All great achievements require time...

(Maya Angelou)

Okay, so Joke wanted us to post our required reading. Yeah, my list is long (what? I’m a librarian!). So I’ll post for consecutive Mondays until I get through the lot. I’m finding that my descriptions of the books aren’t necessarily helpful as to why one might read the book, so I’m taking a page from Cricket magazine and posting the first lines of the books, and maybe a personal tidbit if I feel inspired.

(and bear in mind, a lot of these are out of print)

Young Readers (Ages 10 or so)
The high house by Honor Arundel.
Aunt Patsy arrived the morning after the funeral and, as she had always lived in Edinburgh, Scotland, and we had always lived in London, England, and neither of us had had enough money for the fares, we had never met her before.

This book features an aunt that is a commercial artist who doesn’t always wash her dishes right away.

The Crack-a-joke book chosen by children in aid of Oxfam.
What is big grey and mutters?
A mumbo jumbo.

• This book is falling apart and has been with me since I bought it in Denmark at the ripe age of eight. It has the best jokes. My favorite part is the knock knocks.

Taking care of Terrific by Lois Lowry.
I threw down the book I’d been trying to read, stared out of my bedroom window for a while at the tops of the trees, sighed, and picked up my sketch pad.

• This book has an amazing proverb at the front: “If you keep a green tree in your heart, perhaps the singing bird will come.” I once made a collage of that proverb. The book is about a girl who watches a kid for the summer. It’s like The Nanny Diaries except not really…

Searching for Shona by Margaret J. Anderson.
Marjorie Malcolm-Scott walked slowly up Willowbrae Road toward the narrow iron gate that opened into Holyrood Park in Edinburgh.

• This is a haunting book about two girls who switch places during WWII.

The treasure is the rose by Julia Cunningham.
To tell about Ariane is to try to grow a rose on paper without the touch of sun and moon, rain and snow that make it real and growing. It is nearer the truth of her to go into her garden and, remain invisible, to look and listen for the little while before darkness comes down upon her and her roses.

• This is one of those books I took out of the library ever and ever and ever and it has the best pictures and then one day I found it at a used bookstore or Goodwill. It’s medieval and stuff.

It’s like this cat by Emily Neville.
My father is always talking about how a dog can be very educational for a boy. This is one reason I got a cat.

• A boy, his cat, in New York. This book totally rocks. A beach is featured.

The midwife’s apprentice by Karen Cushman.
I once used the last monologue in this book in a job interview. I got the job. It gives a lot away to give you that bit, but it’s more interesting than the first lines: “Jane Sharpe, it is I, Alyce, your apprentice. I have come back. And if you do not want to let me in, I will try again and again. I will do what you tell me and take what you give me, and I know how to try and risk and fail and try again and not give up. I will not go away.”

The six Bullerby children by Astrid Lindgren.
My name is Lisa, and I’m a girl – but of course you can tell that from my name. I’m seven years old, rising eight.

• When I was in first grade we had a Swedish au pair come live with us. She gave me this book. It’s called the Children of Noisy Village in American publishing.

The voyage of the “Dawn Treader” by C.S. Lewis.
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.

• I took a class at the church I attended in Virginia that focused on journeys and literature (We also read The Pilgrim’s Progress and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight). I loved the scene where Eustace de-dragons. Read it.

*Baby by Patricia MacLachlan.
In the evenings my father danced. All day long he was quiet and stubborn, the editor of the island newspaper. But in the evenings he danced.

Unclaimed Treasures (same)
This is also a spoiler, but it’s my favorite part:
She unwrapped the baby. And Willa nearly cried out with happiness, with joy; the baby was that ugly.
“Her hair,” Willa said at last, “it is all in a an uproar.” I love you, you poor thing. You poor little sister.

• This book was my favorite book during library school. I must have read it at least ten times. It’s about ten year old fraternal boy and girl twins who are about to have a baby sibling. Beautiful…

The wind in the willows by Kenneth Grahame.
The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.

• Remember when my mom was in the hospital when I was in first grade? Well, before she went, we had started reading this book. We never finished it. I finally finished reading it when I was 23. It is the most beautiful book on friendships, it is!

Thursday’s Child by Noel Streatfield
Margaret had been discovering all her life that grownups were disappointing conversationalists.

*Skating Shoes (same) One of the “Shoes” books, and my favorite. Figure skating, need I say more? (oh, and it’s mentioned in You’ve Got Mail, and it’s out of print)