“I honor you,’ whispered Despereaux. “I honor you.” He put his paw over his heart. He bowed so low that his whiskers touched the floor. He was, alas, a mouse deeply in love.
At its core, The Tale of Despereaux is a love story. But in typical Kate DiCamillo fashion, it is SO many love stories, all expertly and magically weaved into a rich and colourful tapestry that wraps around you and envelopes you within its folds.
By Maureen Tai, 2 April 2018“I don’t know a whole lot about sunflowers, but I know they’re pretty and girls like them, and I know the word sunflower is made up of two good words, and that man ain’t got two good words in him, or anything that any girl would like, because girls don’t like men who try to shoot them and their son.” – Castle “Cas” Cranshaw
Life-changing childhood events are universal, some benign, some momentous. Castle’s is pretty extreme. As a result, he is an exceptional voice in middle-grade fiction. Continue reading
“Long ago, in an ancient and distant realm called the Kingdom of Backgarden, there lived a warrior named ROCK.”
And so begins the story of the genesis of the most elementary and universal of playground games – Rock, Paper, Scissors. While I normally view with disdain and dismay the deployment of “pants” and other such underwear humour in children’s books, the challenge by Scissors to Rock to don his “Battle Pants” has us guffawing with hilarity. Continue reading
My love for comics began at an early age. I was likely 5 or 6 when I excitedly pored over my first Tintin adventure, The Black Island, bought for 75p from the local WHSmith. Continue reading
Stories That Stay With Us 