Something About Cairo

No pyramid schemes here.

Something About Self-Referential

Celebrating self-references.

Something About Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

Jones on James.

Something About Lovecraft at 4:20

Where’s Waldo?

Something About Erroneous Illustrations

Black and grey not working.

Something About Seeing Shimer from the Sky

Eye in the sky.

Something About Johnny Dixon Collapsing

Frankly speaking.

BiblioFile: Puffin Publishes Monday

And now, a few words on the paperback editions of the Anthony Monday series from the 1990s.

Something About the Winterborn Silverware Company

Cast your fate.

Something About Duchy of Irontree-Dragonrock

Like a rock.

Something About a Life in Miniature

Make room for dolly.

Something About Whistles, Winks, and Wildroot

Heir apparent.

Something About the Seven Hills of Rome

That was then, this is now.

Something About Pages of Chemical Degradation

Heaven scent.

Something About Illustrating Edith Wharton

As black as ink.

Something More About Hailes Abbey

Bloody good times.

Something About Will Keith Kellogg

Boxed surprise.

Something About the Tartan Day

Forever plaid.

Something About the Sistrum

Shaken, not stirrup.

Something About the Bassoon

Wrapping at my chamber music door.

Something About the Mizwad

H. R. huffin’ puff.

Something About the Oud

Not Norweignan wood.

Saint Michael’s Fundraising Event This Weekend! Five Fab Finds!

Saint Michael’s Parish will host a fundraising rummage sale this Saturday, April 3, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Father Kahl Liberius says he expects a great turnout, insofar the weather cooperates, because parishioners have cleaned out the deepest, dankest corners of the church basement and scoured the building from altar to vestry all in the name of Saint Zita, patroness of housekeepers (“and this weekend, spring cleaning,” adds lay leader Wayne Spiggot).

All money raised stays with the church to help with operating costs and summer youth activities.  The church invites everyone from the community to come to the church and checkout some of the amazing items on sale, both donated by members of the congregation and those found in the church basement.  What great finds did parishioners find?  Here are five guaranteed to be popular!

Hitting the Roof: 7 Ceilings as Seen by Johnny Dixon

Professor Childermass has often told Johnny Dixon to keep his chin up.  But when Johnny does, what does he see?  There is not always a lot to examine but whatever it is can often be better than nothing!

What seven ceilings has Johnny examined?

Something Else About Sugar Loaf

Sending fun!

Something About Wenonah

Story of a statue.

Something About the Color Purple

Flat Tyre.

Something About Usborne’s Supernatural World

Nightmare fuel.

Something About Surplus Gorey Stuff

Buy in bulk and save.

Memoriam: Beverly Cleary

Children's book author Beverly Cleary (1916-2021), creator of Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins, has died at age 104.  

The first of her 30-plus books was Henry Higgins, published in 1950, and was followed five years later by Beezus and Ramona (1955). Ramona Quimby would later star in eight novels and become one of Cleary's most-popular and beloved characters.  

Cleary won the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children" in 1975, was awarded the National Book Award for children's fiction in 1981 for Ramona and Her Mother, and the the 1984 Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw.

Her characters, including Henry Huggins, Beezus and Ramona Quimby, Ellen Tebbits, and Otis Spofford, as well as Ribsy, Socks, and Ralph S. Mouse, have delighted children for generations.

Something About March Hares (and Very Extended Connections)

Far from the warren crowd.

Something About the Streaming House

Flick of the wrist.

Something About Inverse Images

Positively strange.

Something About the Number of Possible Chess Moves

Maybe I should Stick to Twenty Squares!

Something About the Lewis Chessmen with Irving Finkle

44 More Squares Than Twenty Squares!

Something About Adaptations of Little Faithfulness

Action?

Something About the Hot Zone

Bad Knight.

Something About Rocks Village

Off the beaten path.

Something About Lost in Michigan

Look around you!

Something About Pyewacket

Nine lives, or some such.

Cover Critic: The House with a Clock in its Walls (1988)

Cover Critic is our periodic survey of readers and fans about the various artwork and illustrations of the books in the Bellairs Corpus.

Something About Eight Guys Who Killed Julius Caesar

Superb banquets, indeed.

Something About an Ancient Roman Stylus

Post scriptum.

Something About Necromancy

'Till the mourning comes.

Something About the Timing of "Treasure"

Anthony’s adventures begin.

Something About Puffin Paperbacks in the 1990s

Auk words.

BiblioFile: Puffin Publishes Barnavelt (Part 2)

I see a decade has passed since the blog promised a follow-up about Puffin Books publishing the Lewis Barnavelt series.  The post was near completion so I’ll give it a go and get this one out there.

Memoriam: Norton Juster

Author Norton Juster died March 8. He was 91.

An architect by training, Juster was best known as an author of children's books, notably The Phantom Tollbooth (1961) and The Dot and the Line (1963). 

Tollbooth is a children's fantasy adventure about a bored young boy named Milo. After unexpectedly receiving a magic tollbooth and, having nothing better to do, Milo drives through it in his toy car, transporting him to the Kingdom of Wisdom. There, he acquired two faithful companions, a dog named tock and the humbug, and tried to restore to the kingdom its exiled princesses — named Rhyme and Reason — from the Castle in the Air.

The book, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, remains acknowledged as a classic of children's literature.

Something About Extended Library Fines

Ex library.

Something About March 8

Day 67, for those keeping track.