The Little Bookroom

by Eleanor Farjeon, Edward Ardizzone (Illustrator), Rumer Godden (Afterword)

Overview

27 illustrated short stories full of heart and whimsy, by the Carnegie Medal–winning author—a perfect read-aloud collection for middle grade readers who love folklore and fairy tales.

In The Little Bookroom, Eleanor Farjeon mischievously tilts our workaday world to reveal its wonders and follies. Her selection of her favorite stories describes powerful—and sometimes exceedingly silly—monarchs, and commoners who are every bit their match; musicians and dancers who live for aft rather than earthly reward; and a goldfish who wishes to “marry the Moon, surpass the Sun, and possess the World.”

Featuring an afterword by Rumer Godden

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681375045
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	130,151
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	910L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) grew up in England in a house filled with books, and she and her brothers enjoyed reading stories to one another and writing their own. In America, Farjeon’s best-known work may be the hymn “Morning Has Broken,” later recorded by Cat Stevens, but in her native country she is beloved as the author of Elsie Piddock Skips in her Sleep, Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard, and, of course, The Little Bookroom. Farjeon was pleased when The Little Bookroom won the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Carnegie Medal, but she turned down another honor—Dame of the British Empire—explaining that she “did not wish to become different from the milkman.” At her death, the Children’s Book Circle established the Eleanor Farjeon Award in her honor.

Table of Contents

	The King and the Corn	1
	The King's Daughter Cries for the Moon	7
	Young Kate	32
	The Flower Without a Name	36
	The Goldfish	40
	The Clumber Pup	47
	The Miracle of the Poor Island	74
	The Girl Who Kissed the Peach-Tree	83
	Westwoods	91
	The Barrel-Organ	116
	The Giant and the Mite	120
	The Little Dressmaker	125
	The Lady's Room	138
	The Seventh Princess	142
	Leaving Paradise	149
	The Little Lady's Roses	174
	In Those Days	179
	The Connemara Donkey	184
	The Tims	204
	Pennyworth	208
	And I Dance Mine Own Child	216
	The Lovebirds	244
	San Fairy Ann	248
	The Glass Peacock	263
	The Kind Farmer	272
	Old Surly and the Boy	289
	Pannychis	293

Editorial Reviews

Selected as one of 100 Must-Reads (Age 13) by Instructor magazine

“To this day, a copy of The Little Bookroom sits on my nightstand. . . . I don’t remember a time when I didn’t own it.” —Sadie Stein, The Paris Review Daily

"Eleanor Farjeon’s stories and poems have been a delight to children for many years, and here she has brought together a new collection of some of her own favorite stories. . . . Storytellers will welcome it." —Library Journal

"A selection of treasures from Eleanor Farjeon’s full store of writing for children. Including some stories which have not appeared before in book form. They make a rich combination: gems for storytelling and reading aloud, for children’s own reading, and a few that may be appreciated most fully by adults." —The Horn Book

"27 heartwarming tales. . . ." —Publishers Weekly

"Twenty-seven of Eleanor Farjeon’s stories have been selected by the author herself to make an anthology in the classical fairy tale tradition yet lit with the sparks of reason needed to pry young minds loose from their moorings and to widen reading." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Several favorites return in reissued editions. The New York Review Books is reissuing four children's book classics as part of its new Children's Collection. The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon, illus. by Edward Ardizzone, contains 27 heartwarming tales, first published in 1955. Many of the stories star standard fairy tale characters such as witches, fairies, princes and precocious young children, but they are also influenced by the urban, Christian and scientific aspects of early- to mid-20th-century life. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly