Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Jonathan Cape (2009), Hardcover, 108 pages
Description
These eight stories, most of which include a bit of magic, include tales of a wishing mat, an enormous cat, and a very strange house.
User reviews
LibraryThing member debnance
A 1001 CBYMRBYGU. When I picked up my copy of this book from the library, I was initially very disappointed to find that it was a collection of short stories. Then I started the book. Mercy. It was fantastic. Literally and metaphorically. Wonderfully written fantasies. There is one story about a
“You may think it odd that there were three men to look after one tiny station, but the people who ran the railway knew that if you left two men together in a lonely place they would quarrel, but if you left three men, two of them could always grumble to each other about the third, and then they would be quite happy.”
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man who saves the North Wind, who then rewards the man with a gift of a necklace of raindrops. Another is the tale of an old woman who accidentally baked a bit of sky in her pie. Yet another tells of three men who work in a train station where no trains ever stop. Fantastic.“You may think it odd that there were three men to look after one tiny station, but the people who ran the railway knew that if you left two men together in a lonely place they would quarrel, but if you left three men, two of them could always grumble to each other about the third, and then they would be quite happy.”
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LibraryThing member bunnyjadwiga
More like folktale retellings (though these are not based on actual folktales) and far less edgy that Aiken's other work, this collection shows off the grace of her language and fertility of her imagination. Reading audience: pre-tweens.
Language
Original publication date
1968
Physical description
108 p.; 8.74 inches
ISBN
0224083805 / 9780224083805
Local notes
A Necklace of Raindrops; The Cat Sat on the Mat; There's Some Sky in this Pie; The Elves in the Shelves; The Three Travellers; The Baker's Cat; A Bed for the Night; The Patchwork Quilt.
Gorgeous illustrations.
Gorgeous illustrations.
Other editions
A Necklace of Raindrops (Puffin Books) by Joan Aiken (Paperback)