"Spirit Animals is a whimsical series of portraits with each spread featuring a woman interlaced with an animal with whom she shares a connection. Wolf, chameleon, owl, unicorn, jaguar, dragon--and forty other kindred spirits."--Page 4 of cover
Animals are speaking. Who is Listening? When Quinby Clark has a conversation with a bird, she thinks she’s going crazy. But when a dog invites her to attend a mysterious Australian boarding school for children who can speak with animals, she realises her dreams of escaping her awful family are finally coming true. Thrust into the secret society of Animal Listeners, Quinby discovers she can speak with more animals than anyone else – a fact the school asks her to keep hidden to protect them all from covert factions. After Quinby is wrongfully accused of causing trouble, she and her new friends must prove her innocence while rescuing precious animals. The world desperately needs her extraordinary Abilities, but will Quinby even survive the school year? With menacing factions and lurking danger, being the most gifted Animal Listener isn’t always a gift. A Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy novel for anyone who loves animals. Join Quinby as she explores the magic of the Animal Listener community hidden within our own world, at a boarding school nestled in the Australian bush by a sandy beach. Meet delightful animals from wild kangaroos, koalas and dolphins, to the school family of bossy cats and loveable pigs. An adventure for the whole family.
Translations of French romances into other vernaculars in the Middle Ages have sometimes been viewed as "less important" versions of prestigious sources, rather than in their place as part of a broader range of complex and wider European text traditions. This consideration of how French romance was translated, rewritten and interpreted in medieval Sweden focuses on the wider context. It examines four major texts which appear in both languages: Le Chevalier au lion and its Swedish translation Herr Ivan; Le Conte de Floire et Blancheflor and Flores och Blanzeflor; Valentin et Sansnom (the original French text has been lost, but the tale has survivedin the prose version Valentin et Orson) and the Swedish text Namnlös och Valentin; and Paris et Vienne and the fragmentary Swedish version Riddar Paris och jungfru Vienna. Each is analysed through the lens of different themes: female characters, children, animals and masculinity. The author argues that French romance made a major contribution to the Europeanisation of medieval culture, whilst also playing a key role in the formation of a national literature in Sweden.
Louise was coming up to her 30th birthday. She'd achieved her ambitions and wasn't sure what to do next. Born in Sweden, but a resident of Brighton, she had to either change things by moving back to her home country, or commit to being English. She came up with a novel way to investigate the two options. Lou wrote to 120 people, some English and some Swedish. She then chose 15 English people and 15 Swedish, spending a week shadowing each of them and writing about the experience. Louise Halvardsson is a novelist and a performance poet. Her debut novel Punkindustriell hårdrockare med attityd ("Punk industrial hard rocker with attitude") was published in Sweden in 2007 and won an award for Best Newcomer in Young Adult fiction. www.louisehalvardsson.com