Anyone got a suggestion for what book to read next? We started the BFG a year back or so, but one of the kids is particularly worried by scary scenes and so a book about giants that eat human kids while they sleep is not ideal. It might be a little better now, a year later, so maybe we will try it again.

But any other suggestions are welcome!

[–] Axisential 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is a good but weird read. Not so much a sequel as much as it is a slightly related acid trip 😂

[–] Dave 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Reviews are certainly interesting! There seem to be a big range in opinions on what age is appropriate.

Everyone ends up fine in the Chocolate Factory, but not the case here. I stopped when the chapter ahead included the entire world (through TV and radio) watching and listening to the screams of a space crew getting murdered by aliens who are also hunting Charlie and his family.

Lots of comments about how bad or boring the book is compared to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, too.

Perhaps one to start reading, and see if the kids are enjoying it.

[–] deadbeef79000 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Roald Dahl is a gold mine. Maybe avoid The Witches but The Twits is hilarious.

I also dug up an old Grimm's Fairy Tales from an Op shop: that was quite cool.

[–] Dave 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I thought the Grimm's fairy tales were super scary and gruesome?

I just checked on Libby and pretty much all the Roald Dahl books have lines. We might have to read the BFG while waiting for the holds (We have the paperback for the BFG). Any experience with The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me?

[–] Axisential 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My boys loved listening to us read The Hobbit when they were 4 or 5.

[–] Dave 2 points 9 months ago

Ooh, good suggestion! I think there might have been some scary parts in that book, but I'll put it on the list to try out and see how we go.

[–] evanuggetpi 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Currently getting to the greenhouse is a bit of a nightmare as we run the gauntlet of kingfishers aggressively defending their nest site. Wow they're plucky little birds.

[–] Dave 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's interesting going to other parts of the country and seeing cool birds that people who live there think of as boring and common. It sounds cool being attacked by kingfishers! I don't really see them where I live.

When I went down south last week, oyster catchers everywhere! So many!

When I go up to New Plymouth, mynas everywhere! (I know, invasive pest)

I think of NZ as being pretty much the same all over, but it's really not.

[–] evanuggetpi 2 points 9 months ago

Indeed. I've lived in a few places in northern NZ and didn't realise there were places without tuis.

[–] Dave 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Sorry, had a bit of downtime with the host doing a hardware change. Reminder that when this instance is down you can see updates in the matrix chat (and if there's no updates, then we might not know, so you can tell us!).

[–] Dave 3 points 9 months ago

More downtime. Long story short, the host added a bunch of RAM earlier, and one of the new sticks was bad. This down time should have seen that RAM replaced.

We will probably see slowness as other instances attempt to send all federation activity that has failed while we were down. Hopefully OK after that!