Getting ready for July!
The Valley of Song by Elizabeth Goudge
“Job, at work in the woodcarvers' shed, never went to his dinner at all, for he had started work on the great Swan for the figurehead of the ship and nothing else existed for him in all the world. The door of the shed was wide open, and outside the wide and lovely river flowed peacefully by, with its swans riding on the blue ripples, but Job scarcely glanced at those swans. It was another Swan that he was seeing as he worked. And Tabitha, sitting near him cross-legged amid the shavings on the floor all through the sunny afternoon, saw him too…”
💙 Elizabeth Goudge, The Valley of Song
Join us!
I hope you are planning on joining us in July for a children’s fairytale read-along.
The Valley of Song is a comforting fairytale that shows us the beauty of creativity in the world, and how we are always safe in the keeping of all God’s creation. Hope you can join us!
A synopsis from the place that currently is keeping Goudge’s children’s books in print, Girls Gone By Publishers:
“The Valley of Song is about the building of a ship, the loveliest sailing ship that was ever launched at the ship-building town where Tabitha Silver lived. She is the heroine of this book, and she is the blacksmith’s little daughter. Interwoven with the story of the ship is the story of the adventures she had when she found a little low door in the wall of a disused quarry and went through it into that country which is nearer to all of us than we imagine. She made friends with the inhabitants of that country, and they helped the people of the little town to build the lovely ship. Indeed, if Tabitha had not found that little low door in the quarry the ship would never have been built at all.”
Get your copy
You can get it from Girls Gone By Publishers and be sure to grab some other Goudge books as well to save on shipping!
(If possible, I would encourage you to buy books straight from Girls Gone By Publishers as having Goudge’s books in print is a chance for many newer readers to get a reasonably priced copy at last! I do not get commission from them in any way, but I know that their investment in new editions has been a relief for so many readers as Goudge has steadily risen back to popularity causing her used copies to be hard to find.)
The next best deal to GGBP is to order it from Blackwells, but you can also get it from Amazon or look for a vintage copy or paperback on Ebay or Abebooks.
Hope you can join us for all the Goudge novels and children’s books still coming up in 2025:
“The laughter of children came sounding back from the hills and ringing in the air, heavenly laughter, a laughter that was almost singing and a singing that was almost laughter, peal upon silvery peal of it, joyous, free, such laughter of children as they had never heard on earth… Job and Tabitha looked at each other, and each saw their own awe reflected in the eyes of the other.”
💙 Elizabeth Goudge, The Valley of Song
Love to hear if you will be reading with us in July, and if you will be reading for the first time, or rereading!
Related posts:
Elizabeth Goudge Book Buying Guide
“ 'A bookseller,’ said Grandfather, ‘is the link between mind and mind, the feeder of the hungry, very often the binder up of wounds. There he sits, your bookseller, surrounded by a thousand minds all done up neatly in cardboard cases; beautiful minds, courageous min…
I'm rereading with you!
I am looking forward to it! I haven't forgotten the discussion we had last year, and I was also intrigued by EG's own comments about this book in Joy of the Snow.
On an unrelated topic, have you considered which books you will cover in 2026? I would like to read the Eliot family series, having heard so many good things about it.