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Memory Bottles
Nobody knows what Mr McAllistair keeps in the colourful bottles which fill the shelves of his shed and sparkle with hidden secrets.
Step inside as a magical mystery is uncorked.
Step inside as a magical mystery is uncorked.
24 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Beth Shoshan
34 books4 followersBeth Shoshan was born in Brighton. She never seemed destined to be
a children's writer, after all she
had failed English Composition.
But everything changed when she
was challenged by Meadowside
to write the most inappropriate
children's book imaginable - it
should contain sweets, explosions
and arcane English words. She
did, and Smidge became an instant
best-seller. Now with over 30 titles
to her name, Beth has become one
of the most successful children's
authors of the past few years.
- excerpted from Meadowside Children's Books
- excerpted from Meadowside Children's Books
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 6, 2018
We all have memories and, quite naturally, the best ones are the good ones. So where do we keep them? Mostly in our heads but Mr McAllistair has other ideas.
He has a shed and the little boy who lives nearby has no idea what he keeps in that shed so one day he asks him. Mr McAllistair says that he will take the boy into his shed and share what is in there with him if he promises not to laugh.
So saying, the pair enter the shed, which the boy notices smells of old pipe and is not very well lit. But it is lit well enough for the boy to make out dozens and dozens of bottles on the shelves. There are 'red ones, frosted ones, tall ones, round ones, twisty ones, double ones and super-skinny topped ones'.
'Memories,' says Mr McAllistair as he surveys the array of bottles. And he tells the boy that every time he opens a bottle it brings back special memories. And he keeps them there so that when he is old and he can't remember things as easily, he simply opens a bottle and the memories come flooding back.
He opens a number of bottles and tells the boy what memory pops out of each of them - looking out of a frosty window and watching his father go to work; his wife in a blue chiffon dress at a dance; himself scoring the winning goal in an important Cup football match; watching his children paddling in the sea and then the tide coming in and washing away their footprints (this reminds me of one of my poems, 'The Tide of Time' which goes 'I wrote your name in the sand,/Remembering when times were grand,/The tide came in and washed it all away,/Just as in your passing I had no say.'); the smell of cowslips in the mountain air and playing aeroplanes with his two grandchildren are the happy memories he brings out.
The boy sees one tall skinny bottle and asks what is in it. Mr McAllistair takes it off the shelf, opens it and shouts 'Today!' and tells the boy that he is going to pop the memory of that day into the bottle.
What a lovely story and a great idea ... now where are my bottles ...
He has a shed and the little boy who lives nearby has no idea what he keeps in that shed so one day he asks him. Mr McAllistair says that he will take the boy into his shed and share what is in there with him if he promises not to laugh.
So saying, the pair enter the shed, which the boy notices smells of old pipe and is not very well lit. But it is lit well enough for the boy to make out dozens and dozens of bottles on the shelves. There are 'red ones, frosted ones, tall ones, round ones, twisty ones, double ones and super-skinny topped ones'.
'Memories,' says Mr McAllistair as he surveys the array of bottles. And he tells the boy that every time he opens a bottle it brings back special memories. And he keeps them there so that when he is old and he can't remember things as easily, he simply opens a bottle and the memories come flooding back.
He opens a number of bottles and tells the boy what memory pops out of each of them - looking out of a frosty window and watching his father go to work; his wife in a blue chiffon dress at a dance; himself scoring the winning goal in an important Cup football match; watching his children paddling in the sea and then the tide coming in and washing away their footprints (this reminds me of one of my poems, 'The Tide of Time' which goes 'I wrote your name in the sand,/Remembering when times were grand,/The tide came in and washed it all away,/Just as in your passing I had no say.'); the smell of cowslips in the mountain air and playing aeroplanes with his two grandchildren are the happy memories he brings out.
The boy sees one tall skinny bottle and asks what is in it. Mr McAllistair takes it off the shelf, opens it and shouts 'Today!' and tells the boy that he is going to pop the memory of that day into the bottle.
What a lovely story and a great idea ... now where are my bottles ...
July 8, 2015
This is a deceptively simple book that leads the reader to consider the sensory aspects of memory, and I fell in love instantly when I picked it up in a charity (second hand) shop. It is a text that makes me wish that I was still teaching so that I could explore the ideas with my class, and fill the room with bottles of different shapes and colours, each of which could hold a child's special memory.
November 13, 2013
Reminds me of one of the tents in one of my favorite books (The Night Circus)!
March 13, 2015
Gorgeous story, colourful, beautifully told and a wonderful concept.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews