5/31/2023 0 Comments Linda sue park prairie lotus![]() Godey’s dress patterns, school exam nerves, the incredible taste of an orange, a town rising one storefront at a time - readers of Wilder’s work will savor the connections. Hanna, a more accomplished seamstress than Laura, shares an almost comical aversion to making buttonholes. The parallels to the Little House series are deliberate - and at times delicious. ![]() But it also describes PRAIRIE LOTUS (Clarion, 272 pp., $16.99 ages 10 and up), the captivating new novel by the Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park, whose heroine, Hanna Edmunds, is half Chinese. This might be “Little Town on the Prairie,” the seventh book in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic series about a pioneer family. In the spring of 1880, in a railroad town in Dakota Territory, a girl in her 15th year bends over her sewing to help support her family. ![]()
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5/31/2023 0 Comments Momo by Michael Ende![]() ![]() The young storyteller who becomes one of her best friends, has never been so inspired or come up with so many stories before. The adults find themselves, or solve their problems and disputes, as long as they’re talking in front of her. The children come up with the most amusing and exciting games when she’s there with them. The neighbours, young and old, quickly grow fond of her because of this. Despite her unique circumstances, Momo would be just like any other child, except for the effect that her presence seems to have on others: the way she listens brings out the best of anyone she listens to. ![]() She quickly finds her new “home” inside the ruins of an old amphitheatre, and that’s how the story begins. Momo is a little girl with no past, no parents, no age, and no home, who ends up settling in a poor neighbourhood in the outskirts of an unnamed city. I say this because I’ve noticed Ende’s books tend to be seen as just “children’s books”, when most of them have many levels -there’s one level for children, and then there’s also one for each of the different levels of understanding from an adult point of view. ![]() Editor’s note: Nieve is an avid reader, writer and artist who will be selecting interesting books to review and discuss monthly.įor those who haven’t read Momo, by the author of The Neverending Story, I would strongly recommend it, either as a summer book, or for any time of year… or any time of life. ![]() 5/31/2023 0 Comments The Erotic Poems by Ovid![]() ![]() The Cures for Love are intended for the man who cannot survive love. He is a teacher of the art of love, an apprentice at the knee of Cupid. ![]() They are instruction manuals for men and women interested in fomenting love. The Art of Love poems are written in middle age, when passion has cooled a bit. The emotions are strong, almost frightening at times, and always frank. They describe a consuming love, fueled by equal parts passion and jealousy, that ends badly. The Amores are elegaic poems that were written by a young man. The Erotic Poems were the work of Ovid's heart. No such luck befell Ovid, but his work relied upon many ancient sources, some of which no longer exist, so he did modern man a favor, or at least those modern men who wanted to know more about the myths and legends of the ancient world. The work that he is best known by lay folk like me for was Metamorphosis, which he wrote while in exile in the hopes that Augustus would be pleased and allow him to come back to Rome. Unfortunately for him, he made a mistake and Augustus banished him to a distant, cold, and inhospitable place for the rest of his life. ![]() He loved the plays, the music, the parties, and the people. He was from an equestrian family in the north of Italy, but unlike Virgil, he loved Rome. Ovid was a poet during the lengthy time that Augustus was the emperor of Rome. ![]() |