The Fairy Caravan, by Beatrix Potter

I had never heard of The Fairy Caravan before just a few months ago. I feel like I ought to have heard about it, but I hadn't. I've always associated Beatrix Potter with England but when our family was in Scotland, driving between locations, we passed by Birnam. We spotted a sign advertising the Beatrix Potter Exhibit which resulted in a quick exit into Birman and to the Birnman Arts Center where we learned all kinds of things about Potter than we never knew before! As it would seem, the Potter family spent summers in the Birman/Perthshire area. Two of her books were penned in this region, specifically The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher. The museum in Birman is small but cute and the kids enjoyed the stop. Mostly the exhibit featured posters sharing information about the Potter family but then they had a lovely play area for kids to dress up as Potter characters, color, and play at being old fashioned grocers. I wouldn't say that this is a Must See Attraction but we certainly didn't mind the pit stop! (UK pit stops are incredibly enjoyable, in our opinion! Ha!)

At any rate, inside the gift shop I came across one last copy of The Fairy Caravan. It's a Puffin Classic Edition - (which #bookstagramers will note as being supremely cute!) - and I feel in love with it immediately. Books are my souvenirs of choice when traveling and this seemed a fine thing to bring home. I had intentions of reading it while we traveled but that didn't happen. We read it at home instead, finishing it up this week.

The Fairy Caravan tells the story of Tuppeny the guinea pig who decides to leave town, home, and nagging wife to start a new life. He comes across a miniature traveling circus made up of a variety of different animals. These animals travel about unseen by human eyes because they have magic hayseeds which keep them hidden from view. They travel about the countryside, unawares, and put on performances for various other animals. They have all sorts of adventures in very Potter-y fine form.

We fell in love with the book instantly upon reading. The character of Paddy Pig, a jovial but somewhat crazy sound pig, quickly captured our hearts and we laughed at his antics and speeches. You know a book is going to be great when it induces laughter. However, I would say that although the book stayed cute and enjoyable for me, my younger kids were somewhat lost as the book continued on. The circus caravan stop to visit a herd of sheep and the sheep engage in some story telling of their own which, between the vocabulary and descriptions of Scottish landscapes and general practices of sheep herding, I sort of lost my readers. We pressed on through these passages, but they are frequent enough that I'd say this is a book worth saving until your kids are old enough to track with the descriptions of animal husbandry.

Do I regret reading A Fairy Caravan? Not at all. We found much to enjoy, despite a few chapters to slog through. It was fun and I'm glad to have become acquainted with this read. If you haven't heard of it, well, here's your introduction! If you are a Beatrix Potter fan, I've no doubt you'll want to find a copy of this story!

Links to other books we've read aloud together:

• The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White

The Adventures of Hamish and Mirren, by Moira Miller

One of this blog's readers picked up on the fact that our family recently took a little vacation. For the past few years we've been blessed to make a trip out of the country. Last year we visited Prince Edward Island and this fall we went on holiday to Scotland. As always, before we travel I like to scrounge for books about the country we plan to visit and read up on it. I'm always looking for picture and chapter books to share with our kids and one of the ones I found this year was The Adventures of Hamish and Mirren: Magical Scottish Stories for Children, by Moira Miller. Whether or not you or your family is traveling to Scotland in actuality or not, I recommend this read. At the very least, you can transport yourself there via imagination!

The book opens with Hamish residing with his "old mother" on a farm by a loch on the west coast of Scotland. A Big Wind comes along and destroys Hamish's hay stacks and he heads off to chase it. His journeys take him to the home of Mirren and her father and sisters. The two fall in love and marry, after which he brings her back to live with his mother on the farm. The remainder of the book talks about their various adventures on the farm with an old and troublesome witch, some mischief loving wee folk, some noble seal people, and Hamish and Mirren's own growing family. It is a delicious book of magic and hilarity and it delighted us thoroughly.

This is a chapter book with easy-to-breeze-through chapters. Amazon.com ear-marks this book as being best suited for readers for grades 1-2 which is silly. This book is tremendous fun for a person at any age and I wouldn't get stuck on their labeling system. We read through a handful of Scottish fairy tale chapter books in preparation for travels and this one was our absolute favorite. It is good, clean innocent fun; it is not remotely dark or scary. This book was published by a Scottish book publisher called Kelpies which is worth looking into as they have a slew of titles worth checking out!  The Adventures of Hamish and Mirren makes for a terrific read-aloud and bonus points to anyone who can read it with a Scottish accent. (I stumbled and fell but it was still great fun to try in the privacy of my own home.)

In conclusion I'll share a few random pictures that we took on our visit to the Isle of Skye which lies off the coast of the mainland. We stayed a week in a thatched cottage next to the Fairy Glen.  (Yes, it was just as magical as it sounds.) The beauty of Fairy Glen defied imagination and the photos do not remotely do the place justice. It was my favorite spot in all of Scotland and I bet you can guess why when you see these images.

Again, whether or not you ever manage a trip to Scotland, you can escape there with the help of Hamish and Mirren and we highly recommend that you do! This book is sure to engage the reader and provide a lovely time.

Prince Edward Island in Photos

Our family vacation in 2017 was to Eastern Canada where we spent some time on Nova Scotia and then, chiefly, Prince Edward Island. As mentioned, we spent a great deal of time as a family immersing ourselves in the world of Lucy Maud Montgomery leading up to the trip and it was an enjoyable and wonderful experience.

I probably won't read as much Montgomery this year, strictly because I'm rather saturated at the moment, but I will read some. Meanwhile, thought you all might enjoy seeing a few pictures that we took during our time on the Island. It was beautiful, it was wonderful, and yes, I want to go back!

For starts, this was our "back yard" during our stay.

One of life's chief happy thoughts for me is having red dirt on my boots! Heh...

We watched a lot of sunsets to the point where our children asked us why we "had" to watch so many sunsets. (We're mean that way.)

We hiked all over the place.

And we saw the things we wanted to see.

Over all it was a magical, wonderful time and we cherished every moment (except for the part where we got a tummy bug but nothing in life can ever be perfect).

It was a lovely visit. Hope you've enjoyed the pictures.

Greyfriers Bobby, by Eleanor Atkinson

Last year, when we traveled to England, we made a day trip to Edinburgh. We didn't have any firm plans or even remarkable expectations for our day there. We selected a few sites that we wanted to see, and beyond that we figured on wandering around and being surprised.

My focus when planning the trip was always on England and a day in Scotland was more just to say we'd been there than anything else. (I know that sounds like an awful attitude to have towards Scotland but we are planning to one day travel to that country and explore it more thoroughly. It's turn will come! Patience, patience . . . !) Because I hadn't really done any research on Scotland, I really had no idea what to expect and found myself surprised by a few literary discoveries. One such surprise was discovering that Edinburgh was the home of Greyfriars Bobby.

First, we passed by his statue which caught my eye immediately. Glancing rapidly around I saw Greyfriars Kirkyard and my excitement increased. I recognized all of this from my list of Disney movies based on books. (Yes, I am remarkably educated, thanks. Heh.) Greyfriar's Bobby has been on my list of books I'd been wanting to read, but I had not yet purchased a copy. It seemed like the perfect day and the perfect location to buy a copy of the book! As it turns out, it was a good idea to buy the book there because nice looking copies do not seem to be readily available in the U.S. The copy I picked up is the one I have pictured here.

Here's a photograph of the statue, if you'd like to see it:

Now here is where I also must confess that at the time of our visit I had no idea what the story was about, other than it being about a dog (that apparently lived in Edinburgh). In case you are also unaware of the story line, I'll fill you in so that you can decry ignorance and be better informed than I was. Greyfriars Bobby is the true story of a highland terrier that was extremely loyal to his master, a man by the name of John Brown who died of tuberculosis in 1858. After his death, Brown was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. The profession of John Brown is in dispute; some say he was a shepherd and some say he was a policeman. It is more commonly believed that he was a policeman but author Eleanor Atkinson decide that, for the purposes of her story, she would make him out to be a shepherd. One thing is certain, no matter Brown's profession was, it is pretty safe to assume that no one would remember him at all if not for his dog. Bobby was an extremely loyal animal and mourned his owner's death for the remainder of his life. Bobby refused to leave the graveside, keeping company with it for the next fourteen years. Dogs weren't allowed in the Kirkyard but they had a hard time keeping Bobby out! This loyal little dog, through persistence and loyalty, was eventually made a pet of the neighborhood but spent every single night sleeping on his master's grave, no matter the weather.

What I did not realize until I was done reading the book is that the author, Eleanor Atkinson, was an American who never actually visited Scotland. (So if anyone is upset with me for not doing more thorough research on that portion of our trip, I think I should win back some brownie points for at least visiting.) The story was written in 1912 and although she wrote a handful of other books, this is the one that she is best known for. The Disney version of the film is based on her version of events. Critics have argued that she didn't understand the geography of Edinburgh very well and that is a fair thing to note. Having walked the city, I was confused a bit by her placement of the castle, in particular, but for someone who had never been I think she did quite well. She is assumed to have researched the names and people directly related to Bobby's story, keeping as true to his account as possible. Obviously she embellished the tale a bit with the use of her imagination but that is to be expected of any author.

While this story is thought a great one for children (and it is) I had a hard time reading it even as an adult because she wrote dialogue using a Scottish accent. Here's the example that Wikipedia provides to give you an idea of what I mean:

"I wullna gang to the infairmary. It's juist for puir toon bodies that are aye ailin' an' deein'." Fright and resentment lent the silent old man an astonishing eloquence for the moment. "Ye wadna gang to the infairmary yer ainsel', an' tak' charity."

Because of this, I had a really hard time working my way through the story. I found myself skimming past dialogue, hoping to pick up enough out of the conversations between characters to track with the events until I could get back to the narrative. I can't imagine this being an easy read for a middle schooler (although not impossible). I confess that I will never attempt this book as a read aloud. The story is interesting enough but it doesn't feel accessible. I suspect that watching the movie is going to be the easiest way to educate one's self about this remarkable dog. I'll have to let you know whether that is true because now that I've read the book, I am permitted to watch the movie. (*wink*) I am very curious to see the Disney film now.

For more information about Greyfriars Bobby, check out this website. It is a rather interesting tale.

If you want to learn more about Greyfriars Kirkyard, there are plenty of videos available through Youtube that will broaden your knowledge of this small portion of the globe. Our family spent some time wandering about the graveyard (because apparently J.K. Rowling named some of her famous characters after names she found on tombstones at this site!), While I like wandering around graveyards as a general rule, I have to tell you this one was a little creepy. It wasn't until I was doing a bit of research for this post that I discovered why I felt the way I did about it. If you're curious, see Youtube. Videos there range from informative to downright spooky!

Have you read this story? I'd be curious to know, if so!