is a picture of the Fairy Market by Charles Vess in a 2007 edition of the book.  Wish I would have read that one!!

**Sigh**

 Busy Birdies by John Schindel
I though I would share how these sweet little books are RUINING MY LIFE.  If I haven't shared with you my philosophy on the library yet, I will now.  I give my kids (previously just Doodle and Lula) free reign there.  They each have their own library bags and they can choose whatever picture book they want.  They are allowed to get "chapter" books by approval only.  The approval only rule is in place because Doodle will load up his bag with 20 or 30 and we can't possibly read all of those.  We typically "max out" the library card with the 50 books we take home.  Don't get me wrong, I have five cards to different library systems.  So don't feel bad for us, we could get 250 books if we needed to.  This systems has its flaws.  For example, I have had to read two kids books in the last month on infectious diseases.  Not pleasant.  It is worth it though to watch them pick out books and divide them up into piles when we get home.  I will now explain the second flaw and how Busy Birdies comes into play.  Recently, I have started allowing Buggy to get out of her stroller and put baby books into my library bag.  She always chooses one of the "Busy" books like the one above.


Or this...














...Or this.  You get the idea.
The problem, you ask?  She wants me to read them ALL day long and fusses if I don't.  The bigger problem?  She lays on the grounds and screams and kicks her precious little feet when we have to bring them back.  Apparently one year olds do not understand how libraries work.  It is getting on my nerves!  I think I will be ordering some on Amazon next week.  Geesh.

Creepy Crawlies

Ten Little Caterpillars By Bill Martin Jr

This book is about ten different kinds of caterpillars and what they eat.  At the end of the book, is a chart of what each one morphs into.  Great (and pretty accurate) pictures, cute story and good information.  My little nature nerds ate it up.  We read it several times.  After we read it, we glued pom poms to Popsicle sticks to make our own.  Doodle likes things to be accurate, so he wasn't terribly pleased with this activity but Lula loved it (Buggy didn't get to play, she eats things)!  This was a good fit for all three kids, with simple story structure and bright pictures to the information in the back.

There and back again

This is what I'm currently re-reading.  Getting VERY excited about the movie.  This is a fun copy of it with pictures.  I love the line, "Don't be a fool Mr Baggins if you can help it."  Genius.  I think I will start saying that to people.  It is lovely to revisit an old favorite.

Love Love Love

Eloise By Kay Thompson
“I am Eloise. I am six. I live at the Plaza hotel.”  Her mother travels and she is left in the care of Nanny.  She is a very busy little girl and spends most of her day entertaining herself with mischief!  She does all kids of naughty things such as running down the hallways with drumsticks and banging on the doors with them as she passes; pouring water down the mail slot so the person at the bottom gets wet; and generally harassing her tutor and everyone at the hotel.  She orders room service and stays up late with Nanny.  This is a very boisterous book that is at first glance a bit of a pain to read.  The sentences are very long and run together.  About a quarter of the way through the book, I realized I was doing it wrong!  It is written in first person with our mischievous six year old as the protagonist.  Once I understood the cadence, the book was a pleasure to read.  In the beginning of the book, it should state the directions.  "Please read using the following rules.  Take a deep breath at the beginning of every sentence.  Use only one breath per sentence   Picture a six year old telling an exciting story and using "and then, and then" between lines."  We adore the way Nanny says one word three times. "Eloise, that would be rude, rude, rude."  I've heard my littles say things like that several times in the last few weeks.  The book was written in the fifties and so there are some interesting things included.  For example, one evening Eloise and Nanny are watching TV and Nanny is smoking.  There are a lot of people that find all of that objectionable.  Perhaps, I am not as good of a mama but we think it is a rollicking good time!!  We love Eloise's impetuous nature and giggle at at all of her pranks.  A few times as we were reading, I stopped and stuck in something like, "it isn't very nice to say that someone is boring, boring, boring is it?"  I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I will remind you of my position.  I don't think that EVERY book needs to help kids tune their moral compass.  Some of them can just be pure entertainment.  This is the latter and we love love love it.

Oh Mercy!

Mercy Watson By Kate DiCamillo

Mercy Watson, the porcine wonder loves butter.  Especially if it is on hot toast.  She is the pet of Mr and Mrs Watson on 54 Deckawoo Drive.  She performs all kids of amazing feats while after butter or butter flavored things!  These books are very fun and silly.  Lula chose them at the library.  Doodle and I have been reading chapter books for a while and she wanted a "grown up book."  We found this one and decided to give it a try.  What good luck!  These are perfect for my three year old (my 5 year old loves them too, Buggy doesn't care...).  Since we've started reading them, we talk about Mercy and hot buttered toast almost constantly.  There are six books in this little series and we have one to go!  I have a feeling we will be re-reading them!  Highly recommend these to preschoolers/toddlers.  Each "chapter" around three pages and each page is typically 2 or 3 sentences.  Perfect!