The Church Mice are at it again...

Darn it -- the camera took a blury picture again. I'll have to fix it, but not today (we're in the midst of Easter vacation and much of my time is spent doing kid stuff this week. The retakes will have to wait for next week).

I only learned about the Church Mice series about three years ago when I picked up a paperback copy and sold it almost instantaneously. Hmmm...(I thought) what's so good about this book? It's not one I remember from my childhood. Granted, I didn't actually read lots of picture books when I was young. I started on chapter books fairly early on & never went back. I didn't find the picture books of much use at the time. Now, though, I have had that aha! moment regarding picture books & finally GET them.

The Church Mice series by Graham Oakley is one of thos Aha! series. Starting the series off, THE CHURCH MICE are two mice (named Arthur and Humphrey), along with a veritable host of other mice who live in a church in England, and who help a stray cat by the name of Sampson become a member of their group -- with the strict understanding that their friendship means that Sampson would never EAT any of the mice.

Currently, there are fourteen books in the series (The Church Mice was published in 1972 and the last so far, The Church Mice Take a Break, was published in 2000). Graham Oakley has written and illustrated several other books beside the Church Mouse series and has illustrated a host of other books for other authors over the years, but it is this whimsical series about adventurous mice that have become classics favorites.

If you haven't seen or read one, do so.

Look for a Kitten...

Dare Wright was a wonderful author / photographer, but her personal life was an unfortunate mix of unhappiness and complexity. Her father left her mother when she was young (taking her only brother with him) which left her alone with a dependent and possibly abusive (psychologically and physically speaking) mother who may have shared her bed up until her mother's death.
While her home life was sad and twisted, her love of photography came to her aid and helped her find a place in the world. Her first book Lonely Doll became a success and helped make her name in the world of childrens picture books. The book was made with black and white photographs of one of Dare's own dolls named Edith. More than slightly autobiographical in nature, the story of Edith the doll has become a classic picture book and started Dare on her career.

Look for a Kitten is one of Dare's later picture books and features a live kitten as the central character. Strangely, even though it is a later title, it's not easy to find & copies in decent condition (and not ex library copies) are quite pricey.

The Beginning...

In the beginning, there were no words -- until someone wrote them down.

This is a brand new blog for me (and a brand new medium to learn) so here goes.

I mainly intend to use this blog to talk about books, book selling / book buying and to show off some of the more interesting books I acquire or have for sale.

But there will be times when daily life creeps in and you might find posts about my two children, my husband, my mother, my sister, my strange cats, etc. Normal everyday life does exist for a bookseller & sometimes it's more interesting than the book at the top of my stack to enter into my database.

So that's what you can expect -- at least that's what I'm hoping to write about. Let's see how it goes from here.

Enjoy your day.

Stephanie