It’s a cold and grey day in Melbourne today, I was feeling quite melancholy until I saw this on Etsy…
I’m cured – how gorgeous! I wish I had those legs and those skirts. It is a print of an original oil painting created by the very talented Canadian artist Janet Hill. If you need a ray of sunshine just check out her stunning work in her etsy shop and be swept away by her amazing blog.
Speaking of Wombles! Do you remember them?
They were a huge part of my childhood and absolutely classic 70’s animation. I don’t think I do remember them as books as they were originally created by Elizabeth Beresford in the late 1960’s as a series of novels. The message of the Wombles about recycling and cleaning up parks and public spaces couldn’t be any more relevant today – I wish they’d replay the episodes as I’d love Ned to see them.
Do you have any Womble memorabilia at home? Some of the original books maybe? We’d love you to share some pics with us.
We had such a wonderful reaction to our photos of Magnolia Square I thought you might like to see a couple more…
The Golden Book Bedspread…
The Little Jack Horner Lamp…
Our Moomin Cookie Cutters in Katie’s beautiful vintage hat boxes …
The FAMOUS Womble, boy did he ever attract some attention!
The Womble overseeing some pretty stock…
Our sign, lit by a gorgeous borrowed ‘industrial’ lamp…
Come and see our set up at the next Magnolia Square.
In the meantime we are going to Mathilda’s Market this Sunday at the Hawthorn Town Hall, 9am – 1pm. We have more new titles to take as well as some old favs so come and visit and maybe start some Christmas shopping!
Watch this incredible clip of Shaun Tan talking about his collaboration with Andrew Ruhemann on the film of his beautiful book The Lost Thing which recently won the Grand Prix for Best Short Film at the Melbourne Film Festival (among many other worldwide awards)…
And here is the trailer for the film, which unfortunately I missed at the Festival and will be eagerly awaiting Madman releasing on DVD…
Last week on Meet Me at Mikes Pip posted this trailer…
Wonderful isn’t it! Helena Bonham Carter plays nasty so well.
Although Enid is said to have been a dragon and pretty shocking to her own children she still created one of the first ever publishing franchises with her many different series. Of course the most popular are/were the Wishing Chair, Faraway Tree, Secret Seven and Famous Five. I adored them all but the Faraway Tree series and the Famous Five were my favourites and stay with me vividly in adulthood.
Recently Hodder Children’s Books, who publish the Famous Five, announced that they are giving the Five a facelift. Changing some of the language in the books to make them more “timeless”. Read an article about the move here.
Not as harsh as the changes to Noddy but I think still probably unnecessary. What do you think?
Of course the books are all pretty twee and Enid was the first Barbara Cartland of children’s publishing – following formulaic storylines to publish title after title but I do really remember enjoying them.
I also remember all the words to the Famous Five TV show theme song…
One of my all-time favourites. How I wished to be Anne riding my pony across the Moors!
So what do you think of the Enid Blyton books in 2010? Do you think they still have a place? Do you think the language should be updated?
Leave a comment sharing your view and we’ll have a little competition to (randomly) win a copy of a wonderful intermediate reader novel called Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve.
This whimsical fantasy about a rhubarb farm where it always rains on Monday at 1pm is a gorgeous hardcover from the US.
The always beautiful Magnolia Square Pop Up Shopping Event is on again…
We heart books recently sent an envelope to Pip at Meet Me at Mikes for her Envelope Project.
We used an old dust jacket of Where the Wild Things Are to make an envelope and there it is, in the window of Mikes…
Pip is running her project for six weeks and has been receiving envelopes from around Australia and around the world. She asked for the envelope to be filled with goodies that are light and interesting. Here’s a little sample of what we sent her…
Lots of gorgeous book related fun stuff that we hope the eventual winner of all the envelopes adores. The project finishes at the end of the month when Pip will draw one envelope and the sender will win everything!! Super exciting and a lovely way to share some fun with fellow bloggers.
You can read more about the project and see more photos of the huge number of other envelopes on Meet Me at Mikes.