On Story Bent

The girly found this one mildly funny -- and it's a classic -- so it's on my three strikes list for totally personal reasons. It's lively, it's quirky, it's funny, it's very unusual, it has the makings of a great read aloud, and some people might absolutely love it. I just don't. And I've tried. The entire portrayal of the elephant + the illustrations themselves just don't click with me. (Elephants are one of my top favorite animals so have to admit that does make me very very very picky.) It is kinda cute how the animals all pitch in to help as they can, but... ah well. So! I realize perhaps that's not all super helpful. My final recommendation would just be to get it from the library (especially as it's crazy expensive right now apparently). That way you're not out anything if you don't like it either. Or you might love it.

I do love this cover -- one of my favorite paintings: Il bacio (The Kiss) by Francesco Hayez (1859). So striking and iconic. "For most of her sixteen years, beautiful Keturah Reeves has mesmerized the villagers with her gift for storytelling. But when she becomes hopelessly lost in the king’s forest, her strength all but diminished, she must spin the most important tale of [her] life. With her fate hanging in the balance, she charms Death himself—a handsome, melancholy, and stern lord—with a story of a love so true that he agrees to give her a one-day reprieve. Now, she must find her true love in the next twenty-four hours, or else all will be lost. Keturah searches desperately while her village prepares for an unexpected visit from the king. But Lord Death’s presence is never far, hovering over all as mysterious happenings start to alarm her friends and neighbors. If she is to save her soul and the souls of the people she adores, Keturah must confront Lord Death one last time......

I wasn't planning to do a 3 Strikes post this month, but we're decluttering during Advent and I'm trying to be diligent about dealing with things as they come up, so... ;) Someone gifted this to us years ago (which was so so kind of them!!) and it's been living at the bottom of our Christmas book box ever since while I tried to figure out what to do with it (it is a classic after all). It does have a bit of a nostalgic Narnia feel to it, i.e. with the basic concept + the ending, so that's interesting. But.... the time has come. In short, it's a definitive Santa book, and (while we appropriately honor the memory of the faithful Christian saint Nicholas who ran his race before us), we don't do Santa, and the whole point of this title is Santa-ness, so..... yes, this one's being donated.

Starting a new label / recurring series over here and 3 Strikes seems to handily encapsulate the big picture of the idea (i.e. books that don't make the cut while having had multiple chances ;)). Today's simple contribution is Because of an Acorn. It looked promising re ecosystem education etc., but we just found it boring and disjointed / didn't make the connections. All in all, there's way more engaging stuff out there and I'm giving away our copy to free up precious shelf space. So! That's that. 3 strikes and we're out on that one. (There is a reading available on YouTube if anyone wants to see it.)