Illustrators – Sanna Annukka
Sanna Annukka British/Finnish artist studied at the University of Brighton, which is where her passion for graphic design comes from, and is reflected in her later works. She spent many summers as a child north of the Arctic Circle, and these experiences established a lifelong love and respect for the rawness of the natural world. After graduating, she became a successful freelance illustrator, working with clients including Vogue, Island Records, Selfridges and Nordstrom. She illustrated three classic books: The Fir Tree and The Snow Queen by Andersen, and The Nutcracker by Hoffmann. In 2008, she joined the roster of designers for Finnish textile and fashion brand Marimekko, designing interiors and home decor patterns. That same year, the Finnish Design Museum commissioned her to create large textile wall hangings for their exhibition “FennoFolk – A Collection of New Nordic Oddities”. Her illustrations depict elemental images – the Sun, the Moon, rocks…
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,…
Greta and the ghosts
Sam Copeland: Greta and the Ghost Hunters (Puffin Books, 2022) Greta doesn’t believe in ghosts. More precisely, she didn’t believe in them until she had an accident. Because from then on, she sees and hears the ghosts that haunt her home. However, this is not the biggest problem because her parents want to send Greta’s best friend, her elderly grandmother, to a nursing home. To prevent this, Greta will need supernatural help. Unfortunately, however, the new supernatural friends will also need help… The main message of Greta’s story is to face our fears. However, the author mediates this in a very humorous way, which makes the serious topic enjoyable. The characters are nice and Greta is a very good person who always has other people’s happiness in mind. This is a children’s book that I also recommend to adults, as we can learn important things from it. Books like this…
October woodlands
Katya Balen: October, October (Bloomsbury Publishing 2020) „We live in the woods and we are wild.” October lives with her father in the forest, where it seems that they are alone in the whole world and everything is theirs. They produce everything they need, only sometimes have to go to the nearby village, which they both find unbearable. October’s mother could not stand this life and returned to civilization, for which October could never forgive her. Two very important things happen on the girl’s 11th birthday: she finds an orphaned barn owl and takes it into her care, and her father has an accident and is hospitalized. October has to move to London, to live with her mother, which changes her and her owl Stig’s life. October is a child blessed with a rich imagination, who is smart and resourceful, so she can find her place even in the big…
Shadows and ghosts
Phil Hickes: Shadowhall Academy – The Whispering Walls (Usborne Publishing 2024) Suffolk, England, September 1987 Lilian Jones is just starting the new school year at the famous Shadowhall Academy. It’s already scary enough that she has to leave her family and friends and study at a new school, and she also has three roommates at the boarding school, where she has to make new friends and find her way in the maze of corridors, but those turn out to be the least of her worries. Spooky knocks and whispers can be heard from the walls at night. Lilian and her roommates decide to investigate it, but in the process they discover that Shadowhall hides many more secrets… Even the Aveline Jones series should be required reading in my opinion, but I also really liked this story. In it, we can read not only about ghosts, but also about the world…
October witches
Jennifer Claessen: The October Witches (Uclan Publishing 2022) There’s so much to love about October – for example Halloween, pumpkin flavored food and drinks, the cozy things, and of course, the magic that permeates it all. But for Clemmie and her family, the magic is the main reason they look forward to this month. For Clemmie this October, the stars can give her magic for the first time for a whole month. Until now, she had just watched her family take advantage of the only one month of the year they could use their powers. However, there are those who want to possess their magical powers all year round, putting Clemmie and her family in mortal danger. Is magic worth that much? The story is a surprisingly new adaptation of the Arthurian legend centered on the descendants of the two first witches, Morgan and Merlyn. The two families blame each…
Halloween TBR 2024
Some people don’t like Halloween, but since I like to read seasonal books, I can’t miss this opportunity. There’s so much to love about October – Halloween, pumpkin spice lattes, and of course, magic. But for Jennifer Claessen‘s main character, the young witch Clemmie, this October is even more special, because all members of her family received their powers this month, which, however, has many complications in store for her. „We live in the forest, we are wild.” This is what October thinks, who lives in the forest with her father, until everything changes on her eleventh birthday. Her father falls from a tree and is hospitalized, and October is forced to move in with her mother in London. How does she manage to adapt to the bustling big city and finds her place among people with her wildness? Most people know Alice Hoffman‘s cursed witches from the movie Practical…