Merry Christmas, friends! It's that time again to review the books I most enjoyed reading this year. This list is just around fifteen entries, but I have grouped series of books together and sometimes mention more than one book in an entry. There are a few podcasts to talk about, too. This year more than I ever used to do before, I've read the same books two or more times in the same year. That's because I have realised that I really don't grasp the entire book within a first reading. Sometimes I have read a book and then listened to the audiobook as well. As you will be able to tell, my list has been heavily influenced by my trips to Sweden this year. There's no particular order here, just the order in which I read them throughout the year.
1) Beti and the Little Round House by Atinuke, illustrated by Emily Hughes
Atinuke has done it again! She has such a knack for not only using vocabulary that's at the level of beginning readers, but at the same time creating a genuinely enjoyable story. These short chapters each take place during a different season of the year. In the first story, Beti gets a goat so she can have fresh milk all the time. The goat has a baby that Beti names Naughty. Her favourite target is baby Jac's bottom. Atinuke names specific plants and trees in her writing, creating the rich, immersive atmosphere of the woods: wild garlic, bluebells, anemone, marsh marigolds, goosegrass, holly, ash, birch. Her descriptions help readers not familiar with the natural environment to imagine the setting. Hawthorn leaves are feathery, beech leaves are silky, bramble flowers are 'white and pink with yellow-tipped explosions in the middle,' cobwebs sparkle like stars, a stream 'chuckles and burbles and sings.' The book is based on the author's own experience raising her son in a roundhouse in Wales.
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| Beti and the Little Round House |
2) Jättehemligt by Barbro Lindgren
I was introduced to this book in college and the more times I read it, the more I've grown to like it. It's in diary format based on the author's own childhood in the 1950s. Barbro writes about her life when she is 10 to 11 years old. The following books in the series, Världshemligt and Bladen brinner continue her diary up to age 15. In Jättehemligt, Barbro becomes depressed at school one day. She writes: 'Det känns så sorgligt inuti mig, jag vet inte varför, men det är som om jag inte vill skratta mera' (I feel so sad inside, I don't know why, but it's like I don't want to laugh anymore). She doesn't understand why she feels this way. Her grandma says she inherits it from her. Barbro's family is very supportive and, after taking some time off school, she gradually gets better, though she doesn't feel the best every day. But there are funny parts in this book, too. Barbro and her friend Ingrid write tragic stories with titles like Emilia lider (The Sufferings of Emilia)—and in the second book Barbro and her friend Cissi write a newspaper called The Happy Corkskrew. Anton, one of Barbro's classmates, tells stories in class that are so inappropriate they probably wouldn't make it into an English translation! I don't actually have these books in print, other than Bladen Brinner. I listened to them on UR Play read by Yasmin Garbi. Barbro Lindgren has a second series based on her childhood when she was between 5 and 7 years old as well. I have so far only read Lilla Sparvel, and one of my favourite scenes is when she crawls under her bed and cuts open her big stuffed elephant to see whether blood will come out: 'Det var nära att han dog den gången. För om allt sågspånet runnit ut hade bara tyget blivit kvar, och tyg är inte levande. Det är inte sågspån heller. Men i det sågspånet som blev kvar inne i elefanten måste det ha funnits andra saker som gjorde att han var levande' (He almost died this time. Because if all the sawdust runs out only the fabric would be left and the fabric is not alive. Neither is the sawdust. But in the sawdust that was left inside the elephant there must have been other things that made him alive).
I've also been reading Yokos nattbok by Annika Sandelin this year, which is a modern story in diary format set in Finland. Yoko is the oldest child in a crazy family. Her mother is an artist, which is why the kids are named Yoko, Salvador, and Frida. Yoko's best friends are her neighbour Anna, who is adopted from China, and Daniel, who is very short and is also Yoko's first boyfriend. A sweet story, although it is a bit slow in places.
I am still working out a translation for these passages from Jättehemligt that will do them justice, but I've put a short explanation underneath each one if you are curious.
När jag sitter och skriver, ser jag min björk utanför fönstret. Jag har döpt den till Teresia, och jag låtsas att det är mitt eget träd. Om Teresia blåser ner och dör, så dör jag också brukar jag tänka. Nu börjar Teresia's blad redan gulna, för det här varit en jättetorr sommar och snart börjar skolan. –from Jättehemligt part 1
[she's talking about how she named the tree outside her window Teresia, and she often thinks that if anything happened to Teresia, she would die, too.]
På kvällen låg jag och tänkte på hur det är att vara död. Och jag tänkte på jorden och himlen och rymden tills jag blev alldeles snurrig i huvudet. Jag tycker det är hemskt att tänka sig att utanför jorden kommer rymden och att den bara fortsätter och fortsätter i evighet. Men när Ingrid och jag pratade om det, så tycker vi att det måste ta slut någonstans. Det kan ju inte bara fortsätta jämt. Någonstans måste det ju ta slut. Då försöker vi tänka att rymden tar slut. Rätt som det är, tar den bara slut. Och då tycker vi det är lika läskigt. Man bli nästan tokig när man tänker på det. Eller när man tänker på döden. Då brukar jag tänker så här. Först är man inte född. Det går massa med år utan att man finns alls. Sedan födds man och lever ett tag. En del lever bara några dagar, en del lever många år, men sedan dör dem. Och sedan är dem döda år efter år jämt jämt i evigheters evighet. Jag tycker det är synd om alla döda. Det verkar så hopplöst att vara död. –from Jättehemligt part 5
[She thinks about what it is to be dead, and about the earth and sky and universe. It scares her that space just goes on and on to eternity. She and her friend Ingrid agree that it must stop somewhere! But that's just as scary to think about. And Barbro thinks it's strange that people don't even exist for many many years before they're born, then they live for a few short days, and then they die again. She feels sorry for all the dead people.]
Nu ska jag berätta lite om min säng. Det är en kökssoffa egentligen med karmar och ryggstöd av trä. Den är målad ljusblå från början, men det syns inte så bra längre för överallt har jag skrivit "nu nu nu nu nu" med blyerts penna. På en del ställen står det "Nu kommer de. Jag hör steg utanför nu nu nu." Också står det: "Nu är klockan en minut i tolv. Men nu är den tolv. Nu. Nu. Precis nu." Så där brukar jag skriva när jag fyller år. Eller när det är nyårsafton eller något annan särskilt. Det är som om jag ska försöka stoppa tiden och komma ihåg att precis då skrev jag nu, nu. Att det var, ja, jag kan inte riktig förklara hur jag menar. I alla fall, säger nästan hela sängen fullklottrad med nu nu nu. Fast på en del ställen så står det härligt härligt. Det brukar jag skriva innan jag ska resa till landet och har hela sommarlovet kvar. Men när jag kommer hem igen på hösten skriver jag ingenting. Inte förrän på julafton. –from Jättehemligt part 9
[Barbro's bed used to be painted light blue, but you can hardly see that anymore because she's written all over it in marker with: 'now now now.' And in some places: 'They're coming now. I hear footsteps outside now now now.' She's also written: 'Now it's one minute to twelve. Now it's twelve. Now. Exactly now.' When it's her birthday or New Year's Eve or another special day. It's like she wants to stop time and remember the exact moment she wrote now. In some places she also wrote 'wonderful wonderful' when she was just starting the holidays.]
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| Jättehemligt |
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| Världshemligt |
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| Bladen brinner |
3) Bringing Back Kay-Kay by Dev Kothari
This is a story set in India. When Lena's older brother Karthik goes missing from a train on the way home from summer camp, she and her parents are devastated. The police seem to be doing nothing with the case. They've told Lena's father that they think Karthik is a runaway. So Lena decides to investigate herself. She goes about it in a very logical way, examining his belongings and interviewing his friends. Finally she decides she has to retrace his last journey. This involves lying to her parents about where she is and travelling solo. It all gets very tense! However, as the title suggests, Lena does locate her brother just in time and the circumstances around his disappearance are revealed.
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| Bringing Back Kay-Kay |
4) Hemligt i huvet på Samuel Elias by Rose Lagercrantz
I really enjoyed the Dunne (Dani/My Happy Life) series by Rose Lagercrantz and Eva Eriksson. Now this is a book by Rose Lagercrantz from much earlier, published in 1974. It reminded me of books by E.L. Konigsburg and Eleanor Cameron because you can tell from the style that the writer trusts children as an audience. Also, I just love discovering an old book and getting a glimpse at what culture was like back then. It's not the same as reading books that are published now with historical settings! This story is not exactly diary format, but Samuel Elias writes down a list of secrets, some things about himself and some things he finds out, and the story is told in the third person from his perspective.
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| Hemligt i huvet på Samuel Elias |
5) Hedvig och sommaren med Steken and Hedvig och Hardemos prinsessa by Frida Nilsson
Last year I wrote about Frida Nilsson's
Hedvig! and
Hedvig och Max-Olov. Here are two more books in the series that I really enjoyed reading. In
Hedvig och sommaren med Steken, Hedvig gets a new neighbour in the middle of nowhere. Stefan (whose nickname is
Steken—the steak—because he's chubby) and his dad move into the rustic cottage nearby Hedvig's family. But it's a little too rustic. The whole summer, Steken's dad is trying to rig up running water and a way to cook food. They often have to ask Hedvig's family for help. Hedvig and Steken are also trying to solve the mystery of why the neighbour's cat keeps getting sores. Does it have to do with their (possibly narcotic) creepy neighbour? Steken is really good with cats and he's also good at cooking. However, he worries about his weight. He knows that his mother is a larger woman and he's afraid that's why his dad broke up with her (his dad now has a much skinnier girlfriend). He keeps asking Hedvig whether she will be his girlfriend, and she keeps saying no. AT THE SAME TIME (I know, there's a lot going on here!) Hedvig's grandma has a stroke which causes memory loss. When Hedvig draws a picture of what her grandma used to look like and sends it to her, it somehow coincides with a partial recovery of her grandma's memory. So Hedvig thinks that drawing the picture made her grandma better. Equally, though, Hedvig getting a stain on the tablecloth and arguing with her grandma coincides with a new mini-stroke and when her grandma passes away, Hedvig feels like she has caused it. Hedvig feels guilty, but realistically is more upset about losing her mom's camera and whether she will inherit her grandma's toy soldiers than about her grandma dying, because she's convinced that her grandma is not really dead but has run away to Italy. Nilsson manages to make the whole thing very funny and lighthearted in spite of the heavy topics covered.
Hedvig och Hardemos prinsessa is also very funny! A very cute new student with curly hair and delicate features comes to Hedvig's class. Hedvig assumes that it is a girl because of the hair and since the new student does not have a seat yet, she invites her to sit on her knee as a joke. Then she discovers that the new student is called Olle—not a girl after all—and she gets teased for having him sit on her knee. Olle does not know how to tie his shoes and the mean substitute teacher will not let him participate in P.E. until he learns. I know that many of the anecdotes in Frida Nilsson's series about Hedvig are based on her childhood, but I'm not sure whether this was! It's dedicated to 'Jens, who sat with the tying blocks' (for practising tying shoes), so maybe it was based on someone she knew? In all of these books I just love her writing style, especially how she describes Hedvig's thoughts and feelings.
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| Hedvig och sommaren med Steken |
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| Hedvg och Hardemos prinsessa |
6) Halsen rapar hjärtat slår: Rim för 0–100 år! by Emma och Lisen Adbåge
This book full of short, everyday poems gives me inspiration for my own writing. Many of the poems are from a child's perspective. Some of them are observations about people in general. Some are just two lines long. Some contain strange combinations just because they rhyme. Others explore deep questions. They remind me of
Ingrid Sjöstrand's poetry for children, which I wrote about last year (
#3). As you'd expect of a Swedish poetry book, there are many naked bodies included, but that doesn't make it unsuitable for all audiences. Sisters Emma and Lisen are both authors and illustrators and have published solo work as well as collaborating with other authors.
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| Halsen rapar hjärtat slår |
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| "Att bli stor" |
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"Vanlig dag"
(that chicken with the crossed arms, though!) |
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| "Tvärtomvers" |
7) Paola Persson Peroni: Skrattar sist by Emi Guner, illustrated by Maja Säfström
The three books in the Paola Persson Peroni series begin with Allas vän, but I think the second book is my favourite of the series. I'd even recommend beginning with Skrattar sist and going back to read Allas vän as a prequel. Paola is the middle child of three siblings. She's really interested in words, their origins and how they sound like what they mean. She and her best friend Sally also collect obituaries and Paola likes to think about what kind of a person it was based on the way the obituary is written. In Skrattar sist, Paola's mum's annoying artist friend moves in with them temporarily. Paola dreads Camilla's comments about how much she's grown and she imagines a scenario in which Camilla gets picked up by gorillas in a bright yellow bus, which then falls off a cliff—but she gives them parachutes, except to Camilla only at the last minute so that she has to go to hospital for her injuries, and when the doctor asks whether Camilla has been nice to children, animals, and old people, Camilla has to admit that she hasn't. Readers often get these little insights into Paola's thought process, which are usually really hilarious! Paola is also very close to her grandma, Aino. At the end of the book when Aino passes away, Paola makes a list of the things she would want her grandchildren to know. I guess I enjoy these books so much because all of the unique details make the characters seem real. Paola has very profound thoughts about the relation of language to reality, about history, and about relationships between people.
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| Allas vän |
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Skrattar sist
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| Saker mormor vill att du också ska veta (from Skrattar sist) |
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| Älskar kanske |
8) Scandinavian knitting books: Barnestrikk and Kjærlighet på pinner by Lene Holme Samsøe
I'm especially into baby and children's cloths patterns right now because I have several young nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends' kids to be knitting for—and there's nobody who makes sweet, timeless pieces like the Scandinavians (especially the Danes!). With almost every page of these books, I have exclaimed over how sweet these patterns are and immediately had someone in mind to make them for. Now, I just have to get around to figuring out the instructions...
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| Barnestrikk |
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| Hassel from Barnestrikk |
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| Isla from Barnestrikk |
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| Lille Rose from Barnestrikk |
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| Kjærlighet på pinner |
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| Bellahals from Kjærlighet på pinner |
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| Lille Dahlia from Kjærlighet på pinner |
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| Vinterbukser from Kjærlighet på pinner |
9) The Plodcast, a podcast by Countryfile Magazine
My Plodcast listing has basically turned into an annual round-up of all the best Plodcast episodes, but if you haven't listened yet, this is a good place to begin! I love following the slow adventures on this podcast.
Episode 289 provides an interesting history on the Welsh-English border, in
episode 291 you learn about a rewinding project in Lincolnshire, listen to
episode 298 to take a walk with poet Robert Macfarlane and
317 for a Cornish poet, Katrina Naomi,
episode 319 to hear about the curious takeover of the Isle of Man—by wallabies of all creatures—
episode 321 to learn about being out in the dark,
episode 322 for more British history (the book from that episode has to be on my to read list for next year!), and more history in
episode 323, featuring a strangely engaging account of the annual reenactment of the Battle of Hastings. Of the Sound Escape episodes, I recommend:
#208 The Cornish Beach,
#209 Song Thrush,
#217 Yellowhammer,
#225 Skylarks (I always love a good skylark),
#239 Hedgehog snuffles. There's another nature podcast series called
This Natural Life hosted by Martha Kearney which is also interesting to listen to. My favourite episodes have been the interviews with wildlife cameraman
Hamza Yassin,
Raynor Winn, author of
The Salt Path, the singer
Charlotte Church, and
James Dyson, the vacuum guy.
Martin Clunes, who played Doc Martin (and Sir Crawley in the 2018 adaptation of
Vanity Fair—hahaha!), also has an interview—and, most recently, the King!
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| The Plodcast |
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| This Natural Life |
10) Poetry Prompts: All Sorts of Ways to Start a Poem by Joseph Coelho
I've had this out from the library for forever! My plan was to work through two of the prompts each week. Although I think most of the examples Coelho gives are a bit weak and it would be great if every example was golden, the purpose of the prompt is to spark an idea. I don't end up using all of my drafts from these prompts for finished poems, but having a prompt at least gets me to intentionally set aside time for inspiration to come. I also used several of the prompts with students! They were especially taken with the bug poem prompt in which you draw a creature, give it a name, decide where it lives and what it eats.
Coelho was Waterstones Children's Laureate from 2022–2024 and made several
poetry prompt videos. Another good source of modern children's poetry is
Tyger Tyger Magazine, free to read online. Sadly, the
Caterpillar, an excellent magazine for children's poetry and stories, is no longer in print. I was able to see the back issues at the Manchester Poetry Library earlier this year, though.
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| Poetry Prompts |
11) I skogen by Eva Lindström
In 2023, I wrote about
Alla går iväg (
Everyone Walks Away) by Eva Lindström, translated by Julia Marshall (
#19). That's still among my favourites of her picture books, along with Bron (
The Bridge) and
Ingenting är omöjligt för oss (Nothing Is Impossible For Us).
I skogen ( In the Forest) is another puzzling story. It's definitely not as sad as
Alla går iväg, although there is still a melancholy there. I love the colour palette in this book. It has Lindström's characteristic wide open spaces and she makes the focal points small. In many of the illustrations the three main characters huddle together as a unit.
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| I skogen |
12) 101 Ways to Read a Book by Timothée de Fombelle, translated by Karen Snelson and Angus Yuen-Killick, illustrated by Benjamin Chaud
So, there are actually more than 101 ways to read a book, I think, but these are some fun ideas! There are many creative reading poses and funny sequences included here. I wish I could find the artwork somewhere and frame it!
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| 101 Ways to Read a Book |
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| The Plunderer |
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| The Snowman |
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| The Inventor |
13) The Grammar of Fantasy by Gianni Rodari, translated by Jack Zipes, illustrated by Matthew Forsythe
This is a series of essays originally given as lectures in the 1970s by the Italian author Gianni Rodari. His children's books recently published in English (by Enchanted Lion) include Telephone Tales and Telling Stories Wrong. In The Grammar of Fantasy he gives advice about writing for children and helping children to write. I'm using it like a book of prompts to help students (and myself) with writing. If you have writer's block or need inspiration for a story you can try "The Stone in the Pond" which is about word associations, or "The Fantastic Binomial" where you think of joining together two completely random words. I wish all textbooks could be illustrated like this! Adults appreciate illustration, too. It breaks up the text and is very appealing. Matthew Forsythe has written and illustrated multiple picture books, including Pokko and the Drum, Mina, and Aggie and the Ghost. I got to interview him when I worked at the public library!
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| The Grammar of Fantasy |
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| "Old Games" illustration |
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| "The False Riddle" illustration |
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| Illustration from The Grammar of Fantasy |
14) Maps of the United Kingdom by Rachel Dixon and Livi Gosling
I found this book in a charity shop last year and it's been a great guide to places I'd like to visit around the UK ever since! It gives brief highlights of famous—and sometimes not so famous—attractions in all regions of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. I found out about the Norfolk Children's Book Centre by reading the section on Norfolk and about Stratford Butterfly Farm by reading the section on Warwickshire. Along with this, each region is accompanied by profiles of famous people from that place. Did you know the Venerable Bede lived in Jarrow or that Neil Gaiman comes from Portchester? The format makes it fun to dip into without having to read cover to cover and helps you discover just how packed full of history these small islands are!
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| Maps of the United Kingdom |
15) Letty and the Mystery of the Golden Thread by Penny Boxall
This is a charming story set in the 1700s. The main character is a foundling named Lettice who was adopted by Joshua Breech, a wealthy museum curator in London. He teaches Letty Latin, Ancient Greek and other dead languages, also all about natural history and artefacts so that by age twelve she is 'as knowledgable as any Eton-schooled gentleman from the Royal Society.' Then just as they are about to set off on a grand tour of the Continent, Letty's dear Pa is accused of forging a statue of Athena and sent to Fleet Prison. So Letty has to set off on her own to track down the other pieces of the statue and prove her father's innocence. Along the way she befriends an Italian boy named Gio and dodges the real villain and forger of the statue. The language used in this book is fitting for the time period, including words like amn't. There are some witty footnotes from the author. But it also puts a modern slant on this time in history, questioning the ethics of museum curation as seen from a modern perspective and examining the right and wrong ways to go about collecting cultural and historical items from places and peoples around the world. Even if the villain is a bit twee, the writing is clever and enjoyable to read. Boxhall is so succinct in painting a picture with just a few words:
Letty recognised many a Fellow of the Royal Society—men with intent expressions, their buckled shoes gleaming, leaning over their seats to greet each other. Learned ladies perched on chairs with extra space either side to allow for their fashionably broad-hipped dresses, and discussed the latest findings from Pompeii. Next there were the dealers in antiquities, with their shrewd faces, who knew the worth of each of the treasures in this room—and of plenty of the people, for that matter. And finally, the newspaper men, with their shabby waistcoats and well-thumbed notebooks, already scribbling furiously as they recorded gossipy crumbs.
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| Letty and the Mystery of the Golden Thread |
16) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
If you have never read this book you have no excuse because there are multiple editions and audiobook productions available—especially this year as it's the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birthday! I confess that I still like the film adaptation from the early 2000s best out of all the adaptations, but hearing the book read aloud was also really captivating (maybe I just liked the lines I recognised from the film). There's a new adaptation from Netflix that hasn't been released yet, but going by the recent version of Persuasion I don't know whether I will enjoy it very much. One thing I hope they do is to make more of Colonel Fitzwilliam's character than they have done in other adaptations, because I feel like he gets left out of the ones I've seen, and he's one of the most pleasant characters in the book. I can't say that Mr Darcy is my favourite hero of Austen's—he's so rich, and I much prefer Edmund Bertram or maybe Henry Tilney—but I appreciate how Lizzie is able to judge his character based on how highly his friends and others around him respect him and that is what guides her feelings into love. Another point that caught my attention this time listening is Lizzie's relationship with her father. She is his favourite daughter and they share a sense of humour. There are two audio versions of Pride and Prejudice now on BBC Sounds, one read by Clare Corbett and a podcast version read by Julie Andrews (available in the US through Noiser Podcasts). They each have their strengths; Clare Corbett does specific character voices, but I did like the little recaps in each episode provided in the podcast version (even if they are a little silly!) and the tempo of reading that Julie Andrews has is better than Clare Corbett's. For this book I liked it a little slower, although I usually prefer to listen to books sped up. What's going on with her pronunciation of Meryton, though?
Also published this year was The Novel Life of Jane Austen by Janine Barchas. Isabel Greenberg does the illustrations for this biography of Jane Austen's life. The colour scheme is intentionally muted for the real life scenes and bright colours are used for Jane's imagination. The text is pretty basic, but good to read for either an introduction or if you already know a lot about Austen's life.
As part of the 250th celebration,
Artworks on BBC Sounds has a series of episodes called
When I Met Jane Austen in which writers reflect on what they enjoy about reading Austen's novels and why they continue to be so popular today for adaptations and for academic study. The episodes from Katherine Rundell, Philippa Perry, Kate Atkinson, Marlon James, and David Baddiel were especially good. This year I have been following
A Jane Austen Year, the podcast put out by the Jane Austen House. I really liked listening to these episodes each month. They are a mixture of biographical and historical information with excerpts from Austen's letters, an analysis of her novels, a description of the weather (unavoidable in an English context), and sometimes recipes. It motivated me to finally plan a visit to Jane Austen's house in Chawton! I especially enjoyed seeing her handwritten music book, the crosses given to Jane and Cassandra by their brother, and the pretty patterned wallpaper in the front room and dining room. Also this year I got to see a production of
Emma at The Rep in Birmingham that was much more British Comedy than Drama.
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| Pride and Prejudice |
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| The Novel Life of Jane Austen |
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| When I Met Jane Austen |
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| A Jane Austen Year |
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| Darcy |
Thanks for reading! I hope you have found at least one interesting book for your to read list. A few more to mention are books I've reread this year, the later Betsy-Tacy books (#30) and The Melendy quartet (#3) which you can read more about on my previous lists. I never tire of listening to or watching adaptations of classic books I like. For example, any by Jane Austen, Charlotte and Anne Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, or Wilkie Collins. Speaking of classics, I can't believe there's been no adaptation of Trilby since about the 1930s. I recently reread that book and found it very entertaining. Another good candidate would be The Colonel's Family (Familien H***) by Fredrika Bremer, which I wrote about in 2023 (#15). Let's see a production of that, please!
Whenever I feel like I'm in a reading slump, it always cheers me up to read the latest issue of the Horn Book Magazine or visit a good bookshop and collect more books for my to read list! Next year I'm most looking forward to reading Klara–Tvättbjörnornas stad by Fabian Göranson, which won the children's August prize in Sweden, the new book about Wings by Paul McCartney (rock tome!), The Universe in Verse by Maria Popova, and Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall's latest collaboration, Lost Evangeline. I'll probably reread Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology (in audiobook format read by the author), The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and the boggart series by Susan Cooper.
What's on your list for next year?
