Shadow Castle

Last night I finished reading “Shadow Castle” to Olivia and Calvin. It’s a book I loved as a kid. I found it on the dusty shelves at the back of my fifth grade classroom, and remembered it all the rest of my growing up. Every once in a while I would look for it at libraries, or bookstores, but never saw this enchanting book again.

Until the summer after my freshman year of college. It was the late 90’s, and the internet was promising to have the answer to everything (if only I knew!).

Come to find out, Shadow Castle was no longer in print (thus my difficulty in finding it all those years). But I did find a company that specialized in reprinting books that were out of print. And they had Shadow Castle on their list. I ordered it right away.

Of course, it wasn’t the paperback with the charming illustrated cover that I remembered. Rather a hardback covered in non-descript grey book cloth. But there were still the black and white block print looking illustrations inside. I was so excited.

I gave it to Andi to read (I had told her the story many times over our years), and she gave it her stamp of awesomeness approval. I took it to Russia with me that fall to read to my students there. It has been on my book shelf (and for the past few years, Olivia’s bookshelf) ever since.

And about a month ago, as I was brushing Olivia’s hair I started telling her the story. She was so enthralled she asked me to tell her more and more of the story over the next several days. Finally it got to the point where I couldn’t remember any more of the story.

So I pulled the book down from the shelf, and have been reading it every night since. I might have thought the story would be over their heads – all the talk of goblins, and fairies and a dog named Flumpdoria . . . but every night they would remind me to read. They loved it.

I’m so glad I was able to share it with them, and that they loved it! I will be reading it again and again as my children get older I’m sure.

Now a day’s you can buy Shadow Castle, an old original paperback version off Amazon for a reasonable price. So if you are in need of a good read for your littles (or yourself, because summer is coming, and summer is the time to read children’s books) – it is definitely a great one.