Where - and How - Does Your Book Fit?

Have you ever had that problem - a nice, bookish problem! - where you find that no matter what you try, the book just will not fit on the shelf? Maybe it is a space issue - have you simply run out of space? Maybe it is a height issue – are they just too tall? (Or too short and they get lost!) I have this problem all the time - and what a wonderful problem to have: it means hours of fun rearranging the books (again!). Our friends at Thames & Hudson want to add to this problem. They have given us a set of no less than 9 – yes, 9 books! - to share in this Blog with you. This is the last set of 3 that make up those 9.

You could win them all - one big bundle just for you! How? Just leave us a comment below to tell us your bookish problem. Also, read the last two Blogs and leave us a comment on those, too. We will then pick one lucky winner to get a very lovely new year bundle posted out, just for them.

I said that books sometimes pose a problem – indeed, one of these books is very tall! - but what they all have in common is that they want to help us to solve problems. They want to help us think, to consider, to learn, to explore.

We begin this week with Black Artists Shaping the World. Sharna Jackson has written this book as a celebration - a celebration of all those black artists around the world who are creating exciting and important work, and who want to share it with us all. They want to make us think about not only art, but also about life. Their art continues to shape the world, and after reading this book it is hoped you will be inspired to do the same. The 20+ artists featured are all introduced with a brief biography before we are given the opportunity to look at their work and to spend time with each of them in their worlds. We learn not only what they do, but also how they do it and why: what inspires them may also inspire us. We are urged to celebrate with them; to celebrate their work, to celebrate the power of art and to join in. I hope that maybe you will too.

From art to music - another art form, a noisier one that many of us will be familiar with. We very likely all listen to music, and some of us will play too. Maybe you have had a go, picked up and tried an instrument for yourself? But do you know where music came from? How it has travelled - and continues to travel - around the world? There are composers to meet (the people who write the music), and musicians (the people who play the music), and the performers who take the music and share it with us. Together, they make music for us all to enjoy, to immerse ourselves in. Here, we can meet them all and learn more about what they do. Turn the pages of Mary Richards & David Schweitzer's book, brilliantly and vibrantly illustrated by Rose Blake, and we will discover so many different ways of making music. Whatever our instrument of choice, we too will be inspired to join in and play - to make music, to find our place, to belong.

Let us celebrate this in The Big Book of Belonging. In this big (it is a tall book!) title, Yuval Zommer wants us to understand what it means to belong. Zommer wants us to understand that as humans, we belong - but that the animals around us belong too. In fact, all of nature belongs - we just need to look a little closer to understand how. For example, did you know that sea otters hold hands just like humans? (I didn't either, but then I have never actually had a chance to have a look - now I will make sure to try to!) Hermit crabs, another sea creature, have homes just like humans do (that I did know - did you?). Another new one to me - but that I am sure all parents will love! - is that butterflies have bedtimes, the perfect fact to share with little ones! All the animals and plants around us are a part of nature just like we are, and if we pay close attention to them, we will discover how many similarities there are between us. A fact-packed book for all those who love to explore nature, all those who want to belong in nature - for all of us, because we all belong.

So let us celebrate the way that we all belong: the myriad of ways that we do and how much we have to learn. Leave us your comments and we can share these amazing books with you! With thanks again to our friends at Thames & Hudson for their generosity and these stunning books - with many more to come in 2022.