This collage of books about animals was great fun to put together, but it made me feel like I am not well read at all. I’m sorry to say that I have only read two of these books. Shocking, I know. But I’ve seen the movies for many of them, does that count?
It was typical Re-marks quality; great variety of piece shapes, good fit, slightly shiny finish, excellent image reproduction. Their catalog of collage images always keeps me coming back for more. How am I supposed to resist collages of book covers? I just can’t!
I’m a big Agatha Christie fan (💙Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple), and honestly I’ve never even heard of this book before. I thought I knew most of her work, but apparently not.
I have read all of the James Herriot books, and have fond memories of reading them when I was a teenager. That seems like a lifetime ago. There’s something so charming about the way he writes, and reading the stories of the animals he treated was fascinating, sad, sweet, funny, tear-jerking, and so much more. I adored these books then, and this makes me want to read them again now.
Never heard of the Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny, but after assembling this cover and reading the tagline it sounds like a great read. “She can defeat the angriest of waves, outsmart the toughest pirate, and fight like a butterfly. And she never gives up.” It actually made me laugh out loud, it’s the most ridiculous little blurb; perhaps I need to get myself a copy!
Once I finally got myself going on this one, it seems to be coming together quickly. The bright colors and interesting images on each of the covers makes it relatively easy and very entertaining to assemble.
I’ve been in a mood the past few days and haven’t done as much puzzling as I normally would, but I’m trying to get myself out of that head space. Hopefully it won’t take too long and I’ll be back to my normal self soon.
If today goes as well as yesterday this puzzle should be finished before I go to bed tonight; if not, it will definitely be done by tomorrow.
I sorta had a good time assembling this puzzle – a puzzle image that shouldn’t exist if you ask me. I honestly had to stop several times while I was working on this because after assembling a book cover that I wasn’t familiar with I would look up what it was about and why it was banned; I just kept getting more and more frustrated, angry, and sad. In a supposedly free country why should anyone get to decide what someone else reads? The answer is…..they shouldn’t. Ever.
This puzzle had me pretty damn fired up, so if you’re just here to see the puzzle and hear me talk about the assembly you should stop reading after this paragraph. It was a good quality puzzle with a beautiful collage image that was entertaining to assemble when I could dissociate my brain from the reason these books were put together to make this image in the first place. Just like The Nineteenth Amendment the rest of this post is about the subject matter of the puzzle rather than the assembly.
This blog is about puzzles, not politics – but this puzzle is a collection of books that have been banned because of politics and repressed prudes and/or zealots thinking they can control what others think or read or learn or feel. Screw that. Screw them.
There are many books here that I may not want to read because they just aren’t my taste, but that doesn’t mean I get to keep others from reading them because I don’t like the subject matter or the content. What’s next? Big bonfire in front of the library? Or should we just set the libraries on fire and get rid of every book that has anything questionable at all?
They’ve just enacted laws in several American states that would mean jail time for librarians who help children get a banned book – because they’re providing them with “obscene” materials. Who decides whether or not a book is obscene? Well, it could be the angry lady down the street or some puritanical priss who’s never used the word damn and thinks ladies showing their ankles is scandalous, or just about anyone at all; apparently others can now decide what is inappropriate for you and/or your children to read. WTAF?!
*can you tell I’m still fired up about this?* 🤬
I’ve chosen three books to highlight, two of them I’ve never read and the other one of them is my favorite book of all time – it’s one I’ve read many, many times. I cannot fathom censoring books for any reason, but the reasons given for “challenging” and/or banning these books really p*sses me off.
This informational book for kids ages 8-10 was written by a certified sex educator and teaches children about their bodies, sex, and people and families of all kinds. It has been censored in just one state 36 times – just one state! Here’s why, “because it addresses sex education and is believed to lead children to ‘want to have sex or ask questions about sex’.” Sex and sex education is a touchy subject with many people, but not allowing your kids to learn about their bodies and sex can lead to terrible consequences. How you choose to do it in your home with your children is completely up to you; but taking away the opportunity for other parents to use this book to help teach their children is NOT ok.
Sigh. My favorite book. Yes, it has talk of a sexual assault and the N-word in it; but it’s used to tell the story in a way that highlights how destructive racism is and can be. And wanting to go back and whitewash the language and/or the storyline makes no sense to me. It’s how some people spoke and acted at the time (ignorant and racist as it was), but pretending that events fictionalized in this book never occurred in the real world and that people didn’t actually speak that way is beyond stupid. It’s so beyond stupid I don’t even have words to describe how asinine it is.
It brings to mind a quote…”Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
The Librarian of Basra is a true story of a woman who rallied her community to protect and save as many of the library’s books as possible when war broke out. Why was this banned you may ask? Well, according to many racist, xenophobic idiots – sorry, I mean *parents* – it “promotes a religion other than Christianity” and “takes places in the violent settings of Afghanistan and Iraq.”
It’s a book for children, it isn’t violent – it just takes place in countries where a war was happening; and talking about another religion isn’t promoting it, it’s being truthful to the story.
I gotta say, if you’re raising your children so that they do not even know about other countries, other religions, or that violence and war exist – they are in for a rude awakening when they go out into the real world. A very rude awakening indeed. Honestly people, what has happened to us?
As you can tell, book banning makes me very upset. The United States of America is supposed to be a democratic republic – not a theocracy or a dictatorship. Your religion, political leanings, or set of beliefs are yours to have and enjoy but they shouldn’t ever be allowed to infringe on the rights of others to have a different religion, political party, or set of beliefs.
You don’t get to decide what is appropriate for my children or myself to read, and you don’t get to take away the opportunity for us to check a book out of a school or local library because you don’t like it.
In fact, it’s none of your damn business what anyone in my family is reading, thank you very much!
An adorable little puzzle from Re-marks, but sadly I didn’t find it as entertaining as I’d hoped. Perhaps I’ve started spoiling myself with too many wooden puzzles – and we can’t have that, I still want to be able to enjoy all of my cardboard beauties! (My next puzzle in the puzzle room was a 1000 piece collage from Re-marks, and after finishing the wooden puzzle next to my bed the next one in there was a cardboard one as well.)
The quality was just fair with this one; the fit seemed a little off in some places and excellent in others – very odd. The finish was quite shiny and I found that I was twisting myself around and moving my head to be certain the color of the pieces I was looking at. Not everyone has the luxury of only working with natural light; many of us work under artificial lighting and a super shiny finish is sometimes difficult to work with depending on the image.
Regardless of all of the above this is a sweet little image, and that sad little beagle face in the middle makes me want to find a puppy to cuddle. 🤗🐶
This puzzle was perfect for motivating me to get out of bed after my surgery. Collages are truly my happy place, and knowing this beauty was sitting on my board waiting had me up and puzzling much sooner than I thought I would be.
It was a good quality puzzle, though the loose fit sometimes was annoying to work with – moving completed sections could be quite a pain if you weren’t paying attention. Otherwise the image reproduction is lovely, though the finish is somewhat shiny. I know these things (the little problems in quality) about Re-marks puzzles, but am willing to put up with all of them because they have an excellent catalog of collage images that I want to assemble.
The image itself is great, but it isn’t going to spark a long post filled with memories of my childhood. During the 1990s I was a young wife and mother with 3 small children; by 1992 I had all of my children and spent the rest of the decade being immersed in raising them and keeping our home. Most of the things shown in this collage are things I am familiar with, but there just isn’t as much identification with any of them as is usual with these decade images. I had to really think about which smaller pictures to take so that I could talk about them.
In the end I decided that since I spent the 90s raising children I should chose one section that reminds me of each of my babies – cause I’m a mom, that’s what I do.
Our whole family enjoys the Harry Potter books and movies, but my daughter (a voracious reader her whole life) was the most taken with them. She still remembers sitting in the living room with me while I read this aloud to them. In the 2000s I was always the one who was tasked with taking her to the bookstore so she could be there at midnight when the newest book was released. I love that she’s a reader, it makes me unbelievably happy. ❤📕
Surprisingly, I had to make her stop reading many times – otherwise she would have stayed inside all day with her books. Eventually I made a bargain with her that for every hour of reading she had to go outside and play for at least 15 minutes. She hated it most of the time, but she needed fresh air and exercise too!
Ahhh, the Game Boy. My oldest son carried his Game Boy with him everywhere he went for several years. He has autism, and the lights and sounds, the tactile feeling of the buttons, and weight of the handheld game itself was always soothing for him when he became overstimulated. He is now and has always been a video game prodigy, always being better at every game than the rest of us. Patterns and repetition are comforting for many people who are neurodivergent, and video games provide both of those things – no wonder he was so exceptional at all those games – he kicked our butts whenever we played together!
It makes me smile to remember him as my cute little boy carrying his Game Boy like a security blanket everywhere he went. 😊
To infinity – and beyond! That was the rallying cry of my youngest son for quite some time, and boy were we ever sick of hearing it. He also has autism, and for quite a while only used quotes from movies to talk to us. When he was upset or angry he would say something someone from a movie said when they were upset or angry. *There was a TINY problem at school when he decided to quote The Princess Bride when he was upset. He screamed “I want my father back you son of a b*tch!” at the top of his lungs. Of course he would find the only cuss word in the whole movie. Yikes.*
We all had to be very up to date on which movies he was watching so that we could interpret what he was trying to communicate to us. Buzz Lightyear was a particular favorite of his, there were so many quotable moments. I heard a LOT of those quotes. Thank goodness he eventually starting using his own voice and thoughts to talk to us.
This puzzle was an entertaining assembly from start to finish, if it looks like one you’d enjoy it is definitely recommended. 👍
My Jigsaw Journal 