The Little Bookroom

This book was one of my favorites as a kid, and I remembered feeling that the stories were very subtle and emotional. When I read this copy (which arrived quickly and was in great condition), it was just as lovely as I remembered. The stories stay with you. A great book.

I read The Little Bookroom when I was about 10 or so. I have never forgotten some of the stories, and I am thrilled to have found it available for sale still. All the stories are wonderful and teach good lessons. Perhaps the one that has stuck with me the most is the one about the lady who kept changing her mind about what color she wanted her room to be. I loved (soaked up!) the detailed metaphoric descriptions of each room and to this day, I remember the ending, "The trouble with you, lady, is you don't know WHAT you want!" That said, the little fairy kicks her feet back and forth briskly and the room disintegrates and the picky lady is left standing in the night, with no. . . .room . . .at . . .all. . . Heh! Now, is that a life lesson or what? Buy this book and read these stories to your children or grandchildren. They don't write 'em like this anymore!

It's a crying shame that this enchanting book is out of print. Perhaps tastes have deteriorated so much that the delicate, the lovely, the merely marvelous are no longer fashionable. Perhaps Eleanor Farjeon's sensibility, nurtured in the late Victorian period, and flowering in the 1920's and 1930's, is simply not able to connect with modern readers. But I don't believe it. I believe that the right child can still be entranced by her writing, and touched, even moved by her stories. Of particular note: "The King's Daughter Cries for the Moon," "Westwoods," "The Barrel-Organ," "Leaving Paradise," "And I Dance Mine Own Child," and the exquisitely poignant "The Glass Peacock." It seems unlikely that publishers comb these reviews for hints at what the public might buy, and less likely that one would see the value in this quiet masterpiece, but should one stumble across it I hope they pay attention and bring this book back to a new generation.

When I first read some stories from 'little bookroom', I was 9 or 10 years old, I didn't like them very much. They were very different from the stories which I liked those days such as 'little mermaid'. 'snow white' and others about beautiful princesses, hansome princes, faries, and so on in a far-away strange lands. The stories of 'little bookroom' said about a princess who left palace with a ragged servant, a king who married a maid, a goldfish who regarded a globe the whole world, a small school-boy who believed his father's white lies, and a farmer who went to poverty by spending all his money for other people etc. I thought then they were weird for fairy tale characters, so concluded the stories were unattractive. However when I grew older, I found myself thinkng repeatedly those stories and finding more and more beauties that I had not understood. I read them again and got to love them deeply. There were'nt much dazzling luxuries or heart-thrilling adventures in the stories, but all of them were warm, friendly...and so on. The weird ones I hadn't like very much looked as if some old friends whom I had thrown over the fence of 'westwood' due to my ignorance of their true beauties. Reading them, I thought I could feel what Eleanor Farjeon had felr in her little bookroom, and now I want my own little bookroom.