On the bookshelf

Press, 4 December 1979, Page 18

On the bookshelf

Twelve Bells for Santa, by Crosby Bonsall; published by World’s Work, 1979. This is Book Number 117 in the “I Can Read” series. World’s Work publish the books in this series for children who have difficulty with reading. The words are quite easy and the pictures help a lot. You will be able to read it if you are seven, and you will enjoy it just as much if you are 10, because it is a good story. It is about some children who set off for the North Pole to take some chocolate bells to Santa Claus. They made a map and they put the North Pole at the top. Then they started up the hill heading for the top of their map. It was a long way. Ever,' time they stopped they

ate a chocolate bell each. They arrived back at the place where they had started, but without the chocolate bells.

Morris’s Disappearing Bag, by Rosemary Weils; published by Kestrel Books, 1977. A story about Christmas morning. The four children in the family enjoyed their own presents at first. Then they swapped and enjoyed each other’s — all except the youngest child. Nobody wanted his bear, so he had to play with it all day, until he invented the disappearing bag. Then everybody wanted to swap with him.

John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat, by Jenny Wagner, published by Kestrel Books 1977, reprinted 1978. This story received the

Children’s Book Council of Australia’s aw r ard for the best book of the vear 1978.

John Brown is a large shaggy dog that was very protective towards its dear old mistress, Rose. When she saw the midnight cat in the garden and wanted to adopt it John Brown became quite a tyrant. Chanticleer, by William Stobbs; published by the Bodley Head, 1979. Adapted from one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

When Chanticleer the proud rooster was tricked and captured by a fox, all the hens gave chase with such squawking and flapping of wings that the women and the rest of the farmyard animals followed suit. But Chanticleer did not need their help. He was able to match the fox’s cunning.