I have never liked long and complicated explanations of a blog’s purpose and what it’s hoping to attain.  As far as I’m concerned, the writer should go for it and show what they’re up to, which is what I’m planning to do.  That said, I do have a little note to address to myself.  Let’s call it a chance for me to think over what I want to do– a journal entry I happen to be posting on the internet, perhaps:

1. What am I going to write about?  I want to write about books.  I read a lot of books, and I like them, so I’m going to write about the books I like.  I’ll give a little overview of the book, and then write about what I like.  (I don’t think I’d bother writing about books I don’t like, because where’s the fun in that?)  This will probably be mostly children’s books, because, well, I love children’s books, and also I’m a mother, so I read a lot of books with my Changeling.
2. Will these be old or new books?  It will be a gory party of whatever I pull out of my library, or whatever I’m reading.  That means some will be old or obscure favourites, or Canadian books I’ll be railing at the world to notice, and a lot will be new children’s publications because I do try to keep up with those.
3. Who am I talking to here? Myself, pretty much.  I’ll write about what I like, and think about books the way I like them, and if anyone else wants to join the party, welcome!  But this is really my space to think about books I like, and that’s it.
4. Why the name?  When I was thinking about starting this, the image that popped to mind is one of an old favourite of mine, Eleanor Farjeon’s The Little Bookroom.  Well, that name was taken, and, anyway, I wanted something that got more closely at the children’s literature focus I’ll probably take here, but I still liked the idea of giving the nod to Eleanor Farjeon.  She has a quality I love of steeping herself in the traditional, the old, the literary– and producing something entirely quirky, original, and new.  I want this space to be something like that: a space where I can steep myself in all the books I know and love, and perhaps that process will bring me somewhere entirely new, original, and hopefully a little quirky.

So, that ends my note to self, which I suppose could also be a little guide to whoever happens along, and next week I’ll start talking about books.  We shall see where we begin– perhaps with Swan, or perhaps with Cat Valente’s Fairyland series, or perhaps with the Moomin books?  Who can tell?  (Well, I could, if I could make up my mind, I guess.)