(no subject)

"It's just a tantrum," Sophie said. Martha and Lettie were good at having tantrums. She knew how to deal with those. On the other hand, it is quite a risk to spank a wizard for getting hysterical about his hair.

--Things nearly heat up in Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Finished that last night and immediately began on the third in the series (Castle In The Air being remarkably well remembered in my mind), House Of Many Ways.

"Charmain must do it," said Aunt Sempronia. "We can't leave Great-Uncle William to face this on his own."

"Your Great-Uncle William?" said Mrs. Baker. "Isn't he—" She coughed and lowered her voice because this, to her mind, was not quite nice. "Isn't he a wizard?

--The first chapter of House of Many Ways, entitled: IN WHICH CHARMAIN IS VOLUNTEERED TO LOOK AFTER A WIZARD'S HOUSE.

I really like the Howl series. The first two books are very heavily in fairytales, which I do like. A lot of Sophie's issues stem from what happens to the eldest sibling in fairytales (to those not in the know: It usually does not go well for them), but they have a whole life of their own outside of that. It just gives you an idea of the world they live in.

Meanwhile, Charmain's story, House of Many Ways has very little with fairytales in general. But I still rather like it. I'm fond of the character, who grew up doing nothing, and how she grows throughout the book. Plus, the book has a great dog of literature in it, by the name of Waif.

In other news, I had to come up with on the spot what I'd write about if I'd write a children's series (I will not get into what led to this situation) and this is what I came up with, since I had dino ghosts on the mind:

Ojal's father is the curator of what she thinks is the best museum in the world: Waycity's Dinosaur Museum. It may not be the biggest museum, or the best funded, and it could do with some cleaning, but Ojal loves it all the same. The reason is this: The museum is haunted.

The dinosaur bones aren't as dead as they seem, and each night Ojal stays at the museum while her father works, she spends the nights playing with the ghostly scaly residents of the museum. Some are nice, some are silly, and some are scary.

But she thinks it's a shame the ghosts have to stay trapped like this, and after reading up on how you put a ghost to rest, she's going to save the dinosaurs. She's just got to steal their bones. But she has a red wagon and a plan.

And of course, sequels. I can see my fortune now.