BLOGGING: It's Tuesday, where are you?

How is everyone's reading challenges going so far this year? It seemed a lot of people were backing off a bit from challenge overload at the first of the year. Are you pleased with how things have gone? I cut back, but am still reading for quite a few. My goal this year is not to read a book just to finish a challenge. If it happens, great, but I'm not going to go out of my way at the end of a challenge to pick a book I don't really want to read, not when there is a whole pile of books that I really want to read.

Sometimes I am being chased by the brothers of my late husband. I am a widow by my own hand. Life was not easy for women in the early 1900s in rural Alberta. (The Outlander by Gil Adamson)

Sometimes I am amazed at how quickly the brain can make a decision based on so much information in the Blink of an eye. (Blink by Malcolm Gladwell)

Where is reading taking you today? Make a post, leave a comment, spread the word.

BLOGGING: Anniversary Giveaway

Congratulations

to Teddy Rose

who is getting a copy of

Anne of Avonlea!

send me a note, Teddy Rose, with a contact

Thanks to everyone who entered and to everyone who stopped by with good wishes too! And for everyone who isn't getting a copy, you should run to the library and get the next one in the series.

BOOK: No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod

No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod

2nd Canadian Book Challenge; IMPAC Dublin winner 2001

Some places are so ingrained into people, that even when they leave, they consider it home, until the end of their time. The Maritimes are like that, and MacLeod has written his love letter to Cape Breton in this novel.
"Later his body moved inland, but his great heart remained behind." When I think of all the people who have left here to go to Ontario, the Boston states, Fort McMurray, they are all still from Cape Breton or PEI and the goal is to get back here eventually. No matter where they roam, they try to return to where they left their heart.

This idea has been around since the old days, so even though Cape Breton is home, they came from Scotland originally, or from Prince Edward Island via Ireland. And although it has been hundreds of years, that connection to the homeland is still strong and the stories have stayed alive. Alexander MacDonald of Clan Red Calum, the narrator, knows the stories of his family, his clan, back to the battle of Culloden and the Plains of Abraham.

It's funny because this book uses the Clan idea, that they all come from the same person, Calum MacDonald, and they all know the same stories and have a clannish quality. I read a book last year, Mercy by Jodi Picoult that used the same family trait and it just didn't seen quite right to me. I'm not sure why I accepted it this time. It could just be the setting of the 1960s and 1970s made it seem more reasonable, as if the clans were still pretty clannish here in the Maritimes and it wouldn't work in present day Massachusetts.

So much of this book resonated with me. I've heard these stories, I know these people. The phrases, the way of talking, repeating the same phrases and cliches. The repetitive method of always describing someone the same way, that keeps their history attached to them like a barnacle. The way of giving a backhanded compliments. One of my favorite lines from the book was, "He might not be the kind of man you'd invite to sing and dance and do imitations at your party, but he is a good man nonetheless." I can picture that man perfectly.

This book is also about family and that connection. There is tragedy and heartbreak and sticking together because that's what families do - always look after your blood.

"All of us are better when we're loved."

GAME: Bookword Game

Suey has the poll up! Go vote! Go vote! Go vote!

Did I mention you should go vote?

BLOGGING: It's Tuesday, where are you?

The Bookword Game is off to a roaring start with some amazing suggestions for a book that other people love but hasn't impressed you. I have a feeling what the favorite might be - some words just perfectly explain the situation. Suey will have a poll up on her site, hopefully tomorrow, for everyone to vote for their favorite. Then, next week, she'll post the winner and another situation that needs a Bookword. I'm very pleased with how many great suggestions and participants in the very first week.

In reading, I am in Toronto recounting the MacDonald family, clan red Calum, who came from Cape Breton by way of the Scottish highlands, full of gaelic words and Celtic music. No Great Mischief, by Alistair MacLeod.

Where is reading taking you today? Make a post, write a comment, spread the word.

MEME: a few of my favorite things

Y. Yikes! She gave me Y. Chris posted this meme where you list the things that you like that begin with an assigned letter. The letter Y could be tricky. Here is a list of my favorite things that begin with the letter Y. If you want to play along, just ask in the comments and I'll give you a letter.





1. Yogi Bear - One of my favorite of the Hanna Barbara cartoons, Yogi and his little buddy, Boo Boo Bear. I few years ago we used to watch the Laff-A-Lympics. The Scooby Doobies, the Yogi Yahooeys, and the Really Rottens, all the villains, competed in an hilarious predictable manner.

2. Yellow beans - best eaten raw, right out of the garden. We plant a garden every year to each fresh raw vegetables.


3. yard - summer is spent in the backyard, with the swing set, the inflatable pool, the basketball net, the barbecue, the deck. Really, a wonderful spot as we watch the trees grow that we planted the first year or two we lived in the house.

4. Yesterday - song by the Beatles, sung by many people.

5. yogurt (raspberry or vanilla) - I'm not a huge yogurt fan, but the new frozen yogurt that tastes just like ice cream is pretty delicious. For regular yogurt, I mostly only eat raspberry or vanilla.

6. "Your Eyes" from Rent - I often put on the Rent soundtrack when I am correcting. I would love to see this musical on stage, I've only seen the movie

7. Yahtzee - I've had the original game for years, and one of the most enjoyable kids games we've bought was Pokemon Yahtzee. It lasts about 5 - 7 minutes to play a game, and is slightly possible to throw, ensuring the kid wins, an important part of playing games with pre-schoolers.

8. yabba dabba doo - One of the best summer playlist I had was during university, and it had the theme to the Flintstones in the middle. Good times, good memories.

9. y-intercept - I love math, and you can always rely on the y- intercept to help graph an equation

10. Yellowknife - pretty good book written by Steve Zipp. He helped me plenty in the A to Zed reading challenge last year, with a tough letter to start a book or author last name, which ever was needed most. This book was so unique and interesting I would recommend it to people who haven't read anything set in the north of Canada. I haven't been there myself, but the capital of the Northwest Territories is the main character of the quirky novel.

BOOK: Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger

Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger, 353 pages

young adult; themed reading challenge: epistolary

I gave this to my 11 year old son for Christmas after reading a great review of it somewhere. I think it came into notice around the time The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie book began making waves as both are epistolary books - told through letters. A librarian was making a display of these types of books, sort of like the Amazon recommended list "If you like this, you may like that" and read Last Days of Summer and gave it a rave review.

My son enjoyed it, but was put off a bit by the 'bad' words, and told me the ending shocked him. So of course I had to read it. Joey, a 12 year old Jewish boy in 1940 Brooklyn begins writing to Giants third baseman Charlie Banks. They don't hit it off, but Charlie continues to write back, which just encourages Joey. Joey is friends with a Japanese American, and they are getting beat up and hoping Charlie can help them. Thus the language - Charlie is a 23 year old professional ball player and Joey is a tough guy without a father around so these guys are a little rough around the edges.

Joey and Charlie form an unusual friendship but it becomes very important for both of them, and they both grow. About the shocking ending? Just the difference between being 11 and 41. I have read a lot more books, especially ones set during wars, so I can predict better what might happen. The reviews I read at librarything called the ending 'predictable,' which it was, but it didn't detract from the book at all. And to me, that's why young adult books can be predictable and still very enjoyable. You have to be shocked for the first time in a lot of ways before endings become predictable. The characters here were very delightful, and the letter writing style between the different characters told the story in a very readable way. I was crying by the end because these characters touched each other, and me, so much.

The story is about so much more than baseball. The Japanese internment during World War Two is also a part of the story. But it was more a story of a young boy who had been abandoned by his father and looked for that guidance from someone and a young man who takes on responsibility for a young kid.

BOOK: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, 246 pages

Pulitzer Winner 2004; themed reading challenge

Old preacher man writes a letter to his young son. Writes about his grandfather - saint and sinner preacher abolitionist who fought in the Civil War and stole random items in his old age. Writes about his father, preacher and pacifist. So much father and son dynamics.

Writes about his sermons, and biblical passages. So much philosophy that puts me to sleep. He actually gets confused in the middle of some passages himself, so I didn't feel so bad.

Writes about his namesake, a preacher friend's troubled son. This part of the story was more interesting as the narrator had to deal with his own jealousies and prejudices. He was very human, less religiously perfect in his dealings with his godson.

Loneliness, prejudice, good, man's relationship with God. I think there are many people who would enjoy this slow, character driven novel. It was well written but not about things that interest me enough. I can see why it was a Pulitzer winner. Prize winning books should make you think, should show an inner conflict, and make for great discussion. Not for me but I can recognize it would be loved by another type of reader. It's too far away from a good murder mystery to entertain me.

also reviewed by Rhinoa (and she gave it 4.5/5, I knew others would like it)

WEEKLY GEEKS: Judge a Book by its Cover

Judge a Book By Its Cover!

This week it's all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book--any book, really--and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)...Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best 'captures' what the book is about?


I decided to look at Anne of Green Gables' covers. When a book has been in publication for over 100 years, you know there will be many different covers. Plus, wouldn't you have been disappointed if I hadn't chosen Anne?





The original cover from 1908





This is the cover on the edition I have. It's pretty bland, but it is the one I am most used to. The next couple in the series are the same type of drawing, but in different colours for the edges.

This is the most recent popular edition I have seen, the ones that are mostly in the stores around here.













After the success of the Sullivan movies starring Megan Follows, she appeared on the cover of the Anne books. The movies were so well done and Megan is really the face of Anne. The casting in the original movie was so perfect that in my mind, Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Farnsworth will always be Matthew and Marilla to me.










Some editions from around the world:





I like this one a lot, with Anne and Matthew and Marilla and Green Gables, plus the colours are appealing. And can read the French title.

Some of the more unusual covers I've seen:

Doesn't really hint at the Anne part, but it is definitely a PEI beach. However, Anne doesn't spend a lot of time on the beach.

Focusing on the Green Gables aspect of the title. The house itself is part of the National Park at Cavendish and a mecca for visitors to PEI. If you come to PEI, you would want to visit the house

Must be an early edition, looks rather 1920s or 1930s to me. Probably more how LM pictured Anne but really wouldn't work today.

This one is so very different but I like it. It hints at the exuberance of Anne and the country living.

Which is your favourite cover? Which one do you own?

BLOGGING: 2nd Blogging Anniversary

It was two years ago that I decided to make a blog here at blogspot to interact with the book bloggers I was meeting. They were having so much fun I had to join in. I started with the odd little book review and Booking Through Thursday memes. The reading challenges were just getting started with Booklogged's Classic Challenge and Bookfool's Chunkster Challenge and then suddenly the reading challenges got crazy very fast!

I've read so many more books, and met so many wonderful people in these past two years. I actually met Booklogged in real life when she visited PEI with Candleman. Very cool.

I'd like to give an Anne book away to one of my readers in celebration of my two years. Leave a comment if you would like a LM Montgomery book from the Anne series; me know which book in the series you are at. If you've read them all, (and you should!), I could look for Blue Castle. You can then say your book came straight from PEI.

Contest will close Feb 12, 2009

Thank you to all the great friends I've met for your comments, and suggestions, and friendship. Here's to many more years.

BOOK: Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende, 399 pages

translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden



genre challenge: historical fiction; Latin America Challenge: Chile

Eliza Sommers, orphaned at birth and raised in Valparaiso, Chile and Tao Chi'en, a Chinese doctor meet on a boat on the way to the California gold rush of 1849. Each of them get a background treatment, with a history of Chile, and China and their respective lives. They each get a love story before they meet and it was all very well written and engrossing.

It should have been fabulous, but it fell a bit short for me, and yet I still liked it. I always felt a bit detached from Eliza through the narration. At times I would start to get into her head and feel her emotions, but I never got all the way there so that I was really rooting for her. Tao Chi'en life was better explained and was able to connect a bit better him. A few hints or foreshadowing also prevented some of the big reveals from losing their punch because it was foretold. There were several subplots that felt rushed in their closing, I am thinking of the aunt's erotic writings that just appeared and nothing happened with it other than it happened. Why didn't Eliza ever find out about it? The ending itself was very anti-climatic and I was left wondering if I had missed something.

Those criticisms aside, the historical aspect was very well done, especially the travel between Chile and California, and the gold rush experience. I was never bored while reading and I would read another by Allende. She treated the women well and the role women in those rough times was examined. Strong females who found a way to live life on their own terms when that couldn't have been easy. It was a great opening book for the Latin American Challenge.

BOOK: The Darwin Awards by Wendy Northcutt

The Darwin Awards Next Evolution: Chlorinating the Gene Pool by Wendy Northcutt

Dewey Decimal: 082

Have you ever heard the phrase by Charles Darwin when referring to evolution: the survival of the fittest? It's the idea that only the strongest and smartest of a species will survive to reproduce and that nature will eliminate the members that don't have the necessary genes to survive and adapt. The Darwin Awards were developed to recognize those members of the human race who are essentially eliminating the stupid gene.

The vignettes are divided into categories like Electrical Extinctions,Vehicle Victims, Criminal Capers and Combustion Crazies. Mostly you will cringe slightly upon reading these stories of death or near death - being left unable to reproduce can also 'win' you a Darwin Award. You can begin to imagine what will follow with stories that begin with or contain the following phrases: "instead of following standard procedure...", "attempting to impress the lady...", "so he could save himself time...", or "a case of beer went into the planning." Generally, you will feel very smart after reading some of the situations these people, mostly men interestingly, get themselves into.

There are rules that need to apply before being considered for a Darwin award in that it can't be a true accident, other people can't be hurt, and only adults. It has to be a situation where a lack of judgment is apparent, like the guy that removed the foam protective padding from the bottom of a ski hill to ski down on. You can guess exactly where he slid into. Or the guy who used a artillery shell to squash a bug and found out the hard way it wasn't inert. The guys who tested the ice by jumping up and down on it and then sank 2 cars in trying to pull the first one out.

The stories just continue, from all around the world, proving the stupidity of so many people, doing their part to improve the gene pool of the human race. If you are having a bad day, picking this book up and reading a few stories will make you feel better about yourself.

GAME: Bookword Game

Welcome to the first edition of The Bookword Game. Here we will, as a book loving community, come up with some phrases to describe books or book-related situations.

For example, if I say Freezer Book, people recognize a book that is making you nervous, like The Book Thief for me or Little Women for Joey from Friends.

More recently, bybee tried to discover the phrase for when you discover the title embedded in the story. It turned out that there was no such phrase! How could that be? We kept going back to find out what it could be, so suggestions were made, and a vote was held: Title Drop was most popular. It perfectly describes a situation that I look for everytime I read now.

That's what gave me the idea to continue the game. What other bookish situations do we need phrases for? I'll post a situation and take suggestions in the comments. Next week, Suey will compile the suggestions and then post a poll of the top (or our favourite) nominees. We'll send the results to Price-Waterhouse, and keep them under secure lock and key until we reveal the results.

Suey and I have come up with a list of possible situations that we plan to post about, but if you have an idea for a bookword situation, please let us know as well and we'll add it to the pile. The more interactive and involved we can get people, the more fun this will be.

The situation: what can we call a book that you read after hearing other people rave about it, they love it and want to name their children after, but you don't get it. They loved this? You don't love the book but everyone else does. What is the new bookword for this?

suggestions in the comments please.

edit: We'll leave the suggestions open til sometime on Tuesday, then we'll have the vote at Suey's blog. There are some good ones so far!

BLOGGING: It's Tuesday, where are you?

I hope you come back tomorrow as Suey and I begin a new game: Bookword. So many of you are creative and imaginative that we look forward to your suggestions for some book phrases that need to be named. I finished Bel Canto last week and realized I didn't find the title drop, and I still didn't know what it signified. I was pleasantly surprised to reference bel canto today in my newest book during a passage about an opera singer.

I am experiencing life in 1840s Chile with a Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende. I've been wanting to read an Allende for the Latin American Challenge, so I asked a friend who is a fan to bring me one of her books: surprise me. It is looking good so far and I am on a journey unlike any I've been on before

Where is reading taking you today? Leave a comment, make a post, spread the word.

BOOK: Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby

Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, 131 pages

Dewey Decimal: 808

I can never decide what I like best about these books: the new book ideas, the reviews of books I've already read, or Hornby's musing about reading in general. It's a real blend of all three. What I have also liked in the other two books of this series (The Polysyllabic Spree, Housekeeping vs the Dirt) were excerpts from other books which were sadly missing from this book.

1. Books I now want to read: Poppy Shakespeare, Skellig, Everything That Converges, The Abstinence Teacher. He seemed to read a lot more non-fiction this time, which he attributes to turning 50 and needing to know more stuff.

2. Books I've read already that I enjoyed reading his review of (and I feel smarter because I had already read them, just like Nick Hornby did): The Road, American Born Chinese, Holes, On Chesil Beach, Weetzie Bat

3. On favorite books and movies: to achieve such an exalted positon means that they entered your life at exactly the right time, in precisely the right place, and those conditions can never be re-created. Sometimes we want to revisit them in order to check whether they were really as good as we remember them being, but this has to be a suspect impulse, because what it presupposed is that we have more reason to trust out critical judgments as we get older, whereas I am beginning to believe that the reverse is true.

On finding a new author: It's not often you finish a first novel by a writer and you are seized by the need to read her second immediately. Of course, by the time her second comes out, I'll have forgotten all about the first. But today, the will is there.

---

The Bookword Game

When I read The Book Thief, I mentioned how I kept putting the book down, because I was afraid to read on, too afraid to wonder how bad Zusak could make this Holocaust book. Somebody commented that it was a Freezer Book, from the "Friends" episode of how Joey would put a scary book in the freezer when he didn't want to keep reading. Exactly!

A few months ago, bybee tried to find the phrase to describe the moment when you discover the title embedded in the novel. Turned out there was no such phrase, much to all her readers' dismay, so we suggested some names and voted on Title Drop. Isn't that perfect? It describes an event exactly that needed a description.

I think there are many more book phrases that need to be named. So, starting this Wednesday, Suey of It's All About Books and I are going to try this game, the Bookword Game. We will put a phrase out there that we think needs its own word, like Freezer Book, or Title Drop. We'll take suggestions and then there will be a vote. It is a democracy here after all. Mostly. We may make some unilateral decisions, but most unlikely! So come back on Wednesday to see what this is all about.

UPDATE: January Books

I came so close to reading 10 novels this month, but a nonfiction book (Dewey) and a really long book (Cloud Atlas) conspired against me, leaving me at 9 novels read. The pretty badges were an incentive but I couldn't quite get to the gold. I finished a couple challenges - Unread Authors, Book Awards II, the Orange January Project, and NaJuReMoNoMo.

10. Beat the Reaper - Josh Bazell
9. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
8. Three Bags Full - Leonie Swann
7. Dewey - Vicki Myron
6. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
5. Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale
4. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
2. The Road Home - Rose Tremain
1. Mercy Among the Children - David Adams Richards

That was a really good month of books there and I don't think I can even pick my favorite.

BOOK: Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, 304 pages

published in '09

What a hoot! From the opening mugging to the final, extremely unbelievable but exciting - I can't believe he did that! scene, I grinned and turned page after page, very quickly. I read somewhere it was described as House meets The Sopranos and that is a pretty good description.

Short, snappy, violent and crude, Peter Brown, doctor at a Manhattan hospital and member of the Witness Protection Program may have been identified and spends the rest of the book trying to decide what he should do. I preferred the present day story to his remembrance of what got him into the WPP, but the back story was necessary to set up the ending.

Bazell is a medical doctor who had written his first book, so the experience of interns in a hospital rings true, but I wouldn't want to be in that hospital! Footnotes appear now and then to elaborate on the medical information and was a neat addition and some might even be clues to future events in the story. I read through his quickly in one day and quite enjoyed it. If a book gets a good rating based on entertainment value, this gets full marks. Credulity and realism? Not so much, but loads of fun for people who don't mind crude language and lots of violence and have faith that their doctor would never be like that.

I just read at IMDB that Leonardo diCaprio has optioned the book and may star in the movie version. Very interesting. Also, there is a website, www.beattehreaper.com that has a fun game of 'play the intern and survive the day'. I didn't do so well on my first try.

BOOK: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, 319 pages

Orange January; Orange Prize Winner: 2002

Can there be a love story when rebels hold people hostage? How about when no one speaks the same language? Is opera the universal language?

In an unnamed South American country, rebels take over the birthday party of Mr Hosakawa, hosted by the country in hopes that he will open a factory there. He has only agree to come because the famous soprano, Roxanne Coss will be singing. Unfortuneately, the president, the purpose of the kidnapping, decided at the last minute not to come to the party. The kidnapping turns into a Dog Day Afternoon, with no where to go and a long session. The rebels and the hostages gradually become closer as the seige continues.

The characters are beautifully written and given a story so easily that the reader knows who everyone is and all their history. Gradually the rebels are introduced and fleshed out as the hostages get to know them. The story unfolds so graciously and easily that it is easy to forget the violence of the situation. Everyone is a person we care about and want the best for. The Stockholm syndrome, whereby hostages begin to care for their captors, is easily developed and the reader becomes a part of that too. The pacing of the story was excellent and kept the feel of the events.

Really good book.

CHALLENGE: Orbis Terrarum Challenge

Bethany is again hosting the Orbis Terrarum Challenge this year. Here's the rules:

Main Challenge Rules:
*The Orbis Terrarum Challenge begins March 1 2009(you are welcome to join later) through the end of 2009.
*For the challenge each reader is to choose 10 books (for the 10 months).
*Each book must from a different country, I have decided to go by the country of origin of the author, or the country he/she lives in is fine as well.
*You don't have to have a list, that means you can change your mind at any time. As long as there are 10 from 10 different countries, written by 10 different authors: Anything goes

There is so much going on over at the Orbis Terrarum Blog, I can't even begin to explain. Go check it out: Multiple mini challenges involving movies, poems, short stories and anything else you can think of to suggest. It is a very interactive challenge; the map was my favorite part last year. Bethany filled in the countries as each was read. This year she has posted links to all the reviews from last year, by country, beside their flag. It looks awesome! Plus, it is an instant list of suggested books to read.

I'll begin to make a list of possible books as we get closer to the start date.

Possible Books:

1. Egypt: Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively
2. Afghanistan: Kabul Beauty School - Deborah Rodriguez
3. Malaysia: Map of the Invisible World - Tash Aw
4. China: Sky Burial - Xinran
5. Colombia: Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia- Marquez
6. Cuba: Dancing to Almendra - Mayra Montero
7. Iceland: Arctic Chill - Arnaldur Indridason
8. Brazil: December Heat- Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
9. Italy: Excursion to Tindari - Andrea Camilleri
10. Lebanon: DeNiro's Game - Rawi Hage
11. Japan: The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa
    
12. Hungary: The Rebels - Sandor Marai
    

Short Story Mini-Challenge:
Katrina is going to host a mini challenge to read ten short stories from ten different countries, during the summer months. I have a book of short stories, each set in a different African country, which will give me half of this challenge. I'll give this mini-challenge a go, because I do like reading short stories.

From Say You're One of Them by Uwen Akpan
1. Kenya: "An Ex-mas Feast"
2. Rwanda: "My Parent's Bedroom"
3. Gabon: "Fattening in Gabon"
4. Nigeria: "Luxurious Hearses"
5. Ethiopia: "What Language is That?"
From The Japanese Wife by Kunal Basu
6. India: "The Japanese Wife"

BOOK: Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, 341 pages
translated by Anthea Bell

genre: mystery fiction

This wasn't too baaad of a mystery. Such a neat idea, to have the flock of sheep investigate the murder of their shepherd. Lots of fodder for the mind. The story does a good job of getting information that only the sheep can hear to the reader, and we can understand a lot more than the sheep, even Miss Maple, quite possibly the cleverest sheep in Ireland. The cast of sheep, includes the requisite black sheep of the flock, Othello, and you can see that there is lots of playful fun with the narrative. The sheep face some of their fears and learn a lot about the world and humans. Some sections got a little confusing and woolly but they were sheep trying to make sense of things and they often got distracted by the need to graze. I can understand that in many ways.