The Costco Connection - July/August 2007

book previews

Cool reads

for hot days

CHILDREN’S Building Cards™ Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, by Doug Stillinger. What better way to experience Harry Potter’s adventuresthan building your own replica Hogwarts. Sturdy slot-to-slot construction means there’s no need for glue or nails, and the cards can be taken apart and assembled again and again. The included book is filled with assembly hints and illustrated instructions. A Harry Potter figure completes the set.

Puff, the Magic Dragon, by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton, with paintings by Eric Puybaret. This is the first time singer/song-writer Yarrow—the Peter in Peter, Paul and Mary—has given his blessing to a picture book based on this popular song. Puff, Jackie Paper and the land of Honalee are brought to life on the book’s pages. The book comes with a cloth case and an accompanying CD that features the eponymous song, and others by Yarrow, his daughter and cellist Rufus Cappadocia.

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SET IN 1527, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, by novelist Vanora Bennett cen- tres around Meg Giggs, Sir Thomas More’s tenderhearted and headstrong adopted daughter. Although Meg is devoted to her family, events conspire to make her question her every belief.

“I always love good historical fiction—there’s an interesting story, and then I learn something,” says Costco book buyer Catherine Bergeron. “This novel is set in England’s rich Renaissance period during the crucial year of the big church schism. Fascinating characters such as Hans Holbein, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII are all trying to survive and promote their own ideas of a new world order. Well written and researched, this book made me want to read more about the period.”