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You are here: Home / Archives for Classics

Lily takes a Walk by Satoshi Kitamura

October 11, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

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A welcome reprint for a book that first appeared some thirty years ago.

When Lily takes a walk with her dog, Nicky, she notices many lovely things. But poor Nicky only sees monsters lurking at every turn. Nicky sees a scary face made by the branches of a tree, then he is spooked by a post box that looks like a monster… the walk is an exhausting experience for him! The reader will also spot the scary apparitions but will recognise that they are not what they seem, and they also have the last laugh on Lily, who does not notice them at all.

Filed Under: Classics, Illustrated Tagged With: reissue, reprint

Sky Hawk – Ten Year Anniversary Edition by Gill Lewis

October 4, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 4 Oct 2021

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“Powerful, evocative writing about landscape and the natural world, and delicately drawn characters existing within the complex nexus of human relationships in a small village are sensitively combined in this absorbing, very moving novel.” BookTrust
“A wonderful tale of friendship, kindness and the way that people from different continents can be united by something as straightforward as the welfare of a beautiful bird. It’s also, a rare thing these days, a book full of hope.” Telegraph
“Here’s a rare thing, a novel, and a first novel too, that opens your eyes, touches your heart, and is so engaging it almost turns the pages for you.” Michael Morpurgo

Already a modern classic, this wonderful story that focuses on ospreys is told in short, quick-moving chapters so that it can be recommended for a wide audience, from newly confident readers up to YA. One about this anniversary edition—although this book was originally published ten years ago, the title page tells us that it was “First published 2021”.

Callum and his friends find Iona poaching on Callum’s farm. She is not supposed to be there, but Callum feels bad about chasing her away. He finds her shivering in the woods, refusing to leave. There is a secret hidden in the forest above the dark waters of the loch, and Iona is its guardian. When she decides to trust Callum with it, they form an indestructible bond that will change Callum’s world forever… And then I saw it. I saw the secret hidden in our valley. No one else knew about it. Just me, and Iona.

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, Classics, Fiction

The Secret Garden: A Graphic Novel adapted by Mariah Marsden ill. Hanna Luechtefeld

July 16, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Jul 2021

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“Luechtefeld’s orderly panels employ a deliberate earth-toned palette, starting with a decidedly dark feel and gradually lightening as the characters move through their own personal struggles with grief. The core of Burnett’s tale is present… often ably conveyed in lovely wordless scenes.” KIRKUS
“The parallels between the tending of the garden and character development within the story are reflected in the beautiful, hand drawn–style artwork, which gradually brightens from a washed-over neutral palette to lighter.” SLJ

It’s always of interest when classic children’s books are given new life in graphic novel form. Mariah Marsden’s adaptation omits certain elements from the original book but the key narrative elements remain. It is Hanna Luechtefeld’s atmospheric visual panels that make this presentation of the story so appealing.


At the back of the book, readers can learn about the life of Frances Hodgson Burnett and the history of British colonialism that contextualizes the original novel.

Follow Hanna Luechtefeld, a highly interesting and prolific illustrator, zine enthusiast and gallery curator/director from Kansas City, on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannaluechtefeld/

Filed Under: Blog, BookOfTheDay, Books, Classics, Illustrated Tagged With: art, classic, graphic novel, illustration

Welsh Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends – Scholastic Classics by Claire Fayers

May 11, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

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This book includes traditional favourites and classic myths and legends from Welsh folklore. 18 Welsh fairy tales, myths and legends in a perfect, child-friendly package. Beautiful new edition of retellings – including the story of how the Welsh flag came to have a red dragon on it, and other home-grown magical myths and legends

Look out for the others in the series: Irish Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends, Scottish Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends, and Stories From Around the World

Filed Under: Classics Tagged With: legends, myths, tales

Brookie and Her Lamb by M.B. Goffstein

March 4, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 5 Mar 2021

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M. (Marilyn) B. Goffstein, who died in 2017, was an American writer and illustrator known for her precise line drawings and an ability to tell a story in the fewest possible words, using a pleasingly subtle sense of humour.

The marvellous New York Review Children’s Collection now brings two of the small-form little hardbacks by this talented minimalist back into print—this title (f.p. 1967) and Fish For Supper (1976), a Caldecott Honor book.

I can recommend this Publishers Weekly piece for a little background on Goffstein.

Filed Under: Blog, BookOfTheDay, Books, Classics Tagged With: classic, minimalist, reissue

Fish For Supper by M. B. Goffstein

March 3, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

Spectator Best Children’s Books of 2021

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M. (Marilyn) B. Goffstein, who died in 2017, was an American writer and illustrator known for her precise line drawings and an ability to tell a story in the fewest possible words, using a pleasingly subtle sense of humour.

The marvellous New York Review Children’s Collection now brings two of the small-form little hardbacks by this talented minimalist back into print—Brookie And Her Lamb (1967) and this title (1976), a Caldecott Honor book.

I can recommend this Publishers Weekly piece for a little background on Goffstein.

Filed Under: Classics

The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau by Jon Agee

February 7, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 8 Feb 2021

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A new printing of this now-classic picture book.

“Outrageous!” the judges cried. “Ridiculous!” Who would dare enter a portrait of a duck in the Grand Contest of Art? But when Felix Clousseau’s painting quacks, he is hailed as a genius. Suddenly everyone wants a Clousseau masterpiece, and the unknown painter becomes an overnight sensation. That’s when the trouble begins. The concept and plot are clever and beautifully constructed with twists and turns, and Jon Agee’s trademark wit, humour and sense of the surreal. A playful examination of what realism in art actually means, and the difference between 2 and 3 dimensional.

Jon Agee’s website: http://www.jonagee.com

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, Classics, Illustrated Tagged With: art, France, painting, portrait, realism

Comic Classics: Treasure Island – Comic Classics by Jack Noel

January 13, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

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Previously: Comic Classics – Great Expectations

OLD books get NEW doodles – it’s the classics as you’ve never seen them before!

A hilarious new series that brings the classics to life with illustrations by Jack Noel. 

Jim Hawkins spends his life helping out at his mum’s boring old inn by the sea, wishing he could sail away and have adventures. But when an old sea captain turns up with a secret, it’s the start of a bigger adventure than Jim could ever have imagined – soon he’s on a ship on the trail of buried treasure, accompanied by a suspicious sailor named Long John Silver … Will Jim escape the pirates? Or will he walk the plank?


 

Filed Under: Classics, Humour, Illustrated, Poetry/Tales

Telephone Tales by Gianni Rodari ill. Valerio Vidali tr. Antony Shugaar

December 20, 2020 By achuka Leave a Comment

Every night, at nine o’clock, wherever he is, Mr. Bianchi, an accountant who often has to travel for work, calls his daughter and tells her a bedtime story. But since it’s still the 20th-century world of payphones, each story has to be told in the time that a single coin will buy. Reminiscent of Scheherazade and One Thousand and One Nights, Gianni Rodari’s Telephone Tales is composed of many stories–in fact, seventy short stories, with one for each phone call. Each story is set in a different place and a different time, with unconventional characters and a wonderful mix of reality and fantasy. One night, it’s a carousel so beloved by children that an old man finally sneaks on to understand why, and as he sails above the world, he does. Or, it’s a land filled with butter men, roads paved with chocolate, or a young shrimp who has the courage to do things in a different way from what he’s supposed to do.

Awarded the Hans Christian Anderson Award in 1970, Gianni Rodari is widely considered to be Italy’s most important children’s author of the 20th century. Newly re-illustrated by Italian artist Valerio Vidali, Telephone Tales entertains, while questioning and imagining other worlds.

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Filed Under: Classics Tagged With: classic, Italian, reissue, short stories, translation

Aesop’s Fables ill. Agnes Miller Parker tr. V.S. Vernon Jones and others

October 21, 2020 By achuka Leave a Comment

This beautifully illustrated edition contains some of the best-loved fables, including the Boy who Cried Wolf, the Lion and the Mouse, the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, the Hare and the Tortoise, and The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse alongside many of the lesser-known tales.

These timeless stories are illustrated with thirty-seven woodcuts by Agnes Miller Parker (1895–1980), one of the greatest British woodcut artists of the twentieth century. Parker was influenced by the art of Wyndham Lewis and the Cubist and Vorticist movements, which flourished in the period between the wars. Her distinctive work is strikingly stylised and deceptively simple. Commissioned in the 1930s by the fine press publisher, Gregynog Press, for their edition of the work, these exquisite woodcuts inspired by the fables are among Parker’s finest engravings.

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Filed Under: Classics, Gift, Illustrated, Poetry/Tales

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