Reviews

• Not just for children

  The book opens with an introduction by the author that shows us the main influence of her childhood: a book-room where she spent so much time learning to love books and the magic they hold. How generously she has given back the pleasure she found. This delightful collection of twenty-seven stories is peopled with all the characters one expects from Ms Farjeon: princes who don't want to marry, misers who become open-hearted, woodcutters that fall in love with princesses and so on. There are puzzled kings, disguised detectives and stubborn cooks - what more can we ask for? Some of the stories are very short and pithy whilst others are long enough to stretch over two readings, but short or long, each is captivating in its own way. Ms Farjeon's style never fail to entrance me. The prose is easy to read, easy for a child to understand and simultaneously carries such a wealth of acute observation that we wonder why we haven't noticed things for ourselves. She encourages us to question why something is done and whether, 'Because it has always been so', is a valid answer. In that there is learning in her stories as well as delight. This is a classic collection from one of the very best writers of children's fiction.

• A children’s book, but not JUST for children.

  A GEM‼️ Arrived quickly and in pristine condition. This book was a later in life discovery. I didn’t find Eleanor Farjeon until after I’d finished college. All I knew about her before that was she wrote the words to “Morning Has Broken.” Cat Stevens got it out of a hymnal, arranged & sang it beautifully. So the circle was closing and her popularity as a children’s author came to light. The Little Bookroom contains her idea of good stories. Mine too.

• Five Stars

  Useful for young readers- not all stories have happy endings

• Gems of Stories

  I am a Japanese woman and since the auther is quite popular here thanks to the great translation of Momoko Ishii, I could read most of her work. Every book has mesmerising charms of poem and fantasy. I bought this book because I wanted to read in original English text. This book is an anthology of varities of short stories from a couple of pages long to dozens. My all time favorite is "And I Dance Mine Own Child" which is about a 10 year old girl Griselda who lives with her 110 year old Great-Grandmother in a cottage in the poor lane. She is so diligent hardworking child. The old lady is becoming like a child and Griselda treats her dearly like her own child. Their bed time ritual makes me smile, and Griselda's noble diligence and love for the Gramma makes my eyes teary everytime I read it. Although there arn't any fairies or magic nor dragons in it, this is a pure fairy tale. Other stories like romantic "The Clumber Pup", "The Little Dressmaker", "West Woods" are comparably long and are also my favorite. Short ones like "The Seventh Princess" which implies an astonishingly modern idea of woman's independence, "The Grass Peacock" with another noble diligent girl, comic fable "The Tims" are all attructive in different tones. Great for story telling performance.

• Recapturing childhood

  I first read this book when I was about 12, having found it in the school library. I must have checked it out dozens of times over the years, but never found a copy for sale anywhere so that I can have my own. Now that I'm all grown up and have a credit card, I was overjoyed to find a copy available on Amazon! These stories have more than just the nostalgia value for me, though. They're beautifully written, charmingly illustrated, and evoke a simpler time when the world was full of wonder. Some involve magic and fantastic places, others are simply stories about people living in a world much like ours, but all of them are true works of art.

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