Karl's Reading List

Published as an ebook by Shadow Dragon Press: Tijeras, New Mexico, 2026. Comedy is hard to write. What seems hilarious to one person can come across as just-plain-dumb or confusing to another.  Or, just not that funny. Dr Gnoll is meant to be a comedy. It is loosely a parody of James Bond, particularly 'Dr No.' It is also billed as a humour-filled parody of "everything from spy movies, role-playing games, and video games." I appreciate what the authors are intending to do here. I just didn't find it that funny. The 'humour' comes from wordplay (such as Dr Gnoll being a gnoll, James Bond's Q becoming "Kew", and the lead female being called Maxine Charisma), some innuendo (particularly regarding the MacGuffin rod that Dr Gnoll is after, and the way it is described once Dr Gnoll has it), and then very out-of-place references to the fictionality of the world being described.  This latter element is a little jarring at times, as it is referenced s...

Published as an audiobook by Hodder Children's Books/Hachette Children's Books, 2013. Narrated by Jan Francis. Book 11 in the 'Famous Five' series. Preceded by ' Five on a Hike Together. ' Followed by 'Five Go Down to the Sea.' First published 1952. On occasion, Elise and I have noted that a particular Famous Five story might take a while to get on to the mystery itself. Five Go Adventuring Again is the first one to spring to mind in this way. However, Five Have a Wonderful Time takes this idea to the next level! Although the five are camping, and encounter some suspicious 'Fair Folk' whom they wish to befriend, the actual mystery or adventure element doesn't really kick in until literally over half the book has passed. At that point, the Five, along with returning character Jo from Five Fall Into Adventure , finally notice something suspicious in the ruins of a nearby castle - a face at a window! - and set out to find out how the face is th...

Published by Little, Brown and Company: Great Britain, 1999. A book that makes it clear from the title what it will be about, The Year 1000 is an easy read about life in the Year 1000, specifically, England in the Year 1000. The authors have taken a 'work calendar' from the era, decorated with images from everyday life, and have used those images as a launch-pad, letting each chapter be based on a 'month,' and a 'theme.'  We get looks at the Church, at farming, at trade, and even at the roles of women, which turn out to have been a lot more 'equal' than we might stereotypically think such an era would have been! For example, the authors point out that various wills from the era show that women could own and inherit property, with examples including: "Aelfflaed, a noblewoman [who]...had supervised the farming of many acres with apparent success, while Wulfgeat of Donnington clearly found nothing unusual in leaving his lands to be run by his womenfolk...

We have been living in my parents' house for two months now, and they have a lot of picture books here. As a result, we have been reading a lot of new stories to Ezekiel, and it feels only right that I should do another picture-book entry to acknowledge some of them. Keeping the list to only ten has been tricky, particularly as I also wanted to include two books we read when we went to a friend's bach at the lake a few months ago. Aside from those two, I have limited myself to books that belong to my parents, knowing that the ones we own will still be with us the next time I do one of these. As is now usual, each of these books has their own page, meaning that you can easily skip all ten if you want to just move on to the next 'proper' book on my list. Karl's List First Flight ; Good Night, Alice and Other Stories ; Skarloey ; Swiggo ; Minny Car Elise's List Just Me and My Puppy ; Dogs ; Who's Driving? ; Mosan Mouse ; I've Lost My Kisses Previous Book ~...

Published by Gecko Press: Australia and New Zealand, 2007 (2006). English translation by Gecko Press, 2007. First published in Belgium by Clavis Uitgeverij. I say this a lot for Ezekiel's books, but this is a beautifully illustrated book! And it's a pop-up book too! Who's Driving? is fairly self-explanatory. Each page has three animals dressed in different uniforms, each approaching a vehicle that they could conceivably be driving. When the pop-up tab is pulled, the driver of the vehicle is revealed, and sound effects are added as the vehicle 'drives' away. The illustrations are clever in that there are hints given as to which animal will be revealed. The desert jeep, for example, is being approached by a hippo in khaki. Of course the one in khaki is the driver! The pop-up elements are also cleverly done, with my favourte being a small convertible that is revealed as being driven by a giraffe. I am still impressed by how that giraffe pops up from that little convert...

Published by Macmillan Children's Books: London, 2012 (2009). A fun book about dogs, opening with "I love dogs." After this the book goes through, giving different types of dogs from "stroppy dogs and soppy dogs" to "Scruffy and smart dogs" among others. The book then ends with the twist that it is being narrated by a cat, which means that the dog "that I love best? Let's see... ...is any dog that won't chase me!" The illustrations in this book are well drawn, the types of dogs are well varied, and the twist of having the narrator be a cat is a fun joke at the end. With Ezekiel now more into dogs, this book and Just Me and My Puppy are definite favourites. Karl's List First Flight ; Good Night, Alice and Other Stories ; Skarloey ; Swiggo ; Minny Car Elise's List Just Me and My Puppy ; Dogs ; Who's Driving? ; Mosan Mouse ; I've Lost My Kisses Previous Book ~ Next Book (Ezekiel Books) Previous Book ~ Next Book

Published by Wm. Collins Sons and Co. Ltd: London and Glasgow, date unknown. A book I remember from when I was a child (along with Swiggo ), this book is old enough and has 'seen enough' that its cover is now missing - the picture here is from it's inner title page. Minny Car is quite dated - one of the main characters is a gollywog! - but still cute and well illustrated. The story begins with Minny Car broken down on the side of the road. A group of toys rescue her and reattach her wheel. In return, Minny Car takes them on a journey through the highlands. First, they encounter the Loch Ness monster, then they have a picnic that gets rained out, and then eventually they face off against a bad-tempered Highland Bull!  It's all told in rhyming verse, with each character getting a chance to shine; Golly actually turns out to be the most practical of the group! I enjoy the story, and it certainly has that nostalgia factor for me, as well. Karl's List First Flight ; Good...