Fletcher and the Falling Leaves

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves a children’s picture book, by Julia Rawlinson is beautifully illustrated, by Tiphanie Beeke. A story that will melt the hearts of young children from toddlers to grade three, Fletcher’s concern for his best friend, a tree, is most compelling.

With warm hues of autumn, mix delicate, creative artwork that children will love. The story is worded in such a way that Fletcher and the Falling Leaves is a pleasure to read to groups of children.

Fletcher, is a small young fox, experiencing the seasonal change from fall to winter for the very first time. His notices a change in his very best friend, a tree. His poor tree is losing its leaves, and feraing it is sick, Fletcher sets out to save it. Soon other animals from the forest collect the tree’s leaves for their own needs, upsetting Fletcher terribly. But in the end, he is amazed by the change of seasons and understands and embraces the beauty of winter as well.

Author Julie Rawlinson has been writing children’s stories for three years. Illustrator Tiphanie Beeke is also the illustrator of Book! Book! Book!, by Deborah Bruss. Both Rawlinson and Beeke live in England.

Written By Lou Ellen Nichols

How to remove the musty smell from old books

The first thing to understand is that what you smell is mold. Just like food kept too long in the fridge, books kept in enclosed or damp spaces will begin to grow mold. Spraying any liquid on a book is likely to damage the surface. Also using newspaper or dryer sheets can leave marks on the pages. There are some gas products out there which are supposed to kill mold, but as most, although not all, of these gases are toxic here are a few inexpensive ideas for tackling just the smell:


1.To obtain Kitty litter smell. In a large container with a lid, put some kitty litter. Then put the book(s) you wish to de-smell in a smaller lidless container. Put the smaller container inside the larger container and cover. Make sure the books do not touch the kitty litter and leave for a couple of days or longer as need.

2.To get cedar wood shavings smell. Put the books in enclosed container and sprinkle the wood shavings around them. After a few weeks the books should have lost that musty smell.

3.For a fresh baking powder smell. Sprinkle baking powder in between several pages and set the opened book out in a sunny and DRY! place for a few days.

4. The Perfume sachet smell. Put books in a plastic sack or container with lid and add sachet. Leave for a week or so and you will have fresh smelling books that you can use instead of potpourri, especially for those books you leave in the bathroom…

5. The clothes pin no-smell! This method, unlike the previous ones, provides you with instant book satisfaction. Take a clothes pin and place it on your nose as tight as possible. Then using a pair of cheap cloth or latex gloves, read your book. Not only does this completely remove the smell from your nose, also you don’t have to worry about those bugs that live in books.

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

This gem of a novel full of mystery and suspense is set in Cornwall during the 1840s and is told by Philip Ashley. Orphaned at a young age, Philip’s care and training were given over to his young bachelor cousin, Ambrose, whom he adored.

At a doctor’s recommendation, Ambrose begins to spend his winters abroad in warm climes on the continent leaving Philip, his heir, to run the manor. One such trip takes him to Florence, were he meets a distant relative, Cousin Rachel.

Through his letters home, Philip, learns of Ambrose’s high regard for this woman and soon Rachel and Ambrose are married. After some financial business has been concluded they plan to journey back to Cornwall. The letters from Ambrose become confused and few and far between, calling Rachel “his torment”. Philip discovers that Ambrose’s father died of a brain tumor. Full of unease, afraid Ambrose is deathly ill and jealous of Ambrose’s new relationship, he goes out to Italy only to find Ambrose is dead and buried and Cousin Rachel has disappeared.

On returning home, He learns all has been left to him to be inherited on his 25th birthday, 6 months away and nothing to his Cousin Rachel. When Philip receives a letter from Rachel that she is in England and wishes to come to the house, Philip is hostile, but lets her come. He and his guardian provide Rachel with an allowance, and slowly Philip comes to like and even to love this mysterious woman. Putting aside Ambrose’s fears as the ravings of a dying man Philip becomes reckless with his inheritance, but after a disastrous birthday and an illness of his own Philip’s unease returns. How did Ambrose really die?

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Read it before you see it!

Stephanie Meyer's Twilight
MOVIE RELEASE DATE: 21 November 2008

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The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
MOVIE RELEASE DATE: 19 December 2008

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John Grogan's Marley and Me
MOVIE RELEASE DATE: 25 December 2008

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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
MOVIE RELEASE DATE: 14 November 2008

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Jeanne DuPrau's City of Ember
MOVIE RELEASE DATE: 10 October 2008

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One For The Money by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum, a recently laid-off lingerie buyer from New Jersey, has no job, no car and no furniture.  She does have a hamster, a deranged grandmother, and a love/hate relationship with a cop by the name of Joe Morelli.

When the chance to get out of her jobless rut presents itself in the form of filing for her cousin Vinnie’s bail-bond business, Stephanie is reluctant to take it, but she is desperate and goes by his office anyway, only to find that job is already gone.  So, she blackmails Vinnie into hiring her on as a bounty hunter on the $10,000 case.

Scrouging up money to buy a clapped-out Chevy Nova, a gun, some mace, and with a few tips from Ranger, one of the other bounty hunters, Stephanie is out to catch Joe Morelli, a cop accused of murder. Now, Morelli and Stephanie have some history.  Having grown up in the same neighbourhood with the heart throb, Stephanie had fallen for his charms, but the next time she ran into him, it was with a Buick.

Follow Stephanie as she navigates (and often falls prey to!) the pit falls of a first time bounty hunter.  If you are not put off by the crude language and some downright scary situations, this is an uproarious and suspenseful murder mystery. 

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Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg

From the book cover:

In this final volume of the beloved American saga that began with All Over but the Shoutin’ and continued with Ava’s Man, Rick Bragg closes his circle of family stories with an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship with his ten-year-old stepson.

He learns, right from the start, that a man who chases a woman with a child is like a dog who chases a car and wins. He discovers that he is unsuited to fatherhood, unsuited to fathering this boy in particular, a boy who does not know how to throw a punch and doesn’t need to; a boy accustomed to love and affection rather than violence and neglect; in short, a boy wholly unlike the child Rick once was, and who longs for a relationship with Rick that Rick hasn’t the first inkling of how to embark on. With the weight of this new boy tugging at his clothes, Rick sets out to understand his father, his son, and himself.

The Prince of Frogtown documents a mesmerizing journey back in time to the lush Alabama landscape of Rick’s youth, to Jacksonville’s one-hundred-year-old mill, the town’s blight and salvation; and to a troubled, charismatic hustler coming of age in its shadow, Rick’s father, a man bound to bring harm even to those he truly loves. And the book documents the unexpected corollary to it, the marvelous journey of Rick’s later life: a journey into fatherhood, and toward a child for whom he comes to feel a devotion that staggers him. With candor, insight, tremendous humor, and the remarkable gift for descriptive storytelling on which he made his name, Rick Bragg delivers a brilliant and moving rumination on the lives of boys and men, a poignant reflection on what it means to be a father and a son.

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