Acquainted with the Night

Do you remember the freedom of summer, that last day of school and the endless summer days stretching before you? With each young customer that popped into the store last week I had a little memory burst. As they piled their books on the counter it reminded me of the books I read on those hot sultry evenings lying on the old camp cot on the porch.

Summer was the time I reread my favourites and still do. Tonight after everyone has left the cottage I will sit on the porch surrounded by books, dip into poetry collections, gaze into my art books and flip through books about Scotland.  Then when it is dark and quiet and with only the stars and fireflies lighting the night, I will slide the kayak into the cool water and drift as I gaze at the night sky.

Finally, when the night has wrapped itself around me, I will head to shore, walk along the stepping stones that still hold the sun's heat, and climb into bed with Christopher Dewdney's Acquainted with the Night.

Acquainted with the Night is an hour-by hour journey throught the darkness. Dewdney explores all aspects of the night through science, mythology, poetry, psychology, history and the literature we associate with the night. This is a book to first read from start to finish and then dip into again and again. - Cath

On My Bookshelf: Keturah and Lord Death

Seeing Keturah & Lord Death on my bookshelf brings back the memory of a summer evening. I had spotted a stag grazing in the raspberry patch. I moved closer, he stopped and checked my approach. I asked him if he was the Great Stag that Keturah followed into the woods. Ignoring me he went back to to his grazing. I tried a few more steps, but he raised his head with his beautiful antlers and gazed at me. His eyes asked me to follow, then he bounded through the underbrush into the woods. I did follow until the mosquitoes forced me back to the cottage. I consoled myself that night by rereading that wonderful book by Martine Leavitt. Her description of the Great Stag is a wee bit different from mine -

I was picking new peas in our garden, which is bordered by the forest, when the famed hart, the hart that had eluded Lord Temsland and his finest hunters many times, the hart about which I had told many a story, came to nibble on our lettuces. I saw that he was a sixth-year hart at least, and I would have run at the sight of his antlers, spread like a young tree, had I not been entranced by his beauty. He raised his head, and for a long moment he looked upon me as if I had stumble upon him in his own domain, so proud he was, and so royal. At last he slowly turned and walked back into the forest.

I meant only to peek into the trees to see more of him. I thought only to follow the pig path a little way into the forest in hopes that I might have a new story to tell of him at the common fire. I thought I saw him between the trees, and then I did not, and after a good long while I turned about and realized I was lost in the wood. 

[Thanks to Dave Skilling for the photo of one of my borrowed copies of Keturah and Lord Death that landed on Quadra Island]

Read a review from the Bookshelves of Doom

Keturah -- beautiful, sixteen, the village storyteller -- follows a hart into the forest and quickly loses her way. After three days, she is exhausted and starving. She know that death can't be far away.

But when he finally comes for her, she finds that Death is a young man -- melancholy and brooding, lonely and not without compassion. Keturah tells him a story, and they strike a bargain: He will allow her to live one more day. If, in that time, she hasn't found and married her One True Love, she will return to him, finish her story, and become his Queen.

Keturah becomes a Scheherezade of sorts, spinning out her story and escaping Lord Death again and again, But her fellow villagers are aware of her new acquaintance. The relationship terrifies them. Rumors fly.

And a plague is coming.  

Read the rest of the review here.

"A blend of folktale, myth and romance, the book's thought-provoking conclusion is perfect for adolescent pondering."
-- The Toronto Star

"Leavitt's novel is an unusual blend of folktale, myth, and romance, and its unexpected conclusion is thought-provoking. And while the prose is sometimes overly ponderous ('and my heart smote me'), more often it is lucid and arresting."
-- Horn Book

Graduation Day

Congratulations to all those wearing a Harry Potter like cloak, may you receive one of these books to help you on your journey:

for inspiration along the way,

Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss
The North Star by Peter H. Reynolds
Dream by Susan V. Bosak

or escapism if not yet decided on the road to take,

Delaying the Real World by Colleen Kinder
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

or a little practical advice,

How to Survive the Real World edited by Andrea Syrtash
Good to Go by Kim Zarzour and Sharon E. McKay

and a poem to tuck into your pocket,

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run--

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Read the rest of Rudyard Kipling's inspirational poem here and enjoy Harvey Keitel reading.

A Quote for My Father

A quote for my father by Clarence Budington Kelland -
       He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

Dad, thanks for -
reading my favorite book over and over and over again,
talking as we walked the dog around the block,
encouraging my love of baseball even when I struck out,
throwing me off your shoulders into the ocean waves,
bringing me a comic every Friday night,
taking me to the lumber yard and letting me run wild,
having patience as you taught me to drive on the old country road,
sharing a KitKat after a humbling round of golf,
letting me work in your office even though I drove you mad,
holding the broom so I could practice a 100 and 1 curling shots,
playing with my children by the magnolia tree,
showing me the way through adversity and sickness with your smile.

I think of you often and remember.

On My Bookshelf: My Dad

"On My Bookshelf" will be a regular post, featuring treasures from our personal bookshelves. If you would like to share a gem from your shelf send a photo and short description to me at seabreezeroad@hotmail.com. Looking forward to finding out what your passions are!

Dipping off "my bookshelf" in time for Father's Day is My Dad by the current Children's Laureate of Britain, Anthony Browne.

When I opened it, there it was: dad's dressing gown, just as I remembered it. It really took me back to being a small boy, thinking of him as a god who could do everything.     -Anthony Browne,  Guardian.uk.co

A great tribute to fathers everywhere and a fine inspiration for children to create a 'my dad' list of their own. -Starred, School Library Journal 

One short video of Anthony in his studio talking about his books, gorillas and where he gets his ideas and a longer more in-depth interview can be found here.

Till all the Stars Have Fallen

Vikki recommends one of our favorite gifts! From Kids Can Press, a rich collection of Canadian poetry compiled by David Booth and illustrated by Govenor General's Award winning illustrator, Kady MacDonald Denton. Kady created our very own dragon that graces these pages. You can read an interview with Kady by Library and Archives Canada here.

Poetry Friday: Neil Gaiman's Instructions

There are some books that arrive at the bookshop as pleasant surprises and then there are those that you have been teased with for many years, Neil Gaiman's Instructions falls into the later group. I first read the poem on the Journal of Mythic Arts and learned that it appeared in the anthology A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. The poem has now been transformed into a book, beautifully illustrated Charles Vess.

Instructions
by Neil Gaiman
Touch the wooden gate in the wall you never
saw before.
Say "please" before you open the latch,
go through,
walk down the path.

Read the rest here.

etcetera
Enjoy a visual feast here.
See how Charles Vess develops a sculptural fountain based on ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream'

Neil Gailman reads Instructions