The Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and like each night that week
Not a creature was stirring, not even a Squeak

Tucked up in her bed, with a new picture book
I couldn't help myself but to take a quick look

An old rhyming tale, about meeting Saint Nick
With bright colourful pages, she fell in love quick

Words from Clement C Moore, drawings by Henry Fisher
Each page illustrated with a beautiful picture

Santa and reindeers, she knew each one's name
And asked me "where's Rudolph", I had to explain

He was feeling quite poorly, nose snotty and red
When Henry drew these pictures, he was sleeping in bed

Now after that rest, Rudy's feeling alright
Ready to guide Santa's sleigh through the night

She started to yawn, her eyes closing too
A fabulous sight for a parent, it's true

So I tiptoed away, and left on the nightlight
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of this book free of charge as part of the Parragon Book Buddies programme. I was not told what to write and all opinions are my own, as is the very poor rhyming, inspired by Clement C. Moore's poem, as featured in the above book.  Links are provided for convenience only, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme & will not receive reward for their use.

Parragon Book Buddies - The Adventures of the Owl & the Pussycat

This month's Parragon Book Buddies book is The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat by Coral Rumble.

The Owl & The Pussycat in the story aren't the ones you remember from the Edward Lear nonsense verse, these are a young boy & girl, dressed up, having an imaginative adventure in their own little boat.  Beautifully illustrated by Charlotte Cooke, it's not quite the story you expect.  I won't spoil it for you, but be ready for a cheeky seagull, and lots of fun.

Squeaky loved the story, once she stopped asking me where the owl was, and arguing that it was just a little boy dressed up (she didn't seem to have the same issue with the pussycat), and loved pointing out the various things the children had found in their adventures as the story went on.  The rhyming scheme is awkward in places, if I've got my English Literary critique hat on, but it's bouncy, lively and funny, and that matters far more than a strict iambic pentameter!

I think maybe she likes it more because she hasn't yet encountered the Edward Lear poem, though I can see that ode raising a whole lot of questions of its own when we do finally come to read it.  For me, I liked the winks to the original (the children's boat is called Petit Pois, though it isn't pea green), but there's always a little bit of the first version of something you encounter being your personal benchmark against which everything else is judged. (I can't watch a lot of movie remakes for just this reason).  Don't get me wrong, we love it, it just gives me a little shake when it doesn't go in the direction I expect it to - there's no honey, money or Five Pound Notes to start with, though they do sail away for a year and a day.

Squeaky loves this book a little more than I do, and it's a welcome addition to our bedtime collection.

The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat is released on 13 October 2013, and is available from Amazon and other retailers.

Disclosure: I was provided with the above book free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not told what to write and all opinions are my own. Links are provided for convenience only, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme and will not receive reward for their use.

Ode to Superglue

Superglue, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways
I hate thee with the pieces and fragments and bits
Of broken ornaments, the piece that never fits
From the ends of my fingers and ideal repair
I hate thee so much I have to swear
A smashed souvenir, of sun and candle-light.
I hate thee freely, I can't make this look Right;
I hate thee purely, my repairs earn no praise.
I hate that you are impossible to use
On household items, and on my childhood toys.
I hate that my fingerprints I seem to lose
When I open the tube, --- I hate thee with the breath,
Fumes making tears, all my life! --- and, because I can't choose,
I shall but hate thee again tomorrow.

Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Nails: Bell Air Flow, Shade 702, with added superglue

If I won a Guardian Pro...

The fabulous Mellow Mummy has set us a challenge.  She's got a Guardian Pro car seat for someone to win, and in return for this amazing prize, she wants a limerick.

Now, limericks have never been my strongest point.  I may have won a competition at the start of this year with a poem, but that was a piece of poorly rhymed doggerel featuring the words "love-handles".  You don't need to know any more than that!

There's a couple of starting lines, so let's see which one I get on best with, eh?

If I won a Guardian Pro
On adventures Squeaky would go
Strapped safe in her seat
Who knows who we'll meet
The fun would leave US all Mellow!

The other starting line was When taking our "kiddy" on trips, but my brain went to bed half an hour before the rest of me, and I honestly can't think of more than one word to rhyme with "trips" right now.  So I guess that decision's been made for me.  (ps, I know there ARE more words, but they're just not in my brain right now. They'll be there in the morning, no doubt, along with a lingering feeling of embarrassment, and a cold.) Blame it on brain flips & blips! Ah-hahahaha! I'm not as daft as I look.

If you think you can do better than me, and that's not hard, why not pop over to Mellow Mummy's blog and have a go yourself?