191. a LITTLE PRINCESS

Frances Hodgson Burnett 1904

The Book Blurb:

    Ten-year-old Sara Crewe wasn't really a princess. But she seemed like one when she first arrived at Miss Minchin's London boarding school. Her father had given her all sorts of beautiful clothes before he had returned to India, as well as a pony, a French maid, and a wonderful doll named Emily. Sara wasn't spoiled, though -- almost everyone wanted to be her friend.
    Suddenly a terrible misfortune left Sara penniless -- and she thought, forgotten. She had to wear old rags, live in a dingy attic, and work for her living. It wasn't a very happy life for a young girl. The mysterious changes begun, showing Sara she had never really been all alone.

What Hooked Me:

I needed a dose of a straight-forward, old-fashioned children's story with a happy ending.

The Quotes:

'Once on a dark winter's day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares.'(opening lines)

"I am not in the least anxious about her education," Captain Crewe said, with his gay laugh, as he held Sara's hand and patted it. "The difficulty will be to keep her from learning too fast and too much. She is always sitting with her little nose burrowing into books. She doesn't read them, Miss Minchin; she gobbles them up as if she were a little wolf instead of a little girl. She is always starving for new books to gobble, and she wants grown-up books -- great, big, fat ones -- French and German as well as English -- history and biography and poets, and all sorts of things.'(9)

"Things happen to people by accident," she used to say. "A lot of nice accidents have happened to me. It just happened that I always liked lessons and books and could remember things when I learned them. It just happened that I was born with a father who was beautiful and nice and clever, and could give me everything I liked. Perhaps I have not really a good temper at all, but if you have everything you want and everyone's kind to you, how can you help but be good-tempered? I don't know" -- looking quite serious -- "how I shall ever find out whether I am really a nice child or a horrid one. Perhaps I'm a hideous child, and no one will ever know, just because I never have any trials."(33)

'Of course the greatest power Sara possessed and the one which gained her even more followers than her luxuries and the fact that she was "the show pupil," the power that Lavinia and certain other girls were most envious of, and at the same time most fascinated by in spite of themselves, was her power of telling stories and of making everything she talked about seem like a story, whether it was one or not.'(42)

'Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment.'(58)

'If Nature has made you a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full and you can give things out of that -- warm things, kind things, sweet things -- help and comfort and laughter -- and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all.'(63)

'Everything's a story. You are a story -- I am a story.'(114)

'Perhaps kind thoughts reach people somehow, even through windows and doors and walls. Perhaps you feel a little warm and comforted...'(142)

'On this very afternoon, while Sara was out, a strange thing happened in the attic. Only Melchisedec saw and heard it, and he was so much alarmed and mystified that he scuttled back to his hole and hid there, and really quaked and trembled as he peeped out furtively and with great caution to watch what was going on.'(162)

'Imagine, if you can, what the rest of the evening was like. How they crouched by the fire which blazed and leaped and made so much of itself in the little grate. How they removed the covers of the dishes, and found rich, hot, savory soup, which was a meal in itself, and sandwiches and toast and muffins enough for both of them.'(196)

First Harper Trophy Book  edition 1987
245 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

178. NUMBER the STARS

Lois Lowry 1989

Another children's book that drives home a big sigh!! Based on real events that happened during the evacuation of Jews from Denmark, WWII, this short story is very touching. On the street of Osterbrogade, in a small neighborhood in northeast Copenhagen, live best friends Annemarie Johansen and Ellen Rosen. Over the last three years, they have lived under the Nazi eyes. Aware of the Rosen family's impending capture and relocation, the Johansens pretend Ellen is Annemarie's sister. Later, an elaborate escape from Denmark to Sweden is set into motion, (with the help of Annemarie's mother, her Uncle Henrik, and her late sister's fiance Peter Nielsen) and ten-year old Annemarie's bravery shines through.

'"I'll race you to the corner, Ellen!" Annemarie adjusted the thick leather pack on her back so that her schoolbooks balanced evenly. "Ready?" She looked at her best friend.'(opening lines)

'Annemarie stared up. There were two of them. That meant two helmets, two sets of cold eyes glaring at her, and four tall shiny boots planted firmly on the sidewalk, blocking her path to home.... And it meant two rifles, gripped in the hands of the soldiers. She stared at the rifles first. Then,finally, she looked into the face of the soldier who had ordered her to halt.... "Why are you running?" the harsh voice asked. His Danish was very poor. Three years, Annemarie thought with contempt. Three years they've been in our country, and still they can't speak the language.'(3)

"When will there be cupcakes again?"
"When the war ends," Mrs. Johnson said. She glanced through the window, down to the street corner where the soldiers stood, their faces impassive beneath the metal helmets. "When the soldiers leave."(10)

"Who is that man who rides past here every morning on his horse?" the German soldier had asked.
Papa said he had smiled to himself, amused that the German soldier did not know. He listened while the boy answered.
"He is our king," the boy told the soldier. "He is the King of Denmark."
"Where is his bodyguard?" the soldier had asked.... "The boy looked right at the soldier, and he said, "All of Denmark is his bodyguard."(13-14)

'Annemarie relaxed the clenched fingers of her right hand, which still clutched Ellen's necklace. She looked down, and saw that she had imprinted the Star of David into her palm.'(49)

'Annemarie looked around and nodded her head in agreement. The house and the meadows that surrounded it were so much a part of her childhood, a part of her life, that she didn't often look at them with fresh eyes. But now she did, seeing Ellen's pleasure. And it was true. They were beautiful.
The little red-roofed farmhouse was very old, its chimney crooked and even the small, shuttered windows tilted at angles. A bird's nest, wispy with straw, was half hidden in the corner where the roof met the wall above a bedroom window. Nearby, a gnarled tree was still speckled with a few apples now long past ripe.'(60)

'The words were unfamiliar to her, and she tried to listen, tried to understand, tried to forget the war and the Nazis, tried not to cry, tried to be brave. The night breeze moved the dark curtains at the open windows. Outside she knew, the sky was speckled with stars. How could anyone number them one by one, as the psalm said? There were too many. The sky was too big.'(87)

'Light woke her. But it was not really morning, not yet. It was only the first hint of a slightly lightening sky: a pale gleam at the edge of the meadow, a sign that far away somewhere, to the east where Sweden still slept, morning would be coming soon. Dawn would creep across the Swedish farmland and coast; then it would wash little Denmark with light and move across the North Sea to wake Norway.'(98)

'Mama spoke quickly, her voice tense. "Annemarie, go into the house and get the small basket on the table. Quickly, quickly. Put an apple into it, and some cheese. Put this packet underneath; do you understand? Hurry."'(104)

'Surely that gift -- the gift of a world of human decency -- is the one that all countries hunger for still. I hope that this story of Denmark, and its people, will remind us all that such a world is possible.'(Afterword, p.137)

a Random House Children's Book edition
132 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

172. TUCK EVERLASTING

Natalie Babbitt 1975

This is definitely a charming older children's fantasy book!! Winnie Foster's family owns the Treegap Wood, and is unaware that there-in lies a spring whose water when consumed imparts everlasting life. The Tucks (Angus, Mae, Miles and Jesse) know this secret and would like to keep the knowledge (for good reasons) away from others... except maybe Winnie.  Will Winnie take advantage of this amazing chance? Would you?

'The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot.'(opening lines)

'But things come together in strange ways. The wood was a the center, the hub of the wheel. All wheels must have a hub. A Ferris wheel has one, as the sun is the hub of the wheeling calendar. Fixed points they are, and best left undisturbed, for without them nothing holds together. But sometimes people find this out too late.'(4)

'Nothing ever seems interesting when it belongs to you -- only when it doesn't.'(7)

'In the end, however, it was the cows who were responsible for the wood's isolation, and the cows, through some wisdom they were not wise enough to know that they possessed, were very wise indeed. If they had made their road through the wood instead of around it, then the people would have followed the road. The people would have noticed the giant ash trees at the center of the wood, and then, in time, they'd noticed the little spring bubbling up among its roots in spite of the pebbles piled there to conceal it. And that would have been a disaster so immense that this weary old earth, owned or not to its fiery cone, would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin.'(8)

'Mae Tuck didn't need a mirror, though she had one propped up on the washstand. She knew very well what she would see in it; her reflection had long since ceased to interest her. For Mae Tuck, and her husband, and Miles and Jesse, too, had all looked exactly the same for eighty-seven years.'(12)

'For the wood was full of light, entirely different from the light she was used to. It was green and amber and alive, quivering in splotches on the padded ground, fanning into sturdy stripes between the tree trunks. There were little flowers she did not recognize, white and palest blue; and endless, tangled vines; and here and there a fallen log, half rotted but soft with patches of sweet green-velvet moss.
And there were creatures everywhere. The air fairly hummed with their daybreak activity: beetles and birds and squirrels and ants, and countless other things unseen, all gentle and self-absorbed and not in the least alarming. There was even, she saw with satisfaction, the toad.'(24)

"We don't know how it works, or even why," said Miles.
"Pa thinks it's something left over from -- well, from some other plan for the way the world should be," said Jesse. "Some plan that didn't work out too good. And so everything was changed. Except that the spring was passed over, somehow or other."(41)

"Life's got to be lived, no matter how long or short," she said calmly. "You got to take what comes. We just go along, like everybody else, one day at a time."(54)

"Know what happens then?" said Tuck. "To the water? The sun sucks some of it up right out of the ocean and carries it back in clouds, and then it rains, and the rain falls into the stream, and the stream keeps moving on, taking it all back again. It's a wheel, Winnie. Everything's a wheel, turning it, and the bugs, and the fish, and the wood thrush, too. And people. But never the same ones. Always coming in new, always growing and changing, and always moving on. That's the way it's supposed to be. That's the way it is."(62)

"The way I see it," Miles went on, "it's no good hiding yourself away, like Pa and lots of other people. And it's no good just thinking of your own pleasure, either. People got to do something useful if they're going to take up space in the world."(86-87)

First Square Fish Edition 2007
139 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
Book idea from Melissa@ The Avid Reader's Musings (thanks!!)
______________________________________________

Literary Giveaway Blog Hop Winner:

After assigning numbers 1-187 to the valid entries (comments with an e-mail address) in the order that they were posted (minus any duplications), the winning number picked through Random.org is:

#115 - stacybuckeye

Congratulations!! Thanks to all who participated.

165. MATILDA

Roald Dahl 1988
Illustrations by Quentin Blake

Matilda Wormwood is a child prodigy, unrecognized by her clueless, neglectful and horrible parents. They are unaware that at the age of five, she has already read an enviable list of classic books (the books to be added to my TBR!) They are also unaware that she has superior mathematical talent and soon to be manifested extraordinary powers. Fortunately, Miss Jennifer Honey, her new teacher, easily recognizes her gifts and decides to find ways to help her. But the nightmarish headmistress - the Trunchbull - proves to be an enormous hindrance to this task. A chock full of fun.


'It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.'(opening lines)

'From then on, every afternoon, as soon as her mother had left for bingo, Matilda would toddle down to the library. The walk took only ten minutes and this allowed her two glorious hours sitting quietly by herself in a cosy corner devouring one book after another. When she had read every single children's book in the place, she started wandering round in search of something else.'(13)

'Over the next six months, under Mrs Phelps's watchful and compassionate eye, Matilda read the following books:
     Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
     Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
     Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
     Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
     Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
     Gone to Earth by Mary Webb
     Kim by Rudyard Kipling
     The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
     The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
     The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
     The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
     The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
     Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
     Animal Farm by George Orwell.
It was a formidable list and by now Mrs. Phelps was filled with wonder and excitement...'(17-18)

'It was pleasant to take a hot drink up to her room and have it beside her as she sat in her silent room reading in the empty house in the afternoons. The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.'(21)

'Most children in Matilda's place would have burst into floods of tears. She didn't do this. She sat there very still and white and thoughtful. She seemed to know that neither crying nor sulking ever got anyone anywhere.'(41)

"I'm afraid men are not always quite as clever as they think they are. You will learn that when you get a bit older, my girl."(65)

"If you survive your first year you may just manage to live through the rest of your time here. But many don't survive. They get carried out on stretchers screaming. I've seen it often."(103-104)

'At that point something strange happened. The playground, which up to then had been filled with shrieks and the shouting of children at play, all at once became silent as the grave. "Watch out," Hortensia whispered. Matilda and Lavender glanced round and saw the gigantic figure of Miss Trunchbull advancing through the crowd of boys and girls with menacing strides. The children drew back hastily to let her through and her progress across the asphalt was like that of Moses going through the Red Sea when the waters parted. A formidable figure she was too, in her belted smock and green breeches. Below the knees her calf muscles stood our like grapefruits inside her stockings.'(112)

'Matilda said, "Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable. No parent is going to believe this pigtail story, not in a million years. Mine wouldn't. They'd call me a liar."'(117)

'The Trunchbull was sitting behind the teacher's table staring with a mixture of horror and fascination at the newt wriggling in the glass. Matilda's eyes were also riveted on the glass. And now, quite slowly, there began to creep over Matilda a most extraordinary and peculiar feeling. The feeling was mostly in the eyes. A kind of electricity seemed to be gathering inside them. A sense of power was brewing in those eyes of hers, a feeling of great strength was settling itself deep inside her eyes. But there was also another feeling which was something else altogether, and which she could not understand. It was like flashes of lightning. Little waves of lightning seemed to be flashing out of her eyes. Her eyeballs were beginning to get hot, as though vast energy was building up somewhere inside them. It was an amazing sensation. She kept her eyes steadily on the glass, and now the power was concentrating itself in one small part of each eye and growing stronger and stronger and it felt as though millions of tiny little invisible arms with hands on them were shooting out of her eyes towards the glass she was staring at.'(164-165)

'In two strides the Trunchbull was beside him, and by some amazing gymnastic trick, it may have been judo or karate, she flipped the back of Wilfred's legs with one of her feet so that the boy shot off the ground and turned a somersault in the air. But halfway through the somersault she caught him by an ankle and held him dangling upside-down like a plucked chicken in a shop-window.'(218)

a Trumpet Club Special Edition
240 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

152. the PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH

Norton Juster 1961
Illustrations by Jules Feiffer

A really smart children's book guaranteed to take you to Wordplay heaven as it gently satirizes the art of Rhetoric! After the always bored Milo receives a mysterious tollbooth, he drives through to the road of Expectation.  He soon meets Humbug and dog Tock who become his companions to the Land of Wisdom. This land has had two conflicting cities, Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, in chaos after the loss of the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason. They are off to their rescue and the adventure of visiting such charming places as: the Islands of Conclusions, the Valley of Sound, Mountains of Ignorance and the Sea of Knowledge; meeting fantastic characters such as: the not-so-wicked Which, Chroma, Dr. Kakofonous A. Dischord, the awful Dyne, the Soundkeeper, the Dodecahedron, the Half Boy, the Whether Man, Alec Bings, the Gorgons of Hate and Malice, the Everpresent Wordsnatcher; and encountering the demons: the demon of  Insincerity, the Overbearing Know-it-all, the Gross Exaggeration, the Threadbare Excuse, the Terrible Trivium, the Gelatinous Giant and the Ugly Dilemma.  See what I mean?

'There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself -- not just sometimes but always.'(opening line)

"ONE GENUINE TURNPIKE TOLLBOOTH," it stated -- and then it went on:
EASILY ASSEMBLED AT HOME, AND FOR USE BY THOSE WHO NEVER TRAVELED IN LANDS BEYOND."(12)

'It shall be unlawful, illegal, and unethical to think, think of thinking, surmise, presume, reason, meditate, or speculate while in the Doldrums.'(24)

"Well," continued the watchdog impatiently, "since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking."(31)

'"I never knew words could be so confusing," Milo said to Tock as he bent down to scratch the dog's ear.
"Only when you use a lot to say a little," answered Tock.'(44)

"Of course not," replied Alec, sitting himself down on nothing. "It's only mine, and you certainly can't always look at things from someone else's Point of View. For instance, from here that looks like a bucket of water," he said pointing to a bucket of water; " but from an ant's point of view, it's a vast ocean, from an elephant's just a cool drink, and to a fish, of course, it's home. So, you see, the way you see things depends on a great deal on where you look at them from."(107-108)

"I know one thing for certain: it's much harder to tell whether you are lost than whether you were lost, for, on many occasions, where you're going is exactly where you are. On the other hand, you often find that where you've been is not at all where you should have gone, and, since it's much more difficult to find your way back from someplace you've never left, I suggest you go there immediately and then decide.'(114)

"Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn?" she inquired. "Or the quiet and calm just as the storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause in a roomful of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're all alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful, if you listen carefully.'(151-152)

"But I wouldn't worry too much about it, for you can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do.'(169-170)

"If you had high hopes, how would you know how high they were? And did you know that narrow escapes come in all different widths? Would you travel the whole wide world without ever knowing how wide it was? And how could you do anything at long last," he concluded, waving his arms over his head, "without knowing how long the last was? Why, numbers are the most beautiful and valuable things in the world."(177)

"I'm the demon of insincerity," he sobbed. "I don't mean what I say, I don't mean what I do, and I don't mean what I am. Most people who believe what I tell them go the wrong way, and stay there..."(217)

"I warned you; I warned you I was the Senses Taker," sneered the Senses Taker. "I help people find what they're not looking for, hear what they're not listening for, run after what they're not chasing, and smell what isn't even there. And, furthermore," he cackled, hopping around gleefully on his stubby legs, "I'll steal your sense of purpose, take your sense of duty, destroy your sense of proportion -- and, but for one thing, you'd be helpless yet."(230)

"You must never feel badly about making mistakes." explained Reason quietly, "as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons."(233)

'... so many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.'(247)

a Dell Yearling Book
255 pages
Book borrowed from JRMD
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

147. MARY POPPINS

P.L. Travers 1934
illustrated by Mary Sheppard

Although I must admit, I read this children's book with the Disney version's music humming in my head, this book is so different, in a good way, from the movie. Mary Poppins is the stern and slightly self-centered magical nanny who brings adventures to Jane and Michael Bank's life as they meet a cast of many adorable characters, each imparting their own subtle messages: the Match-Man who brings his paintings to life, Andrew the pedigree dog who wishes to be common, Mr Wigg who couldn't stop laughing, the Red cow who couldn't stop dancing, the Bird Woman who couldn't stop singing, the wise King Hamadryad and the pleiadian Maia. 

'If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads. He will push his helmet slightly to one side, scratch his head thoughtfully, and then he will point his huge white-gloved finger and say: "First to your right, second to your left, sharp right again, and you're there. Good morning."(opening lines)

'With her large bag in her hands she slid gracefully up the banisters, and arrived at the landing at the same time as Mrs. Banks. Such a thing, Jane and Michael knew, had never been done before. Down, of course, for they had often done it themselves. But up -- never! They gazed curiously at the strange new visitor.'(8-9)

'But Mary Poppins's eyes were fixed upon him, and Michael suddenly discovered that you could not look at Mary Poppins and disobey her. There was something strange and extraordinary about her -- something that was frightening and at the same time most exciting.'(11-12)

"Mary," he said, "I got an idea! A real idea. Why don't we go there -- right now -- this very day? Both together, into the picture. Eh, Mary? And still holding her hands he drew her right out of the street, away from the iron railings and the lamp-posts, into the very middle of the picture. Pff! There they were, right inside it!'(21)

'Mr Wigg went on calmly. "You see, it's this way. I'm a cheerful sort of man and very disposed to laughter. You wouldn't believe, either of you, the number of things that strike me as being funny. I can laugh at pretty nearly everything. I can."(32-33)

'The Red Cow, drawing in her breath, gave one huge tremendous jump and the earth fell away beneath her... She herself shot upwards through the sky, with the stars spinning around her like great golden plates, and presently, in blinding light, she felt the cold rays of the moon upon her. She shut her eyes as she went over it, and as the dazzling gleam passed behind her and she bent her head towards the earth again, she felt the star slip down her horn. With a great rush it fell off and went rolling down the sky. And it seemed to her that as it disappeared into the darkness great chords of music came from it and echoed though the air.'(77)

"Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag! Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag! Feed the Birds, Tuppence a bag, Tuppence a Bag!" Over the over again, the same thing, in a high chanting voice that made the words seem like a song.'(106)

"You'll forget because you can't help it.. There never was a human being that remembered after the age of one -- at the very latest -- except of course, Her." And he jerked his head over his shoulder at Mary Poppins.'(140)

"And after all," he went on, flicking his terrible little forked tongue in and out as he spoke, "it may be that to eat and be eaten are the same thing in the end. My wisdom tells me that this is probably so. We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the Jungle, you of the City. The same substance composes us -- the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star -- we are all one, all moving to the same end."(172-173)

"... the whole point of Christmas is that things should be given away, isn't it?"(188)

Scholastic Book Services edition
206 pages
Book owned
Post book cover picture from Goodreads
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

144. CHARLIE and the CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Roald Dahl 1964
Illustrated by Quentin Blake

A marvelous and endearing story that is a must read for all!! When good little Charlie and four other children: greedy Augustus Gloop, spoiled Veruca Salt, gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde and television addict Mike Teavee win the golden tickets to tour the mysterious chocolate factory, we share in the absolute delight and suspense of discovering the wonderful and delicious, mouth-watering world of Mr. Wonka and his music-loving Oompa-Loompas. 

'These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket. Their names are Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine.(opening lines)

'Every one of these old people was over ninety. They were as shriveled as prunes, and bony as skeletons, and throughout the day, until Charlie made his appearance, they lay huddled in their one bed, two at either end, with nightcaps on to keep their heads warm, dozing the time away with nothing to do...  For they loved this little boy. He was the only bright thing in their lives, and his evening visits were something that they looked forward to all day long. Often, Charlie's mother and father would come in as well, and stand by the door, listening to the stories that the old people told; and thus, for perhaps half an hour every night, this room would become a happy place, and the whole family would forget that it was hungry and poor.'(8)

"Mr. Wonka can make marshmallows that taste of violets, and rich caramels that change every ten seconds as you suck them, and little feathery sweets that melt away deliciously the moment you put them between your lips. He can make chewing gum that never loses its taste, and candy balloons that you can blow up to enormous sizes before you pop them with a pin and gobble them up. And by a most secret method, he can make lovely birds' eggs with black spots on them, and when you put one of these in your mouth, it gradually gets smaller and smaller until suddenly there is nothing left except a tiny little pink sugary baby bird sitting on the tip of your tongue.'(11-12)

'To tell you the honest truth, I simply wouldn't feel comfortable if I didn't have a little wedge of gum to chew on every moment of the day, I really wouldn't. My mother says it's not ladylike and it looks ugly to see a girl's jaws going up and down like mine do all the time, but I don't agree. And who's she to criticize, anyway, because if you ask me, I'd say that her jaws are going up and down almost as much as mine are just from yelling at me every minute of the day."(31)

'There is something about very cold weather that gives one an enormous appetite. Most of us find ourselves beginning to crave rich steaming stews and hot apple pies and all kinds of delicious warming dishes; and because we are all a great deal luckier than we realize, we usually get what we want -- or near enough.'(37)

'He threw up his arms and yelled "Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" And at the same time, his long bony body rose up out of the bed and his bowl of soup went flying into the face of Grandma Josephine, and in one fantastic leap, this old fellow of ninety-six and a half, who hadn't been out of bed these last twenty years, jumped on to the floor and started doing a dance of victory in his pajamas.'(48-49)

'There!" cried Mr. Wonka, dancing up and down and pointing his gold-topped cane at the great brown river. "It's all chocolate! Every drop of that river is hot melted chocolate of the finest quality. The very finest quality. There's enough chocolate in there to fill every bathtub in the entire country! And all the swimming pools as well! Isn't it terrific? And look at my pipes! They suck up the chocolate and carry it away to all the other rooms in the factory where it is needed. Thousands of gallons an hour, my dear children! Thousands and thousands of gallons!"'(64)

'A steamy mist was rising up now from the great warm chocolate river, and out of the mist there appeared suddenly a most fantastic pink boat. It was a large open rowboat with a tall front and a tall back (like a Viking boat of old), and it was of such a shining sparkling glistening pink color that the whole thing looked as though it were made of bright, pink glass. There were many oars on either side of it, and as the boat came closer, the watchers on the riverbank could see that the oars were being pulled by masses of Oompa-Loompas -- at least ten of them to each oar.'(81)

"They're completely new! I am inventing them for children who are given very little pocket money. You can put an Everlasting Gobstopper in your mouth and you can suck it and suck it and suck it and suck it and it will never get any smaller!"(89-90)

'For though she's spoiled, and dreadfully so,

A girl can't spoil herself, you know.

Who spoiled her, then? Ah, who indeed?

Who pandered to her every need?

Who turned her into such a brat? 

Who are the culprits? Who did that?'(117-118)

'So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away,

And in its place you can install

a lovely bookshelf on the wall.

Then fill the shelves with lots of books,

Ignoring all the dirty looks,

The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,

And children hitting you with sticks --

Fear not, because we promise you

That, in about a week or two

Of having nothing else to do,

They'll now begin to feel the need

Of having something good to read.'(141)

a Puffin Book

155 pages

Book owned

Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
___________________________

136. the LITTLE PRINCE

Antoine de Saint-Exupery 1943
with illustrations by the author
translated from French by Richard Howard

There will always be room on my list for a simple book such as this, a gentle reminder to all of us about what truly is important. When a pilot is forced to land his plane on a desert, he meets an extraordinary Little Prince who teaches him the secret to cherishing life.  The same message keeps getting told in so many ways, I know, but are we actually getting the message? 

'Once when I was six I saw a magnificent picture in a book about the jungle, called True Stories. It showed a boa constrictor swallowing a wild beast.'(opening lines)

'Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for children to have to provide explanations over and over again.'(2)

'Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: "What does her voice sound like?" "What games does he like best?" "Does he collect butterflies?" They ask: "How old is he? "How many brothers does he have?"..."How much money does his father make?" Only then do they think they know him.'(10)

'Authority is based first of all upon reason.'(31)

'This is the hardest thing of all. It is much harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it's because you are truly a wise man.'(32)

'Trying to be witty leads to lying, more or less.'(48)

'But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass. Since she's the one I sheltered behind a screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three for butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she's boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose.'(63)

'One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.'(63)

'What moves me so deeply about this sleeping little  prince is his loyalty to a flower -- the image of a rose shining within like the flame within a lamp, even when he's asleep...'(69)

'... if you should travel to Africa someday, in the desert. And if you happen to pass by here, I beg you not to hurry past. Wait a little, just under the star!'(85)

A Harvest Book edition
85 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge


Thanks to Suko @ Suko's Notebook for her sidebar picture of the book, the reminder that I finally had to read it. 

133. CHARLOTTE'S WEB

E. B. White 1952
with illustrations by Garth Williams

If you've ever felt nostalgic for a really good, wholesome and hugely entertaining book, this is the book for you.  How can we forget the story of Fern's pet pig Wilbur, who found the most unlikely best friend in a delightful and skillful spider named Charlotte?  It's a  story of friendship and loyalty, set in a place where the children are truly innocent and carefree, where the changing seasons of country life are heralded by creatures such as crickets in the fall, birds in the summer and frogs in the spring, and where even the rat Templeton becomes a helpful and adorable hero.  I love this book now more than I ever did. It is so far my top favorite children's book. 

'"Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.
"Out to the hoghouse," replied Mrs. Arable. "Some pigs were born last night.'(opening lines)

'The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay and it smelled of manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell -- as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world.'(13)

"What do you mean less than nothing?" replied Wilbur. "I don't think there is any thing as less than nothing. Nothing is absolutely the limit of nothingness. It's the lowest you can go. It's the end of the line. How can something be less than nothing? If there were something that was less than nothing, then nothing would not be nothing, it would be something -- even though it's just a very little bit of something. But if nothing is nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is."(28)

'The early summer days on a farm are the happiest and fairest days of the year. Lilacs bloom and make the air sweet, and then fade. Apple blossoms come with the lilacs, and the bees visit around among the apple trees. The days grow warm and soft.'(42)

"What do people catch in the Queesborough Bridge --- bugs?" asked Wilbur.
"No," said Charlotte. "They don't catch anything. They just keep trotting back and forth across the bridge thinking there is something better on the other side. If they'd hang head-down at the top of the thing and wait quietly, maybe something good would come along. But no --- with men, it's rush, rush, rush, every minute. I'm glad I'm a sedentary spider."(60)

'Templeton, of course, was miserable over the loss of his beloved egg. But he couldn't resist boasting. "It pays to save things," he said in a surly voice. "A rat never knows when something is going to come in handy. I never throw anything away."(74)

'On foggy mornings, Charlotte's web was truly a thing of beauty. This morning each thin strand was decorated with dozens of tiny beads of water. The web glistened in the light and made a pattern of loveliness and mystery, like a delicate veil. Even Lurvy, who wasn't particularly interested in beauty, noticed the web when he came with the pig's breakfast. He noted how clearly it showed up and he noted how big and carefully built it was. And then he took another look and he saw something that made him set his pail down. There, in the center of the web, neatly woven in block letters, was a message. It said:

SOME PIG!'(77)

'Wilbur blushed. "But I'm not terrific, Charlotte. I'm just an average for a pig."

"You're terrific as far as I'm concerned," replied Charlotte, sweetly, "and that's what counts. You're my best friend, and I think you're sensational. Now stop arguing and go get some sleep."'(91)

"But for that matter I don't understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.'(109)

'It is not easy to look radiant, but Wilbur threw himself into it with a will. He would turn his head slightly and blink his long eye-lashes. Then he would breathe deeply. And when his audience grew bored, he would spring into the air and do a back flip with a half twist. At this the crowd would yell and cheer.'(114)

a Harper Trophy Edition

184 pages

Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

129. CORALINE

Neil Gaiman 2002
with illustration by Dave McKean

An enjoyable and imaginative but spooky fairy tale with some eerie illustrations  perfect for older children. Soon after Coraline and her family moves into a new house, she discovers a secret door which leads to her other house, a better, livelier, and altogether more enjoyable replica of her current house, complete with her other neighbors and other parents all distinguishable as others because of their button eyes. She meets a wise black cat who helps her realize that the place isn't really what it seems to be and she soon discovers many appalling things including the fact that her parents have also disappeared. How does she plan her escape and be with her real parents again?

'Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.'(opening line)

'..."The  mice have a message for you... The message is this. Don't go through the door." He paused. "Does that mean anything to you?"(16)

'Coraline wondered why so few of the adults she had met made any sense. She sometimes wondered who they thought they were talking to.'(20)

'She also wondered whether cats could all talk where she come from and just chose not to, or whether they could only talk when they were here---wherever here was.'(38)

'You ask your mother to make you a big old mug of hot chocolate and then give you a great big old hug. There's nothing like hot chocolate and a hug for making the nightmares go away.'(55)

'The cat wrinkled its nose and managed to look unimpressed. "Calling cats," it confided, "tends to be a rather overrated activity. Might as well call a whirlwind.'(65)

'She put the stone into the pocket of her jeans, and it was as if her head had cleared a little. As if she had come out of some sort of a fog.'(69)

'I'm an explorer, thought Coraline to herself. And I need all the ways out of here that I can get. So I shall keep walking.
The world she was walking through was a pale nothingness, like a blank sheet of paper or an enormous, empty white room. It had no temperature, no smell, no texture, and no taste. '(73)

'The cat dropped the rat between its two front paws. "There are those," it said with a sigh, in tones as smooth as oiled silk, "who have suggested that the tendency of a cat to play with its prey is a merciful one---after all, it permits the occasional funny little running snack to escape, from time to time. How often does your dinner get to escape?"'(76)

'The other mother smiled. "Mirrors," she said, " are never to be trusted. Now, what game shall we play?"(77)

'Coraline sighed. "You really don't understand, do you?" she said. "I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. what kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything, What then?"'(120)

First Harper Trophy edition, 2003
162 pages
Book owned

102. the EVOLUTION of CALPURNIA TATE

Jacqueline Kelly 2009

This book came highly recommended by a ten year old girl. I can see why she loves it. A heart-warming book set in 1899, Austin Texas about Calpurnia Tate, an endearing eleven year old budding scientist, at the helm of her Grandfather, a naturalist who lives at a make-shift laboratory at the back of her family's home. Amidst her mother's insistence that she learns to sew, knit, cook and tend house, she instead prefers to spend time with her Granddaddy. Together they develop the most wonderful relationship as they explore, collect samples, conduct experiments and discover their own natural world.

'By 1899, we had learned to tame the darkness but not the Texas heat. '(opening line)

'My name is Calpurnia Virginia Tate, but back then everybody called me Callie Vee. That summer, I was eleven years old, the only girl out of seven children. Can you imagine a worse situation? I was splice midway between three older brothers-- Harry, Sam Houston, and Lamar-- and three younger brothers-- Travis, Sul Ross, and the baby, Jim Bowie, whom we called J.B.'(2)

'It's amazing what you can see when you just sit quietly and look.'(35)

'I took the sandwich and Great Expectations and sank into my bed with the utmost feeling of luxuriousness. Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.'(60)

"I must husband my hours and spend every one of them wisely. I regret that I didn't come to this realization until I reached fifty years of age. Calpurnia, you would do well to adopt such an attitude at an earlier age. Spend each of your allotted hours with care."(95)

"Mother's threatening to make me learn a new dish every week. It might not be so bad, except that you spend hours making it and then it's gone in fifteen minutes. Then you sweep up the kitchen and you scrub the counter and you have to start all over again without a single moment's rest. What do you have to show for it?"(157)

'And there-- right there-- was a small green clump of possible vetch. I fell to my knees, praying let this be it, this has to be it, please let this be it. I scrabbled in the hard-packed dirt with my fingernails, loosening the soil to free up the roots as much as possible, cursing myself as an idiot for not bringing a trowel and a jar of water.'(166)

'My mother had got one girl out of seven tries at it. I guess I wasn't exactly what she'd had in mind, a dainty daughter to help her bail against the rising tide of the rough-and-tumble boyish energy that always threatened to engulf the house. It hadn't occurred to me that she'd been hoping for an ally and then didn't get one.'(192)

'But then it happened. My father fell silent. And it was his silence, his long pause while he digested this information, that filled the hallway and my heart and soul with such a great whooshing pressure that I couldn't breathe. I had never classified myself with other girls. I was not of their species; I was different.'(219)

"It means that we should celebrate today's failure because it is a clear sign that our voyage of discovery is not yet over. The day the experiment succeeds is the the day the experiment ends. And I inevitably find that the sadness of ending outweighs the celebration of success."(234)

'We slowly plowed our way though the turkey, the giblet-and-smoked-oyster stuffing, the braised sweetbreads, peppery venison sausage, sweet glazed yams, crusty roasted potatoes in their jackets, buttered limas and wax beans, velvety corn pudding, tart stewed tomatoes with okra, cabbage with chunks of sugar-coated pork, puckery pickled beets, creamed spinach-and-onion compote. For dessert we had pecan pie, a lemon pie, a mincemeat pie, and a tart apple pie...'(271)

'"Pardon me," said Granddaddy, catching his mistake and bowing. "I meant of course, my only granddaughter." He calmly drank and then sat down. My brothers were in a snit, but I didn't care. My heart pumped gladness through my veins. I was all to him, wasn't I? And he was all to me.'(326)

First Edition,2009
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
338 pages
Book borrowed from the library

94. JAMES and the GIANT PEACH

Roald Dahl 1961

In this delightful children's book, James Henry Trotter is an orphan neglected and abused by his cruel Aunts Sponge and Spiker. When a stranger gives him a thousand little green things that were supposed to change his life, he accidentally spills them in the garden and a giant peach soon emerges. Inside this giant peach are the wonderful characters he meets: a Centipede,a grasshopper, a spider, a ladybug, a silkworm and an earthworm. And together, they roll off the hill to sail and fly away into the most fabulous adventure of their life.

'Then one day, James's mother and father went to London to do some shopping, and there a terrible thing happened. Both of them suddenly got eaten up (in full daylight, mind you,and on a crowded street) by an enormous angry rhinoceros which had escaped from the London Zoo.'(1)

'"One thousand long slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of a dead witch for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! Add the fingers of a young monkey, the gizzard of a pig, the beak of a green parrot, the juice of a porcupine, and three spoonfuls of sugar. Stew for another week, and then let the moon do the rest!"(9)

"Whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree, that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic! So hold the bag tight! Don't tear the paper! Off you go! Hurry up! Don't wait! Now's the time! Hurry!"(11)

'The two women and the small boy stood absolutely still on the grass underneath the tree, gazing up at this extraordinary fruit. James's little face was glowing with excitement, his eyes were as big and bright as two stars. He could see the peach swelling larger and larger as clearly as if it were a balloon being blown up.'(16)

'Something else, he told himself, something stranger than ever this time, is about to happen to me again soon. He was sure of it. He could feel it coming.'(23)

'So what would you call it if you saw a grasshopper as large as a dog? As large as a large dog? You could hardly call that an insect, could you?'(26)

'A few minutes later, Miss Spider had made the first bed. It was hanging from the ceiling, suspended by a rope of threads at either end so that actually it looked more like a hammock than a bed. But it was a magnificent affair, and the stuff that it was made of shimmered like silk in the pale light.'(31)

'Poor earthworm," the Ladybug said, whispering in James's ear. "He loves to make everything into a disaster. He hates to be happy. He is only happy when he is gloomy. Now isn't that odd? But then, I suppose just being an Earthworm is enough to make a person pretty gloomy, don't you agree?"(49)

"For dinner on my birthday shall I tell you what I chose:
Hot noodles made from poodles on a slice of garden hose--
And a rather smelly jelly
Made of armadillo's toes.
(The jelly is delicious, but you have to hold your nose.)"(53)

'And now came the big moment. Quickly, the five hundred and second seagull was caught and harnessed to the peach stem...
And then suddenly...
But slowly...
Majestically...
Like some fabulous golden balloon...
With all the seagulls straining at the strings above...'(66)

"If you want to know, I happen to be a 'short-horned' grasshopper. I have two short feelers coming out of my head. Can you see them? There they are. They are quite short, arent' they? That's why they call me a 'short-horn'. And we 'short-horns' are the only ones who play our music in the violin style, using a bow. My 'long-horned' relatives, the ones who have long feelers coming out of their heads, make their music simply by rubbing the edges of their two top wings together. They are not violinists, they are wing-rubbers."(72)

a Puffin Book
119 pages
Book owned

92. the SECRET GARDEN

Frances Hodgson Burnett 1911

A garden abandoned ten years ago comes to life after ten year old Mary, an orphan recently sent to live in MisselthwaiteManor, accidentally discovers the key to its door. With the help of her new friend Dickon, a twelve year old boy with the magical green thumb and who talks to animals, they transform their secret to a glorious magnificent wild garden. A young boy, Colin emotionally abandoned ten years ago by his father comes to life after Mary accidentally finds him, befriends him and takes him to this magical garden. As the three children play, run, laugh, share stories, exercise and eat in their secret garden, Mary finds friendship and happiness, and Colin finds his way back to his father.

'When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She has a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression.'(opening lines)

'Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And marigolds all in a row.'(8)

'"Not but that it's a grand big place in a gloomy way, and Mr. Craven's proud of it in his way-- and that's gloomy enough, too. The house is six hundred years old, and it's on the edge of the moor, and there's a hundred rooms in it, though most of them's shut up and locked. And there's pictures and fine old furniture and things that's been there for ages, and there's a big park round it and gardens and trees with branches trailing to the ground-- some of them," She paused and took another breath. "But there's nothing else," she ended suddenly.'(13)

'Four good things had happened to her, in fact, since she came to Misselthwaite Manor. She had felt as if she had understood a robin and that he had understood her; she had run in the wind until her blood had grown warm; she had been healthily hungry for the first time in her life; and she had found out what it was to be sorry for someone.'(44)

'But Dickon laughed. "Eh!" he said, and as he crumbled the rich black soil she saw he was sniffing up the scent of it, "there doesn't seem to be no need for no one to be contrary when there's flowers an' such like, an' such lots o' friendly wild things runnin' about makin' homes for themselves, or buildin' nests an' singin' an' whistlin', does there?"(99)

"It's the best thing that could happen to the sickly pampered thing to have someone to stand up to him that's as spoiled as himself."(155)

'It was not until afterward that Mary realized that the thing that had been funny as well as dreadful-- that it was funny that all grown-up people were so frightened that they came to a little girl just because they guessed she was almost as bad as Colin himself.'(160)

"Mother says as th' two worst things as can happen to a child is never have his own way-- or always to have it. She doesn't know which is th' worst."(166)

"When I was at school my jography told as th' world was shaped like an orange an' I found out before I was ten that th' whole orange doesn't belong to nobody. No one owns more than his bit of a quarter an' there's times it seems like there's not enow quarters to go round. But don't you-- none o' you-- think as you own th' whole orange or you'll find out you're mistaken, an' you won't find it out without hard knocks." What children learns from children,' she says, "is that there's no sense in grabbin at th' whole orange-- peel an' all. If you do, you'll likely not get even th' pips, an' them's too bitter to eat,'"(178)

'One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live for ever and ever and ever.'(195)

'Oh! The things which happened in that garden! If you have never had a garden you cannot understand, and if you have had a garden you will know that it would take a whole book to describe all that came to pass there. At first it seemed that green things would never cease pushing their way through the earth, in the grass, in the beds, even in the crevices of the walls. Then the green things began to show buds and the buds began to unfurl and show colour, every shade of blue, every shade of purple, every tint and hue of crimson. In its happy days flowers had been tucked away into every inch and hole and corner... Iris and white lilies rose out of the grass in sheaves, and the green alcoves filled themselves with amazing armies of the blue and white flower lances of tall delphiniums or columbines or campanulas.'(214)

"I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us..."(217)

"You learn things by saying them over and over and thinking about them until they stay in your mind for ever and I think it will be the same with Magic. If you keep calling it to come to you and help you it will get to be part of you and it will stay and do things."(219)

a Tor Book First Edition 1990
271 pages
Book owned

84. The Chronicles of Narnia Series - Book 3: the HORSE and HIS BOY

C.S. Lewis 1954

This is the third book of seven of the chronologically renumbered Narnian series and is set during the time of King Peter's reign in Narnia. While Queen Susan was trying to escape an arranged marriage to Tisroc's son Rashmedah, an orphan boy named Shasta flees his callous adoptive father with the help of a great war Narnian horse named Bree. They meet Aravis, a brave young girl with her Narnian horse Hwin. She is also trying to escape marriage to Tisroc's vizier so they decide to go back to Narnia together. During the journey, Shasta gets mistaken for Corin, a prince from Archenland and they accidentally discover a plot to invade Archenland and Narnia. The book ends well, of course with the help of Aslan, and the happy discovery of Shasta's real identity.

'This is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were Kings and Queens under him.'(opening line)

'For one of the poets has said, 'Application to business is the root of prosperity, but those who ask questions that do not concern them are steering the ship of folly toward the rock of indigence.'(3)

"You yourself have wisely said," answered Arsheesh, "that the boy's labor has been to me of inestimable value. This must be taken into account in fixing his price. For if I sell the boy I must undoubtedly either buy or hire another to do his work."(7)

"Narnia," answered the Horse. "The happy land of Narnia-- Narnia of the heathery mountains and the thymy downs, Narnia of the many rivers, the plashing glens, the mossy caverns and the deep forests ringing with the hammers of the Dwarfs. Oh the sweet air of Narnia! An hour's life there is better that a thousand years in Calormen,"(10)

'But in spite of his rude words Bree was a patient teacher. No one can teach riding as well as a horse. Shasta learned to trot, to canter, to jump, and to keep his seat even when Bree pulled up suddenly or swung unexpectedly to the left or the right-- which, as Bree told him, was a thing you might have to do at any moment in a battle.'(24)

'Apparently," thought Shasta to himself, "I'm being mistaken for a prince of Archenland, wherever that is. And these must be Narnians. I wonder where the real Corin is?"(64)

'Shasta lay down beside it with his back against the cat and his face towards the Tombs, because if one is nervous there's nothing like having your face toward the danger and having something warm and solid at your back.'(92)

"My son, by all means desist from kicking the venerable and enlightened Vizier: for as a costly jewel retains its value even if hidden in a dung-hill, so old age and discretion are to be respected even in the vile persons of our subjects."(119)

'One of the drawbacks about adventures is that when you come to the most beautiful places you are often too anxious and hurried to appreciate them; so that Aravis (though she remembered them years later) had only a vague impression of gray lawns, quietly bubbling fountains, and the long black shadows of cypress trees.'(132)

"Now,' said Bree. "All that about galloping for a day and a night, like in stories, can't really be done. it must be walk and trot: but brisk trots and short walks. And whenever we walk you two humans can slip off and walk too. Now. Are you ready, Hwin? Off we go. Narnia and the North!"(136)

'But one of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself.'(146)

'He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.'(155)

"But that's just the point," groaned Bree. "Do Talking Horses roll? Supposing they don't? I can't bear to give it up. What do you think, Hwin?"(225)

HarperCollins first renumbered Edition
241 pages
Book borrowed from JRMD

80. The Chronicles of Narnia Series-Book 2: the LION, the WITCH and the WARDROBE

C.S. Lewis 1950

My favorite book in this fantasy series, Book 2 opens with the discovery of the Wardrobe built from the magical apple tree planted by Digory Kirke in Book 1. Professor Digory hosts siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensies in his house and they magically disappear to Narnia via the Wardrobe. Fanciful adventures once again ensue when they find that the Witch Jadis has transformed Narnia into an ever white wintry place and they meet Mr. Tumnus, Father Christmas and Giant Rumblebuffin. After a great sacrifice from Aslan changes the course of events, the siblings become the next Kings and Queens of Narnia.

'Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of anti-raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country...'(opening lines)

"Meanwhile," said Mr. Tumnus, "it is winter in Narnia, and has been for ever so long, and we shall both catch cold if we stand here talking in the snow. Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drobe, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?"(13)

'At last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking very hard at the empty box and wishing that she would ask him whether he would like some more. Probably the Queen knew quite well what he was thinking; for she knew, though Edmund did not, that this was enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves.'(39)

'All four of them bundled inside it and sat there, panting, in the dark. Peter held the door closed but did not shut it; for, of course, he remembered, as every sensible person does, that you should never never shut yourself up in a wardrobe.'(57)

"We're following a guide we know nothing about. How do we know which side that bird is on? Why shouldn't it be leading us into a trap?"
"That's a nasty idea. Still-- a robin, you know. They're good birds in all the stories I've read. I'm sure a robin wouldn't be on the wrong side."(67)

'At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.'(74)

'Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.'(85)

"... and it's on that she bases her claim to be Queen. But she's no Daughter of Eve. She comes of your father Adam's" (here Mr Beaver bowed) "your father Adam's first wife, her they called Lilith. And she was one of the Jinn. That's what she comes from on one side. And on the other she comes of the giants. No, no, there isn't a drop of real human blood in the Witch."(87)

"But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that's going to be human and isn't yet, or used to be human once and isn't now, or ought to be human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.'(88)

'... but if you have been-- if you've been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you-- you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing was ever going to happen again.'(173)

'Have you ever had a gallop on a horse? Think of that; and then take away the heavy noise of the hoofs and the jingle of the bits and imagine instead the almost noiseless padding of the great paws. Then imagine instead of the black or gray or chestnut back of the horse the soft roughness of golden fur, and the mane flying back in the wind. And them imagine you are going about twice as fast as the fastest racehorse. But this is a mount that doesn't need to be guided and never grows tired. He rushes on and on, never missing his footing, never hesitating, threading his way with perfect skill between tree trunks, jumping over bush and briar and the smaller streams, wading the larger, swimming the largest of all.(180)

'Giants of any sort are now so rare in England and so few giants are good-tempered that ten to one you have never seen a giant when his face is beaming. It's a sight well worth looking at.'(187)

"Of course," said Aslan. "And now! Those who can't keep up-- that is, children, dwarfs, and small animals-- must ride on the backs of those who can-- that is, lions, centaurs, unicorns, horses, giants and eagles. Those who are good with their noses must come in the front with us lions to smell out where the battle is. Look lively and sort yourselves."(191)

'But amid all these rejoicings Aslan himself quietly slipped away. And when the Kings and Queens noticed that he wasn't there they said nothing about it. For Mr. Beaver had warned them, "He'll be coming and going," he had said. "One day you'll see him and another you won't. He doesn't like being tied down-- and of course he has other countries to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's wild you know. Not like a tame lion."(200)

'Once a King in Narnia, always a King in Narnia.'(206)

HarperCollins first renumbered Edition
206 pages
Book borrowed from JRMD

78. The Chronicles of Narnia Series - Book 1: the MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW

C.S. Lewis 1955

Book 1 of 7 of the chronologically renumbered Chronicles of Narnia Series is where we witness Aslan, the great Lion through his mesmerizing songs create Narnia. The chronicles start in London in the 1900s and we meet Digory Kirke and Polly Plumber exploring a house and then tricked by Digory's Uncle Andrew's magical rings. They found themselves in an In-between place of pools of water that took them to different places: to Charn where they meet evil witch Jadis who is wishing to take over Narnia, back to Earth and then finally to Narnia. So many fantastic adventures happen along the way including the creation of the magical apple tree and the crowning of cab driver Frank and wife Helen as the first King and Queen of Narnia.

'This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child. It is a very important story because it shows how all the comings and goings between our own world and the land of Narnia first began.' (opening line)

'But what she noticed first was a bright red wooden tray with a number of rings on it. They were in pairs-- a yellow one and a green one together, then a little space, and then another yellow one and another green one. They were no bigger than ordinary rings, and no one could help noticing them because they were so bright.'(12)

'Not just yet,' said Uncle Andrew. 'This is too good an opportunity to miss. I wanted two children. You see, I'm in the middle of a great experiment. I've tried it on a guinea-pig and it seemed to work. But then a guinea-pig can't tell you anything. And you can't explain to it how to come back.'(14)

"And I suppose you've sent Polly into it then," said Digory. His cheeks were flaming with anger now. "And all I can say," he added, "even if you are my Uncle-- is that you've behaved like a coward, sending a girl to a place you're afraid to go to yourself."(25)

'Now the truth was that Uncle Andrew, who knew nothing about the Wood between the Worlds, had quite a wrong idea about the rings. The yellow ones weren't "outward" rings; and the green ones weren't "homeward" rings; at least, not in the way he thought ... Uncle Andrew, you see, was working with things he did not really understand; most magicians are.'(43)

'Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.'(56)

'It is silent now. But I have stood here when the whole air was full of the noises of Charn; the trampling of feet, the creaking of wheels, the cracking of the whips and the groaning of the slaves, the thunder of chariots, and the sacrificial drums beating in the temples. I have stood here (but that was near the end) when the roar of battle went up from every street and the river of Charn ran red.' She paused and added, 'All in one moment one woman blotted it out forever.'(69)

'I expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people unless they can use them; they are terribly practical.'(86)

'Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn't come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out-- single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves which were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing.'(117)

'The Lion was pacing to and fro about that empty land and singing his new song. It was softer and more lifting than the song by which he had called up the stars and the sun; a gentle, rippling music. And as he walked and sang the valley grew green with grass. It spread out from the Lion like a pool.'(123)

'When you listened to his song you heard the things he was making up: when you looked round you, you saw them.'(126)

'Far overhead from beyond the veil of blue sky which hid them the stars sang again; a pure, cold, difficult music. Then there came a swift flash like fire (but it burnt nobody) either from the sky or from the Lion itself, and every drop of blood tingled in the children's bodies, and the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying: "Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters."(137)

'For what you see and hear depends on a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.'(148)

'Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.'(150)

'And you Narnians, let it be your first care to guard this Tree, for it is your Shield. The Witch of whom I told you has fled away into the North of the world... But while that Tree flourishes she will never come down into Narnia. She dare not come within a hundred miles of the Tree, for its smell, which is joy and life and health to you, is death and horror and despair to her.'(206)

'But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it.'(208)

HarperCollins first renumbered edition
221 pages
Book borrowed from JRMD