About

About this blog

I have been blogging since 2007 at GeraniumCat's Bookshelf, and an important strand there has been my interest in children's writing. In 2008 I compiled a list which was my personal choice of 101 children's books which I thought everyone ought to have read, or have read to them. Ever since, I've meant to expand on the list (I limited myself to only one book from each author) because I had to leave out so many favourites. I stopped at 1975, too, because after that date I only kept up intermittently for a number of years.

My love of children's writing remained undiminished, though, and I've decided that it's time to do something more with it - hence this new blog. I'll be adding reviews to the original list and expanding it to include other books by listed authors, books published since 1975 and anything else I can think of. I know there are other sites out there which do something similar, and no doubt better, but this is a personal project and will run alongside, and complement, GeraniumCat's Bookshelf.

I'll work out navigation as I go along, I think, but the initial plan is to list books by decade and author. I'll start by importing and amending posts from GeraniumCat's Bookshelf, so that they fit the format, and then start adding new reviews.

I should add that I have no directly relevant qualifications for this - I did study literature for a time, and I do have two children, now adult. My real credentials are my enduring enthusiasm for the books I write about and my conviction that writing for children often allows the greatest exploration of difficult topics.

I'll review anything that interests me, but my particular interests will mean a bias towards fantasy and towards books for older children.

About the name

Robert Southey, the poet, lived in the Lake District, where his house, Greta Hall, was home to three families - his own, and those of his two sisters, Mrs Coleridge and Mrs Lovell.

The household had a number of cats - Hurlyburlybuss, for whom this blog is named, was one. Southey is credited with having written the original version of The Three Bears; he seems a worthy posthumous patron of a blog dedicated to children's writing and I hope he would have approved.

 "A house is never said to be perfectly furnished for enjoyment, 

unless there is a child in it rising three years old, and a kitten rising three weeks."