Magic still happens here
Natalie Lloyd: A Snicker of Magic (Scholastic 2014) Midnight Gulch was once full of magic. It was a secret place, because the mountains and the river hid it from the world and protected it. Its inhabitants had magic flowing in their veins, some could lock starlight in a jar, or make it rain, or become invisible. But the most special power belonged to those siblings, who, when they started playing music, everyone started dancing and became cheerful. However, once they challenged each other to a duel and since then, unfortunately, the magic has disappeared from the town. Or is there still a little left? Felicity, with her forever wandering mother and sister, returns to their family’s old home. Felicity also has a little bit of magic: she sees words everywhere. Sometimes they have wings, or tiny feet, high-heeled shoes or zebra stripes. But there is a word that she had…
The unique Charlie McGuffin
Sam Copeland: Charlie Changes Into a Chicken (Penguin Books 2019) Sam Copeland: Charlie Turns Into a T-Rex (Penguin Books 2019) Charlie is an unusual little boy. He can transform into an animal. He just doesn’t know why and what kind of animal he will become. It all started three weeks after his ninth birthday, when he got home from the hospital where he visited his brother. In other ways, however, Charlie is completely normal. He is like you or me. He is an optimist, but he thinks a lot about certain things. About things that he is afraid of, but he doesn’t dare or cannot tell them. It’s lucky that he has friends who are always there for him. No wonder you recognized Charlie when you read about him. His story is about anxiety and overcoming it. It is about how important is the role of positive thoughts, but also…
Toward light
Tess Taylor: Leaning Toward Light (Storey Publishing 2023) This beautiful book is an anthology of verses on plants, gardens and gardening. It is intended for those who want to break away from the city a little and want to find their way back to the garden of their parents and grandparents and to the old days, when they could still spend time in the sunny yard. Acclaimed poet and avid gardener Tess Taylor has selected contemporary and classic poems that praise connection with nature. In addition to American authors, the volume also contains poems by poets such as Virgil, Walt Whitman, Federico Garcia Lorca, John Keats and Czesław Miłosz. The idea comes from the fact that, like reading a good poem, taking care of plants is a source of comfort for many people. During the pandemic, many people returned to gardening out of necessity or to calm down and escape…
Wonder in the museum
Ana Sampson: Wonder (Macmillan Children’s Books 2021) A book about a museum. But not only about the museum itself, but also about those who saw it and were inspired by it. The museum is not just any museum either: the Natural History Museum in London. Every year, five million visitors look at the exhibited treasures, which are only 1% of the museum’s 80 million objects. Behind the scenes, containers with preparations, rare books, works of art and pressed plants stretch for kilometers. The museum not only preserves the treasures of the past, but also thinks about the future. More than 300 researchers work in the museum, and 10,000 guest researchers visit here every year. The poems in the collection are grouped according to topics, from the fauna and flora to space. The authors of the works include great classics such as Walt Whitman, Rabindranath Tagore, Emily Dickinson and Lord Tennyson,…