Romantic poets didn't tend to have long careers. Keats died in 1821, Shelley the year after in 1822, and Byron two years after that in 1824. They were aged 25, 29 and 36 respectively. Yikes!

Also exploring the poetry of James Hogg, with a lovely reading by Alan McClure in the original Scots. 

Check out his YouTube channel Tales Fae the Shed, and his children's book Callum and the Mountain.

Huge thanks also to my friend Jan for her help translating to English.

 

Google Translate v. Rwandan Folklore

I just discovered that the Google Translate app can read straight from the page, so I put it to the test on my favourite Kinyarwanda fairy tale, the story of the warrior Maguru and the shapeshifter Insibika.

Breaking Silences

My friend Nicky Alonga from Imagine We in Rwanda has started a podcast with her friend Aline Berabose of Concern Worldwide.

I hope this finds you well. I am so excited to share my new podcast with you. We just launched it five hours ago and have 200 listeners already! The reason I am sharing this with you is because we have the same goal to empower women and this is precisely what we are working on. My co-host, Aline Berabose, and myself will be focusing on topics that are harming women in Rwanda and tips to become healthier versions of ourselves. I hope you will find the time to check it out. It will be releasing every single Wednesday!

You can find the podcast here.

Nicky has also just released her first children's fairytale, Ysolde, which you can find more about on their website if you scroll to the bottom, under Our Latest Releases.

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo

I've been quiet for a while with lots going on. I'm taking a holiday in the UK at the moment to visit family. 

Whilst I've been away, a few books have arrived for me, so I thought I'd sort through the pile, starting with Marlon Bundo which I bought back in March after the John Oliver programme.

Meet Marlon Bundo, a lonely bunny who lives at the Naval Observatory with his Grampa, the Vice President of the United States. But on this Very Special Day, Marlon's life is about to change forever...

It is everything it promised, and more. The beautiful story of two gay rabbits who are denied the right to marry by the Stink Bug. It contains an excellent moral message for children on the importance of voting and engaging in the democratic process. If you don't like the system (or the Stink Bug) - change it.

A happy, feel-good bedtime read.

Kings Bookshop, Callander

Took a little drive out to Callander yesterday with my friend Paul. Popped into an iconic bookshop, Kings, on Main Street. I'd been once before a couple of years back.  

There are many special things about this bookshop. Partly that they're not online because they prefer people to 'pop in and look around.' Partly because the books are organised more by a sense of category rather than by any strict system - which means you can find surprises on any shelf. Partly for Finlay the cat, who is quite a character, and will come to greet - and play fight - any guests. And partly for the owners, Sally Evans and husband Iain King.

Iain has a passion for bookbinding, and many of the books on the shelves are rare, old or out-of-print works that he has lovingly re-bound.

There's something thrilling about pulling a beautifully smooth book from the shelf, only to glimpse rough, deckle-edging between the cover. They're a little pricier than you'd expect a second-hand copy to be, but essentially, you're purchasing a work of art. These books have lovingly been given a second shot at life, deservingly preserved.

As well as modern paperbacks for a pound, there are also shelves of good-condition classics, including a fascinating children's section.

Sally is a poet, who has spent over thirty years in the Scottish poetry community. She also set up Diehard Poetry, which publishes a wide range of international poetry. Both Sally's own works and those of Diehard are available for purchase in the shop. I picked up a copy of Poetic Adventures in Scotland by Sally Evans, and Light Caught Bending by Martha Modena Vertreace. 

I was really lucky that Sally was in the bookshop when we visited, so I managed to get a signed copy, including the lovely Finlay. It really is a gem of a bookshop. If you're up Stirlingshire, do take time to drop in and brows. 

The Shark in the Dark

Had a lovely day yesterday. Delivered a belated Christmas gift to my friend's daughter. I'd chosen two very different stories to see which one she liked best.

One was a very sweet story about a girl who wants a doll for Christmas, so she sets off for the North Pole with her dog Beans, to let Santa know. On the way they meet a polar bear, and Zoe decides she'd rather let her Christmas present be a surprise instead.

Zoe's Christmas List by Chloe & Mick Inkpen

The second book was much darker, about a hungry shark who terrorises all the little fishes until they band together to frighten him off. It has a lovely shiny cover.

The Shark in the Dark by Peter Bently

Can you guess which she liked best?

I'm proud to say that The Shark in the Dark has become a firm favourite. A three-year-old with discerning taste in literature. Zoe's quest for a blonde-haired Kylie Kurlz doll, although nicely illustrated and having a pull-out section which made it 'a magic book!', was met with lukewarm reception compared to the terrors of the deep. Now I know what to go with in the future.

Here's some other recommendations for bedtime reading.

Mountain & Cloud

© Dan Ben Matthews

I am so stoked. My talented friend Dan Ben Matthews (who did the logo for Georg[i]e) has agreed to let me put his children's story Mountain and Cloud on my blog. I think it is one of the loveliest stories I've ever read, and beautifully illustrated. If you like it, you can find it on his Facebook Page along with his cheeky story My Friend Dave.

Click the picture below to enlarge it, then flick through so that you can read the story.

Book With No Pictures

Early Learning

 

It really is about time that I learned to read... in Kinyarwanda.

Last Thursday I had my second Kinyarwanda lesson. One of the most popular forms of public transport in Rwanda is the moto, or public motorbike. You can hail them just about anywhere, and when I lived here between 2007-09, I learned to haggle with them over price fairly well. To the point where moto drivers generally assume I can speak far more Kinyarwanda than I actually can. 

It's like that Family Guy episode:

Brian: Hola, mi nombre es brian.  

Immigrant: Thats pretty good, but you don't need the es in there. It's just hola, mi nombre brian.  

Brian: Oh, thank God you speak English! 

Immigrant: Nope, just that sentence and this sentence explaining it.  

Brian: You're kidding, right?  

Immigrant: Que?

So, I decided to do something about that. I now have a Kinyarwanda teacher, Jacques Mutabazi, and the other day whilst browsing through Nakumatt (where I bought The Pinhoe Egg) I discovered some early learning books. So I now have Maguru ni Ingagi (Maguru and the Gorilla) and Imirwano Hagati y'Umuriro n'Amazi (The Battle Between Fire and Water). Published by Fountain Publishers.

It's going to take some time before I'm able to read at an elementary level, but with Jacques' help, and armed with the online Kinyarwanda dictionary, I'm hoping to get there eventually.

Books of Days Gone Bye

After yesterday's post on authors dressing up as their favourite childhood characters, I thought I'd share some of the books I remember from my early years. A few of my favourite hardbacks.

It all really begins with Puddle Lane. These were just the best idea for teaching kids to read. Dad would read one each night, and they're split into two parts - see above. On one page is the smaller print for the adults to read, then in larger print is the part for the kids to read. I always had to read my bit before he'd turn the page. I'm not sure they're still in print, but there's a full title list here.

The Mirrorstone both fascinated and scared me all at the same time, as any good book should. I was fascinated by the holograms which were embedded on the pages, but scared by the story. Especially where the boy steps through a puddle into a watery world where he almost drowns. The book is the product of several authors, including Michael Palin of Monty Python fame. A very unusual read.

Old Farm, New Farm appears to have become a bit of a collector's item. This one was special because it was a gift from my maternal grandmother. Mum read it to me many times, and I would always reach for it when I didn't really want to go to sleep, because - as kids' books go - it's quite long. It's all about an old, run-down farm, and how the farmer cleans it up and makes it new again.

Oleg the Snow Leopard is beautifully illustrated. Again, I was a little unsure of it: I loved the pictures, but the story was about Oleg being hunted down and wounded, and how his friends saved him. I also liked it because it was set in a land of ice and snow, which is something I've always been drawn to in stories. I think all children find joy in snow. After all, it signals a day off school.

The Patchwork Cat is another beautifully illustrated book. It's all about a cat, Tabby, whose owner throws away her favourite patchwork blanket. She goes on an adventure to retrieve it, and her catchphrase: "Good morning, good yawning," was oft repeated at the breakfast table.

500 New Fairytales

 

After nominating Einstein on my A-Z of authors list yesterday for his fairytale quote:

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.

I logged into Twitter this morning to discover this lovely news:

Five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany: 

A whole new world of magic animals, brave young princes and evil witches has come to light with the discovery of 500 new fairytales, which were locked away in an archive in Regensburg, Germany for over 150 years. The tales are part of a collection of myths, legends and fairytales, gathered by the local historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (1810–1886) in the Bavarian region of Oberpfalz at about the same time as the Grimm brothers were collecting the fairytales that have since charmed adults and children around the world.

I hope they take their time translating them, I've yet to get through Philip Pullman's retelling of Grimm's Fairy Tales.