The Second Witch

I took a chance on this out of print 1960's children's book. I just didn't like the witch. She gets vicious towards the mayor of a town and its citizens after the guy forgot to keep his childhood promise of remembering her. She meets a new boy though who does fulfill that promise. The New York Times review on it at the time said it had a random quality and was good on improvisation. l do agree with that. Only the witch was too mean spirited for me.

The Shades

This excellent book is out of print. I know Betty Brock's No Flying in the House is in print and for a good price so how this was neglected makes me wonder. It's a book about a fountain and every time a boy washes his eyes he is able to see another world of people who are shadows. There is also an evil world in the garden, a wicked statue. The boy sets out to save his friends. The only bad thing about this book was that it was short. I wanted more. Along with A Candle in her Room this is on my list of out of print children books that should definitely be given another try. You should interlibrary loan it like I did. It's expensive.

Industrial Revolution

I learned a bit about the industrial revolution from this book. I learned about the impact of the Morse Code and how much spinning and weaving progressed through these times. The most important thing that happened was the stop to child labor. The kids went through way too much at this time in history something had to change. At 126 pages it was a good introduction to this time in history.

Dona Rosita the Spinster

I love the three plays I had read previously by Lorca so I decided on reading another one. This one was ok though kind of predictable. It's about a woman whose been waiting for her fiance for years only to discover he married in the meantime. She has wasted her life on him. By the end she isn't the vibrant person she was in her youth. He should have just been honest about getting married earlier. I felt sorry for the main character.

Tom's Midnight Garden

This was Philippa Pearce's masterpiece. It's a time travel classic that concerns a boy who escapes to a secret garden at night. At the garden he becomes friends with a peculiar girl Hatty. One thing is obvious. One of them has to be a ghost. I liked Hatty's fascination with the Bible in the novel too. I think this book has a cool gothic feel. It's enchanting but has a supernatural tone that keeps it interesting throughout. I loved how everything was tied up in the ending.

Kitchen

I found this short novel absolutely charming. It's about a girl who lives for a while with a mother and her son in Japan. In the meantime she takes up cooking. After the mother dies a gruesome death the boy and the girl grief with each other and find they are falling in love. I like the sensitive treatment of the transgender identity of the mother. I think the whole story is a wonderful reflection of food and family. There's also another good story "Moonlight Shadow" about a girl getting over the death of her boyfriend. However, the real reason to read the book is "Kitchen." I will be reading other books by Banana Yoshimoto. This is a really impressive debut.

Familiar and Haunting

This is a large collection of Phillipa Pearce's horror short stories. The problem is after 392 pages it's a bit too much and they start to feel samey. I liked it though. I would have given it a 3.5 on goodreads but they don't do half stars for some reason. What amazed me about the book is that some of the stories are a little too violent for children like "The Rope" and "Mr. Hurrel's Tallboy." The ones I liked the most were "Still Jim and Silent Jim" and I liked the one about the horrible aunt who puts a mice trap in a barrel to punish her overweight niece. That woman was such a villain. But really Pearce's masterpiece was Tom's Midnight Garden which I'll review next week.