Easy crochet project for a first birthday

I crocheted this blanket over a weekend for a little girls first birthday, it was made with lovely big soft yarn which makes it extra cosy for in the pushchair. The cream colour yarn is Denim Ultra  – mega chunky with cotton and wool from Sirdar (100g) and the pink and purple is Big Softie Super chunky from Sirdar (6 x 50g balls). I used a size 9mm hook which was so easy to use and it is a basic triple crochet stitch (double crochet stitch in the USA).

Ch 63. Row 1. Tc in 4th ch from hook (3 skipped chs count as tc), tc in each reamining ch across. Row 2 Ch 3 (counts as tc), turn; tc in first tc and in each tc across etc etc

The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech

After the uplifting choir singing and happy Magic Number watching this book review seems ideal…..

‘People are strange! The things they are doing and saying – sometimes they make no sense. Did their brains fall out of their heads?’ Angel, not fond of people at the best of times and having an identity crisis, is about to meet Zola – a talkative young girl who makes herself at home in Angel’s tower in a village high in the Swiss Alps. ‘This Zola is a lot bossy,’ Angel thinks. But out of their bickering an unexpected friendship forms, which benefits the entire village, reminding us that magic can be found in even the most ordinary acts of kindness.

Why I picked it up. Because I love the way Sharon Creech writes and her stories always make me think about things I haven’t considered before, the very idea of an unfinished angel intrigues me and a glance at the sing song language captured me immediately.

Why I finished it. Every page is magical and the story is beautifully written, it made me laugh out loud. The plot moves swiftly and you discover things in the story as the angel discovers things about itself.

I’d give it to. Adults who will read it aloud to children (the langauge needs to be heard), quiet thoughtful children and loud run around ones, my library friend Jenny to go with my favourite Spinneli ‘Stargirl’.

A musical January

So January has been full of music and Feb will continue to be too. I am having beginner guitar lessons on Monday evenings and so far I have mastered 8 notes with 3 strings and a collection of chords, a very clever way of consolidating that learning is trying to pass the lesson on to my eldest son – not sure of the succes of this yet but watch this space. Problems now arise for when I have a rare spare half hour, do I pick up the crotcheting, read a book or practice the guitar?

The next musical project is joining the newly formed Harrow Road Community choir which is being run in partnership with Wigmore Hall and Westminster council, C and I are loving this and he has surprised me with his commitment and concentration at the practice evenings (unlike his attempts at learning the guitar). We leave the practice sessions on Tuesday evenings full of happiness with a spring in our step singing our way home. We have tackled a number of really difficult songs and when you think we are mixed ability, mixed age and a newly formed choir I feel quite pleased for us all. The credit  I think falls on singer Isabelle Adams and pianist Sam Chaplin who has us all singing together in harmony within 10 minutes, we are all working to a performance at Wigmore Hall on Sun 21st March which is so exciting and it is a real pleasure to sing with members of the community which we may never have met before. Some songs we have been singing include ‘Black is the colour of my true loves hair’, an Icelandic lullaby  a great song you may know from the film ‘Oh brother where art thou?’ called ‘I went down to the river to pray’ and 2 uplifting South African songs.

So following on from Wigmore Hall and rushing towards Wilton’s Music hall which I did on Monday night after the guitar lesson, we watched The Magic Numbers supported by a band called Danny and the Champions of the World both were fantastic and the crumbling music hall and laid back audience ensured the whole experience was captivating and left everyone feeling content and happy.

The Duckling Chronicles by Emilie Christensen

I think this was my favourite book in December, very small and pocket size – a beautiful illustrated novella to stumble upon and read again and again. It is translated for Winged Chariot press by Nadia Christensen from the original Norwegian. This is a surprising story with hardly any words but over flowing with emotion about the lovely duckling and the young girl who has brought it to life.  Librarians and teachers will need to pick this up and encourage young people 12+ to engage with it, effort is needed but it will be worth it I assure you.

WingedChariot press are a publisher of children’s books in translation but are now pioneers of digital picture books which you can download for your iphone or ipod touch.’ The surprise’ delighted my kids and the bilingual picture book  ’The Red Apple’  is viewed at least once a day and they choose whichever language they feel like listening too.  I love that my kids can read these digital stories and are now asking for the paper versions too, well done WingedChariot.

crochet projects

A snail,  a panda and a lovely snowman to get me started, they are all a bit battered now as my youngest likes to play with them but they are so easy to make this could turn into an addiction.

Adult festival of reading in Tower Hamlets

So we are doing really well in our libraries / idea stores this year and we have arranged a small festival to celebrate this, the challenge now is to get an audience.  Here’s the programme…

Friday 4^th Dec 7pm – 8.30pm. Bethnal Green Library.

Martin Knight and Low Life Literature. Join Martin Knight, author and co-owner of London Books in discussing some forgotten gems of low-life London literature.

 Sunday 6^th Dec 1pm – 2.30pm. Idea Store Whitechapel

Meet Manzu Islam author of The Mapmakers of Spitalfields. The stories, set in London’s Banglatown and Bangladesh, bring startlingly fresh insights to the experiences of exile and settlement.

Monday 7^th Dec 7pm – 8.30pm. Idea Store Whitechapel.  

“An illustrated talk on Whitechapel, Spitalfields and beyond.” with John Bennett.  From Mile End to Whitechapel and on to Spitalfields, John Bennett presents the hidden gems and the well known sites of the core of London’s East End.

Tuesday 8^th Dec 7pm – 8.30pm. Idea Store Whitechapel

Delane’s War by Tim Coates. A fascinating history, vividly recounted, Delane’s War has striking parallels with contemporary events, from the embedding of journalists within army units in Afghanistan to the decision to hold a public inquiry into the Britain’s role in the war in Iraq. It is a testament to a man who dared to print the truth in the face of a government’s lies.

Wednesday 9^th Dec 7pm – 8.30pm. Idea Store Whitechapel.

John Harvey is an award winning crime writer whose most famous creations are Charlie Resnick and Frank Elder. He now has over 100 published books to his credit, the most recent being the novel Far Cry, and a collection of stories and jazz-related poems, Minor Key.

Thursday 10th December, 6.30pm – 7.30pm. Idea Store Whitechapel.

Book Group discussion of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Wilde’s take on the Faustian pact was one of the most celebrated and controversial novels of the time, representing the fin de siecle. Its influence still resonates today, amongst authors, artists and critics alike. Books available on request at the ground floor helpdesk.

Thursday 10^th Dec 7.30pm – 9pm. Idea Store Whitechapel. 

Dan Cruickshank talks about his new book The secret history of Georgian London: how the wages of sin shaped the capital. Georgian London evokes images of elegant buildings and fine art, but it was also a city where prostitution was rife, houses of ill repute widespread, and many tens of thousands of people dependent in some way or other on the wages of sin.

Saturday 12^th December 2pm – 3.30pm. Idea Store Whitechapel

Kia Abdullah author of Child’s Play. A tale of twisted sexuality and tortured morality, Child’s Play places a telescope into the darkest recesses of the human mind and invites it’s readers to take a look.

The lovely Eastside books from Brick lane will be the booksellers so a great chance to get some signed books for Christmas presents.

All a challenge for me as I am used to dealing with children’s writers and publishers but fingers crossed it all goes well.

Extra very exciting news is that Anthony Browne will be spending World Book day in Tower Hamlets with our school children. Hooray for us!

very bad blogging

I am quite bad as I never stay up to date with the books I am reading and now I’ve read too many to blog about as there are 4 months worth of books to review. Well nevermind I may just list a few….

Scat by Carl Hiaasen, The death defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean and The Magician’s Elephant by Kate Dicamillo come highly recommended from me and if you get chance to read them please jump at it as soon as you can.

My excuse for not writing anything could be lack of time and just too busy with the Summer reading challenge, playing at being conference secretary for the YLG conference and all the general everyday children’s library stuff but actually I think it’s just a lack of organisation and the general chaos that is in my head. I am prone to jump from one interesting thing to another so at the moment I am obsessing about my sons skateboarding, crotcheting little animals (amigurami) and knitting scarves.

Tonight I am on my way to Anthony Horowitz’s house (yes his house) for the launch of the new Alex Rider book ‘Crocodile Tears’ so I may have something to write about tomorrow, I’m also reading Evermore by Alyson Noel published by Macmillan so I may even manage a review too.

Projects galore

I feel like I have so many projects on the go my head is spinning but on the upside in the past couple of months I have managd to meet some interesting authors to keep me inspired and enthusiastic. A brief chat with James Patterson at the London Book Fair came after a risky event we held at Idea Store Bow for young people. We commissioned Creative works theatre company to work with a small team of young people to create a film about the Idea Store and held a day full of events to encourage 13-19′s in. The Idea Store mobile parked outside for adults and we only let young people enter the store ’13-19 taking control, Ideas, camera action’ was the name of the day and we’ve got loads of interesting stuff to work on now to improve the service for young people in Idea Stores. This was the beginning of the process and I am now beginning to realise what a massive project this is going to be.

I had the most fantastic lunch with Patrick Ness thanks to Walker books and got to read ‘The Ask and the Answer’ before it was published, the only problem now is the long wait for the third book in the trilogy to see if hope returns as I am left with a continuing sense of doom. I think the ‘Knife of never letting go’ and ‘The ask and the answer’ are going to be my favourite books for a while which is a turn around for me as I really struggled with The knife of never letting go on the first read.

This fabulous lunch then set me up for more project planning…. 1st with the Royal Armouries for a great programme for the summer hols aimed at Key stage 1 and families ‘Hog tales’ all about Henry Viii and the built environment, storytelling and tower building activities are all booked in for the summer 7 locations 2 sessions in each. We will be promoting the fact that Tower Hmalets residents can enter the Tower for £1 which is a bargain as it’s usually about £17.

The 2nd project is massive and is a partnership with XStream East a series of tasters are already running in Idea Stores from vocal coaching to Music production and 3 more Open Mic nights are planned for Friday nights in the Stores, a leap in the dark for the library service but with great support from Zoya and Shak at XStream East. Both projects are funded by the Find your talent pathfinder which I am working hard to ensure that public libraries are a central part of as this is a pilot and will set an example when / if the programme is rolled out across the UK. Future plans for a creative writing competition are in the ideas stage and look exciting if we can make it happen.

Pauline Fisk

As mentioned in a previous post Pauline Fisk came to visit us at Idea Store Whitechapel to promote her new book ‘Mad Dog Moonlight’ which is the 3rd companion book in a trilogy starting with ‘Sabrina Fludde’ and ‘The Red Judge’. I hadn’t read any of these books until I had booked Pauline to visit but I don’t know why I missed them as they all remind me of favourite authors such as David Almond and Gabriel Garcia Marquez as well as Mal Peet’s ‘The Penalty’. For an interesting piece about ‘Magical Realism’ see http://www.themanbookerprize.com/perspective/articles/98

Sabrina Fludde by Pauline Fisk published by Bloomsbury. When Abren becomes conscious of her surroundings, she is struggling to get out of the flooded river Severn with her only possession, a beautifully embroidered cloth, clutched in her arms. What is she doing in the water, who is she, where can she go? And so begins the unfolding of a story, that snakes and turns like the river itself, surprising the reader on every level.

The Red Judge by Pauline Fisk published by Bloomsbury. When Zed finds himself caught up in an innocent prank with his sister which goes horribly wrong, his whole world falls apart. With Cary lying desperately ill in hospital and Zed apparently to blame, he is cruelly cast aside by his adoptive family and returns to what was his idyllic childhood home, in search of the people who cared for him and the places he loved. Once there, Zed is haunted by the old legend of the Red Judge of Plynlimon Mountain, who, as every child knows, comes to ‘get you’ if you are naughty. Forced to flee the house, Zed embarks on a magical journey in search of somewhere to belong, but it seems that the Red Judge is never far behind.

Mad Dog Moonlight by Pauline Fisk published by Bloomsbury. Mad Dog Moonlight is only a young boy when he is picked up by the police on a lonely Welsh mountain road with a baby in his arms, and nothing from his past except the memory of the name his mother gave him, and a silver-topped walking cane upon which is engraved a secret word. Fostered by a local family, the Lewises, Mad Dog is renamed ‘Ryan’, but he struggles to accept this most ordinary of names and families. He longs to find the answer to who he is and what happened to his parents – and so sets off on an extraordinary adventure to uncover the lost secrets in his life. From the streets of Aberystwyth to the lonely hillocks of Plynlimon Mountain, Mad Dog encounters hidden adversaries and unexpected allies in a thrilling journey to discover just who he really is.

All three books are wonderful magical fantasy stories that follow the journeys of different children that are connected but so distant. You can read each book as a stand alone novel but the depth of the writing and the story are revealed when reading all three. All of the books have a river at their heart and are rooted in nature as well as providing us with strong role models for families that are not birth families but wonderful foster or adoptive families. Pauline Fisk is a marvellous storyteller whose canvas is huge and whose delving into mythology makes for astounding reading. http://www.paulinefisk.co.uk/ Highly recommended for all and I am going to re read as soon as I can.

Watchmen

I am trying to read this but struggling as I am having to train myself to read a graphic novel – something I have never done before. Probably will not get to see the film as children are too young and baby sitters are expensive! Will keep trying but now know what it feels like to struggle with reading