Today dear reader I am on the blog tour for A Year in Story and Song A Celebration of the Seasons (Published 9th May 2024) By Lia Leendertz. A big thank you to the publishers Gaia/Octopus Books for sending me a copy to read and review, always appreciated. Also to the wonderful Anne for the invite to take part in the tour, always a pleasure.
A Year in Story and Song A Celebration of the Seasons
A Year in Story and Song is a captivating collection of stories and songs that celebrates the seasons.
We humans love stories. We love to hear them and to tell them, around fires and by bedsides, and we love to use them to make sense of the world around us.
The seasons, in all their ever-changing variety, give us many opportunities for storytelling: the full moons and their names, Epiphany in January, St Patrick’s Day in March, May Day, Midsummer, Halloween and more. They feature mischievous boggarts and fairies, saints and sailors, leprechauns and dragons, pilgrimages and charms, milk maids and rose queens, Robin Hood and the green man. The songs range from shanties and love songs, to bawdy ballads and wassails, to carols and rounds, and have been sung for hundreds of years, often at particular moments in the calendar.
This is a book to treasure all year, every year.
About the Author
Lia Leendertz is an award-winning garden and food writer based in Bristol. She presents a monthly podcast, ‘As the Season Turns’, about what to look out for in the month ahead and writes a free monthly newsletter, ‘Lia’s Living Almanac’, which you can sign up for at the address below. Her reinvention of the traditional rural almanac has become an annual must-have for readers eager to connect with the seasons, appreciate the outdoors and discover ways to mark and celebrate each month.
My Review
From the author who brought you the popular, much loved The Almanac series, comes a breathtaking journey through the year in story and song. Prepare to face dragons, leprechaun, boggarts and all sorts of magical, mischievous creatures as you celebrate the seasons, all within the enchanting pages of this handy little book.
This book celebrates each calendar month with a collection of stories and songs. Each season also has their own personal collection of stories and songs. Leendertz takes the reader through the 12 months, January to December. Each month is accompanied by an illustration relating to that month. In February there is a Chinese Lion as we celebrate the Chinese New Year. October has a spiderweb under a full moon, creating a spooky, mysterious atmosphere. Thats the beauty in the changing of the seasons, its the variety of stories and songs told. There is a divine mix of folk tales among facts. We as humans love a good story or two and this little book is packed with endless tales, old and new.
Leendertz hopes that the reader is tempted to include these stories and songs in their own traditions. To add a dash of magic and wonder to their own journey through each year. That’s the beauty of this book dear reader. You can pop it in your bag or even your pocket and access your desired month at the flick of a page.
I give A Year in Story and Song A Celebration of the Seasons Lia Leendertz a Five out of Five paw rating
Beautifully enchanting, you are going to want to add this treasure to your bookshelf. Not only for the joy and wonder it brings between its pages but also because it is a most pretty book to look upon and admire.
Don’t forget to follow the rest of the blog tour, dates below, enjoy!
Hop hop wiggle wiggle
Bunny’s Pause 
Thanks for the blog tour support x