Newbery Book Reviews: Little House on the Prarie

Nora here.  We're fairly certain that this set of books really needs no introduction as they seem to have been required reading for any history-loving female between the ages of 8 and 12 for at least 5 decades, and closer to 8.  However, it still took us quite some time to convince the human to make us a set for ourselves.

There's many editions, but we decided to go with the 1950s reprints with the Garth Williams illustrations as opposed to the original 1930s books.  The one book that is missing is 'The First Four Years', which is more of an add-on than part of the core series written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (and ghost-written by Rose Wilder Lane).  Perhaps our next book should be a doll edition of 'Pioneer Girl'.

Alas, the human couldn't find the full dust jacket illustrations, so we're stuck with simple hardcovers.

But the books all have the correct illustrations next to the correct text.  The human found the illustrations by searching auction sites, and then finding the right ones.  There was a stack of human-sized Little House books that she was comparing ours to while she was making them.

And the bonus book this week:

Little House in the Big Woods

Instructions

Book Reviews: The Chronicles of Narnia

Nora here.  I am rather sure that most if not all of the books on our bookshelves these days are classics of one sort or another, and the Chronicles of Narnia most definitely qualify.  The human even found the original dust jackets for them.

I think our favorite of the series is either 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' or 'Prince Caspian'.  Something about the first book (perhaps it was one too many elementary school plays that the human watched) just didn't appeal to us.

Also, these may be the only books that we have a fanfiction recommendation for.  If you like Anthony Bourdain's culinary adventures, there's this delightful fic about dining in Narnia
No Reservations: Narnia.  It's well worth the read and will make you hungry.  Don't read on an empty stomach.

And to add to your doll library:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Instructions

Honeydukes Treats

Sam here to show off the huge variety of treats from our Honeydukes snack cart.  It being December, and thus Christmas, we asked for a giant pile of peppermint candy.

The glass jar is actually from a tiny Yankee Candle Company candle.  It's also the perfect size to store our stash of ribbon candy.  And the human managed to find some super tiny (1" square) ziploc bags for all the tiny peppermints.  The peppermints come in red, green, and super swirly.  (They were totally not made with random bits of clay left over from making ribbon candy.  Nope.)

Here it is super close up for scale.  The ribbon candy actually comes in three different patterns, and so do the candy canes.

Then we've got some butter and chocolate cookies.  The human always stockpiles Danish butter cookies during the holidays, so we figured we should too.

We also got some new petit fours with a fleur-de-lis decoration and matching pastel macarons.

For the Honeydukes specialties, we have a set (many sets, really) of wizard snacks with a cauldron cake, a pumpkin pastie, and a pair of chocolate frogs (milk and dark chocolate, thank you very much).

And finally, we have a trio of Christmas themed macarons.  The red and green macarons have a white cream filling, and the swirl macaron has a chocolate filling.  Now we just need the human to sit down and watch the Great British Bake Off for more inspiration for more food for us.  I still want a full afternoon tea menu with scones and finger sandwiches.

Newbery Book Reviews: The Dark is Rising

“When the Dark comes rising six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; Water, fire, stone;
Five will return and one go alone.

Iron for the birthday; bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning; stone out of song;
Fire in the candle ring; water from the thaw;
Six signs the circle and the grail gone before.

Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold
Played to wake the sleepers, oldest of old.
Power from the Green Witch, lost beneath the sea.
All shall find the Light at last, silver on the tree.” 

The start of Christmas season is the perfect time to introduce The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper, seeing how 'The Dark is Rising' takes place over the 12 Days of Christmas as Will Stanton learns his true powers and has to fulfill a prophecy to save the world.  It sounds really more cliche than it actually is (unless you mean the travesty of a movie they made from the book which is about as cliche as it deserves to be).  The full 5 book set consists of 'Over Sea, Under Stone' (Jane, Simon, and Bartley find the Grail and part of a prophecy), 'The Dark is Rising' (Will discovers his true powers), 'Greenwitch' (Power of the greenwitch, lost beneath the sea), 'The Grey King' (Will meets a strange pale boy with even stranger parentage), and 'Silver on the Tree' (finding the light at last and saving the world to boot).

The Dark is Rising

Instructions

A Hogwarts Craft Fair

Kana here.  If you've been wondering about the radio silence for November, the answer is 'The human spent the entire time prepping for massive craft fair on 12/10.'  It's going to be a Harry Potter/magical/wizard themed craft fair, and the lot of us (me, Lily, Sam, and Nellie) have been wrangled into doing a mock up of the craft display.  So we know just how much random bits and pieces we have.

As for houses, well, I'm the only Ravenclaw in the entire lot of the 7 of us at Jinjia Mixed Goods.  Lily is so very obviously a Slytherin (as evidenced by her flat-out obsession with potions).  Sam is very much a Gryffindor, and Nellie is a Hufflepuff.

We've got enough things for four stalls in all.  I'm running the Flourish and Blotts book store, complete with textbooks and extra copies of the Quibbler.  Lily is (what else) running the apothecary.  Sam's got the shop with the wands and amulets and other small trinkets, and Nellie has the Honeydukes Sweet Shop in a cart.  The food and the wands are all made from polymer clay.

Cookies, ribbon candy, macarons, and cauldron cakes (bubbling, even)

A crate of chocolate frogs peeking out from the bottom shelf of the cart and a basket of tiny peppermint candy.

Wands, more wands, amulets, and bracelets at the magical trinkets shop

A pared-down potions display because we may have lost patience at the 300 little bottles.

(The full potions shop is here.)

Quibblers, 'Quiddtich Through The Ages', and 'Fantastic Beasts'

Newbery Book Reviews: The Giver

Kana here.  We have, over the course of the year, built up a quite the library.  And as it turns out, we haven't actually shown off most of our books yet.  Over the summer, the human found a few stashes of digitized books, and we got ourselves a rather modern library (or rather, late 90s vintage, courtesy of the human's nostalgia).

This week's book collection is the Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry (she of 'Number the Stars', which the human remembers reading way back in 4th grade).

The internet can provide much better summaries (and book reports) than we can, but suffice to say, 'The Giver' is a good introduction of dystopia for those too young for Orwell's '1984'.  Jonas's world seems to work so well.  And then you learn over the course of the book just how things work.

'Gathering Blue' and 'Messenger' expand the world, and the cliffhanger ending to 'The Giver' is finally explained.  The weird magic and how certain people have certain gifts is never explained.  Deus ex machina it is.

The last book, 'Son', came out in 2012 and feels like it's meant for the generation who grew up reading 'The Giver' in elementary school.  The description of C-section and post-partum depression makes much more sense to the generation who'd be of child-rearing age about now.

And now, as always, your chance to expand your library (think of it as the winter reading special):

The Giver

Instructions

Weekend Baking

Kana here.  Trying out some new furniture in our lovely apartment.  Instead of the craft/study, we've set up a nice little living room and parlor instead.  We'll need to hold a garage sale soon for all the little things we keep accumulating.  The cat is back, along with its friend, the lynx hiding under the windowseat.  It's also been here for nearly forever.

Doing homework

Nothing like a windowseat for reading

A new stash of Jane Austen novels

The human went on a book-making binge a little bit ago in between making tons of stuff for the Harry Potter craft show in December, and as usual, the photography fell behind the crafting.  We now have 5 Jane Austen novels in our collection (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park, and Northanger Abbey).  No, the human hasn't read all of them.  They're on her list.

Get off the table, cat.

Time to try out the new cookbook.

Meanwhile, someone let Lily in the kitchen again.  And Cauthrien and Anora are helping.  This does not bode well.  Namely because Lily thinks cooking is just like potions-making (and sadly, she's not too far off) and doesn't quite care about the difference between potion ingredients and baking ingredients.

Berries, eggs, and what else do we need?

I'll get the milk and butter.

Maybe we made too many cupcakes?

The cookies are not for you, cat.