Merry Christmas To All

This year's Myers window

Salute to a great Christmas Tradition - Carols by Candlelight at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne

Before Harry

Not that it needs any advertising, but J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic beasts and where to find them : the original screenplay" has been released.

 
The plot:
In New York, Newt Scamander, a young activist wizard from England, is on a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Inside his expanding leather suitcase hides a wide array of diverse, magical creatures that exist among us, ranging from tiny, twig-like ones, to majestic and humongous ones. 
Set in the 1920s (years before Harry's birth), times are troubled since the already fragile equilibrium of secrecy between the unseen world of wizards and the ordinary or "No-Maj" (American for Muggle) people that the MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America) struggles to maintain, is at risk. 
Meanwhile, the voices against wizardry keep growing with daily protests led by anti-magic crusader - Mary Lou Barebone and fuelled by the increasing disasters ascribed to the terrorising dark wizard - Gellert Grindelwald.
 At the same time, by a twist of fate, Newt's precious suitcase will be switched with the identical one of an aspiring No-Maj baker, Jacob Kowalski, while demoted Auror, Tina Goldstein, arrests Newt for being an unregistered wizard.
To make matters worse, with the suitcase in the wrong hands, several creatures manage to escape to unknown directions. Before long, this situation will catch Senior Auror Percival Graves' attention who will target both Tina and Newt amid panic caused by an invisible, devastating and utterly unpredictable menace that still wreaks havoc in New York's 5th Avenue. Is there a hidden agenda behind Graves' intentions and ultimately, what will happen to the remaining magical creatures still loose in the streets? 
How can you fit that storyline into just 290 pages of script and illustrations?
Find out by borrowing either the real physical book, or the ebook. 

100 years of Gumnuts

The original Gum-Nut Babies

May Gibbs (1887-1969) is one of Australia's most beloved children's authors and illustrators, and one of her most famous characters is celebrating 100 years of publication.

Inspired by the Australian bush, as well as her English roots, she created characters that were essentially European fairies with gumnuts on their head and flitted around the forests of Australia.

She used them on cards sent to friends and included one on the cover of a book she illustrated before writing them into her own children’s book. On December 5, 1916, during World War I, Gumnut Babies was published.

 
 The Gumnut Babies became an instant hit when they first appeared in a booklet published by Angus & Robertson in 1916 although their most famous members, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie wouldn't appear for another couple of years.
 
The first edition sold out and Gibbs would publish many more works based on the idea of Australian bushland fairies. She also produced greeting cards, bookmarks, postcards and other merchandise carrying her distinctive images.

Nutcote

Nutcote, overlooking Sydney Harbour

May died in Sydney on November 27, 1969, and many of her books are still in print.

Her Sydney house 'Nutcote' in Neutral Bay, was threatened with demolition in the 1970s, but was saved by the efforts of her fans & children's librarians around the country. It is now preserved as a museum to May Gibbs and her characters.
  

The Bad Banksia-men still eternally battling the Gumnuts & Lizard, in the Nutcote garden >>